The balloon goes up …..

The World's biggest pile of polyethylene has just been dumped into St Ives Bay, Cornwall. All that is left of the prophylactic that was 'Kinetic 1'.

Apparently, says Mission Damage Limitation Control. "The wrong kind of glue was used on one of the seams"

"What kind of glue WAS used then?"

"The kind that doesn't stick"

All that high tech' back-up. The cutting edge bullshit, the media drama queens…..

It reminds me of the American - Russian Space Race in the '60's and '70's. The Yanks wanted to invent a writing implement that would work in zero gravity and upside down in orbiting spacecraft. $6 billion later, and 10 years development, NASA proudly announced the launch of their 'Space Pen'. A technological marvel, each pen has a little pumping heart that delivers just the correct amount of ink to the tip of the nib - brilliant. You may have seen it advertised in those 'must have' catalogues that plop out of your Sunday Supplement……..

What did the Russians do, beaten to a pulp by the techno muscle of America's finest brains? Well they went round to the local stationery shop and bought some HB pencils ….