Читать книгу How to predict the weather with a cup of coffee: And other techniques for surviving the 9–5 jungle - Matthew Cole - Страница 8

This stems from one big difference between two gadgets that use microwaves. In order to communicate, the mobile phone gets microwaves to shoot around, passing through anything in the way, whether it’s solid brick or gooey grey matter. Our microwave cookers, on the other hand, prefer to contain the waves and focus them on a single bowl of porridge. The microwave stops them escaping with a Faraday cage (a mesh in which the holes are too small for microwaves to squeeze through).

So when your phone rings and you suspect it’s someone you’d rather avoid, here’s what to do:

1 Start to move towards the microwave (switched off).

2 Answer brightly, ‘Hello…’

3 Gradually move your phone in and out of the oven and watch the signal strength fall and rise. With the phone held in the oven (keep the oven switched off, of course) you lose contact completely. Just inside the open door, it fades in and out.

4 Now assume a confused voice…‘Sorry I’m losing you, we’re going through a tunnel’…etc.

The strength of this system is that it can be used after you’ve answered; far more convincing than hanging up in mid-call. After a couple of tries you’ll become a virtuoso, bringing the caller in and out of range at will, playing them like a fish on a hook; then, just as they think they’ve got you back…you’ve gone for good. (NB. Also works with wireless landline phone, though harder to get away with.)

Remember not to shut the door completely – that dinging sound is a giveaway.