primer: August 2005

Jaded female romantics looking to put some spark back into their lives may consider giving up men and finding themselves a “girl crush”.
The re-emergence of the teenage crush as an adult phenomenon where women fixate on another woman they admire was charted in a recent edition of the New York Times.
With the world full of talented, stylish, smart and charismatic women, it seems other women are starting to pay attention, at the expense of boy-crushes.
And, as one interviewee noted, with a girl crush, “you don’t have to break up with them after two weeks.

Space research has brought us many useful things: Velcro tops most people’s list.
But a new line of inquiry from NASA may deliver humanity an even greater boon: the elimination of annoying static shocks.
According to a NASA report, it’s called “triboelectric charging” and in the dry, crackly environment of the moon or Mars, it could pose a real threat to astronauts’ safety. Devices like the Mars Rover can build up hundreds of volts if they are not regularly grounded.
A solution hasn’t been found yet, but they’re working on it; in the meantime, earthbound sufferers will just have to keep throwing off sparks.

As Monty Python noted, there are a lot of ways to serve spam; the bad news is that electronic junk mailers are catching on.
According to The Economist, high-profile prosecutions against so-called spammers may be cutting back on bulk mailing, but the spammers are getting smarter.
The new-style spam is more selective, and more dangerous; instead of asking nicely for your money in exchange for a better sex life, it may look like a genuine email from your bank. Respond, and the spammer may take your money without permission.
Spammers are also getting smarter with the way they send their emails, making it harder to eliminate.
We’ll have the egg, bacon, spam and sausage, thanks; hold the spam.

Of course it’s a conspiracy; that’s the point.
Production of the movie version of bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code is reported to be stumbling over church objections.
Reports says that the movie’s makers are in talks with the church over key points, such as the alleged child of Jesus and the shadowy “Opus Dei.” Supposed suppression of such suggestions was a foundation of the book’s plot, and popularity.
Although Sony Pictures declined to comment, apparently the movie will also carry a prominent disclaimer reminding viewers that the whole thing is fictional.
Uh-huh.

The frozen wastes of the Siberian tundra have long been a staple in Russian mythology; now it seems global warming will change that to “Siberian bogs”.
According to New Scientist magazine, the permafrost in Siberia is melting at an alarming rate. An area the size of France and Germany combined could quickly change into a marshy, lake-filled zone releasing billions of tons of methane into the air.
The bad news is that that will only speed up global warming. Sell your ski lodge shares.

Scientists without any faith in our ability to run our own social lives have come up with a new “tool” to tell if someone on the other end of the phone is really listening.
The whimsically named “jerk-o-meter” was developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is now on its way to a commercial release.
It uses known behavioural markers, like frequency of speech and speed of response, to help phone users tell how interested the other person is in the conversation.
Too low a score, and the user gets the option to hang up the call.
Whatever happened to “I’ll call you back”, “I’m in a meeting” and other honest ways of saying you don’t feel like talking?

While Australian addicts go through withdrawal at the end of the first series, the Chinese population is about to get a dose of Desperate Housewives.
The quintessentially American tale of sex, intrigue and materialism in the suburbs will debut on a major Chinese channel next month, dubbed into Mandarin.
Variety magazine speculates that some of the racier and more controversial scenes may have to be cut to conform to the Chinese censors’ requirements; it’s possible the one-hour show will run as a 15-minute filler if that’s the case.