• Switzerland is holding a federal election tomorrow, and in the canton of Geneva they're determined to have their vote totals counted. Officials will transmit the local results to the federal repository over a fiberoptic cable and encrypt the transmission using a quantum key exchange. This is reported to be the first real-world application of quantum cryptography.
  
  God (or the Flying Spaghetti Monster) has arranged the physical universe in such a way that any attempt to spy on the transmission—at least along the cable—will simply destroy it. Now the NSA will have to read the results on the internet just like the rest of us.
  
  This gives me hope that someday it will be discovered that God has also taken into account the problem of corrupt election officials, rigged voting machines and miscounted vote totals.
   
• Iran's chief nuclear negotiator resigns. The BBC interprets:

  The resignation is a sign, says our correspondent, that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has thrown his weight behind President Ahmadinejad and his hard-line approach on the nuclear issue.

  Although Mr Larijani is a conservative who was appointed by Mr Ahmadinejad to be Tehran's point man on the nuclear issue, his successor is known to be a close ally of the president.

• New nerves grown from fat cells. Hope at last! I have quite a bit of extra intelligence around the middle if they can somehow get it to my brain. More fortunate for our leaders, many of their fat cells are already in place.

Tags: News and politics