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:

"She was very supportive of Bosnian women. She became an inspiration. I value that as a Muslim woman."

--Nimat Hafez Barazangi, visiting fellow in women's studies, commenting on the following Hillary Rodham Clinton has attracted, at the first lady's appearance in Seneca Falls for the 150th anniversary of the first women's rights convention, in the Associated Press, July 17.

"If we don't care to take a look at the birds around us and the signs they give us, then we're failing to see signs of change before our eyes."

--John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, explaining the purpose of the lab's Warbler Watch project, which asks bird watchers nationwide to report their observations on warbler migration. Like most birds, he said, warblers serve as indicators of what the environment holds in store for humans. Quoted in the Baltimore Sun, July 13.

"There were many prototypes. In the beginning they didn't hold up too well. We had holes in them, we had burnt parts, we had every problem you can imagine."

--Food science student Sam Nugen discussing the Cornell student product development team's winning entry, "Wrapidos," in the Institute of Food Technologists' national food competition, on the Osgood File, CBS Radio, July 3.

"New media professionals have very little time for organizing activity. They've got to be convinced that these organizations are providing them with something that they need. Also, this part of the work force is more difficult to organize and more resistant to organizing because they don't think of themselves as 'workers' but as 'professionals.'"

--Susan Christopherson, associate professor of city and regional planning, who studies labor practices in the entertainment industry, commenting on the difficulty of getting high-tech workers to join unions, in Wired News online, June 30.

"Like Santa Claus' elves in the back room tapping on a pad."

--Christopher Clark, director of the Bioacoustics Research Program, describing the sound of a fin whale, during a program about acoustic oceanography on National Public Radio's "Science Friday," June 26.

"Using beauty and elegance as guideposts is a very powerful approach. It's not an airtight approach, but it has an impressive track record.''

--Brian Greene, adjunct professor of physics, discussing the reason for using "beauty" as a way to judge the mathematics of theoretical physics, in a Gannet News Service story, June 23.