For the poor, globalization is not an accomplished fact but a condition that remains to be achieved. The irony of the current phase of globalization is that it universalizes the demand for a better life without providing the means to satisfy it.
John Gray, writing about “The Global Delusion” in The New York Review of Books.
“No question that the enemy has tried to spread sectarian violence. They use violence as a tool to do that.”
George W Bush, Washington, D.C., March 22, 2006
From the amusing feature in Slate.
The sentence for attempted murder should be the same as the sentence for successful murder. Otherwise we’re just rewarding incompetence.
From The Dilbert Blog. Link courtesy of Quentin.
Lovely letter from an Economist reader:
SIR – The cartoon controversy brings to mind an aphorism by the American humourist Sam Levenson: “It’s so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don’t say it.”
Creationists don’t have a problem with science, they have a problem with argument.
Professor Steve Jones of UCL, quoted in today’s Guardian.
Let’s call it a “beta,” which is the software industry term for, “We’re just putting this out. Please let us know if it works.”
Michael Kinsley, writing in Slate.
I think science has always been under assault to some extent. I think there are fashions in cycles in which science is attacked for a period of time and is embraced for a period of time and it’s attacked again. Generally attack against science is part of a greater attack against intellectualism in general. I think right now we’re in an anti-intellectual period in the United States, but I think the pendulum will swing back in the other direction again. I agree with you that we’re not seeing anything now that hasn’t happened in earlier centuries.
Alan Lightman, in an interview with LiveScience.com on “The Future of Science”.
We partly didn’t know what it was, and certainly what the press said it was wasn’t what we thought it was, but even what we thought it was we didn’t end up doing all of that.
Bill Gates, explaining to the Financial Times why his ‘Hailstorm’ project (in which users were going to entrust their personal data to Microsoft) bombed.
Gates was speaking to the RSA Security conference about a new Microsoft desktop security program which would protect people from phishing scams and eventually make Internet passwords passé.. Meanwhile, in another part of the forest on the same day, Microsoft released seven new security patches, including two rated “critical” for its products, and then had to fix one of the fixes after it failed to install correctly. Verily, you could not make this stuff up.
News is what someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising.
Reuven Frank, former head of NBC News, quoted in the Economist, 21 January 2006
Footnote: Bill Thompson points out that the quote was attributed many years ago to Lord Northcliffe, a famous British newspaper proprietor. And then, of course, there’s Evelyn Waugh’s definition in Scoop:
News is what a chap who doesn’t care much about anything wants to read. And it’s only news until he’s read it. After that, it’s dead.
The Carrowteigue area is notorious for its scenic landscapes.
From the online brochure of a Co. Mayo estate agent.
Update: I’ve had a lovely email from a fastidious reader who points out that ‘notorious’ has several meanings. For example, the Shorter Oxford lists these three:
I of course assumed the first, which is why I hooted with laughter upon reading the estate agent’s blurb. But it is perfectly possible, I concede, that in the recesses of Co. Mayo (where I was born), there dwells an estate agent with a more extensive grasp of the English language than mine and an even more antiquated style!
What a thing it is to have erudite readers. I expect I will now become notorious among them for my ignorance. Sigh.