THE 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits nations from claiming the Moon or any other celestial body. However, in 1980 one Dennis Hope claimed he had found a loophole because the treaty said nothing that banned companies from filing claims. He formed a company called the Lunar Embassy and began selling lunar property an acre at a time.
Lunar Embassy is still in business, selling lunar acreage from . Land is only $19.95 an acre, plus $1.51 鈥渓unar tax鈥� and $10 in shipping and handling. A map on the website shows where they are selling land and marks areas reserved for future lunar cities. They also offer land on Mars, Venus and Jupiter鈥檚 volcanic moon Io, all for the same price.
But now they have competition on the Moon from Planetary Investments, which also plans to offer land on Mars soon. Its website claims over a million people from 176 countries already own more than 300 million acres of lunar property. The owners include two former presidents of the United States and some current NASA employees, who are probably only too pleased they鈥檙e not identified on the website.
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It鈥檚 not clear who is supposed to pay heed to these claims, which will undoubtedly turn up if future astronauts ever try to colonise the Moon. They have about the same chance of holding up as the naming rights to stars that other companies sell. Which is probably just as well, since with at least two rival companies potentially selling the same property, the whole thing could lead to the lunar land wars of the 22nd century.
THANKS to reader John Oxborrow, who wrote expressing his concern for Feedback鈥檚 health after reading an article on heart disease in February鈥檚 Health Which? that stated: 鈥淢ore than one in three people die from cardiovascular disease (CVD) every year.鈥�
FRIDAY 30 May will be a black day for expatriate Britons living in the south of France or in Spain鈥檚 鈥淐osta del Crime鈥�. Many of them pay black-market prices for Sky digital satellite systems, registered to British addresses and unofficially exported to continental Europe. These receivers pick up the BBC鈥檚 programmes, and stop the expats feeling homesick.
As part of a cost-cutting exercise, the BBC will switch satellites on 30 May. The signals will still be strong in Britain but much weaker in southern Europe. Many TV screens there will suddenly go dark, unless their owners pay yet more money for the much bigger dishes needed to pull in the weaker signals.
As there are quite a few gangsters and villains living on the run or retired in the southern sun, the night of 30 May could see life turn decidedly dangerous for the black market satellite dealers.
AH, THE joys of Internet publishing! According to creativepro.com, Real World Adobe GoLive 6 by Glenn Fleishman and Jeff Carlson is an excellent book, but sales weren鈥檛 what the authors had hoped for. So, rather than just let it languish on the shelf, Fleishman and Carlson decided to offer it for free on the Internet. At least they would get the information out there, and they might even generate a bit of income if downloaders liked the book enough to buy a hard copy as well.
There was a snag, though. Offering the book for free proved so popular there were 10,000 downloads the first day. Which would have been fine, except that the files were located on a server that charges by bandwidth use. As each file was about 23 megabytes, allowing their book to be downloaded free cost the authors $15,000 on the first day alone.
See for the full heart-rending story and, if you are sufficiently moved, you can make a donation to defray the cost of Fleishman and Carlson鈥檚 generosity.
HUMOUR in the face of adversity. W. H. Seto is the chief microbiologist at Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong. His study showing that wearing a face mask when dealing with SARS patients gives 13 times more protection than not wearing one was reported on the New 杏吧原创 website on 2 May.
When our reporter asked the good doctor what the initials W. H. stand for, his response was: 鈥淚 wish it was Wash Hands.鈥� He went on to say his name is actually Wing Hong 鈥� which, he added, is Chinese for 鈥渆ternally healthy鈥�.
PIRITON allergy tablets claim to treat many allergy symptoms, including 鈥渞elieving itchiness鈥�. However, one of the possible side effects is 鈥淎llergic reactions to the tablet (e.g. rash, itching)鈥�. Reader Immanuel Burton wonders how many other medicines have side effects that include the condition they are treating?
FINALLY, on the bottom of the Love water distiller purchased by reader Frank Banks is the warning: 鈥淒o not repair/dismantle yourself. This will invalidate the warranty.鈥� Banks points out that being dismantled might also make it rather hard for you to claim the warranty.
Readers might like to know that Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 228001 is entitled: 鈥淣etwork Adaptor Does Not Work if Unplugged鈥�