1973

Dutch Elm Disease Infects Redheads

BBC Radio broadcast an interview with an elderly academic, Dr. Clothier, who discoursed on the government's efforts to stop the spread of Dutch Elm Disease. Dr. Clothier revealed that some startling discoveries had recently been made. For instance, he referred to the research of Dr. Emily Lang of the London School of Pathological and Environmental Medicine who had found that exposure to Dutch Elm Disease immunized people to the common cold. Unfortunately, there was a side effect. Exposure to the tree disease also caused red hair to turn yellow and eventually fall out. This was attributed to a similarity between the blood count of redheads and the soil conditions in which affected trees grew. Therefore, Dr. Clothier warned that redheads should stay away from forests for the foreseeable future. Dr. Clothier was in reality the comedian Spike Milligan.

Write-Only Memory

The Signetics corporation issued a press release announcing their invention of a revolutionary new electronic memory that promised to improve the quality of life for billions of people who are affected by computer data. As opposed to the common write-and-read or read-only memories, they had perfected Fully-Encoded 9046XN 25120 Write-Only Memory. Data could be written to the device, but never read back, thus ensuring Eternally Inaccessible Storage. Accompanying the press release was a data sheet detailing the chip's technical specifications. Write-Only Memory subsequently became a favorite inside joke within the engineering community, with engineers over subsequent years repeatedly trying to convince their managers of the need to purchase quantities of this vital component.