NASA's Deep Impact program was a great success, both for NASA and for science in general... but it seems to have had some drawbacks. A superstitious Russian loon by the name of Marina Bai is suing NASA for "moral sufferings", after earlier claims that the experiment would "deform her horoscope". All this, despite the fact that astrologers aren't known for using advanced optics, and the comet, Tempel 1, isn't even visible to the naked eye.

This isn't just awful to science... it's awful to astrology! Can anyone find an example of any astrological prediction relying on the position of this comet?

I'm also not sure what to make of a "deformed horoscope". I'm having sudden visions of a bunch of bored Russians huddled around a furnace in the winter, having passed around a shared newspaper for the hundredth time for a lack of anything else to read, going over the horoscopes and one suddenly realizing that the horoscope for her month has been badly smudged. "Oh no," she cries. "My horoscope is deformed!"

Marina wants 300 million US dollars — roughly the cost of the entire mission — for her "deformed horoscope". She's obviously counting on NASA to be nice; I suspect that in Russia it would be a lot cheaper just to hire someone to go to her house and "fix" her.

(Okay, that's mean. But assuming this isn't a deliberate scam, I wonder if they can solve this by sending some astrologist witch doctor to her door to sprinkle magic pixie dust over her and make her think she's cured.)