鈥淭his morning I have conveyed to the trustees my desire to retire immediately. The circumstances are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired.鈥�
DNA pioneer James Watson announcing his retirement from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York state, following comments he made suggesting that black people were less intelligent than whites (The New York Times, 25 October)
鈥淲e are at war with the Earth and, as in a blitzkrieg, events proceed faster than we can respond.鈥�
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James Lovelock, author of the Gaia theory, commenting on global warming at a Royal Society lecture in London (The Daily Telegraph, London, 29 October)
鈥淎re you happy with FEMA鈥檚 response so far?鈥�
Unnamed member of staff at the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, questioning the agency鈥檚 deputy administrator Harvey Johnson at a 鈥減ress conference鈥� on the California fires on 23 October. The event was held at such short notice that no real journalists could get there (ABC News, 26 October)
鈥淧arents from certain backgrounds try to ensure their child will always be one of the oldest through conception decisions.鈥�
Government-backed report in the UK suggesting that some parents plan to have babies at the start of the school year, because they perform better in exams (The Daily Telegraph, London, 29 October)
鈥淭here is no question it is a bear with a severe case of mange.鈥�
Jerry Feaser of the Pennsylvania Game Commission on a photograph supposedly of Bigfoot, taken on 16 September in the Allegheny National Forest about 180 kilometres north-east of Pittsburgh (Associated Press, 28 October)