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Soundbites

“Shooting down a single artillery shell is pretty cool, but artillery shells don’t come in ones.â€

Christopher Hellman of the Center for Defense Information, after a US Army laser blew up a shell (Contra Costa Times, San Francisco, 9 November)

“The ability of open source software to collect and harness the collective IQ of thousands of individuals across the Internet is simply amazing.â€

A leaked Microsoft strategy document on the threat posed by free software (Reuters, 9 November)

“With sperm whales, it’s just so difficult. It’s chainsaw science.â€

Rosemary Gales of Tasmania’s Nature Conservation Branch on whether nine beached whales suffered ear damage caused by manmade noise (The Age, Melbourne, 8 November)

“It was being portrayed by the media as a PR campaign to debunk the hoaxers, and that was never the intent.â€

NASA spokesman Robert Mirelson on the cancelling of a book supposedly refuting the conspiracy theorists’ claim that astronauts never landed on the Moon (AFP News, 11 November)

“They have a pretty determined view that whaling is bad.â€

Shuya Nakatsuka of Japan’s Fisheries Agency after conservationists voted against a limited trade in whalemeat (Reuters, 11 November)

“Terrorism might even lurk in pornographic Web sites, with instructions embedded in X-rated photos.â€

The Wall Street Journal Europe (11 November)