The European Space Agency is looking for 14 volunteers to do nowt for 3 months. They must be european males between 25 and 45, non smoking and not overweight.

If you fit the bill, you’ll lie down on a bed with a minus six degree angle from March to May with your every need attended to – you even get to shower in your sloping slack-fest nest. Some volunteers will be asked to exercise three times a week, others will be given bone retention drugs and the final lot will just lie there. The whole purpose is to simulate the effect of weightlessness on the bodies of astronauts, but you don’t have to go though all that tiresome space-walking, flag-planting, saving the universe nonsense yourself.

We can think of several forum regulars who’d be perfect candidates so we’d encourage them to launch their loafing credentials to the online registration at www.medes.fr> before all the beds get taken.