鈥淭hat may be all beautiful but we might cook seven people on the way down.鈥�
Roger Handberg, a space policy expert at the University of Central Florida at Orlando, on NASA鈥檚 decision to press ahead with last Tuesday鈥檚 launch of its space shuttle Discovery, despite damage to the thermal protection shield (The Guardian, London, 22 October)
鈥淲e feel that with the ground sinking and the sea water rising, Bangkok will be under sea water in the next 15 to 20 years 鈥� permanently.鈥�
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Smith Dharmasaroja, chair of the Thai government鈥檚 Committee of National Disaster Warning Administration, on gloomy prospects for Thailand鈥檚 capital (Associated Press, 22 October)
鈥淲e left no stone unturned. If there had been a link between emotional state and survival, we would have found it.鈥�
Psychiatrist James Coyne, lead author of a study published in Cancer that shows a patient鈥檚 emotions have no bearing on the progression of their disease or their survival (The Boston Globe online, 22 October)
鈥淭here would have been more casualties had the villagers not chased them away.鈥�
Dipu Mark, a conservationist, on the death of six elephants that 鈥渨ent beserk鈥� and electrocuted themselves after drinking rice beer and uprooting an electricity pole in Chandan Nukat, a village in Meghalaya state, India (Associated Press, 23 October)
鈥淭he more disorders older adults have, the worse they sleep.鈥�
Sonia Ancoli-Israel of the University of California, San Diego, unveiling results that show that illness rather than age is what causes disturbed sleep in old people (NYTimes.com, 23 October)