Who will own the moon?
Between 2007 and 2011, William Cullerne Bown writes for New Scientist, there will have been eight lunar missions: one from Japan, two from China, one from India, one from Russia and three from the United States. "The race back to the moon has been prompted by the realization that exploiting it may now be within reach. And it poses the question: Who gets to use the moon's recoverable resources, such as oxygen or water? This could be resolved through negotiation. ... But the Lunar Treaty drafted by the United Nations in the 1990s has still not been signed by the space powers. Since this leaves the moon unprotected by law - the ultimate terra nullius - we may now see a scramble for territory."
Anti-communist humour
During the Cold War, West German spies diligently recorded the jokes that were being whispered in East Germany, to gain insights into the public mood, Der Spiegel magazine reports. Some examples:
"Why does West Germany have a higher standard of living than we do? Because communists can't get work permits there."
"Chernobyl wasn't an accident. It was just a Soviet program to X-ray its population."
"Christmas has been cancelled. Mary didn't find any diapers for the baby Jesus, Joseph was called up to the army and the three kings didn't get a travel permit."
Incompetent bosses
"Bosses who feel incompetent are more likely to bully subordinates, according to a study being published in the journal Psychological Science," the San Francisco Chronicle reports. "In a paper titled When the Boss Feels Inadequate, psychologists Serena Chen of [the University of California] Berkeley, and Nathanael Fast of the University of Southern California argue that leaders who are in over their heads tend to resort to browbeating to protect their egos. 'If people feel incompetent and they happen to be in a high-powered position, that's when the aggression kicks in,' Fast said. 'Power has its downsides. It elevates the standards by which people are judged and can make them less secure to the degree they feel inadequate.' "
Pigs have smarts
"Pigs can't fly but they do have other talents," New Scientist reports. "In fact, they perform rather well on a task used to test the mental faculties of chimps, dolphins and parrots. Donald Broom at the University of Cambridge placed food where it was only visible in a mirror, while a fan wafted its scent away from the pigs. Seven of eight pigs tested took less than a minute to learn how to use the mirror to find the food." The study appears in the journal Animal Behaviour.
Extended warranties
"It seems every time I buy something these days, someone wants to pitch me an extended-service plan," Neal Templin writes in The Wall Street Journal's Cheapskate column. "I recently bought a $90 weed whacker at Home Depot and was offered an extended warranty by the cashier. No, thank you. What's next? Extended warranties on shovels? There's no mystery why retailers push them. In some cases, they make more profit selling the warranty than they do selling the actual gadget."
Frugality hits Harvard
"Gone are the hot breakfasts in most dorms and the pastries at Widener Library," Abby Goodnough reports in The New York Times. "Varsity athletes are no longer guaranteed free sweat suits, and just [recently]came the jarring news that professors will go without cookies at faculty meetings. By Harvard standards, these are hard times. Not Dickensian hard times, but with the value of its endowment down by almost 30 per cent, the world's richest university is learning to live with less."
Think mimes are bad?
"Good news for those who think New Yorkers are too jaded - a man with a watermelon on his head can still stop traffic," Don Kaplan reports in the New York Post. "In fact, Otis Houston Jr. may be responsible for more rush-hour jams than Con Ed construction crews. Drivers slow down to gawk at the performance artist as he stands on the roadway shoulder, often wearing red boxing gloves that match the sliced watermelon on his head. 'You can't please everybody all of the time,' Houston laughed when asked about drivers angry at delays. ... The fruit, he said, is a message to eat healthy."
Thought du jour
"The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers." - James Baldwin