HOW much âimaginativeâ science can be crammed into two sentences? Jane Griffith-Ward directs us to a promising candidate: âTimmy [the Energy Bear] has been developed to re-energise the âdeadâ atmosphere in centrally heated indoor rooms â effectively bringing the natural elements from fresh air â inside! Combining gentle magnetic fields in his tummy, with natural daylight energy in the form of photon platinum fabric, Timmy helps to neutralise electrical smogâŠâ
So, according to the advert for Timmy at (pdf format), he can mess with the chemistry and electromagnetic fields of your childâs bedroom â using only natural means, of course. We presume that the âphoton platinum fabricâ sported by Timmy â who, by the way, was âborn in the stars and rode to England on a moonbeamâ â is hand-spun from real, natural sunbeams, though the price of ĂŻÂżÂœ29.99 makes us wonder how much real, natural platinum is involved.
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Neither are we sure about the claim of âencouraging restful sleepâ, given the announcement that Timmy is âa delightful cuddly, soft toy who is literally âalive'â. Have they never seen the horror movies about that kind of thing?
SHOULD we give Microsoftâs Windows Vista operating system a try? Or should we not? That is the question weâve been mulling over since its launch earlier this year.
âAt Manchester Piccadilly station in the UK, Don Wycherley spotted a large, very solid door bearing the easy-to-obey instruction: âDo not enter when closedââ
Vista has special requirements, so software companies have been forced to develop special âVista-readyâ versions of their programs. AOL has released a free Vista-ready version of its email and internet software, so we gave it a go.
In the UK, AOL had previously hired the actress Joanna Lumley â best known for her roles in the cult TV series The New Avengers and Absolutely Fabulous â to say âHelloâ, âYouâve got Mailâ and âGoodbyeâ in her inimitable posh-but-sultry English intonation. The new Vista-ready version has replaced Ms Lumley with someone who sounds like heâs advertising used cars on a radio station in Hicksville, USA.
Searching for a setting that would silence this horrid intrusion, we were rewarded with a big yellow exclamation mark and the bewildering instruction: âForm GID: 44-33806 is Missing! Please File a Bug! OK.â
No, itâs not OK, but thanks anyway, AOL. Youâve given us a very clear sign that we are not yet ready for Vista.
WHEN Victoria Petherick-Brian emailed us to say that she had until recently kept a label from a bottle of Perrier carbonated natural spring water that listed the ingredients as âSodiumâŠ2.3mg/200ml, PotassiumâŠ0.3mg/200ml. Sodium freeâ, we thought we ought to check that the label really says this. None of the Perrier bottles we found had these words on them, so we emailed Petherick-Brian, asking if she was quite sure. Here is her reply:
âIâve just been to the supermarket myself to check on this. The current Perrier labels are a new design and no longer say this. Nonetheless, I am absolutely certain they used to until recently as I still have the section of label which I personally peeled off a Perrier bottle, and which clearly shows this information. And thanks to Google, I have found a Peter J. Farrel who noticed the same thing but, unlike me, had the foresight to save and scan a whole label.â
You can see not only the scan of the controversial label, but also a very extensive discussion of its meaning, significance and legal status at .
Never let it be said that Feedback does not deal with the significant issues of the day.
WHERE do you look for inspiration if you want to invent a trade name? The Newport Corporationâs recent introduction of its âstate-of-the-art high power picosecond Pantera(TM) laserâ piqued our attention. No doubt itâs a pretty cool laser, and in Spanish the name means âpantherâ â but Pantera is better known to many as an extremely angry heavy-metal band that spent two decades beating on their audiencesâ ear drums. Is there a heavy metal fan trapped in the Newport Corporation marketing department?
ENJOYMENT of a programme on cable TV was interrupted for James Howlett by a large message box covering most of the screen. It announced: âYou are receiving an update to your service. The Remote Control will not work for a few moments. To clear this message please press OK on the remote.â
FINALLY, when Dawn Gordon was researching the retention rate of students in universities, she stumbled on an article entitled âImplementing a complete control curriculum in the classroomâ. This could be the gem that the worldâs teachers have been waiting for, she thought. It turned out, sadly for some, to be about teaching âcomplete controlâ in engineering.
