It’s always pleasant when scientists affirm beliefs you’ve held for a long long time. I, for one, will be looking forward to the worldwide replacement of middle-management pen-pushers and desk-jockeys by computers that will inevitably do their jobs far more effectively – not to mention logically, and without hogging the best desk space.

That carbon dioxide stuff – what a bummer. We have so much of it, and urgently need to get rid of it somewhere other than into the atmosphere…what’s that you say? We could just store it in caves and cavities underground? Well, that’s a fine idea you have there, but what if it just starts leaking back out?

As beneficial as it generally is, modern medical surgery is well seasoned with horror stories of patients who have pieces of medical apparatus left inside them after an operation, sometimes leading to unpleasant or even lethal complications. A way of making it easier for surgeons to avoid such blunders would be handy – which sounds like another job for RFID, the little technology that could.

I’m not going to hold my breath, since bacteriorhodopsin-based digital storage media have been on the cusp of actualization for years. But a 50 terabyte disc the size of a DVD would go a long way towards enabling my mashup addiction.

In modern Russia, everything’s fake. Including the vacations.