A penchant for protest

Will Saunders, the British astronomer arrested last week for painting a "No War" slogan on the Sydney Opera House, is clearly a serial protester with little fear of the law. In an email from September 2000 on the website of his employer, the Anglo-Australian Observatory, he says that a proposed date for a meeting to discuss the distribution of galaxies in the universe "is not so good, I may be otherwise detained at the WEF in Melbourne, voluntarily or otherwise". This is a reference to the World Economic Forum meeting in Australia, which was the subject of heavy protests from the anti-globalisation movement.