Our world faces a true planetary emergency. I know the phrase sounds shrill and I know it's a challenge to the moral imagination.

Yet it is in our idleness in our dreams that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.

It is in our idleness in our dreams that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.

Wherever there is a design that is highly successful in a broad range of similar environments it is apt to emerge again and again independently - the phenomenon known in biology as convergent evolution. I call these designs 'good tricks.'

Nobody with an IQ higher than emergency-room temperature could ever believe that 'death panels' would be appointed to nudge the elderly toward euthanasia. Yet for idle entertainment it's hard to beat Sarah Palin's ignorant nattering on the subject.

It is not tolerable it is not possible that from so much death so much sacrifice and ruin so much heroism a greater and better humanity shall not emerge.

When my dad was badly weakened by the flu and my mom wanted to call an ambulance to take him to the emergency room he wouldn't go unless he could shave first and change into a nice shirt and a pair of slacks.

There is no glory in war yet from the blackness of its history there emerge vivid colours of human character and courage. Those who risked their lives to help their friends.

States are looking for low-cost solutions that will enable better communication while avoiding the danger in which the chain of command breaks down in emergencies. We do not want everyone talking to everyone else all the time.

It has to be able to play at the maximum expression and communication in every style and the only way you can do that is - like Verdi said - working with a file every day little by little until the orchestra's collective qualities emerge.