“Even the standard example of ancient nonsense - the debate about angels on pinheads - makes sense once you realize that theologians were not discussing whether five or eighteen would fit, but whether a pin could house a finite or an infinite number.” HouseRealizingNumbersFiveExampleFitStandardsAngelInfiniteAncientDebateMake SenseNonsenseFiniteTheologianPinsEighteenDiscussing Book:The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History Source: The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
“Libertarians are not the brightest lights in the candelabra, a fact that is evident from the alternatives they tend to offer to public prevention of private abuses. For example: if you don’t like working a hundred hours a week for twenty-five cents a day, then find another employer! It is obvious to intelligent people, if not libertarians, that more generous employers will price themselves out of a market whose standards are set by the most rapacious.” PeopleIfsFactsLightHoursFiveWeekExampleOffersStandardsHundredAbuseTwentiesIntelligentObviousLibertarianAlternativesGenerousCentsEvidentEmployersTwenty FivePrevention Author:Michael Lind
“We can decide that the presence of cancer-causing substances in our air, water, and food is too expensive. A 2009 study, for example, has found that coal miners in Appalachia costs the region five times more in premature deaths, including from cancer, than it provides to the region in jobs, taxes, and economic benefits. In California, the production and use of hazardous chemicals cost the state $2.6 billion in 2004 alone in lost wages and health-care expenses to treat workers and children with pollution-linked diseases.” ChildrenStatesUseCareJobsFoundLostWaterStudyFiveAirEconomicExampleCostTaxesDiseaseBenefitsTreatsEnvironmentalWorkersIncludingCancerProductionsBillionsHealth CareSubstanceCaliforniaExpensiveRegionsExpensesChemicalsPollutionWagesCoalLinkedPrematureMinersAppalachiaCoal MinersPremature Death Author:Sandra Steingraber
“I'd always enjoyed the comics more, and felt that as long as I was unemployed it would be a good chance to pursue that and see what response I could get from asyndicate, as I didn't have anything to lose at that point. So I drew up a comic strip - this was in 1980 - and sent it off and got rejected. I continued that for five years with different comic strip examples 'til finally Calvin and Hobbes came together. But it's been a long road.” YearsLongDifferentWould BeTogetherFeltLosesChanceFiveExampleResponsePursueComicEnjoyedFive YearsRejectedUnemployedGood ChanceHobbesComic StripsLong Road Author:Bill Watterson
“To be honest the work that a producer does is work that I've done for most of my working life. It's work that I started to do, for example, when I worked with Sally Potter on Orlando. We developed it together over five years.” YearsDoeDoneTogetherFiveHonestExampleProducersBeing HonestFive YearsPottersWorking LifeOrlando Author:Tilda Swinton
“I'm seventy-five now. I also have the peculiar luck of having a sister and brother who are fourteen and sixteen years older than me. Their health is not good. It couldn't be at that age. But their spirits are. Both my brother and my sister are an example to me.” YearsAgeSpiritFiveExampleBrotherLuckMy BrotherPeculiarMy SisterBrothers And SistersSeventiesSixteenFourteen Author:Grace Paley
“We are very frustrated because we have a Supreme Court that seems determined to say that the wealthier have more right to free speech than the rest of us. For example, they say you couldn't stop me from spending all the money I've saved over the last five years on Hillary's campaign if I wanted to, even though it would clearly violate the spirit of campaign finance reform.” IfsYearsSeemsWantedLastsSpiritFiveExampleSpeechCourtDeterminedSpendingSavedCampaignsSupremeFinanceReformFive YearsFree SpeechFrustratedSupreme CourtLast Five YearsCampaign FinanceCampaign Finance Reform Author:William J. Clinton
“The early Triassic was a period when the planet was recovering from the worst mass extinction it had ever known - that was the end Permian extinction, where climate change caused in part by mega-volcanic eruptions wiped out ninety-five percent of life on Earth. It took about ten or twenty million years for the planet's ecosystems to stabilize. During that time you saw a lot of weird, out-of-balance ecosystems where, for example, crocodile-like predators ripped the crap out of each other along the coasts.” YearsEndsEarthKnownMillionsFiveSawsWorstExamplePlanetsBalancePeriodsTenMassPercentTwentiesClimateClimate ChangeCrapCoastNinetyExtinctionEcosystemsPredatorRippedRecoveringCrocodilesEruptionMegaMass ExtinctionVolcanic Eruptions Author:Annalee Newitz
“There are certain things that we cannot understand, like why we pray five times a day, for example. But the fact that we choose to pray is understandable.” FactsCertainFiveExamplePraying Author:Tariq Ramadan
“Actually, one Anthem cue is a good example of the process. There is a four-minute sequence of music in Anthem, which underscores a prison sequence, and it lines up with five different, smaller scenes within one large scene.” DifferentProcessLinesFiveFourMinutesExampleScenePrisonSequenceGood ExamplesAnthem Author:Jeff Britting