16 November 2019 | New Scientist | 53The back pages Feedback
Take a rain cheque
Storm clouds are brewing in
Australia between a consumer
affairs body and an inventor who
claims he can control the weather.
The Australian Competition and
Consumer Commission accused
David Miles of “preying on people’s
desperation”, while the inventor hit
back that “if we don’t deliver rain
we don’t get paid”.
Farmers seeking a slice of
personalised climate change are
invited to sign up to three-month
contracts, with Miles set to receive
A$50,000 in the event of rain.
According to Miles’s website, the
promised rainfall is achieved by
constructing a bridge through the
space-time continuum, allowing
him to direct future weather.
Nobody has yet seen the device
that generates this temporal
tunnel, although we are told
it relies on “high-resolution
supercomputing”. According to
News.com.au, Miles has refused
to patent the device or hold the
process up for peer review out
of fear that he would lose control
of his technology, or even see it
weaponised by the military.
Still, even with the best
buzzwords hyphens can string
together, the weather is a fickle
beast and controlling it is never
simple. “It’s not perfect,” Miles
told reporters at News.com.au.
“We have been able to achieve
about 80 per cent.” Feedback is
convinced he is being much too
harsh on himself. Our suspicion
is he can make it rain just fine.
Plug and pay
More environmental adaptation:
tech company Blushield claims
to be the world’s number one in
“EMF Protection”, offering “a long
term solution to a wide range of
incoherent signals within our
environment” that cause fatigue,
imbalance and other difficult-to-
prove symptoms.
Experiencing some of that
incoherence first-hand is Barry
Cash, who has been reading up
on the plug-in device. “It seems
Combined, these can result
in aubergine-coloured urine
appearing in the catheter bag.
The condition is benign, and so
common that medics even have
a name for it: PUBS, or purple
urinary bag syndrome. Well, we
didn’t say it was a particularly
clever name (PCN), did we.
Speaking of errant colours,
in Germany, Joanna Justice was
shocked to discover one of the
nine puppies born to her golden
retriever had a distinct greenish
hue. It is thought that the puppy,
christened Mojito, was exposed
to bile from the placenta in utero,
staining its fur mint green.Word map
In a quiet corner of the internet,
people with more internet access
than air miles have discovered a
new pastime: mystery toursorganised by the what3words
mapping service. To book your
virtual voyage into the unknown,
type any three-word phrase into
w3w.co and see where on our
planet’s surface the website
takes you.
For example, writes our
anonymous source – no doubt
keeping a watchful eye on Brexit
negotiations from behind the
sofa – exit.without.deal lands you in
the middle of China, while exit.with.
deal sees you stranded in Coxsackie,
New York. Want politics to become.
normal.again? Then it’s a one-way
ticket to the Californian town of Del
Rey Oaks for you (and just about
everyone else on the planet).
“There are 57 million 3-metre
squares to explore in the hope of
finding one that really has deep
meaning,” writes our correspondent.
We’re sure readers can find
some especially suitable ones. ❚it works by producing its own
frequency, which resonates with
all the EMF in your home,” he says.
But how the socket-mounted
signal jammer knows which bits
of the electromagnetic field to
neutralise, and which to leave
alone, is a mystery. Does turning
it on filter out the waves produced
by your television, that carry
images of the latest Hollywood
blockbuster to your eyes? Or
perhaps it works by destructive
interference? In that case, says
Barry, “surely it is producing
the EMF pollution that it claims
to reduce?”
At €799 for the Tesla Gold
Premium Large Area protector,
it will certainly reduce your bank
balance. Those looking to rid their
homes of EMF signals on a budget
can try a different approach:
simply walk to the fusebox and
throw the master switch to OFF.Flower power
The appropriately named Phil Bush
has been taking an interest in Bach
Flower Remedies – a preparation
of water and brandy – and in
particular, a product called Bach
Rescue Sleep. This, we are told,
contains the memory of ingredients
such as white chestnut (for relief
from repetitive thoughts), rock
rose (for courage and presence
of mind) and clematis (to provide
focus when ungrounded – or should
that be uprooted?).
Of all the ingredients, says Phil,
“my favourite is the impatiens,
that promises patience”. After
flicking through the company’s
online catalogue, Feedback could
use a bucketful.Erratic chromatics
The New England Journal of
Medicine reports that a 70-year-
old woman began producing
purple urine 10 days after having
a catheter fitted. The unusual
colouring was traced to the
presence of tryptophan in her
diet, allied with the presence of
Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria
and an elevated urine pH.Got a story for Feedback?
Send it to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street,
London WC2E 9ES or you can email us at
[email protected]Twisteddoodles for New Scientist