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<\/div>Nut deficiency<\/h2>\n
What would happen if you removed most of the nuts from the bolts on three of the four sides of a tall electrical power pylon? New data speaks to that question.<\/p>\n
Newshub<\/i> reported<\/a> on 24 June that a pylon had fallen in Glorit, on New Zealand\u2019s North Island, after a \u201cmaintenance crew\u201d removed some nuts from bolts connecting the tower to a base plate.<\/p>\n In the news video, Alison Andrew, chief executive of the Transpower company, reads aloud a presumably carefully worded statement: \u201cOur view is that the specifications and procedures for this type of work were not followed. All the nuts securing the tower to the base plate on three legs had been removed, which caused the tower to lift off the base plate and fall. It is unprecedented and inconceivable that so many nuts were removed at once.\u201d<\/p>\n The consequence of the Glorit nuts removal might have been, but apparently was not, predicted by applying textbook engineering principles.<\/p>\n The \u201cpoor availability in Ireland of hats\u201d \u2013 a phrase featured in a paper in the journal Clinical and Experimental Dermatology<\/i> \u2013 refers not to all hats, just to some hats, specifically to sun hats.<\/p>\n Marion Leahy and her colleagues at University Hospital Galway stuck that phrase into the title<\/a> of their 2022 study about the perilous state of men\u2019s heads, especially older men\u2019s heads, in the west of Ireland.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They warn that men there are demographically at high risk of melanoma, that these men traditionally protect themselves with hats, but that \u201cmost hats available to the male population in Ireland [do] not offer adequate photoprotection\u201d.<\/p>\n Properly chosen and properly worn, a hat protects a head from the relentless assault of the sun. In 1992, B. L. Diffey and J. Cheeseman wrote a paean to the goodness of good sun hats and the badness of bad sun hats. Published in the British Journal of Dermatology<\/i>, Diffey and Cheeseman\u2019s paper, titled \u201cSun protection with hats<\/a>\u201c, is famous for \u2013 or should be famous for \u2013 its main photograph. To cap off your appreciation, track down a copy online.<\/p>\n This portrait of scientific equipment jars with the stereotypical array-of-test-tubes imagery that has, for decades, been inculcated into the minds of children. It shows, at a rakish angle, six plastic, bodyless, hairless artificial heads. They are outdoors, mounted at intervals along a rod 2.4 metres in length. Hats sit on five of the six. Nothing sits on the third head. Each head sports little squares of sunlight-degradable polysulphone film that are affixed with Blu Tack onto the forehead, nose, cheeks, chin and neck.<\/p>\n A second, less avant-garde photo shows \u201cthe 28 hats worn in the study\u201d, arranged in four rows of seven hats or hatlike objects. The styles range considerably, and include a crownless green plastic visor, an \u201cairline pilot peaked cap\u201d, a \u201cchecked deerstalker cap\u201d and a \u201cRussian fur hat\u201d.<\/p>\n Much of this is dermatological madhattery, Diffey and Cheeseman lead us to believe, on display under the blazing sun.<\/p>\n Bruce Stavert sends a reminder to Feedback\u2019s growing collection of trivial superpowers that talent by itself doesn\u2019t guarantee success.<\/p>\n He says: \u201cI thought I\u2019d contribute to the discussion on spacey superpowers. My superpower sense of north becomes a superhindrance in the northern hemisphere, where I constantly find myself driving or walking in the opposite of my intended direction.<\/p>\n \u201cClearly the position of the sun plays a large role in these superpowers. I have to stop and think \u2018the sun is in the south here\u2019 before making any directional decisions. I was in the US at a conference dinner once and was telling an American participant about this problem. \u2018Does it still rise in the east?\u2019 he asked. Mind you, he also found it hard to believe that it was winter in Australia while we were enduring a terribly hot Boston summer.\u201d<\/p>\n Bapu Deokar and colleagues lay out some Ghod Dam water bookkeeping basics in a paper in the Asian Journal of Environment and Ecology<\/i>, \u201cEstimation of water utilized for washing vehicles in Shrigonda town, India<\/a>\u201c. They explain that as the water level behind the dam plummets, the region\u2019s car wash businesses respond by sucking up increased amounts of groundwater. \u201cAs a result,\u201d the study warns, \u201cthe groundwater level is decreasing, leading to a shortage in the volume of groundwater.\u201d<\/p>\n Feedback boned up on some Ghod Dam basics by digging up a copy of a should-be-beloved-because-of-its-title study called \u201cVolcanic vents of the Ghod Dam area\u201d, published in 1997 in the Journal of the University of Poona<\/i>. It confirms that the Ghod Dam is \u201cnear Chinchni, in the district of Poona, in India\u201d.<\/p>\n Recently, in the International Journal of Advance and Applied Research<\/i><\/a>, Hanumant Dattatray Shinde of Shri Padmamani Jain Arts and Commerce College calculated that, over the course of a year, \u201cup to 1.56 TMC [thousand million cubic metres]\u201d of water evaporates from the Ghod Dam. No matter how you describe it \u2013 \u201cGhod Dam\u201d or just \u201cdam\u201d \u2013 the structure passes a lot of water.<\/p>\n Marc Abrahams created the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and\u00a0co-founded\u00a0the magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Earlier, he worked on unusual ways to use computers. His website is\u00a0<\/em>improbable.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Got a story for Feedback?<\/b><\/p>\n You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com<\/a>. Please include your home address. This week\u2019s and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nHold on to your hats<\/h2>\n
Spacey superpowers<\/h2>\n
The Ghod Dam limit<\/h2>\n