“Packed full of parasite, the crab will forgo its own needs to serve those of its master. It won’t molt, grow reproductive organs, or attempt to reproduce. It won’t even regrow appendages, as healthy crabs can. Rather than waste the nutrients on itself, a host crab will hobble along and continue to look for food with which to feed its parasite master.” Chris Connolly, on the jelly-like parasite known as Sacculina carcini
“How many cows will be killed to keep Roger Federer, the world’s best tennis player, in fresh racquets this year? Do the math: The Swiss master is said to go through an estimated 900 sets of strings a year. Since strings lose tension as they’re played — and since Federer is acutely attuned to his ever-changing equipment — he will use five to seven freshly strung Wilsons per match at this week’s Rogers Cup, which is fewer than the 10 to 12 he’ll use at a Grand Slam event… For the record, it takes three cows to make a full set of natural gut strings. That means Federer, who uses a half-set per racquet, is indebted to some 1,350 cattle per annum.” Dave Feschuk, Toronto Star
“Eight glasses is way too much. We, as a society, are suffering from water abuse. In fact, there are many cases of people who have developed water intoxication, leading to confusion, coma and even death… The body needs on average two liters of water daily. This was misinterpreted to mean eight glasses a day. We get water from many sources, however, include the food we eat. Food provides half and sometimes more of our requirements, leaving only one litre to be made up in liquids.” Suzanne Carere, George Brown College Professor of Nutrition
“Wi-Fi doesn’t stand for anything. It is not an acronym. There is no meaning. Wi-Fi and the ying yang style logo were invented by Interbrand. We hired Interbrand to come up with the name and logo that we could use for our interoperability seal and marketing efforts. We needed something that was a little catchier than ‘IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence’. Interbrand created ‘Prozac’, ‘Compaq’, ‘oneworld’, ‘Imation’ and many other brand names that you have heard of… The only reason that you hear anything about ‘Wireless Fidelity’ is some of my colleagues in the group were afraid. They didn’t understand branding or marketing. They could not imagine using the name ‘Wi-Fi’ without having some sort of literal explanation.” Phil Belanger, founding member of the Wi-Fi Alliance
“See I always liked the song until I saw the movie White Girls. This must be the white song that all black people like, you know every year there’s a song that black people like and this is that. I love the string arrangements. Ron Fare is really up on the strings.” Kanye West on Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles
“Mistake 1: Simple visual appearance doesn’t = simple interface” Bruce Tognazzini
“When people hear ‘version 2.0’, they think it’s the last call for the only feature train in a good long while. If you miss it, you’ll have to wait for the big three-oh to board. Nobody likes waiting, so they rush and they push to make this one. Now the big version that started out with a clear vision, one or a few great ideas, suddenly gets bogged down by feature freeloaders. When the 2.0 train is already hauling those heavy weights, surely no one will notice this little thing or that little thing. And what could have arrived in weeks turns into months. In no time short, your feature train is so overloaded that it seems like its not moving at all. Or going backwards. Certainly there is no one who can tell you when it’ll pull in. So stop it. Don’t alias your next big feature idea ‘version 2.0’. Call your big idea by its name and it’ll be much easier to spot the freeloaders. Once they have to pay full scheduling fare, you’ll probably realize that they weren’t that important anyway.” Signal vs. Noise
“I had a guy come up to me, in my face, saying, ‘You think you’re so cool? You’re not cool’ and I’m saying to him, ‘Dude, it’s a commercial.’ ” Justin Long, on playing the slacker-hip Apple Mac guy to John Hodgman’s nerdy PC guy
“One day I was flipping through a friend’s rabbit book, and in it was a picture of a bunny yawning. I had never seen anything so adorably funny. I can’t quite explain it, what exactly makes me smile, but I began searching for pictures of bunnies yawning. You see, the yawn takes about two seconds, and then it is over. Therefore, bunny yawn pictures are extremely rare.” talkingegg.com
“It may no rank up there with milk, eggs and peanuts, but in terms of being a problem, it’s unsurpassed… Soy is used as filler in meats and sauces, commercially baked products, chewing gum, snack foods, milk substitutes and even cosmetics… One other problem is labelling. It’s one thing to read in a label that a product has soy, but another to try to decipher such ingredients as edamame, miso, mono-diglyceride or vegetable proteins.” Toronto Star’s Peter Krivel, on the problems associated with soy allergy