鈥淟ook at this. I鈥檓 a grocery item. I鈥檓 a piece of meat. I鈥檓 an orange.鈥�
A 13-year-old girl at Brittan Elementary School in Sutter, California, outraged at being given an electronic tag to monitor her movements in school (San Francisco Chronicle, 10 February)
鈥淭hey reacted like men faced with a large billboard of a lingerie model.鈥�
Advertisement
Neurobiologist Michael Platt at Duke University in North Carolina, describing how male monkeys take a voluntary cut in their fruit juice allowance to look at pictures of female monkeys鈥� bottoms and high-status males (The Observer, London, 13 February)
鈥淲e don鈥檛 know if the three male pairs are really gay or just got together because of a lack of females.鈥�
Heike K眉ck, director of Bremerhaven Zoo in northern Germany, on six male Humboldt penguins who have taken to trying to mate with each other and incubate stones as if they were eggs (The Daily Telegraph, London, 14 February)
鈥淲omen are fragile and delicate creatures; that is why men should lead the way to distant planets and carry women there in their strong hands.鈥�
Anatoly Grigoryev, director of Moscow鈥檚 Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, explains the reasoning behind a decision not to select any women to take part in a simulated 500-day mission to Mars (Novosti 鈥� Russian news agency, 10 February)
鈥淢y darling, oh my darling. We will soon go home.鈥�
A tearful Junita Jeyarajah on being reunited with her son Abilash after DNA tests confirmed his identity. The Sri Lankan child, nicknamed 鈥渂aby 81鈥�, was found in the rubble left by the Asian tsunami (news.com.au, 15 February)