Sweeeeeet the embedded version of Vista is to blame Im sure. NASA spends big on everything else but when it comes to the OS they choose to go with the latest greatest from M$.

(Im sure this isnt the case but I can see it now.....

0x000000FF UREA_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA)

/mines the one with the rubber hose attached

What worries me is that a code bug in the recycler could trigger a fire alarm...

The problem is if the astronauts need to wee on it to put the fire out, all it would do is make the fire bigger... oops!

Paris because the media's always taking the p*ss out of her too.

...the crew returns to sleep completely unaware that hidden in the new module a slavering alien - relieved and relaxed after a quick visit to the little xenomorph's room - is about to embark on 110 minutes of special-effects filled carnage and sexually suggestive egg laying until, in the dying scenes, it is (wo)mano-a-xeno with Astronaut Piper.

The dramatic final battle will play out like a ferocious arm wrestle until the xeno is knocked into a fiery re-entry by the standard issue NASA toolkit that Astronaut Piper cunningly put into elliptical orbit* at the beginning of the film. I mean mission.

Oh, and on the subject of suggested ablutionary device nomenclature "Number ones: Piss Taker", "Number twos: Moon Raker".

* deus ex machina+chekhov's gun!**

** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Plot_devices ***

*** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_arse , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorry

... to have a wii wee machine

mine's the one with with the space helmet attached

"Despite the sudden panic, however, neither of them allowed their toolbags to get away from them on this occasion."

Love it

"Urea-related compounds can in fact make effective explosives.."

wtf - are you trying to get us all arrested!

Thanks

They had to put up with drunk PFY's at 4am Sunday morning after trying to light farts and getting burned..

...Now after this story, they have a whole new set of burns to explain to the nurse.....

Four centuries ago, one of the components of gunpowder used to be obtained from excreted liquid waste. Back there and back then it was collected in buckets every morning and "stored" until the crystals formed. It was even believed that a bishops nightwater made the best component for gunpowder.

Whether there's any connection with the phrase "taking the piss" I don't know.

Mine's the one with the O-level Chemistry text book (c1970) in the pocket, with a bookmark on page 74 (the formula for gunpowder).

So you want us to click on the link in the article so we have bomb making plans in our cache. Then you'll pass on our IP details to the gubberment so we can be processed for 42 days as a terrist.

I'M ON TO YOU EL REG!

Hey! The Register is providing a valuable service to all us friendless insomniacs by allowing us to snigger at jokes that we know most other people would respond to with blank incomprehension.

Please don't try to take that away!

Thanks

"Unfortunately, a loud fire alarm was triggered at once"

Bet that made them wet their pants...Oh dear...

Now, lob that piss-filter after that bloody 'fridge. And don't crayon a fuc*king Mahatma Coat flag on it this time. Sheesh.

I can pitcure the scene, space mechanic scratching his backside whilst looking at the wee-cycler.

"Yeah, I see your problem, you've got orb spider webbing all over the heat-exchanger. It's gonna cost you about £300 plus labour for me to clean it."

</end_flashback_to_1989>

Meanwhile, the evasive toolbag's been caught on video by an amateur observer. I am not making this up.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/11/23/satellite-tracker-captures-lost-toolbag-on-video/

Mine's the one slowly descending from 320km...

Maybe they can use this as a New Bio Fuel to make Urea nitrate Rockets and make mini remote controlled rockets and attach them to toolsbags / Space junk / space suites to give them a little extra thrust to return them home to the ISS or to return them to the earth

I call it the Emergency Bio Rocket Return System ^o^ (E.B.R.R.S)

I once worked with a ex-Chemistry teacher who claimed that he gave up teaching in despair after a pupil once asked him: "Sir, is urea soluble?"

<quote>It's programmed to take the piss out of them, so it waits 'til they're outside on a complex spacewalk and sets off the fire alarms.</quote>

Preceeded by "Dave? Don't you *dare* do that here, Dave"...

"We are not making this ground for fear up. Urea-related compounds can in fact make effective explosives"

erm, yes but it is the *NITRATE* which give it explosive properties, and then it would need to be dry, and exposed to a flame or incandescant material. The chemistry to go from urea -> urea nitrate is also pretty unlikely to happen accidently.

I qute like the idea of exploding billion dollar piss pots in space, but, sadly, this ain't how it's gonna happen.