NASA views human space flight as an entirely chaste activity and doesn鈥檛 want to know about any of the rumours that someone has 鈥渄one it鈥� in orbit. Press officers at the agency couldn鈥檛 find any officials willing to talk about the subject when Laura Woodmansee told them she was researching a book to be titled Sex in Space. That didn鈥檛 stop her from going ahead with her plan of covering the serious science of animal reproduction in space as well as what Feedback will simply call 鈥渄ocking problems鈥� that humans might encounter. She admits, however, that the book is 鈥渋ntentionally racy鈥� to get the general public to read it and think about the serious issues posed by radiation exposure and conception in space.
In contrast to her experience with corporate NASA, she initially found plenty of on-the-ground interest at the agency鈥檚 Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where she works as a volunteer to explain space to the public. JPL鈥檚 small bookshop quickly sold out two orders of the book. Then the JPL ethics office raised its collective eyebrow, ordered that a planned book signing be cancelled, and removed the remaining copies from the shop.
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鈥淚n first class on Virgin trains in the UK, Andy Green tells us, they serve breakfast from 8.00 and 鈥淎ll day snacks鈥� from 11.00鈥�
A victory for extraterrestrial prudery? Not quite. Like many attempts to ban books, this one seems to have increased sales. The fuss stimulated many calls to the JPL bookshop requesting the book, and the manager has kindly referred callers to the online bookseller Amazon.
Commercial swings and roundabouts
THE ways of the business world can be puzzling to the laity. For example, it is not uncommon for a big company to launch two products that are in direct competition with each other.
A large electronics company recently stated: 鈥淭V networks now face a financial threat from the emergence of Personal Video Recorders (PVRs).鈥� These can 鈥渞ecord over-the-air content while skipping commercials鈥� If a sizeable number of viewers no longer watch the commercials, then advertisers will demand lower advertising rates, thus reducing network revenues.鈥�
That same company has come up with 鈥渁 new business model鈥� that lets viewers order commercial-free copies of TV programmes on DVDs that are posted to them for viewing a day or so ahead of transmission. This patented plan 鈥渆liminates the need for subscribers to record content since the content comes prerecorded鈥� 鈥� in other words, no more need for PVRs. If the scheme means the networks lose advertising revenue, the profit from selling the programmes on DVD will compensate them.
And which company is doing all this? Why, none other than a US division of French company Thomson, owner of the electronics giant RCA and one of the major manufacturers of PVRs. If you find it hard to believe this example of gaining on the roundabouts what鈥檚 lost on the swings, just check US patent filing 2006/0101500.
SADLY, we only learned about the UK鈥檚 national ID fraud week when it was too late to participate in it. A colleague was withdrawing cash from an ATM late in the afternoon on 20 October when a notice flashed up on the screen announcing: 鈥淚t is National ID Fraud week. Get a leaflet on ID Fraud.鈥� By the time our colleague reported this to us, the week in question was over so we decided to hold off on committing a fraud until next year.
Keep this bag 鈥� it鈥檚 dangerous
COLIN DEADY is puzzled. He received a glove-puppet toy through the post from Play.com for a family birthday. On the label it said: 鈥淧acking has to be kept since it contains important information.鈥� And what was the information? On the plastic packaging was the announcement: 鈥淲arning 鈥� This bag is not a toy. Plastic bags can be dangerous. To avoid danger of suffocation, keep this bag away from babies and children.鈥�
Deady asks: 鈥淎re they really telling me that I must keep a bag because of a warning on the bag that says the bag is potentially dangerous? Surely the best course of action is to throw the bag away.鈥�
Shock! Supernatural disproved!
GOSH, what a relief. Just in time for Halloween night, we received a press release from the University of Central Florida announcing: 鈥淯CF professor drives scientific stake into the heart of ghost, vampire myths.鈥� It went on to assure us that 鈥渓aws of physics, math, debunk Hollywood portrayals of ghosts, vampires鈥�.
Phew. After all those years of worrying about nasty things in the night, we can rest easy at last.
FINALLY, British drivers arriving at a park-and-ride facility outside Oxford are greeted by signs stating that the rules for parking are 鈥�72 Hour Maximum Stay 鈥� Overstaying will be Enforced鈥�. Jim Watson says that despite the requirement that everybody should stay more than 72 hours, the car park does not yet seem to be overcrowded.