This week's New Scientist contains two editorials. The first congratulates NASA on the success of the Cassini mission to Saturn, and suggests that Faster, Better, Cheaper might be a case of Pick two.

The second editorial castigates China for its ongoing attempts to cover up the SARS epidemic; they are now reduced to "re-educating" Jiang Yanyong, the doctor who broke the original official silence.

What am I supposed to do for my Friday rant, dammit?

Well, there is a guest editorial by Mohamed ElBaradei, who drones on as usual about how he is somehow relevant to addressing the problem of nuclear proliferation, and how if crazed terrorist-sponsoring theocracies aren't allowed to have nukes, then America can't have them either. But the man is so utterly pathetic that I can't seem to find it in me to argue with him.

ElBaradei? You suck, man. Get a real job and stop bothering people.

There are a lot of good articles, which are the reason I buy New Scientist. For example, one on desalination which notes that the costs of producing drinkable water have decreased by 80% since 1980, to just 50 cents a ton. Something to think about when you live in Australia.

Apart from that, there are short items on terahertz scanners, orange bananas, the immune system of the lamprey (which is apparently unlike that of any other animal), how grandparents created civilisation (I keep telling Trixie this, but does she listen?), how myopia is more nurture than nature, how to discover dark matter in your kitchen (just put a frequency multiplier in the microwave), the evolution of leaves, the coming locust plague, and how peat bogs will destroy us all.

Major articles include a reminder that we really are what we eat, and a surf report from Titan. This is the 21st century, after all.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:42 AM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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