Elastic fantastic
NEW year is a time of optimism, hasty resolutions and no-refund introductory gym memberships. Just the time, then, to try out the latest fitness craze inspired by science. Wrap up your brightly coloured muscle tape, the must-have device this year might be a rubber band.
Reasoning that tendons store energy, making running more efficient, Cole Simpson at Stanford University in California and his colleagues tried adding an extra one to humans. Their 鈥渆xotendon鈥�, cunningly disguised as a rubber band, joins a runner鈥檚 legs as if some gym bully has tied the laces of your favourite running trainers together. The elastic material is short enough not to tangle the feet, but long enough to encompass a full stride.
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Simpson鈥檚 team found that the exotendon certainly did put a spring in the step: joggers sporting the elastic link saw an average of a 6.4 per cent increase in running economy.
鈥淵ou write that HelloFresh 鈥�doesn鈥檛 send whole foods to customers that are considered ugly,'鈥� says reader Elizabeth Belben.鈥滻鈥檇 have thought ugly people have as much right as anyone else to purchase wonky carrots.鈥�
Impressive, but Feedback is keen to expand the findings. We鈥檙e going to dust off our old inline skates and improve our locomotion efficiency even further by attaching one end of the elastic to our front door. That way, we can skate to the nearest sale of leftover festive chocolate, and let the .
Robot鈥� or no bot?
A STARTLINGLY human-like robot was caught on Russian TV, performing at a state-sponsored technology event last month. Viewers were amazed as the android, reportedly the most advanced in the world, walked, talked and danced. Unfortunately, cynical viewers soon pointed out that the robot looked uncannily similar to a 拢3000 costume available online.
Yes, the most advanced robot in the world had a human heart 鈥� and human arms, legs and everything else. Well, it certainly saves on batteries.
Humans masquerading as robots is a burgeoning market. In the UK, Titan the Robot (or to give a fuller name, Titan the Impressively Expensive Robot Costume) has played a heady tour of the nation鈥檚 shopping centres and bar mitzvahs, performing feats that would be considered impressive for a robot, if a robot did them.
Sadly, Feedback suspects that it is only a matter of time before creeping automation replaces these human performers with robots pretending to be humans pretending to be robots pretending to be humans.
The working dead
NEW year can be a quiet time in the office, but nowhere more so than in Mozambique. The nation鈥檚 government says it has identified 30,000 鈥済host workers鈥� in the civil service, costing about 拢100 million a year. Some ghost workers were genuine employees, but were being paid to do non-existent jobs.
Others were dead or fictitious 鈥� yet corporeal enough to draw a salary every month. Ministers used a proof-of-life test to root out fake staff (no details, but we do hope it involved Blade Runner-style questions about turtles in the desert). A spokesperson told journalists that from now on, only one employee would be hired for every three that left the civil service.
But is this the future? The phenomenon of, er, inconsequential jobs is well known in the West, which has dogmatically stuck to the idea of full employment and a 40-hour work week, despite plateauing productivity. As anyone knows, doing a job in half the time simply means looking busy for the other half. Instead of purging these enterprising non-workers, Mozambique should simply rebrand it as the world鈥檚 greatest universal basic income experiment.
Girls on film
HATERS gonna hate, but that doesn鈥檛 mean you shouldn鈥檛 take proactive measures against them. Rolling Stone reports that face recognition was deployed at a Taylor Swift concert, in an effort to protect her from stalkers.
Keeping performers safe is an understandable goal, but Feedback worries about the spread of such technology. The privacy implications of being recorded at a Taylor Swift concert are one thing, but what if, uh, someone should be spotted attending a Chesney Hawkes tribute act? Asking for a friend.
Air delivery
TONY BENNETT left his heart in San Francisco, but that鈥檚 because he wasn鈥檛 flying Southwest. was recently sent back when a human heart was discovered on board.
The cargo, intended for a Seattle hospital, had been loaded at the previous stop in Sacramento, California. 鈥淣othing is more important to us than the safety of our customers and the safe delivery of the precious cargo we transport every day,鈥� a statement from Southwest Airlines read.
Sexual politics
STEVE BANNON, former strategist of US president Donald Trump, has found many of his speaking engagements cancelled in the face of public opposition. But the latest may sting more than most.
Organisers of a US conference on sex robots (lambasted by many people as dehumanising) decided that a congress with Bannon was a step too far. So what Bannon knows about sex robots will, for now and hopefully forever, remain a mystery.
Feedback: A nifty idea to put a spring in your step
Why tying your laces together can improve your jogging. Plus: fake robots, Taylor Swift, a lost heart, and more
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