* More evidence of the basic unsustainability of Australian agriculture: you might have read about summer rains and floods, but they’ve utterly failed to replenish the water in the Murray-Darling basin, and another El Nino – which in Australia means drought – looks to be settling in.
* A fascinating reflection on life on other planets – and why finding it might be bad news. No not the obvious “they are smarter than us and might decide to eat us”, but a much more sophisticated argument about how if they died out, it’s not a good sign for us.
* Good news: the Christian church is dying out in Britain – now all we’ve got to do is disestablish it fast (so other religions don’t try to jump into its place), and stop news organisations regarding celibate old men as some sort of experts on social issues – and particularly on the fate of women’s bodies, such as in the abortion debate.
* An interesting piece on the history of cyclones and cyclone research, and on how Mauritius has learned to live relatively safely with them.
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