“When a scientist considers all high-tech mental machinery needed to arrange words into ordinary sentences, prescriptive rules are, at best, inconsequential little decorations. The very fact that they have to be drilled shows that they are alien to the natural workings of the language system. One can choose to obsess over prescriptive rules, but they have no more to do with language than the criteria for judging cats at a cat show have to do with mammalian biology.” LittlesFactsShowsLanguageNaturalJudgingNeededOrdinaryCatScientistSentencesAliensBiologyMachineryCriteriaDecorationInconsequential Book:The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language Source: The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
“But now all the natural secrets have been exposed, and it is likely that the turtles have been sold to laboratory scientists who want to remove their shells so that they can wire electrodes to the turtles' skin in order to monitor their increasing terror at the loss of their shells.” WantHas BeensOrderNaturalLossSecretSkinsScientistTerrorRemoveExposedShellsWireLaboratoryTurtles Author:Mary Gaitskill
“A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician: he is also a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales.” ChildrenNaturalHairScientistMereTalesFairyFairy TaleImpressLaboratoryConfrontingMarieTechniciansNatural PhenomenaFairy Stories Author:Marie Curie
“The fossil fuel industry will inevitably have to experience major cutbacks and, over the longer term, near-total demise. There is simply no choice in the matter if we believe the research produced by climate scientists. The profits of oil, coal, and natural gas companies will have to yield to the imperative of sustaining life on earth.” IfsBelieveMatterEarthChoicesTermNaturalCompanyIndustryMajorsResearchScientistClimateProfitOilFuelGasYieldCoalFossilsImperativesFossil FuelSustainingDemiseNatural GasCutbacksSustaining Life Author:Robert Pollin