快猫短视频

Re:Re:Re: Emails

With great power comes great responsibility, the inside lid of a Snapple bottle once told us, and Feedback has often been struck by its sagacity.

Never more so than on receipt of a group email where the list of addressees has been typed into the box marked Cc rather than Bcc. If you have been in such a situation yourself, with the opportunity of pressing 鈥渞eply all鈥� and clogging up the servers of a major organisation for the best part of an afternoon, and resisted the temptation, then, well, suffice it to say that you are a purer soul than we.

Fortunately 鈥� or not, if you are of a similarly puckish persuasion 鈥� Microsoft has vowed to bring the era of Reply-All Storms to an end. According to a story in Gizmodo, its new Reply All Storm Protection software 鈥渄etects possible reply-all screw-ups and essentially puts all recipients on a temporary time-out鈥�. If you are unsure whether your organisation has already adopted it, Feedback can think of one fool-proof method to find out.

Problem solving pros

Success as a professional mathematician, Feedback has often been told, depends on an ability to think creatively. No idea is too stupid, no approach too far-fetched. The knottier the problem, the more rigorously this advice applies.

Take the Millennium Prize Problems, a set of seven conjectures, six of which are unsolved, worth $1 million each for a correct proof. If you suggested that correct solutions could be obtained by appointing you president of the International Mathematical Association and providing you with a lifetime supply of HB pencils, then the global mathematics community would shrug their shoulders and say it was worth a shot, boss, now can we borrow a pencil?

For that reason, we weren鈥檛 particularly surprised to see University College London鈥檚 mathematics department pay tribute to a particularly unconventional approach to solving one of the problems. The technique centred around crowd-funding the fee for an online essay mill called payforessay.net, which claims to produce academic papers tailored to your exact specifications.

In what appear to be screenshots of a text conversation between one particularly enterprising mathematician (p.e.m) and the company in question, the p.e.m asks the company to write an essay on the existence of smooth solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations, essentially solving the problem and securing the million dollar prize.

鈥淚n this case you did correct by contacting us,鈥� the firm replied. 鈥淭he price is usd$24.05.鈥� A bargain.

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Cleaning fluid

Ever since water was first shown to be transformable into wine (manuscript still in review), the relative transmutation of liquids has been big business. Never more so than in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, when armchair alchemists the world over raced to turn their household minibars into ineffective hand sanitiser. It was only a matter of time, alas, before some unscrupulous soul realised a profit could be made by running that process in reverse.

It gives Feedback no joy to report on a man arrested in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh for allegedly doing just that. His transformation of hand sanitiser into alcohol was dangerous, illegal and a waste of valuable coronavirus-countering fluid. Fortunately, according to the local superintendent of police, no other such cases have been reported. We鈥檒l drink to that!

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Love in the time of covid

There is a nasty rumour going around that professional journalists are territorial about their contacts.

In our experience, nothing could be further from the truth. You should see the press releases Feedback鈥檚 colleagues selflessly pass on to us, unhesitatingly depriving themselves of the chance of exclusive interviews with some of the most exciting innovators in science and technology.

Whether it鈥檚 the founders of a tech start-up who fight climate change by putting pigeon droppings on the blockchain, or a psychic television personality with Thoughts about time travel, little do they care whether or not Feedback gets there first 鈥� the important thing is to be generous.

We are particularly grateful this week for a forwarded press release on behalf of a television panellist and PR industry titan willing to comment on the latest coronavirus developments.

Some weeks ago, you may remember, Imperial College epidemiologist Neil Ferguson resigned as an adviser to the UK government, following lurid allegations that his personal behaviour violated lockdown guidelines.

This raised all sorts of deep and interesting questions 鈥� about the intersection of private and public life, the need for impartiality in scientific advice and the challenge of delivering a politics-free public health message.

But most important of all, as the press agent of this anonymised PR giant was quick to point out, is her client鈥檚 specialist subject: 鈥淭he difficulties of conducting an affair during lockdown鈥�. Stand back, fellow scribblers 鈥� Feedback鈥檚 going to bag ourselves a Pulitzer.

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Got a story for Feedback?
Send it to feedback@newscientist.com or 快猫短视频, 25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES. Please include your home address. Consideration of items sent in the post will be delayed.This week鈥檚 and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.