July 2004

"Marine cyanobacteria belonging to the Prochlorococcus genus are the most abundant photosynthetic organisms on Earth"

they were there under the Soviets, the Mujahideen, and the Taliban, but Afganistan is now too dangerous

"It is time to treat Pablo Neruda as the French surrealists once recommended dealing with another Nobel laureate, Anatole France: Let us box up his memory with his books and throw the whole thing away. As Breton wrote: There is no reason that, once dead, this man should create any more dust."

"the economic policy platforms of minor parties frequently contain large elements of wishful thinking, small-group hobby horses and plain irrationality"

"The French state has not always had an easy relationship with Story of O, but this year it is to be included on a list of national triumphs"

"the most rigid law turns soggy and pliable as soon as it extends beyond the twelve-mile territorial limit"

migrations to North Asia and Southeast Asia were on the same scale as migration to the Americas and Australia

Gaza is "part of Israel's eternal patrimony" and the leading proof is "a beautiful remnant of the mosaic floor of a Gaza synagogue"...

"freakish ocean waves that rise as tall as ten-storey apartment blocks have been accepted as a leading cause of large ship sinkings"

"there's only so much new black clothing you can sell a happy consumer who already has a closet full of black-and-coordinates"

"When people in Sadr City have complaints, they go to al Sadr's office, and they send out the Mahdi Army to make arrests."

"They failed to understand that there are commodities buyers/sellers, and collectibles buyers/sellers."

who "use torture as a routine investigation technique": "rape of close relatives in front of the victim; rape with objects such as broken bottles; asphyxiation; pulling out of fingernails; smashing of limbs with blunt objects; and use of boiling liquids including complete immersion of the body. This is not uncommon. Thousands of people a year suffer from this torture at the hands of the authorities."

"The use of cloud-seeding guns, rockets and planes to induce rainfall has created tensions between drought-plagued regions"

"Bush is a dimension worse than we ever would have anticipated. If he wins the election, he will take it as a mandate."

"The EU has been fighting a rearguard action against US efforts to overturn key international commitments on sexual and reproductive rights."

"All States are under an obligation not to recognize the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the wall and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by such construction"

"today's building methods would allow engineers to reach far beyond any current plans; perhaps as high as 1,600 metres"

this isn't going to help: "About 25 minutes later, when radar determined the source of the shelling, U.S. soldiers responded with four mortar rounds."

"the West Bank and Gaza has suffered one of the worst recessions in modern history. GDP per capita has declined by almost 40 percent, and nearly half of the Palestinian population is living in poverty."

WHO survey of developing countries finds "just 39% of infants were exclusively breastfed for the first six months, as recommended"

"according even to the econometric study paid for by the Government, the deal is expected to worsen significantly our bilateral trade deficit with the US"

"All journalists are cowards. ... We are professional space-fillers, frivolously tossing content-pebbles in an ever-widening canyon of demand"

Christian Aid: "This lack of accountability creates an environment ripe for corruption and theft at every level"

"Allawi was involved with a Mukhabarat `hit team' that sought out and killed Ba'ath Party dissenters throughout Europe"

"Today is the first day of mandatory Internet filtering, if your library accepts federal telecommunications funds."

"the first study done on harvests rather than scientific models, which predicted reductions of up to 7%"