Angel >> His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales Prince Charles wrote a lengthy op-ed piece in the Daily Telegraph last week, warning about the dangers of allowing genetically transmutated tomatoes on supermarket shelves. True, he was a bit pious about it ("Humanity is treading in a domain that belongs to God and God alone"), but he hit the mark when he called agribusiness researchers a bunch of "sorcerers' apprentices." It's worth noting that the topic of genetically engineered foods is a hot one in Europe right now; the agriculture industry there has launched a major PR campaign to convince people to eat their cyberfoods. Now they're on the defensive: even the Economist felt compelled to defend agribusiness with a cover story titled "In defense of the demon seed." Nice work, Chuck--your criticism couldn't have come at a better time.

Insect >> Permanent voters' lists Permanent voters' lists have become de rigueur with governments everywhere, because they cut costs--no more paying people for door-to-door enumeration. But in Quebec, after all the trouble that anglo students went through registering for the last referendum, everyone smells a fish: will you end up on the permanent voters' list, or the permanent not-allowed-to-vote list? Now, there's a City Hall election coming up. The government tends to be less sticky about municipal elections than they are about referenda--and if you're on the list for one, you're on them all. So now's your chance: if you are over 18, a Canadian citizen and you've lived in Montreal for at least a year, call 1-800-461-0422.