Anyone else catch the yuk of Xinhua releasing a complete story on the successful Chinese orbital mission launch, complete with dialogue between ground control and the astronauts and 'leventy-ten other details... while the ship was still on the pad?

I'm sure it was a fluke and that all other news coming out of the Middle Kingdom is on the square. Aren't you?

The Chinese are terrifyingly advanced beyond anything the U.S. has achieved-- not in spaceflight, but in the deployment of precognitive psychic journalists.

In somewhat related news, the new Japanese prime minister has the same public relations problem as the seventh planet...

It doesn't help whether you pronounce his name Asso or Ah-So. (The latter is said to be the preferred one.)