YUCK! What鈥檚 that crawling out of your computer keyboard?
A recent study by AOL in Britain reveals that up to two grams of gunk
accumulates in the average computer keyboard each month. The bulk of it is
crumbs and bits of food that fall between the keys when users eat meals and
snacks at their terminals. Also to blame is 鈥渢he personal grooming that people
undertake while at their desk鈥�, the BBC Online news service informs us.
An analysis of keyboard debris collected from a typical London office threw
up these figures: cornflakes (15 per cent), boiled sweets (15 per cent), noodles
(7 per cent), pencil shavings (1 per cent), fingernails (1 per cent), insects (1
per cent) and hairs (1 per cent).
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We are happy to report that no figures are given for other products of
鈥減ersonal grooming鈥�.
WHICH is heavier鈥攁 tonne of feathers or a tonne of bricks?
The old conundrum was brought to mind when a friend of Feedback鈥檚 ventured
into the sports equipment section of his local department store to buy a
weightlifting bench to go with some recently acquired weights.
The assistant seemed wary of recommending any particular model of bench until
he had found out whether the weights to be used with it were plain cast iron or
PVC-coated. Our friend rashly suggested that this was irrelevant.
The assistant put him firmly in his place. Some of the less expensive
benches, he explained, cannot take the strain of plain iron weights.
VISITING Paris as a gauche teenager, Feedback well remembers encountering a
bidet for the first time in a small pension in the backstreets of St Michel.
What was it for? Surely not for鈥r鈥�
The answer, of course, is that bidets serve a multitude of functions besides
the one they were designed for. So how refreshing to come across this frank bit
of blurb from If枚, a Swedish manufacturer of bathroom fittings:
鈥淎 bidet puts the finishing touch to a bathroom and makes it even more
practical, as it can be used not only for intimate hygiene but also for washing
feet, soaking washing, giving children a chance to play with water and so
辞苍.鈥�
Yes indeed. Feedback has done them all鈥攅specially the 鈥渁nd so on鈥�.
THE PHRASE 鈥渄rinks like a fish鈥� takes on a new meaning following a strong new
entry in the 鈥渨eird environmental disaster of the year鈥� stakes.
On 25 August, according to Associated Press, an employee at the Coors brewery
in Golden, Colorado, flipped a switch. The wrong switch. Nearby Clear Creek
turned to shandy as 293,000 litres of beer flooded into it. 鈥淥fficials with the
state Division of Wildlife could not give a precise number of fish killed,鈥� AP
prudently reports, but they 鈥渆stimated it was thousands up and down the
谤颈惫别谤鈥�.
Officials also advised residents to avoid contact with the creek because the
water 鈥渃ould cause illness if consumed鈥�.
PHANTOM limbs fascinate neurologists and philosophers alike, but too often
they are literally a pain to those who still have sensation in members that
they鈥檝e lost. Readers will recall that Peter Brugger and colleagues at the
Psychiatric University Hospital of Zurich have probed this phenomenon (New
Scientist, 3 June, p 22). They investigated phantom limb sensations in a
person born with no arms or legs, a case which appears to rule out the idea that
the sensations originate from memories.
Feedback suspects that at least one of the authors has a taste for dubious
puns. The title of their paper is (groan) 鈥淏eyond Re-membering鈥�.
THINKING about lifting those drooping jowls? Or filling in a few laughter
lines? Well, if you鈥檙e not careful you could be heading for trouble in the long
term. That鈥檚 John Maynard Keynes鈥檚 鈥淚n the long term, we鈥檙e all dead鈥� kind of
long term.
鈥淚njectable fillers鈥� are what plastic surgeons use to plump up wrinkly
features. You might want them to use your own fat, harvested from abdomen,
buttocks or thighs, or you could opt for bovine collagen.
But as readers know, there鈥檚 a bit of a problem with some cow products in the
long term, which presents a tough choice for people who are devoid of handy
reserves of fat: wrinkles, or an admittedly very tiny risk of BSE? The horns of
a dilemma indeed.
FAST-FOOD chain McDonald鈥檚 has, it seems, made a startling breakthrough in
food preservation methods. Why they鈥檝e kept so quiet about it is anyone鈥檚 guess.
But a Feedback associate recently obtained a chocolate doughnut bearing a
sticker saying, simply, 鈥淎UG 14 2300鈥�.
FINALLY, reader Brian Harris writes to tell us that the rollmop herrings
displayed in his local Co-op supermarket are accompanied by a warning to
prospective purchasers telling them to 鈥淩emove skewer before eating鈥�.
