'Twuz tit fer tat sure, in a spuddle uv mud , And everything plastered all over with blood.

Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.

In this case, the story concerns three pets who have gone missing—a dog named Bandit, a cat named Tinker, and a rabbit named Pirate. These pets have been transformed by the US Air Force into computer-enhanced biorgs, as part of an army of efficient animal slaves designed to take the place of humans […]

The islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kuriles in Russia, were seized by Soviet forces at the end of World War Two, when 17,000 Japanese residents were forced to flee.