A spoonful of sugar?
Should one take sugar in one鈥檚 tea? Feedback is mindful of two things about this question. For one, nearly everyone, in the UK especially, considers (or pretends to consider) the question to be of life-and-death importance; and secondly, they consider (or pretend to consider) one answer to be clearly correct.
The Annals of Internal Medicine has published a 280-word item that 鈥� let鈥檚 be blunt about this 鈥� throws a spanner in the teacup. A necessary and welcome spanner.
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The item bears the headline 鈥溾��. It pertains to a seven months earlier.
The key passage in the corrective is just 61 words long: 鈥淭he Results section stated, 鈥楬igher tea consumption was associated with lower risk for mortality regardless of whether sugar was added.鈥� This has been changed to, 鈥楢lthough higher tea consumption was associated with lower risk for mortality among those who did not report adding sugar to tea, the association between tea consumption and mortality was inconsistent when sugar was added to tea.'鈥�
Feedback believes (or pretends to believe) that 鈥� after centuries of debate 鈥� this corrective answers the question so definitively and in a manner so un-understandable that everyone, of every opinion, can continue to enjoy being right (or pretending they are right).
Packaging philosophy
Mark Dionne tells Feedback of his surprise on learning that you can become a Doctor of Philosophy in packaging. It is Michigan State University鈥檚 school of packaging .
鈥淲e all have questions about packaging,鈥� , 鈥渟uch as, what is packaging and why is it important to society?鈥� That statement is a little vague as to who, exactly, the 鈥渨e鈥� is.
One question we (whoever we are) might ask about packaging is: is there a paradigm for packaging?. In 1997, Hugh Lockhart, an instructor at the school of packaging, published what is still the best-known philosophical treatise on that question. Called 鈥溾��, it spans 16 pages in the journal Packaging Technology and Science.
鈥淚t became necessary,鈥� writes Lockhart, 鈥渢o find a name or descriptor for the model, other than A Paradigm for Packaging. The name that appeared and found favour with many of the faculty at the School of Packaging was Socio-Scientific Discipline.鈥�
Word spread. That name or descriptor found favour with other philosophers. Its fame endures, as shown in a 2022 essay by Babak Faraji at the University of Tehran and his colleagues, called 鈥溾��, published in the book Biodegradable Polymer-Based Food Packaging. They mince no words. They beat around no bush. They state, plainly and unambiguously: 鈥淎ccording to Lockhart (1997), packaging can be defined as a socio-scientific discipline.鈥�
Leftist food
The preference of Canadians as to which side of a bento (a traditional Japanese lunch comprising rice and vegetables with meat or fish, usually served in a lacquered box) should have the largest, most calorie-heavy component of the meal hadn鈥檛 been determined 鈥� not with investigative rigour 鈥� until now.
Lisa Poon and Lorin Elias at the University of Saskatchewan presented 483 Canadians with a photo of a bento box and another of its mirror image. They published a report about it, called 鈥溾��, in the journal Food Quality and Preference.
Citing earlier research by others, Poon and Elias say: 鈥淛apanese chefs traditionally plate their bentos with the most desirable or expensive food item in the upper left compartment, while the standard rice component is typically located in the bottom right section.鈥�
As is evident from the title of their paper, Poon and Elias found that most of the 483 Canadian bento box gazers, regardless of age, 鈥減referred asymmetrical bentos where the majority of the food was plated on the left side of the box鈥�.
Poon and Elias also spotted an intriguing pattern that could inspire future research: 鈥淚rrespective of where the rice was placed, participants would usually prefer the version with a diagonal component arranged from a bottom left to top right angle.鈥� They report that this preference was evident 鈥渆ven when this angled aspect was as miniscule [sic] as a green onion garnish for decorative purposes鈥�.
Ex-superpowers
Rex Waygood adds two entries to Feedback鈥檚 growing catalogue of trivial superpowers, along with a sad warning that some trivial superpowers can be temporary. He says: 鈥淚 read about Trivial Superpowers and realised I had two. The first was the ability to take a handful of cereal, which I then weighed at 30 grams almost every time. I did this every morning to make breakfast. The second was to put my hand into a jar of almonds and extract 16 almonds almost without fail. However, since reading about the super powers, mine have disappeared. I鈥檇 like them back. How do I do that? I need to forget I ever read the article.鈥�
Got a story for Feedback?
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