Plenty of free books are given away at cons by the publishers, too--- no need to go so baroque as the Hitchhiker's Guide example. World Fantasy Con always has a bag of free books for each attendee.

Tim @2: It's even stranger than that. Earlier last week the European Union came to an agreement with the U.S. about compensation for the U.S. withdrawal from "gambling services" covered by the WTO. As a result the U.S. will have to remove barriers to foreign competition in several service fields, including delivery and warehousing.

So, because the gov't wants to crack down on gambling, UPS and FedEx face increase competition... I can bet they're not too happy about this.

AP story: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8TJ7DB81.htm

BentCorner @9:

Many, many projects mysteriously never manage to make a net profit, no matter how successful they are. Google around for "monkey points".

According to Hollywood accounting, The Simpsons is not in profits. How can we trust that kind of bookkeeping? What other business but ours has the accounting term, “monkey points?” -- John Bowman

If I were in the writer's shoes, I'd demand payment based on gross sales or unit volume as well--- the industry simply can't be trusted to report profit in a fair and transparent fashion.

It sounds like Sputnik was pressurized. The fan was to keep air circulating inside. From later in the article:

"The fan will help get heat out of the middle of the satellite to its surfaces, so it can radiate away. But you also need to think about the colour of your space craft, because dark surfaces will heat up if they are facing the sun or a planet."