鈥淲e completely understand the public鈥檚 concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission鈥�
Harry Schoell of Cyclone Power Technologies attempts to quash internet rumours that his company is developing a robot that runs its biomass-powered engine by digesting fallen soldiers on the battlefield (The Guardian, London, 20 July)
鈥淎bsolutely amazing 鈥� the most spectacular real-time tsunami forecast ever鈥�
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When an earthquake struck off the coast of New Zealand on 15 July, nearly 100 tsunami researchers, including Costas Synolakis, happened to be attending a talk on tsunami tracking. The trackers plugged the live data into their model, and beat the rest of the world in predicting that the wave would not flood coastal areas (Nature, 16 July)
鈥淭hey have to make tough decisions about who is going to take best care of this precious gift鈥�
A statement from the UK National Health Service justifying why doctors refused a liver transplant to a binge-drinking 22-year-old man, who subsequently died (BBC News, 20 July)
鈥淲e鈥檙e the porn capital of the world and it鈥檚 clear that the county has no intention of making these sets safer鈥�
Michael Weinstein of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, explains why it is filing a lawsuit to oblige the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to enforce regulations that require condom use in porn films (Los Angeles Times, 17 July)
鈥淲e may have got some fluid where we didn鈥檛 want it鈥�
Hal Getselman at NASA鈥檚 Mission Control in Houston ominously informs the crew of the International Space Station that their toilet is broken (The Times, London, 21 July)