letter from the editors. hello people. as you've read in our press release, we have been experiencing some problems with giant snails attacking our offices. it's no big deal, no one got hurt. still, these attacks have created a major disturbance in our activities. it's not that we weren't expecting something like this to happen - those fucking snails have become more and more threatening with every month. sure, everyone thought they were kind and wise when they first appeared (where the hell did they come from anyway?), but we all should have known better. i mean, two foot long retracting eyes? the signs were there, and no one paid any attention. it's more convenient to live your life as usual, and not worry about a bunch of 6 foot tall snails wandering around, leaving their slime all over the freeways. anyway, a couple of months ago we decided to write a feature on these things. but then, while doing our research, we got to talk with some officials. get the scoop. the thing is, they asked us not to write anything - "do not instill panic in the population", as they put it. that's their strategy when stuff like this happens - have you read any report on giant snails in your favorite paper lately? didn't think so. our authorities are doing a great job of covering things up, as usual. anyway, months passed, we heard some unconfirmed reports about attacks, but didn't have time to investigate. our staff was busy working on various projects - the mintrubbing haikus, rmra's emergency services and so on. and then it happened. with stuff like this, you always think it's never going to happen to you. "what are the odds?" you ask yourself, and maybe joke a bit on the subject. the attacks started early this month. without being provoked or anything, the snails entered our office building and started wrecking havoc. they were meticulous in their aggression. office equipment was destroyed and people were threatened. there was slime everywhere. i can't say if the snails specifically targeted rmra's offices, but we have some indications that this might be the case. after that, they just left. no demands, no explanations - just pointless destruction and tons of slime. they would return many times after that. at present we're trying to work something out. we haven't had any attacks in the past week, and we're optimistic that we might reach an agreement. with all the disturbance and everything, we still managed to put together august's issue of the journal. this month we decided to use another weird design - one that actually requires some (minimal) user interaction in order to work. anyway, here it is. enjoy. next