Mrs. Musk. (Photo: Flickr)

Little did you know, but probable Hotmail user Jane Fonda is actually a famous Hollywood matchmaker. Yes, the Patti Stanger for the one percent is setting up coltish blonde actress Cameron Diaz on a date because the forgotten '90s icon wants a millionaire boyfriend–something Mrs. Fonda knows a thing or two about.

Our last bastion for serious journalism, National Enquirer, is reporting that Ms. Diaz is "sick and tired of being the single party girl" (not sure what parties she goes to if she's rarely in any movies, but OK!), so she wants to do what every 40-year-old does at that age and find someone good enough to be Mr. Right and not Mr. Right Now. So, she asked apparent BFF Ms. Fonda to set her up on a date, who suggested that she "read up on politics and be more of an activist" to attract someone. Literally, anyone.

Ms. Fonda's suggestion? Original "car czar" Elon Musk. The billionaire Tesla cofounder meets Ms. Diaz’s requirement only requirement: being rich. The two have a “flirty” relationship, and he reportedly passed a note to her in homeroom saying she's pretty:

“Elon thinks Cameron is gorgeous,” revealed a source. “He personally sold her a Tesla earlier this year and they were flirting up a storm the whole time.”

She was probably flirting down to a better price.

(H/T Jane Fonda flack @jorcohen)

(Photo: ElonMusk.com)

What do you get when you combine Elon Musk, Tesla electric vehicles and driverless car technology? BINGO, yes, but also an automobile so futuristic it may as well shuttle George Jetson around.

Bloomberg reports that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is working with Google on figuring out a way to implement the company's driverless car technology into his own fleet of fancy futuremobiles. But because he is Mr. Musk, he'd rather you use a different terminology than that whole "driverless car" thing (hope you don't mind, Larry).

"I like the word autopilot more than I like the word self-driving,” Mr. Musk told Bloomberg. “Self-driving sounds like it’s going to do something you don’t want it to do. Autopilot is a good thing to have in planes, and we should have it in cars.” Well, okay then.

Mr. Musk also said that he wants to work on a cheaper alternative to GOOG's technology, and though he's met with the team behind the driverless car initiative there, he told Bloomberg he thinks Tesla will probably develop its own autopilot. Looks like somebody won't be getting to try out Google Glass anytime soon.

The letter reads:

Mr. Shapiro--whoever you are--

I have had a Blackberry for many, many years. I have worked with it here and in EUrope and I have arrived at some very important work arrangements with it.

No one thinks I am behind times except those who want to sell me another device. Your intimation that I may be looked down on because I dno't have an iPhone is hugely irritating and pompous and dumb and plain silly.

May you be faced to work on a land line forever!

Way harsh, dude.

Book learnin' Good news for would-be inhabitants of Mars, who ought to know as much about their future God Emperor as possible: Bloomberg Businessweek writer Ashlee Vance has sold The Iron Man: Elon Musk's Quest to Forge a Fantastic Future to the publisher Ecco. "As we say in Texas, git er done," Mr. Vance concluded on Twitter. But he could perhaps have a bit of competition: AllThingsD's Peter Kafka promptly responded, "But I'm writing MUSKIE: HE WAS NO HUBERT HUMPRHEY."

Emperor’s New Clothes Former Apple exec Ron Johnson’s takeover of the dowdy JCPenney brand was an unmitigated disaster, but at least it helped him in the style department! His Apple regimented wardrobe consisted of a pair of dowdy jeans and a drab, lightweight sweater that looks like it was from the "old" Penney's. Then towards the end of his reign at Penney’s, it looks like he was sporting a cost conscious JF J Ferrar slim fit suit and a Van Huesen tie. Hope he stocked up before his employee discount expired.

S-WHAT? This week, New York introduced us to a notion spawned at (of course) Yale: "SWUG," which stands for Senior Washed-Up Girl. Think of it as an entire ethos that revolves around giving zero fucks. And so it's not surprising the concept would resonate outside its original home: "I might be an adult #SWUG," tweeted PR superstar Brooke Hammerling in response to the piece. Aren't we all, lady.

Meet the Elite "ZOMGGGG!" tweeted Noosphere founder Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry earlier this morning. What could have gotten @PEG so excited?

Our invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.

Bitbusted This week, we all had front-row seats to a bubble inflating and deflated at Internet speed. On Tuesday, things looked so sunny that Business Insider's Steve Kovach tweeted, "Henry just told me Bitcoin is going to $5,000 because 'why not?!?!'" That would be Henry Blodget, whose boosterism has gotten him into trouble before. Well, on Wednesday prices peaked at $266, then promptly crashed. The currency is now somewhere in the neighborhood of $93.00.

Souvenirs Anyone remember his high school Korean? Google Ideas director Jared Cohen, who rode along on Eric Schmidt's trip to North Korea but was overshadowed by Bill Richardson's cravat, needs a little translation. Seems he picked up a piece of art while north of the 38th Parallel, but he can't remember what the damn thing says. Hence, a tweet requesting the crowd drop a little wisdom on him:

Girl gets job Today is the last day of our esteemed editor, Nitasha Tiku, who is heading over to Gawker as a Senior Writer. Please wish her well and enjoy this Vine of our final meal together.

https://twitter.com/nitashatiku/status/322786545469898753

Justin Bieber's manager Scooter Braun, singer/songwriter Tori Kelly, IRL Productions' Emily Gannett and billionaire / Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban at Conduit Corner @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

This was my sophomore outing at SXSW ('Spring Break for Nerds!') and it was every bit as epic and intense as the first one. Five days of non-stop boozing 'n schmoozing 'n pool partying 'n BBQing 'n celeb meeting  'n concerts with little-to-no sleep can take its toll. I feel like a HERD of elephants ran over me! Now that I've put that mental picture in your head, let's dive in.

My 2013 SXSW actually began right here at La Guardia airport, where I ran into bunch of local tech peeps en route to Austin, including Newscred CEO Shafqat Islam. There was a storm coming, but luckily we got out before it hit. In fact, my flight left half an hour EARLY, if you can believe that, so thank you, United. (Of course, the return flight was delayed by an hour, so there went all the hard-earned goodwill. Oh well.)

As I landed in Austin, the good folks @ my buddy Greg Tseng's startup Tagged had a warm welcome party with gift bags, photo ops and a chauffeured ride into the city. I could get used to this!

To the uninitiated, most of the action at South By happens within a ten-block radius of downtown Austin, where around 30,000 attendees descend for Interactive. It's like a college campus really. As I walked around, I spotted many familiar faces: "Great to see you again!" "Where you staying?" "You sticking around for music?" and the most common - "You coming to my party?!" I wish I could go to everyone's parties!

Picking up my credentials at the convention center, I noticed the girl prepping my badge had a Hack 'n Jill card. "You're into coding?" I asked. "Yes! I'm starting to learn!" Noticing I was from New York, she added, "I'm a big fan of Girl Develop It and Sara Chipps! I follow her on Twitter!" Her enthusiasm was infectious and I promised to introduce her. That's what SXSW is all about, people.

The Keynotes

There was the much-anticipated fireside chat between Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Wired's Chris Anderson. Musk spoke of his hope that humans will someday be able to make it to Mars and admitted he'd like to take the journey himself: "I would like to die on Mars, just not on impact." Well, I don't think I wanna die on Mars, period, but I'd definitely fancy a weekend getaway!

There was Al Gore's insightful chat with the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg. Mr. Gore's coming out with a new book, The Future, and he talked about how the luddite fallacy (that technology destroys more jobs than it creates) could actually come true, the emergence of the global mind, an unfortunate focus on growth instead of progress and a dramatic shift in global power. Tongue-in-cheek, Mr. Gore confessed: "I had a business partner called David Blood. We wanted to call our company Blood and Gore but our investors wouldn't let us!" On a more serious note, he said, "The future of democracy may well depend on the continued freedom and independence of the Internet."

Al Gore with Walt Mossberg @ SXSW 2013

Elon Musk with Chris Anderson @ SXSW 2013

Hardware replaced social as the star of the show, and several 3D-printing companies had a strong presence at the festival. My buddy Bre Prettis, CEO of Makerbot, gave the opening keynote introducing their newest product, the Digitizer, which will scan real-world objects into 3D-printable digital files. Very cool!

Another device getting attention was the Leap Motion 3D motion-control, which, using a USB connection, creates four cubic feet of space to interact with a computer. The controls are similar to using a touch screen computer in the air. Sweet!

But the biggest star of SXSW though wasn't Mr. Musk, Mr. Gore or Mr. Pettis. It was Grumpy Cat! The cat (whose real name is Tardar Sauce a.k.a. Tard) drew long lines (and I mean realllly long) snaking around the block and beyond to get a picture taken with his famously grumpy face. And he didn't disappoint. (Apparently he had a lot of demands, too.)

Grumpy Cat with Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley @ SXSW 2013

The Marketing & PR Stunts

SXSW has never been short on marketing gimmicks and stunts, and this year was no different.

Ride-sharing startup Lyft offered free piggyback rides with men wearing pink mustaches. Uber brought back its pedicabs and Sidecar also offered free rides around town. Payments startup Dwolla put golden tickets inside chocolate "Dwolla bars" and hid them around Austin.

There were tacocopters, a hologram of a saleswoman, and even Cap'n Crunch got in on the action! Taskrabbit had a rabbit-y van, Hootsuite had an owl-y bus and Highlight had ice-cream trucks. There was even a Game of Thrones pedicab which proved very popular with my friends. (Season 3 will be here in two weeks!)

Lyft Piggyback Rides @ SXSW 2013

Craig Newmark in the Game of Thrones Pedicab @ SXSW 2013

Hook-up site Bang With Friends (you know the one I'm talking about!) promoted its one-off site, Bang With SXSW, a way for attendees to meet and mate. As if that wasn't servicey enough, they also distributed thousands of condoms all over town. Yes, VCs, they are looking for funding.

My friend Adam Ludwig of RRE has a new app coming out, called Albumatic. To promote it, they decided to sponsor a popular local Korean+Mexican fusion truck called Chi'lantro. Anyone who downloaded the app got free food! That's where a whole bunch of us went after the Foursquare party. FYI, their Kimchi Fries are killer! (Feeling FOMO yet?)

RRE's Adam Ludwig with Box Group's David Tisch @ SXSW 2013

Scumbag Steve with Startup Bus' Jon Gottfried @ SXSW 2013

In one of this year's better stunts, journalists and companies received packages purportedly from a mysterious startup calling itself YamTrader.com (an online marketplace for yam enthusiasts and traders). Each both contained a set of instructions and ... a YAM, with the promise that if you brought your yam to SXSW, you could trade it in for a $50 Amex gift card. Apparently it was all on behalf of TriNet, an HR and payroll cloud services company. Hey, $50 is $50!

Appular's Haley Hammerling with Yam Trader @ SXSW 2013

All-in-all, nothing groundbreaking but thank God there was none of those controversial homeless hotspots from last year.

About Town

Like last year, there was no break-out app. Seems everyone was worn out from trying too many apps with no clear value proposition. (Not to mention a lot of them tend to be battery hogs!)

But I will give an honorable mention to GroupMe, an old SXSW favorite. I joined a bunch of groups for SXSW and they were definitely helpful.

A bunch of my friends--Tal Flanchraych, Erica Swallow, Jamie Roth and Jason Kende--participated in Startup Bus (a seven-hour hackathon on wheels) from New York and San Francisco to Austin, where participants teamed up to pitch ideas and build startups.  Congrats to CareerMob (Startup Bus NY) for winning the competition! They help Army vets translate their war experience into a resume.

Tal Flanchraych, Jamie Roth & others in Startup Bus @ SXSW 2013

NBA legend Shaq is a big guy. And apparently, he's a big nerd, too, because he was all over South By and (in his own words) "like a kid in a candy store!" Fun facts: Did you know Shaq has a masters degree in business administration? And that he bought a lucrative stake in Google before its IPO in 2004? Interested in having Shaq as an investor? He's taking video pitches via one of his startup investments, Tout.

Shaq with Brian Solis @ SXSW 2013

The housing situation at SXSW gets crazier and crazier every year. The hotels are long gone, as are the motels and even the Airbnbs. I had friends who were seriously considering either renting an RV or driving down from Round Rock every day. One startup helping ease the pain was my buddy Diego Saez-Gil's WeHostels, which rented out a block of rooms at the Firehouse Hostel at affordable rates, right in the heart of downtown. It seemed like every other New York City tech person I met was staying there, including Amicus' Seth Bannon, The Daily Muse's Kathryn Minshew and many of the Startup Bus folks.

My friend Polina (cofounder of travel startup Wanderu) had hired a monkey (yes) named Miki to endure a bunch of gawking strangers in exchange for some top-notch compensation (bananas?). I agreed to a photo shoot. Miki sat on my shoulder and posed as planned. That's when things started going a little crazy. First he became fascinated with my hair, then he discovered my business cards in my suit pocket and proceeded to take them out one at a time and lick them and hand them around. He's a natural!

Gary and Miki @ SXSW 2013

On monday morning, Conduit Corner played host to the Change The Ratio / TheLi.st Mimosa Brunch. It was TheLi.st's SXSW debut and it seemed like everybody was there. Along with TheLi.st cofounders Rachel Sklar and Glynnis MacNicol, there was Travel Channel's Nisha Chittal, Digital Undivided's Kathryn Finney, Marie Claire's Lea Goldman, AARP's Tammy Goldman, The Daily Muse's Melissa McCreery, Tech Lady Mafia's Erie Meyer, Startup Institute's Christina Wallace, Google's Anthea Watson-Strong, Dot Complicated's Randi Zuckerberg, Make Love Not Porn's Cindy Gallop, NASA Mohawk Guy Bobak Ferdowsi, Gui.de's Leslie Bradshaw, Fashism's Brooke Moreland and Ashely Granata, SXSW's Rebecca Feferman, Mediabistro's Laurel Touby, Tumblr's Rick Webb and Microsoft East Coast Startup Evangelist Tereza Nemessanyi (who was also the co-host).

TheLi.st's Rachel Sklar and Microsoft's Tereza Nemessanyi at the Change The Ratio / The Li.st Mimosa Brunch at Conduit Corner @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

MakeLoveNotPorn's Cindy Gallop and Dot Complicated's Randi Zuckerberg at the Change The Ratio / The Li.st Mimosa Brunch at Conduit Corner @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

On my way to one of the (many) pool parties, I bumped into Airbnb founder Brian Chesky and his entourage. They were fascinated to see the stickers all over me and wanted to know what the deal was. So I told them what the deal was. "Wait, so you get paid for that?" "Yup." I elaborated on my grand plans to have a real-time, geo-targeted, visual ad network on the tie. Minds blown ;) The Airbnb founders had famously bootstrapped their startup selling Obama O's and Capn McCain cereal boxes. I was learning from the best.

The Parties

Finally, as even a SXSW virgin knows, it's really all about the parties. The partying starts early and continues 'til the wee hours (when everyone makes a mad scramble for one of Austin's 270 cabs).

There was the Verizon / Mobi rooftop barbecue party. I was about to ask third-generation pitmaster and mercurial BBQ legend J. Mueller "Why no sauce?" but then thought better of it.

There was my buddy Scott (Laughing Squid) Beale's annual Calm Before The Storm party, where I ran into pioneering videoblogger Steve Garfield and CNET-journalist-turned-Evernote-evangelist Rafe Needleman. I caught up with Charlie Todd, founder of  ImprovEverywhere. A documentary about them, We Cause Scenes, was premiering at the SXSW film festival on Sunday.

I also met Rusty Blazenhoff of Laughing Squid, Aubrey Sabala of Sailthru, actor Seth Herzog (a member of Jimmy Fallon's late night troupe) and Echo's Chris Saad, who gave me the skinny on his space Villa, which is apparently San Francisco’s newest, hottest entrepreneur mansion. We could use something like that in New York ;) I also met the folks behind the amazing short Cicada Princess, nominated at the festival (and funded through Kickstarter, of course).

There was the annual Dachis Group party at Cedar St .Courtyard, where I ran into folks from vacation rental giant Homeaway, which apparently is headquartered in Austin and employs over 1000 people. Who knew? They invited me to a Sunday breakfast, where I had the best Bloody Mary. I later bumped into a local Austinite buddy, Bijoy, who was recently anointed by CNN as the secular high priest of the Austin tech scene. And his hair is as crazy as mine!

There was the popular Made in NY / American Express party on the rooftop of FEED House, where it seemed as if the entire New York tech scene had teleported itself. Attendees included NYC Commissioner of Media & Entertainment Katherine Oliver, NY Tech Meetup's Jessica Lawrence, Gust's David Rose, Social Media Week's Toby Daniels, Box Group's David Tisch, NYC EIR Steve Rosenbaum, NY Times' Nate Silver, NYC Chief Digital Officer Rachel Haot and others. A bunch of us discovered there was a roof to the roof, where we hung out with MakeLoveNotPorn's Cindy Gallop and Gust's Justin Stanwix and got the best views of downtown.  Cindy had given an awesome talk about the future of porn which, rumor has it, was as well attended as Al Gore's talk on the future of the world.

View from the roof-to-the-roof at the Made-in-NY / American Express party @ SXSW 2013

Splash House Party w DJ Sean Glass @ SXSW 2013

There was the Awesomest Journalism party (thrown by my friend Jenny 8. Lee) which was chock-full of, you guessed it, journalists and news-focused startups. I ran into Jonathan Dube (CBS), Sandeep Ayyappan and Tom Weingarten, cofounders of Delve, Vinay Jain (Shake), Shafqat Islam (Newscred) and a bunch of others.

There was the Fast Company Grill party where I met Splash co-founder Ben Hindman. I also ran into my AlleyNYC buddies Jonathan Ende, Jason Saltzman and Michael Gold. Michael was organizing a big TechDrinkup SXSW Edition event in a couple of days.

There was the amazing Booze Cruise, organized by Macallan, where a bunch of us including WeWork Labs founders Matt Shampine & Jesse Middleton, Flybridge Capital's Dave Aronoff, TravelZoo's David Ambrose, Trinet's Jennifer Daniels and Jasmine Cortez, and several folks from DUMBO-based Prolific Interactive spent a wonderful, relaxing afternoon away from the madness of downtown Austin. Of course, when you combine amazing Macallan whisky with delicious macaroons (which we all got to take home) followed by a ride back in the party bus with lights flashing, music blaring, AND a pole, things can get a little ... uhhh ... crazy.

Macallan Booze Cruise @ SXSW 2013

Macallan Booze Cruise @ SXSW 2013

Late night walking down 6th street I ran into the "other" Gary, Gary Vaynerchuk, hanging out with Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (who had brought back his Happiness party bus). Gary did office hours in Austin and hosted his secret wine party (now an annual South By tradition). The guy sure keeps busy!

There was the popular late-night scene at the (supposedly haunted!) Driskill Hotel bar, where I ran into a ton of folks including Flavorpill cofounder Mark Mangan, Twitter investor Jeff Pulver, TechCrunch's Ryan Lawler, DFJ's Lucas Nelson, the Roku team, Business Insider CTO Pax Dickinson, SAI's Alyson Shontell, Mashery's Colin McCabe, Neuaer's Dave Mathews and many others.

Tip: While the Hilton is a better bet if you want easy access to the convention center and panels, The Driskill (if you can afford it) is THE place to stay during SXSW because of its proximity to all the parties. Walk out of The Driskill at 2am (which is when everything in Austin starts shutting down) and you will see familiar faces appear like magic everywhere on the street around you.

There was the awesome Wall Street Journal pool party where I ran into WSJ bloggers Sarah Needleman and Rubina Fillion. "We're big fans of GarysGuide!" Why, thank you, guys! I ran into The Daily Muse's Kathryn Minshew and her cofounder Alexandra Cavoulacos lounging in the pool. Thrillist's Ben Lerer, Buzzfeed's Jon Steinberg, Barbarian Group's Benjamin Palmer, Mediabistro's Laurel Touby, Betaworks' Jonathan Basker, Morris+King's Andy Morris, Shorty Awards's Greg Galant, Wander's Jeremy Fisher, Sonar's Brett Martin, Fashism's Brooke Moreland, #DominateFund's Ben Parr and a ton of other heavy hitters were there. It was good to see Rick Webb there (after he threated to skip SXSW this year). It's just not a party without Rick! :)

WSJ Rooftop Pool Party at the Ashton Austin @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

There was the Fashion Brain Bar at the W, organized by my friends from Projective Space, James Wahba and Lauren Zapata. I caught with my West Coast buddy Gregarious Narain (founder of YCombinator startup GetChute and previous VP Product at Klout). Also ran into Internet Week's Caroline Waxler and Cheekd founder Lori Cheek (congrats on the recent engagement!). The W Austin, as I've been told many times, is the #1 place in Austin for hooking up. Good to know?

Later that afternoon, a bunch of us went to the Getty Images party, conveniently just a few floors down at the W. I caught up with my old friend Melinda Lee, who is the Deputy GM at Getty Images Music. I ran into Nathaniel McNamara & Mike Weiksner, founders of the hot social commerce startup Tip or Skip. I learned some interesting facts about the app and what makes it tick and how users earn "sway." It's all about curation, really, which I can relate to. Also had a nice chat with Alix Boulud of LVMH.

There was the Angry Birds Toons pool party which takes the prize for most SWAGGED-OUT party at SXSW. (And that's saying something.)There were giant angry birds plushies everywhere, and there was even an angry bird in a giant slingshot, aimed towards the pool. (No, it was not working. Yes, we tried.) Peter Vesterbecka (the Mighty Eagle himself) was there of course, excited about the launch of the new cartoon series, Angry Birds Toons.

Peter Vesterbeca (Mighty Eagle) at the Angry Birds Toons Pool Party @ SXSW 2013 (photo by Erica Gannett)

There was the annual GroupMe party where pretty much everyone ended up that night. I chatted with Flybridge Capital's Caitlin Strandberg, PivotDesk's Efrem Weiss and Adamant Technologies' Sam Khamis and Artem Mikhlin.  I ran into my buddy, iOS developer Pablo Quinteros, who introduced me to Dan Benjamin, founder of 5by5.tv, a popular web video and podcasting networking affectionately called 'NPR for Geeks!' :)

Later, I headed over to the SHFT party with my buddy Greg Gopman (cofounder, Angelhack) and Megan Berry (cofounder, RebelMouse). There I ran into a bunch of my West Coast pals including Altimeter Group's Brian Solis, Yammer's Maria Ogneva and The Next Web's Ken Yeung. Entourage star (and local Brooklyn boy) Adrian Grenier was in the house. Adrian (who cofounded brewery startup ChurchKey) is also the cofounder of SHFT with film producer Peter Glatzer.

I caught up with an old friend Jonathan, who told me he wanted to introduce me to the West Coast version of myself. It turned out to be Bravo reality TV star, Hermione Way. She pulled me close and whispered in my ear "I'm going to the Four Seasons. Come along?"

Adrian Grenier introducing The Skins at SHFT WreckRoom @ SXSW 2013

Shepard Fairey Wreckroom at SHFT WreckRoom @ SXSW 2013

In Conclusion

So there you have it, folks. Another amazing SXSW. I head home with literally a ton of potential deals, partnerships and followups. I'm going to cherish the new connections & friendships made, old ones re-kindled and of course the wonderful, random conversations in hotel lobbies and waiting in line for late night tacos. I love Austin. Its a wonderful, laid-back city with great weather and a penchant for keeping it weird with the friendliest people and the yummiest BBQ. I'll be back!

But as my flight started its descent into LaGuardia and I saw familiar landmarks on the horizon, I smiled. I was now in a New York state of mind.

(Photo: Smosh)

Bad news for everyone who's been dreaming about intergalactic intercourse since those heady tween years: a new study found that sex in space could actually present some rather life-threatening illnesses.

Studies on plant cells showed that processes involved in reproduction are impacted by zero-gravity conditions like those experienced in space. Scientists said this could have major implications for humans hoping to make space babies. "Our findings offer new insight into how life evolved on Earth and are significant with regards to human health, as a traffic jam on these highways that also exist in human cells can cause cancer and illnesses such as Alzheimer's," a Montreal University professor told the Daily Mail.

These findings could have an impact on the space tourism industry, which is ramping up to send private citizens into space as early as next year. Though to be fair, there are plenty of risks associated with earthly sex, so we doubt any humans--or plants!--who want to have space sex will be deterred by a couple of tsk-tsking scientific studies.

Still, we bet somewhere on his private island Richard Branson is weeping over the dangers of joining the "220-mile high club."

(Photo: Daily Tech)

Quinn Norton speaks out on what life inside the Aaron Swartz investigation was like. "This will not be the final word on Aaron's story, nor is it intended to be. Two years later, these are the events as I remember them, and the feelings as I knew them." [The Atlantic]

Former dotcom millionaire Jennifer Sultan plead guilty to selling prescription drugs and conspiring to sell a firearm in exchange for four years in prison on Friday. Ms. Sultan, who sold her company Live Online during the first boom, burned through her fortune after becoming addicted to prescription pain killers. Let this be a cautionary tale for bubble 2.0. [New York Times]

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz took to Rap Genius this weekend to decode Andrew Mason's goodbye letter. Swag? [TechCrunch]

If you got an email this weekend from Evernote that it had reset your password, that’s because the company suffered a major security breach. [The Verge]

SpaceX Dragon has successfully docked at the International Space Station, which is great because we don't really need any more griping from Elon Musk right now. [Ars Technica]

(Photo: The Tony Grands)

Congratulations to every Redditor who has complained about a female friend not giving him the sexual attention to which his penis entitles him: Oxford Dictionaries has immortalized your horrifying plight with the official addition of "friend zone" into the lexicon.

According to Oxford, friend zone is defined as:

noun
informal
a situation in which a platonic relationship exists between two people, one of whom has an undeclared romantic or sexual interest in the other:
I always wind up in the friend zone, watching them pursue other guys

That's not the only internetty word added to the bunch, though. There's also tweetable ("suitable for posting on the social media site Twitter"), dumphone ("a basic mobile phone that lacks the advanced functionality characteristic of a smartphone") and range anxiety ("worry on the part of a person driving an electric car that the battery will run out of power before the destination or a suitable charging point is reached").

That last one is sure to send Elon Musk into a tizzy.

Pandering to the Internet has become something of a pasttime for Oxford. Afterall, this is the company that made "GIF" the 2012 word of the year.

Mr. Zuckerberg, please collect your chump change. (Photo: ITechBook.net)

However broke the state of California may be, it's also sitting on a treasure trove of unclaimed property that's valued at over $6 billion. Holders like "corporations, business associations, financial institutions, and insurance companies" are required to report any unclaimed property annually to the state comptroller's office. That means if you've forgotten about bank account contents or uncashed money orders, they're sitting around with the comptroller.

Houston Rockets quantitative analyst Christopher Long searched the database for some bold-faced names and came up with some pretty amusing results. For one, Google cofounder Sergey Brin is apparently owed paychecks from Stanford University worth over $1,000. (No word on whether Rockets player and Harvard grad Jeremy Lin helped sift through the bold-faced names.)

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak has a $269 check waiting for him from the California Automobile Association, and the state of Pennsylvania appears to owe Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk $408.

The most interesting, however, is that according to the comptroller, PayPal owes Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg $308.62. The address listed on the form is for 1743 Westbrook Ave. in Los Altos, CA, the house Zuck and Co. rented [PDF] while building Facebook. As a struggling entrepreneur in 2004-2005, he probably could've used that money.

Misters Zuck, Brin, Woz and Musk can fill out a Claim Affirmation Form to collect their money, though we're guessing it's chump change to the cadre of millionnaires at this point.

Six months after raising $4.7 million and less than three weeks after founder and CEO Jody Sherman committed suicide, Ecomom is liquidating. [PandoDaily]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk got around to publishing the data he promised would show that a New York Times review of his company's electric Model S sedan was a "fake": "We were played for a fool and as a result, let down the cause of electric vehicles." [Tesla]

Times' reporter John M. Broder answered Mr. Musk's post point-for-point, reiterating that he followed the instructions of Tesla employees throughout his test drive.  [NYT]

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: "House of Cards now the #1 most popular TV show in the world, according to IMDb. And I still can't get (Neftlix Chief Content Officer) Ted Sarandos to tell me how many millions are enjoying it on Netflix." [Facebook]

President Barack Obama hosted a Google+ Hangout. [Daily Dot]

Stop calling it the Harlem Shake. Just stop, really. [Gawker]

A meteorite struck Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring 400 people. [Mashable]

At least it's warm inside ... (Photo: Tesla)

If there's something that Tesla CEO Elon Musk can't stomach, it's a challenge to the company's claims regarding the mileage-range on the batteries of its electric cars.

Case in point: On February 8, The New York Times published a less than flattering review of the Tesla Model S, in which reporter John M. Broder described his difficulties stretching the vehicle's battery between charging stations.

While the roughly 200 miles between I-95 charging stations in Newark, Delaware and Milford, Connecticut were well-within the Model S's 265-mile estimated range, Mr. Broder reported that cold weather seemed to drain the battery more quickly than anticipated, forcing him to forgo comforts such as heating, and necessitating an unscheduled detour in search of a charge.

That didn't sit well with Mr. Musk, who took to Twitter to respond to the Times story.

NYTimes article about Tesla range in cold is fake. Vehicle logs tell true story that he didn't actually charge to max & took a long detour.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2013

That wasn't all. Mr. Musk promised a blog post refuting the Times story, and offered other journalists the chance to test drive the Model S. (As far as we can tell, the blog post has yet to be published; several journalists jumped to tweet Mr. Musk test-drive requests.) And more:

Tesla data logging is only turned on with explicit written permission from customers, but after Top Gear BS, we always keep it on for media.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2013

Ah, Top Gear: That's the BBC program that Tesla sued for libel after a 2008 television episode showed an earlier Tesla model running out of juice and bring pushed back to the garage. (Tesla said the action was staged; British courts dismissed the case, and a subsequent attempt to revive in, in 2011 and 2012.)

Mr. Musk didn't limit his response to Twitter. After Teslas's stock fell this morning, Mr. Musk went on CNBC, where he told hosts that Mr. Broder's article "was something of a set-up," and that the Times reporter failed to charge his battery completely, then detoured through Manhattan and driven above the speed limit.

"If you had a gasoline car," he said, and "if you only filled the tank part way, and instead of driving to your destination, you meandered through downtown Manhattan, and through all the traffic and everything, and then raced to where you were originally supposed to go, and you ran out of gas, people would just think you're a fool."

As far as we can tell, neither the Times nor Mr. Broder has yet to respond.