FRUITLOOPERY is, Feedback has proposed, most readily detected by the uncalled-for use of the word “quantum” (10 June 2006 et seq). Don Jewett proposes a more subtle detector that can spot fractional fruitloopery, no less.
“For example,” he writes, “the first five letters of ‘quantitative easing’ are the first five letters of ‘quantum’, giving a detection-coefficient of 5/7. The fruitloopery of ‘quantitative easing’ in the fiscal sphere involves much spin, but perhaps it falls short of being fully quantal.”
We’ll happily endorse a fractional fruitloopery index, especially one that applies to quantitative easing. But we feel the need for a further, underlying scale of measurement – a universal crackpot standard, in fact.
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One such has been proposed by the physicist John Baez. At , he starts by giving every potential crackpot a five-point starting credit, proceeds to add five points for every word of their theses written in CAPITAL LETTERS and continues through a total of 37 indicators. These include “40 points for claiming that the ‘scientific establishment’ is engaged in a ‘conspiracy’ to prevent your work from gaining its well-deserved fame” and “40 points for comparing yourself to Galileo, suggesting that a modern-day Inquisition is hard at work on your case”.
This index, presented in 1998, has proved its worth over time, but now, as Michael Ludgate informs us, it has a challenger in the Quackometer developed by Andy Lewis (see ). This observes that: “Several people have noted how quack websites use similar language and vocabulary and once you can spot the patterns, spotting quackery is easy. Quack words include ‘energy’, ‘holistic’, ‘vibrations’, ‘magnetic healing’, ‘quantum’. These words are usually borrowed from physics and used to promote dubious health claims.”
The site proposes an SI unit, the canard, to express quackery. You simply feed in a website’s URL and the quackometer goes through its pages and assigns it an appropriate number of canards. We are happy to report that gets 0/10 canards – despite our generous helping of quantums, and indeed vibrations – while quantumhomeopathy.co.uk gets a well-deserved 10/10. Could this be the universal index we have been seeking all these years?
“In the lobby of the Sea Tac Holiday Inn near Seattle airport, Richard Shield tells us, there is a sign saying “Shuttle leaves every half hour on the hour”
THE tea room in the Caulfield School of Information Technology, part of Monash University in Victoria, Australia, has a fine collection of higher degree theses. They are, Tom Peachey tells us, all in pristine condition and locked behind glass. All pristine, that is, except one that has paper damage and some paint dripped on the spine. Its title is: “Some Conservation Problems of Higher Degree Theses in Victorian University Libraries”. Tom wonders if any Feedback readers know of similarly self-referential theses.
LAST month we mentioned Oxo stock cubes in the context of the note on the plastic wrapping of subscribers’ copies of New Scientist saying that it is “Oxo degradable” (3 April). Now Lynne Moffat informs us that she has just bought a pack of Oxo cubes for her kitchen and finds that they are “Same weight, NEW shaped cube!”
Not only that. Dominic Houghton notes that they are ““. He and Lynne both wonder if Oxo has pioneered a new development in geometry.
AFTER reading our report on Morning Chicness Bags, those must-have fashion accessories for vomiting expectant mothers (17 March), Jack Wretch felt he had to buy some for a relative who is “working to add to the world’s population”. He says that “on going to I was, being somewhat parsimonious, disappointed to find that ‘Buy new’ was the only purchase option”.
Keeping your brain warm in winter
BROWSING through a catalogue from electronics specialist Maplin, Peter Duffell came across an item that is described as a ““.
This promises to “keep you warm during those winter months” by means of a battery-powered heater “placed between ears area”.
In that case, says Peter, “wouldn’t it be better described as a ‘brain heater’ “? He goes on to suggest it could be ideal for people with plenty of empty space in that particular location.
Cell phones and rat killer link
HERE is another strange recommendation courtesy of Amazon’s algorithms (10 January 2009). Apparently, as the online retailer told Tim Stevenson, a popular trend among purchasers of Motorola V3 phones is to buy, in addition, a Pest-Stop Electronic Rat Killer along with a Batman: Arkham Asylum game for the PS3.
FINALLY, Allen Lutins was provoked by our report on the “less fat” claims of Fry’s Turkish Delight (6 March) into sending us a scan of a U-Turn energy bar packet featuring the claim: “125 per cent less fat than the leading chocolate candy brands”. How do they work that one out?