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:

"This is quite shocking. No one would have imagined that all [the varieties] are from the same parents."

--Bruce Reisch, professor of grape breeding and genetics at the Geneva Agricultural Experiment Station, reacting to a study that shows the genetic markers of grapes in some of the best French wines come from a humble grape now banned in France, in an article in Science quoted in an Associated Press news story published in The Wall Street Journal Sept. 7.

"It does remind us that unions aren't irrelevant."

--Harry Katz, the J. Sheinkman Professor in Collective Bargaining in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, commenting on recent wage gains by unionized workers in the aerospace, auto, steel, trucking and airlines industries, in The Wall Street Journal Sept. 2.

"It's increasingly the case that most people don't benefit. You have an immigration policy that's dramatically increasing the cost of all kinds of services -- education, incarceration, welfare. That means everybody's going to have to pay."

--Vernon Briggs, professor of human resource studies in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, discussing U.S. immigration policy in Investor's Business Daily Aug. 27.

"When a robot bumps the ball or kicks the ball, it can go in any direction."

--Bart Selman, associate professor of computer science and faculty advisor to the Cornell student team that developed world champion robot "soccer" players, discussing the team's recent win in New Scientist Aug. 14.