Soundbites

Here is a sampling of quotations from Cornell University faculty, students and staff that have appeared recently in the national and international news media:

"That's what prosecutors do all the time. Someone comes with a story and the prosecutor says, 'Let's see if we can gather more evidence or let's see if you're really credible.'"

-- Faust Rossi, professor of law, discussing whether independent counsel Kenneth Starr had the authority to ask Linda Tripp to record conversations with Monica Lewinsky before he obtained permission to broaden his investigation, in The New York Times, Jan. 29.

"The human body can be forced to do a lot of things, but not for long. If people are made to work long hours day after day after day, you're talking about sick and divorced people."

-- James B. Maas, professor of psychology, discussing sleep deprivation in The Washington Post, Jan. 25.

"... the tobacco settlement is not money the tobacco industry will surrender to the American people as compensation, it is a partnership between the American government and the tobacco industry to sell cigarettes to the American people and split the profits. ... The United States ought to let the tort system run its course and wipe the tobacco companies from the face of the earth. ... In the long run, the medical costs of the tobacco settlement will far exceed the settlement payments. But what politician can resist $368.5 billion?"

-- Lynn LoPucki, professor of law, discussing proposed tobacco settlement legislation in an op-ed in The Washington Post, Jan. 20.

"A slowly dried noodle becomes slow-cooking spaghetti, not an instant noodle, but if it is dried quickly, it becomes a fat noodle that rehydrates in a few minutes."

-- Joseph H. Hotchkiss, professor of food science, explaining how "instant" cereals, rice and other foods are processed to diminish cooking time, in The New York Times, Jan. 13.

"This is pretty much climate variability. The winter has just begun in the Northeast, so don't draw any conclusions by what we've seen so far."

-- Jeffrey Schultz, climatologist in the Northeast Regional Climate Center, discussing Northeast weather in early 1998 in the Providence Journal-Bulletin, Jan. 9.

"Maybe it's that men were able to congregate about fires in the first place that enabled us to be a social kind of animal."

-- Kristi Lockhart, senior lecturer in psychology, discussing the allure of fireplaces in USA Today, Jan. 5.

"Forty years ago, I was just happy to get the dish!"

-- William E. Gordon, former professor of electrical engineering and the "father" of the Arecibo telescope, discussing efforts to build the facility in Puerto Rico, in the November issue of Air & Space magazine.

"The Net makes it possible for people to have an unfiltered view of these decisions in a way that simply wasn't possible before."

-- Peter Martin, co-director of the Law School's Legal Information Institute, discussing court decisions posted on the World Wide Web, in the San Jose Mercury News, Nov. 11.