Koeberg plan nuked The City of Cape Town has refused to approve plans to build a new nuclear power plant at Koeberg (yes!). The current Koeberg power station, like the proposed one, doesn't allow for quick evacuation of residents living in the vicinity, should a nuclear emergency arise, and the City recognised that Eskom manages to sidestep the responsibility of removing nuclear waste from the site - something else that will affect locals![Cape Times]

South Africa aims to lead in biotechnology Naledi Pandor, current Minister of Science and Technology, and former Minister of “I-want-to-make- children-pledge-allegiance-to-the-flag-every-morning” has now announced that there are plans to make South Africa a leader in biotechnology...

Her words: "We want to make South Africa one of the top 10 nations in the world in terms of the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical (food that provides medical benefits), flavour, fragrance and biopesticide industries by 2018.” This is hardly good news....[SA Good News]

UK outsourcing its carbon emission reduction The recent G8 summit saw developed nations promise to lower carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. Yet the UK still has plans to build new roads and runways and is approving new coal-burning power stations (!) - the 80% is looking more like 40%. It appears they intend paying developing nations to cut their own emissions on UK's behalf. [The Guardian]

Pentagon developing microwave pain ray that shoots from the sky... The pentagon, in an attempt to find “non-lethal” crowd control techniques, is developing a microwave ray gun that can be used by aircraft to deliver burns to people's skin. While this sounds like science fiction, the reality is that this technology is merely a refinement of previous “microwave pain ray” technology that was banned for safety issues. I wonder why... ? [New Scientist]