Today’s Reads (Mar 18)

• Singapore Accused Of Land Grab As Islands Disappear by Boatload

  from SingaporeSurf

• Reaction to Reactions to SM’s Comments When SM Go…

  from Perspective Unlimited

• The fine line between pride and arrogance

  from Hear ye! Hear ye!

• Detention of journalists and lawyers under the ISA

  from No political films please, we’re Singaporeans

• The smart aleck city

  from Two Steps From Twilight

• Leaking Talent: 300 a year

  from e pur si muove

• Philip Yeo: Going out in a whimper

  from URBANRANT – Musings and rants on life in Singapo

• Will ours be an overcrowded city?

  from Yawning Bread Sampler

• Clarification from A*Star over the AcidFlask incident

  from Siew Kum Hong

• Keeping it together.

  from Coffee and Cigarettes.

• NS Rumblings On The Rise

  from SingaporeSurf

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The Pen That Didn’t Write

Space has its legends – the Space Pen is one of the more enduring ones. It’s neither as outlandish nor as unbelievable as conspiracy theories about staged the Moon landings. Or how; the Vatican has secretly entered into a pact with NASA to convert Martians into Catholics. Even though it seems more credible than a massive government conspiracy, it is probable that fewer people have heard about it.

The story goes like this: in the 1960s, astronauts discovered ordinary ball pens couldn’t write in zero gravity. So NASA (need another stupid astronaut) recruited the best scientist to design a DRWI (data recording writing instrument). With its pressurized hermetically sealed chamber, it performed flawlessly in space. The only problem; it blew the lid off the budget – the pen cost millions!

On the other side of the planet to solve the same problem; the Russians assigned a clerk to the serious business of tackling the writing conundrum. They spent the equivalent of five cents. Their solution: a pencil.