Previously on Ether Street... Three NI readers have contacted a restless spirit called Nil who claims to have the wisdom of a thousand incarnations yet remains unconvinced by the Clinton-Blair Third Way.

That was just a joke, right? What you said about the New Internationalist being translated into 38 languages and hijacked as the UN house magazine by 2025?

Which is the joke? The idea that the UN could be associated with anything of such quality? Or that there are 38 languages which could translate the word 'Internationalist'?

No, we mean this notion that you can see into the future as easily as into the past.

But surely you expect that of me. Even the most unassuming spirit entities usually have a good line in predicting the future - foreseeing that Titanic was going to sink, that kind of thing. And spirits who are bit more adept can usually see beyond the event to the pattern behind it - to know, for example, that Titanic had to sink so that Leonardo di Caprio could make a million hearts flutter eight decades later.

How do you make sense of things if tomorrow looks the same as yesterday?

You might as well ask how Albert Einstein kept the Special Theory of Relativity in his head and still managed to eat his corn flakes in the morning. He explained that time was only relative to the observer almost a century ago yet you still don't seem to have grasped it.

Along with everyone else on earth.

Actually Einstein had a few chuckles up here the other month when he saw that Time magazine had made him their Man of the Century. This is the guy who launched his own War Resisters' International Campaign in 1932 yet was also one of the first people to see the need for resistance to Hitler's Nazis. Time's stablemate Life magazine listed him in the 1950s, at the height of McCarthyism, as one of the 50 most prominent 'dupes and fellow travellers'.

Yet he was also the man who made nuclear weapons possible.

But without realizing it - when he heard about the first atomic chain-reaction experiments he said 'I never thought of that at all'. And spent the rest of his life working for nuclear disarmament.

Sounds like you've got a soft spot for him.

Of course. He said: 'Politics are for the moment; an equation is for eternity.' But it didn't stop him caring and campaigning. How did we get on to Albert? Ah yes, the future. It's true that unlike just about everyone else who's summoned me, you haven't asked me anything about the future.

Okay, what about the future?

Roll up, roll up, for the magical mystery tour. Grease my palm and I'll chart your route through the tricky byways and backwaters of the new millennium.

You haven't got a palm.

I was speaking metaphorically. No, really - if you want me to be your friendly neighbourhood prophet you're going to have come up with a slightly more targeted question than 'what about the future?'

Okay, will there be a United States of the World by 2050?

Yes, and its Chief Executive Officer will be a tall dark stranger from the Monsanto Corporation (Mutants Division).

The NI Crossword
No 46 by Axe

Cryptic
Across
1/7/20 Donjon demonstrators go half-crazy the length and breadth of Britain (4,5,3,2,4,7)
9 Japanese batter politician at the old town during tea (7)
10 White America seen after I have infiltrated New Orleans first (7)
11 Lake Como’s elegant wine area (5)
12 Reports bring to light sulphur outcrop to be found in the outback (5,4)
14 Ifni has a strange character from Iranian city (8)
15 Manuscript includes no small number occurring before the Cretan legend (5)
17 Most lose head at first-class return to reach the seaside from Rome (5)
19 Antelope spotted about the end of August following a sanction (8)
22 US city has tungsten and gold surrounded by dairy produce meeting the borders of Eau Claire (9)
26 Lake deposits from guano Ruhr carries back (5)
27 Bohemian’s met an alternative bit composer (7)
28 Kick off concerning article on North-South initiatives for these Asians (7)
29 Four assaults made before he took St Paul (4,2,6)

Down
1 Solid individual, to a degree, Muhammad’s daughter (6)
2 The nucleus of the cosmos is sinking in slowly (7)
3 Ball Juan arranged about the beginning of January for former Yugoslavian city (9)
4 Space Agency has on board unknown quantity from Malawi (5)
5 Irish playwright has Shelley bordering on anger inside (5)
6 I’ve returned amid conflicting directions: is St Christopher close here to getting the chop? (5)
7 See 1 Across
8 Peace and love revolve all around weekend place at Lake Winnebago (7)
13 Masculine influence on trapeze, Rob, is leaving for Chinese course (7)
15 A rum China carve-up to the north... (9)
16 ... and Pro-Mao agitation about the south? (7)
18 They write squiggly in Spain! (6)
20 See 1 Across
21 Knowledge of grammes is on top of numbers at one First School (6)
23 Jordan’s port fit for a queen and in the beginning, this airline (5)
24 Bird ascending with acceleration in South African village (5)
25 Wakefield inexplicably exporting some kind of wadi for Tunisian city (2,3)

Quick
Across
1/7/20 Across Great Britain (4,5,3,2,4,7)
9 Japanese food deep-fried in batter (7)
10 Snowy: white (7)
11 German river and wine-making area (5)
12 Impressive outcrop of red sandstone in Australia’s N Territory (5,4)
14 Citizen of Iran’s third city (8)
15 Legendary king of classical Crete (5)
17 Outport and resort of ancient Rome (5)
19 South African antelope (8)
22 Wisconsin city famous for its beer production (9)
26 One of the Great Lakes (5)
27 Czech composer of The Bartered Bride, etc (7)
28 Citizens of NE Asia (7)
29 Paul, as he was known before his conversion (4,2,6)

Down
1 Daughter of Mohammad (6)
2 Gradual absorption or assimilation (7)
3 Capital of Slovenia (9)
4 African lake named incorrectly by Livingstone. The word means ‘lake’ locally (5)
5 JM ——-, author of Playboy of the Western World (5)
6 Leeward Island linked administratively to St Kitts (5)
7 See 1 Across
8 Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin town, named after a Menominee chief (7)
13 Asia’s longest river (7)
15 Part of China occupied by Japan between 1931 and 1945 (9)
16 Old name for Taiwan; ‘beautiful’ in Portuguese (7)
18 Diacritical signs placed over the letter ‘n’ in Spanish; ‘a’ and ‘o’ in Portuguese (6)
20 See 1 Across
21 (Spiritual) knowledge (6)
23 The only port of Jordan, object of an attack led by TE Lawrence (5)
24 Afrikaans word for a fenced S African village (5)
25 Tunisian city, capital of the Kaf governorate (2,3)