Wall Street Journal (December 29)
“The fiscal-cliff melodrama has become one of those bad cable reality shows, a sort of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” without the sincerity though not without the plastic surgery. In the latest episode on Friday, the actors met at the White House in a last-ditch attempt to avert the cliff they had created, and that they all claim would be a catastrophe to jump off, but that they hope they can blame on each other if they do.”
Tags: Cable, Congress, Fiscal cliff, Melodrama, Reality shows, U.S., White House
Financial Times (December 28)
Manned space flight may be most appealing, but “since the Apollo programme ended 40 years ago unmanned exploration has provided almost all of our extraterrestrial excitement – at a far lower cost than crewed flights.” Beyond 2020, however, there are few plans for unpmanned exploration. “More ambitious proposals are needed….At the very least, Nasa should be planning to visit the giant planets – Jupiter, Saturn and their fascinating moons – to follow on from the successful Galileo and Cassini missions.”