FROM THE DENVER POST
If you go to the U.S. Small Business Administration's Web site, SBA.gov, you'll see a "Translate" button in the upper right-hand corner. Options are Greek, Italian, Yiddish, Malay or Maltese, among other possibilities.
We consider the translation service a neat use of advanced technology. Unfortunately, that's not the view of those pushing legislation to make English the nation's official language so that all "official functions" of government are conducted only in English. They'd outlaw that "translate" option. Indeed, their definition of "official" includes "any function that ... is otherwise subject to scrutiny by either the press or the public" — so goodbye to the translation software.
The English Language Unity Act is the sort of bill that probably sounds appealing to many voters but that mostly fails to address their actual concerns. For example, some voters no doubt worry about whether immigrants are assimilating fast enough to preserve a common American culture. We think the answer is yes, but even if we're wrong, this bill won't really help. ...
If Congress wants to toughen the English-language requirement for naturalization, so be it. But is it really necessary that newcomers master 18th century patterns of speech as well?
Swiss target cleaner space
From The Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.)
Great things have been achieved in 55 years of space exploration. But accompanying those achievements are a half-million pieces of space litter in orbit around the Earth.
Leave it to the Swiss to come up with a plan to clean it up — and make a profit by doing so.
Recently, the Swiss Space Center announced plans to launch an $11 million satellite called Clean-Space One to capture and "de-orbit" space debris.
The idea is to capture the debris and direct it back to Earth where it would burn up in the atmosphere on its way down.
There are technical problems to overcome, but a launch is anticipated in five years, according to The Associated Press.
The first goal of the Swiss project? Cleaning up after itself, by eliminating two Swiss satellites launched in 2009 and 2010. Eventually, the Swiss hope to market the janitorial service in space.
Who says that nature abhors a vacuum?