‘It was an appointive job at one time but may not be now. […] Well, whatever the method is, appointive or elective, I have my dough on Gerald. He’s the logical choice.’

As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds.

Two multibillion-dollar industries—the computer manufacturers and telephone companies—had each developed its technologies separately. But as futurist Howard Rheingold suggests in his book Virtual Communities, the industries inadvertently gave private consumers access to those billion of dollars by selling them a tiny device to link the two technologies together: a computer modem.

The Scotsmen, being lickpennies by nature, rode off without paying their bill!