"I'm reading life-signs captain. Approximately 350,000 inhabitants, all humanoid."

Why is it that we still get films in which the computer screen projects words and images onto the face of the user? Talk about screen burnout! You'd have the Windows/Linux/Mac desktop permanently burned into your face.

Another common theme is when there's a computer plotting to take over the world or some other dastardly plan, the hero battles incredible odds to arrive at the computer room, then takes out his biggest, baddest shotgun..... and blasts the screen, occasionally also taking out the keyboard, while the actual computer sniggers quietly under the desk.

Finally, what kind of encryption allows you to guess a password one character at a time? You always get these huge screens showing you 5 or 6 characters changing rapidly, and then the characters start falling into place one by one, usually with a cute pling! sound to tell you it's been guessed. Never mind the idea that the world's nuclear arsenal would be protected by a 6-character password.

Seriously, you'd think that film directors or script writers would familiarise themselves with the basics of computing when producing a film in which computers are a major element.

Free tans that glow in the dark!

The Geological Society requests all profits from photos featuring the Earth (or part thereof) to be forwarded to its bank account. This claim however is being contested by the Astronomical Society which contends that the earth is just another planet and since it is the sole beneficiary of IP rights related to stars, planets and other cosmic objects, it automatically has rights over photos of Earth and the moon and sun. In addition, any photos made using unauthorised light from the sun are strictly forbidden.

...situated in your chair seat. Each failed test increases the voltage exponentially.

With waistlines constantly expanding, it's not just the budget airlines that have decided to charge more for fatter people. Now the Russians are doing it too :D

Well since we can no longer use "the name, image, and any symbols of the Pope", the sensible solution would be for the rest of the world to make up a new name, image and symbol for use when referring to the person formerly known as Pope. The competition for the new name, image and symbol will remain open until end December 2009, and the winner will get free permission to visit the city-state formerly known as Vatican. All entries must be open sourced.

1. ISPs use traffic shaping to slow down P2P downloads
2. Users find ways to disguise P2P traffic via SSH etc, to prevent traffic shaping
3. P2P traffic goes up.
4. ISPs can't see it as P2P traffic, so they think that P2P traffic has gone down.

I've lost count of the genuine websites run by respectable organisations that used an "invalid" certificate - either because the certificate was for www.someone.com instead of yyy.someone.com, or because it expired last week, or something like that. In most cases they're not a site I need too much security for. So I shrug and add an exception. Unless it's ebay or paypal or my bank, I don't really care about encryption OR authentication for the site.

We have the ability to sense large changes in ambient pressure, as well as relative temperature. We have a sense of balance (yes, that's a sense too). Ok, so maybe we can't determine the exact atmospheric pressure in the same way we can see tiny subtle changes in colour (ie, frequency of visible light), but all these are still senses.

The problem with American policies is that they depend heavily on whoever currently occupies the White House and its subsidiaries. So, when the administration had the kind of people who would cover up the nipple of a marble statue in the DOJ, the various entities like ICANN adopt a comparable attitude.

The UN is not just the Security Council. It is also the WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF, FAO and many other entities which are part of the UN and *generally* work well enough that they blend into the background.

Equipment required: 1 large umbrella