鈥淲e feel the premises registration/animal ID issue is an act of the anti-Christ.鈥�
A group of Old Order Amish farmers register their objection to the US National Animal Identification System, a Bush Administration initiative also dubbed 鈥渂arnyard Big Brother鈥� (Los Angeles Times, 14 January)
鈥淭he environmental problems caused by biofuels and also the social problems are bigger than we thought.鈥�
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Stavros Dimas, the European Union environment commissioner, admits that the EU did not foresee the problems raised by its policy of obtaining 10 per cent of Europe鈥檚 road fuels from plant matter (BBC News online, 14 January)
鈥淭his is exactly the sort of ethical, innovative and life-enhancing research that the grant was established to promote.鈥�
Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, announces that his archdiocese is donating US$86,000 for research on the therapeutic potential of adult stem cells, the fourth such grant it has awarded (National Catholic Reporter, Kansas City, Missouri, 11 January)
鈥淵ou have to set a goal, whether it鈥檚 new clothes, losing 20 pounds or being in good shape when you land on Earth.鈥�
NASA astronaut Clay Anderson, who lost 5.5 kilograms during workouts on the International Space Station last year and is part of a NASA initiative to increase fitness levels among the general public (The Guardian, London, 14 January)
鈥淚rregularities in the monitoring of air quality account for all reported improvements over the last nine years.鈥�
Environment consultant Steven Andrews doubts whether air quality really has improved in Beijing ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games, as China claims (The New York Times, 10 January)