DINNER PARTY INTEL: Stranded in space

1. A plane watch

Step aside, Rolex and co. The Great British Watch Co is selling a collection of 60 watches made from the remains of a Spitfire that went down over France 80 years ago in World War 2. Parts of the fighter plane were used in the hands, dial and crown, and each watch will cost £19,950. Only two are unsold but another 40 are planned.

2. Far from home

Two Nasa astronauts stranded in space might need Elon Musk to give them a lift home. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were sent on a short mission to the International Space Station but the Starliner spacecraft that took them there and should have brought them back has developed problems. Another setback for the Starliner’s “garage”, Boeing. Musk’s SpaceX is now lurking like a breakdown truck in the wings.

3. A laughing matter

A Japanese prefecture (province) has decreed that citizens should “make efforts to shape mental and physical health through means such as laughing once a day”. Toru Seki, a Japanese Communist Party member in the Yamagata prefecture, objected. He said: “To laugh or not to laugh is one of the fundamental human rights.” Enforcement could be tricky, as it is for a city council in Spain’s Marbella on the Costa del Sol which wants to fine people urinating in the sea.