“On the whole, we're a murderous race. According to Genesis, it took as few as four people to make the planet too crowded to stand, and the first murder was a fratricide. Genesis says that in a fit of jealous rage, the very first child born to mortal parents, Cain, snapped and popped the first metaphorical cap in another human being. The attack was a bloody, brutal, violent, reprehensible killing. Cain's brother Abel probably never saw it coming. As I opened the door to my apartment, I was filled with a sense of empathic sympathy and intuitive understanding. For freaking Cain.” PeopleFirstsHumansChildrenWholeParentUnderstandingBornHuman BeingsRaceSawsFourDoorsPlanetsBrotherFitMurderFilledKillingRageViolentMortalsJealousBrutalApartmentBloodyIntuitiveCrowdedCapsGenesisCainMetaphoricalAbel Book:Dead Beat: A Novel of The Dresden Files Source: Dead Beat: A Novel of The Dresden Files
“Knowledge and wonder are the dyad of our worthy lives as intellectual beings. Voyager did wonders for our knowledge, but performed just as mightily in the service of wonder and the two elements are complementary, not independent or opposed. The thought fills me with awe - a mechanical contraption that could fit in the back of a pickup truck, traveling through space for twelve years, dodging around four giant bodies and their associated moons, and finally sending exquisite photos across more than four light-hours of space from the farthest planet in our solar system.” YearsTwoBodyLightHoursSpaceWonderFourPlanetsFitMoonElementsIntellectualIndependentWorthyGiantsAweTwelveTruckExquisiteSolar SystemComplementaryPickupsPickup Trucks Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“The observations that have developed over the years have given us perspective about where we fit in. We are newcomers, really recent arrivals on a planet that is four and a half billion years old.” YearsGivenHalfFourPlanetsPerspectiveFitBillionsObservationArrivalsNewcomers Author:Sylvia Earle
“Its obvious nonsense, but it makes nice people feel good about themselves to do their bit for the planet. Its vanity of a grotesque kind to believe that mankind, and our carbon footprint, has more impact on the future of Earth than Nature, which bends our planet to its will, as it sees fit.” PeopleFeelsBelieveKindEarthBitsNiceMankindPlanetsFitImpactObviousFeel GoodVanityNonsenseCarbonOur PlanetFootprintGrotesqueNice PeopleCarbon Footprint Author:Charles Saatchi
“Astrology ... makes vague predictions that can always be adapted after the fact to fit observations, as we'll see. Astrologers don't seek causes at all, for a good reason: There isn't any cause to astrology. If you look for some underlying reason, some connection between the stars and planets and our lives, you won't find any. For astrology to sell, buyers must not seek out the fundamental principles behind it, because if they do they'll see that there is none.” IfsLooksReasonFactsStarsCausesBehindsPrinciplesOur LivesPlanetsFitConnectionsFundamentalsSellsObservationVaguePredictionsAstrologyAdaptedBuyersFundamental PrinciplesStars And Planets Author:Phil Plait
“We are generalists. You can't draw neat lines around planet-wide problems. Planetology is a cut-and-fit science.” ProblemLinesCuttingPlanetsFitDrawsWideNeatGeneralists Author:Frank Herbert
“Set the basketball on the kitchen table. Open a cupboard, get out a bottle of sesame seeds, and place a single seed beside the basketball. If you were to reduce the Earth to the size of a basketball, all the fresh surface water on the planet - all those rivers and lakes and ponds and streams - would fit inside that one tiny sesame seed. Add a second sesame seed; now you have all the usable underground water as well. Is fresh water a scarce resource?” IfsWellsEarthWaterPlanetsFitBasketballResourcesRiversTablesAddSizeSurfaceSeedsTinyStreamsKitchenLakesBottlesScarcePondsCupboardsKitchen TableFresh WaterScarce ResourcesRivers And Lakes Book:The economy of nature: rethinking the connections between ecology and economics Source: The economy of nature: rethinking the connections between ecology and economics