Section:GDN 12 PaGe:5 Edition Date:190821 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 20/8/2019 15:59 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Guardian
Wednesday 21 August 2019 5
Notes & queries
EnviroCapitalist
The one in Aldi always moves
quicker than the one in Sainsbury’s.
Does that help? On the other hand,
when you get to the front of the
queue at Sainsbury’s, you get a nice
chat about the weather. Could the
two points be connected?
Dargyva
The express lanes, where there
is one line but multiple cashiers,
move the fastest. If one of the
customers in the line dawdles, the
other cashiers keep the customers
moving along.How do you spot
the quickest
queue in the
supermarket?
NBLondon
Middle-aged, female checkout staff
are usually my fi rst choice , then
young and female, then young and
male, then middle-aged and male.
This is just practical observation –
no bias intended!
salamandertome
Look at what customers are buying.
It is not just about quantity; if there
are items of clothing in the trolley,
avoid that queue, as there will be
security tags to remove and the
clothes will have to be folded neatly.
Waterwoman
The way to speed the queue up is to
relax and read, think about or look
at something really interesting.
Suddenly you have to stop, because
you are being served. I have even
missed a plane using this technique,
as the queue disappeared so fast
I didn’t even notice.Any answers?
A Russian
passenger
plane made
an emergency
landing in a
cornfi eld near
Moscow last
week. How will
it be moved
to fl y again,
or will it be
scrapped? What
has happened
to planes
after similar
accidents?
Robin Benson,
SouthamptonWhy are
crossword
patterns never
asymmetrical?
Is there an
immutable
rule that says
they must be
symmetrical?
Peter Hanson,
ExeterHow to reply
Email notes and
queries at nq@
theguardian.
com or discuss
online at
gu.com/notes-
and-queries.
Submission and
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are subject to
our terms and
conditions:
see gu.com/
letters-termsDNSMax
Micro-organisms need a conducive
environment to survive. Some
extremophiles can hibernate in
hostile conditions, but Mars is
extremely hostile, with high levels of
radiation and almost no atmosphere,
and it is much colder than Earth. Any
contamination from Earth would be
unlikely to survive , let alone thrive
and multiply for long enough to
evolve and adapt to the climate.
fabcat21
Life tends to adapt to environment.How can Mars
explorers stop
Earth bugs
contaminating
the red planet?
We know little about Mars and
nothing about how life may adapt
there. To think that bacteria that
evolved to live in, say, your sweaty
armpit will not survive on Mars is
irrelevant because they may fi nd a
diff erent niche that suits them; they
may surprise us by having some old
genetic pathways we did not suspect;
or Mars may surprise us by having
sweaty armpits (that is, pockets may
exist that are suffi ciently similar to
allow a toe-hold, and then the bugs
will evolve). Also, we have listed
only a fraction of the bugs here on
Earth – we don’t actually know what
we are sending to Mars, because we
don’t have techniques for identifying
or growing most bugs.
Mazz0
Well, I’m just not going. Doing
my part!
palfreyman
Dettol.was an opportunity to be known
outside of basketball and to say
I’m more than just my sport.” He
had also been seriously injured
twice, which had got him thinking
about his career prospects, while
the death of a friend had made him
think more existentially. “A close
friend of mine passed away playing
basketball. He had a heart attack in
practice in Macedonia ; he was so
far from home. That year, I did a lot
of thinking ; there was a long time
to collect my thoughts and reassess
everything.” Knowing this, his
zen-like appearance on Love Island
makes much more sense.
Some observers have claimed
that Soko’s success is intertwined
with his race (he is British-Nigerian).
“It’s simple, really,” wrote Tobi
Rachel Akingbade in Grazia. “It
starts with the fact that we only get
one Ovie per generation ... black
men are rarely presented without
a tinge of negativity or damaging
hypermasculinity.” Soko is careful
and considered when discussing
the subject of reality TV and race,
and how black people are rarely
successful on shows on which the
public can vote – take Alexandra
Burke on Strictly. “Being a young
black man is something in life that’s
on your mind,” he says, before
pausing for a few seconds. “It’s a
weird one. It’s important for young
black people to know that they can be
themselves and you don’t have to fi t
into a specifi c mould to be one on TV.
“If there’s one thing I hope it did
show, it’s that being you is dope.
Being original and being yourself is
cool. If you’re one of one, think about
how valuable that is. Every single
person – regardless of race, colour,
gender – is one of one. Now that is
some valuable shit. Excuse me.”
Growing up in Tottenham in
a tight family unit of mum, dad
and older brother Raymond, Soko
believes his world view was shaped
by being exposed to art via his father,
who made large-scale mixed - media
work in his home studio. “Even
from that early age, I saw things
diff erently,” he says. He didn’t do
well at school, where he struggled
to adapt to rigid ideas around
learning. “I was mischievous,” he
says. His mum says she gave him
the nickname Motorola because he
used to talk so much as a child.
“ I would question everything,
and I feel like they teach you not
to question stuff. It’s backwards to
me. Since nursery, you’re taught
to do things a certain way and notthink for yourself,” he says, before
launching into a metaphor about
colouring that I get lost in. “Think
about kids who use colouring
books,” he begins. “They’re told to
colour and ‘stay inside of the lines’,
but what is that really saying to you?
What lines are you talking about?
Because the border of the pages
could be seen as the lines, but they’d
say you were wrong if you did that.”
There is defi nitely a motivational
speaker, a Sesame Street presenter
or a YouTube philosopher in Soko,
waiting to get out. The conversation
we have is littered with nuggets
of life advice and aphorisms. On
manners: “Being polite to people
shows you think [the other person]
has worth , and not being polite, it’s
like saying: ‘ You’re beneath me.’”
On giving advice: “I don’t give the
best advice, but when I’m talking to
anyone I’ll give you advice exactly
how I see it.” On why reality TV
relationships can be sustainable:
“If you want to go over the long run,
the news and that aren’t going to be
interested when you’re 65 or 70.”
Soko’s outlook on life is infl uenced
by a heady mix of seemingly
incompatible things. There are his
parents and big brother, whom he
clearly reveres. The church (“Sunday
was church day ; there was no Sunday
football for me”). “Do you know
ET, Eric Thomas ?” he asks. “The
motivational speaker? He’s huge.
I listen to a lot of investors’ podcasts.
I listen to a lot of people.” He has also
spent hours watching documentaries
about people including Conor
McGregor, Denzel Washington and
Idris Elba. It combines to create a
worldview rooted in live and let live,
minding your own business and
believing in yourself.
Soko’s parents have been sitting
respectfully in near-total silence
throughout the interview, while
making their way through a bag of
snacks. But now their son wants to
settle the score. “My mum creeps
on my Instagram and checks on all
my stories,” Soko says, bowed but
not broken after the earlier dusting
down from his parents. “When I got
back from dinner with India, Amber
and Greg, my mum was like : ‘I know
where you went.’ ”
“I had to check on you,” she says.
“Just allow it. If you know, I don’t
need to know that you know. I’m
28! My dad lets me do my thing,
but my mum ...”
No motivational speaker in the
world is going to be able to help
Soko get out of that one.Am I saving the planet
by being a scruff?
Hillary J Shaw, Newport, Shropshire
Assume there are 500m households
globally that use an iron, for 50
minutes a week (0.5% of the time)
each. If the average iron consumes
one kilowatt of power, we have
total annual power consumption of
1 kW x 500 m x 0.5%, or 2.5 gigawatts,
which is more than half the annual
power consumption of London
(4.5GW). Then we have the power
consumed in manufacturing the
irons and their disposal. Worse,
perhaps, is that ironable clothes tend
to be worn in formal settings such
as offi ces, where aircon is needed
to be comfortable (formal clothingWhat is the
environmental
cost of ironing?
is often too hot in summer, too
cold in winter). We have a sinister
positive-feedback loop where more
climate extremes lead to greater
power demand for aircon. Surely
offi ce workers perform just as well
in T-shirts in summer and pullovers
in winter?
Marie Lloyd
I used to watch my mother iron and
did not like the look of it, although
she wasn’t troubled by the job. I
decided never to own an iron and
have kept my vow. If my linen shirts
come out of the dryer hopelessly
snarled, I spray them with very
warm water, then shake and hang
them up.
playheals
Some of us just like ironing:
pillowcases for my adult kids on
their occasional trips home; tea
towels on the oven rail; holiday
T- shirts for the suitcase; my dad’s
shirt before I take him to the train for
his journey home. It’s not a burden.5
The weekly series where readers answer other readers’
questions on subjects ranging from trivial fl ights
of fancy to profound scientifi c concepts
Soko and
Amber Gill
on Love Island;
they became
close friends
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