Flat Earth: Spaced out?

THE United Nations was founded as a visionary institution, but some of its New York staff are fixing their gaze on outer space. One of their recent seminars asked: 'Why are they so superior?' This was not a respectful address to the veto-wielding five members of the Security Council, but the theme of a 'Symposium on Extra-terrestrial Intelligence and the Human Future'. Beset by so many earthly problems, it is perhaps inevitable that the UN should look to the Milky Way.