鈥淚 think there is at least a 50:50 risk of some sort of real crisis, probably with military action, before the end of next year.鈥�
Paul Rogers of Oxford Research Group, a UK think tank, on the likelihood of a US or Israeli military strike against Iran鈥檚 nuclear infrastructure in the near future (Reuters, 13 February)
鈥淚t is fiction鈥� But it has the absolute ring of truth.鈥�
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Larry Nation of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, which recently gave Michael Crichton a journalism award for his novel State of Fear. In the book, concerns over global warming are portrayed as over-hyped and the product of a hidden agenda (New York Times, 9 February)
鈥淲e accept the male couples that have formed and we are not trying to enforce heterosexuality.鈥�
Online statement from Bremerhaven Zoo in Germany, on its attempts to persuade six gay Humboldt penguins to mate with female partners (AFP, 8 February)
鈥淚f 9/11 was a failure of imagination, then Katrina was a failure of initiative. It was a failure of leadership.鈥�
From a congressional report into the US government鈥檚 response to hurricane Katrina (The Guardian, London, 13 February)
鈥淚 don鈥檛 expect teenagers to become nuns and monks for the duration of their university career, but I would encourage them to be aware of the symptoms.鈥�
Linda Glennie, head of research at the UK鈥檚 Meningitis Research Foundation, on the discovery that intimate kissing can quadruple a young person鈥檚 risk of contracting meningococcal meningitis (BBC News, 10 February)