● The US presidency is no longer a two horse race—now its two horses and a mutant cartoon tiger. Greenpeace, ever conscious of the need to make serious political capital, has thrust Frankentony, its genetically modified caricature of Kelloggs' two dimensional hero, Tony the Tiger, into the presidential election. In the venerable company of Bush and Gore, Frankentony's policies—no GM ingredients in toothrotting cereal products—will undoubtedly start to appear more credible. Its good news, too, that Greenpeace is at last showing itself willing to put its anti-GM stance to the democratic test. If defeated, Frankentony is hoping that his increased profile will give him a shot at the Viagra campaign.

● Ever ahead of the times, the UK's Guardian newspaper continues to get things terribly wrong on genetic modification. On August 10, it reported on a type of GM linseed developed by Alan McHughen at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. The variety name of the plant—“Triffid”—got the reporters so excited that they wrote that the plant was “almost impossible to kill.” Indeed, they wrote that McHughen had claimed just that. In fact, McHughen had told the Guardian reporters no such thing. “Triffid” is far from indestructable. An inserted gene allows it to grow in the presence of sulfonylurea in the soil, but it is susceptible to all herbicides usually used to control linseed. The Guardian's triffid story was presented as news, which is odd since the variety was developed in 1988 and was first field tested in 1989. It was approved for commercial release but never actually commercially grown. “I wouldn't have believed how a story could have been so twisted,” said McHughen, “unless it happened to me.”