Playing it safe

Tucson Water announced this weekend that it has bought a laser system to better ensure the safety of the city’s water. While identifying dangerous microbes in the lab can take days or even weeks, the city’s new high-tech sensors, which were bought with part of a $420,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, can identify microbes within seconds – fast enough to protect the city from a biological disaster or a terrorist attack. The sensors won’t cover the entire city -ÿit would take two dozen sensors to do that – but it’s nice to see federal funds being used for something useful.

Yankee Stadium’s last hurrah

Normally we wouldn’t be inclined to remark on the passing of an institution 2,200 miles away, but we were stunned to learn that New York’s Yankee Stadium was closing. The stadium, which opened in 1923, saw its last game Sunday night. The legendary New York team will be moving into a $1.3 billion new stadium to be built next door, and the old stadium – the place where Babe Ruth hit home runs and Lou Gehrig made his legendary farewell to baseball – will be torn down. As one angry fan told Sporting News, “”They should have invested the money and renovated this place. They could have done that and still maintained the ‘House That Ruth Built.'”” It’s a shame that the old stadium won’t even be preserved as a museum. The Yankees’ new home may be larger and more expensive, but it certainly won’t have the history.

Big Bang or big bust?

The operators of the Large Hadron Collider ran into trouble within less than a day after starting it up, but they didn’t let the world know until Thursday. The enormous collider, which is being used to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang that gave birth to the universe 13.7 billion years ago, hasn’t been activated since Sept. 11, when a transformer used to cool the collider malfunctioned. The collider’s operators say it will be out of commission for two months. We say they owe us more than an occasional update on the project, the single most expensive scientific experiment in history. If nothing else, shrouding the collider in secrecy will only give unwarranted credence to the conspiracy-mongers who claim it will bring about the end of the universe.

“”Old slogans never die; they fade away

The UA’s old slogan, “”Arizona’s First University,”” is officially being retired in favor of “”Arizona’s World-Class University,”” with old signs being taken down and promotional materials being slowly replaced. While the old slogan was succinct and accurate – the UA was indeed Arizona’s first university – the new one sounds overblown and boastful. We’re also not thrilled about the “”Head South, Move Ahead”” signs the UA is sticking all over Phoenix. It’s one thing to sustain a rivalry with other Arizona universities in the stadium, but the none-too-subtle digs at ASU in these slogans are, frankly, unbecoming of a “”world-class university.””

– Editorials are determined by the Wildcat staff and written by one of its members. They are Andi Berlin, Justyn Dillingham, Lauren LePage, Lance Madden and Nick Seibel.