Jeyhan and I have been watching “Space Above and Beyond” on DVD over the last couple of weeks. I’ve noticed that this series has at least one thing in common with the Star Trek franchises; the use of dryer tubing in critical star ship components. Especially since the first sign of trouble is usually when 10⁹ meters of hose come flying out of the ceiling. Surely the ship design houses of the future must do critical defect studies. Now, why would a star ship designer, knowing what a liability those damn dryer hoses are, spec. them for use as a plasma conduit in an EPS grid? Is it because the economies of the future are so weak that they can’t spring for something more durable? Like PVC pipes? Perhaps there is some magical property of dryer tubing that we’ve failed to appreciate… The world wonders.