WE RECENTLY reported on the confusion experienced by a reader in Chicago when told that one applicator of her Estrace vaginal cream should be applied âper vagina every weekâ (5 April). Now Mark Hardy tells us of a broadcast in the Chicago area about a test that âhelps tell time on a womanâs biological clockâ. The test, says the report, âmeasures three hormones closely associated with the number of eggs in a womanâs ovaries. 51¶ŻÂțs have come up with a formula to analyse the results. When combining it with factors like age and oestrogen levels, they can determine how many viable ovaries a woman has.â
What is it about Chicago that has this multiplication effect on womenâs body parts?
Advertisement
SEVERAL readers have admonished us for being unduly harsh on the US patent examiner who we said âacceptedâ the âWalking through walls training systemâ patent filing (3 May). They point out that the document we referred to is only a patent application, not a granted patent.
In fact, this application failed. As reader Peter Smith notes, Kathleen Mosser, the patent examiner, objected that she could not grant a patent on the grounds that âthe principle of walking through walls is generally considered within the scientific community to be unattainable or speculative at bestâ.
She also pointed out that the claimed method of training, which involves stepping on a sheet marked with footprints in time with an audible cue, has been widely used in dance schools since the 1880s â âalbeit with a different aimâ.
We can only apologise to Mosser and agree with Smith that she âseems to be doing everything right in this caseâ.
You can view the full patent file history by entering the publication number 2006-0014125 at .
Doubts about âmiracleâ water
MANY readers will have received a disconcerting spam from entitled âPictures of the Miraculous Effects of Ionized Alkaline Waterâ. The photographs of the supposed beneficial effects of this panacea for diseases like cancer and diabetes are often fairly gruesome, and Feedback finds it hard to believe the claims apparently being made.
With some, though, it is impossible to be sure what exactly is being claimed.
Doug Revell draws our attention, for example, to this: âActive oxygen has two faces of beneficial role to resolve foreign substances like bacteria to invade into body in leucocyte but of extra active oxygenâs destroying tissues & cells on the contrary.â Revell says he is uncertain what action to take in response to this, and we are too.
We are also a little sceptical about one of the claims made in the intro: âAlkaline water has been described as âThe Most Important Advance in Health Care Since Alexander Flemingâs Discovery of Penicillinâ by Dr William Kelly and as âMiracle Waterâ by the Japanese.â
Which Japanese, exactly? All of them? Including the emperor?
THE free paperback that Ingrid Eisenstadter received in the mail was entitled ProEvo, Guideline for an Age of Joy and was written by someone called Tomotom.
The preface notes that the book âsets forth a new view of the worldâ and this claim is quickly confirmed. Page 1 of the text states that: âThe Earth is situated approximately 250,000 trillion kilometers, or 27,000 light years, northwest of the center of the Milky Way.â
Tomotom was right, says Eisenstadter. âI have shared this insight with my friends, and it has filled us with joy.â
USEFUL advice for train passengers in Australia: David Bruceâs daughter Sarah recently sent him the following text message: âI just heard this over the PA at Sydney Central Station: âAttention passengers! For your convenience, please arrive at the station before your train is scheduled to departâ.â
âThere are three posting boxes next to the âExpressâ box at the general post office in Canberra, Australia, Howard Stagg reports. Each of them is labelled âAll other mailââ
MEANWHILE, Ray Norris tells us that passengers leaving Australia via the international terminal at Sydney airport are confronted by a notice at the security gate saying: âLaptop computers are to be removed from carry cases and presented in two separate pieces at the X-ray machine.â
Norris wonders whether the electronics store in the departure lounge does a roaring trade in laptop repairs.
FINALLY, perhaps Anthony Zee thinks scientific papers are too formal and he wants to start a new trend, or perhaps he was was just having a bad day when he wrote his abstract for âGravity and its mysteries: some thoughts and speculationsâ on the physics preprint site at .
The full text of his abstract is: âI gave a rambling talk about gravity and its many mysteries at Chen-Ning Yangâs 85th birthday celebration held in November 2007. I donât have any answers.â
