鈥淭he detox fad is an example of the capacity of people to believe in and pay for magic despite the lack of any sound evidence.鈥�
Martin Wiseman of the University of Southampton, UK, on a report debunking the myth that treatments and products such as 鈥渙xygenated water鈥� can purify your body (The Daily Telegraph, London, 3 January)
鈥淕iven the hopelessness of being able to refloat the whales, our prime concern was to avoid them suffering a long and painful death.鈥�
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Greg Napp of the New Zealand Department of Conservation defends the decision to shoot 41 whales stranded on Farewell Spit, the north-western tip of South Island (New Zealand Herald, Auckland, 1 January)
鈥淭he danger rests with what we already know: that we are not all created equal.鈥�
Genome sequencing pioneer Craig Venter suggests greater understanding of how genes influence characteristics such as personality, intelligence and athletic capability could lead to conflict in society (Edge.org magazine, 1 January)
鈥淚t makes environmental sense to recycle a forest doomed to drown behind a dam.鈥�
Park official Shigeru Ikuta of Shiga, Japan, explains a decision to move 3500 trees 30 kilometres from the site of a planned dam (The Daily Yomiuri, Tokyo, 29 December 2005)
鈥淵ears ago, they would complete a report and put it in our mailbox. Now it takes an act of Congress to get an autopsy report from them.鈥�
Homicide detective Tony Patterson on the delay to police work caused by a backlog of 1037 unfinished autopsy reports at Washington DC鈥檚 medical examiner鈥檚 office (The Washington Post, 31 December 2005)