This magazine generally favors progress, especially when it means a new and easier way of doing something that once was a truly arduous and tedious task. Few things recently have so impressed for the people as a new development from Australia, which is the world's largest producer of wool. Apparently the Australians have found a new and very, very easy way to shear sheep--or, rather, to get the wool off the critters without doing all that shearing.

As for equipment, all that is needed is a needle to inject the sheep with a special protein and a net to catch the wool as it falls from the animal's body! What could be easier? One-quarter of a million sheep, in the total Australia-wide flock of around 110 million, already are being fleeced by the new method, according to a dispatch from Reuters.

On the remarkable invention front, for the people also notes the appearance in Hong Kong of a mannequin that perspires. Given the name "Walter," the dummy who sweats is the invention of Chinese scientists who wanted to come up with a way for clothing designers to make more-comfortable duds for hardworking types such as soldiers, athletes and space explorers. …