June

“protection is not guaranteed because some insects (known as parasitoids) specialise in developing in, or on, the body of the gall-inducing insect while it is in the gall. Other insects (inquilines) invade the gall chamber and force the gall-inducing insect to share its home with these intruders. There are also thieving insects (kleptoparasites) that take over the gall and displace the original gall-inducing insect.”
― Rosalind Blanche, Life in a Gall: The Biology and Ecology of Insects that Live in Plant Galls

“In this chapter I have tried to call your attention to many of the writerly habits that result in soggy prose: metadiscourse, signposting, hedging, apologizing, professional narcissism, clichés, mixed metaphors, metaconcepts, zombie nouns, and unnecessary passives. Writers who want to invigorate their prose could try to memorize that list of don’ts.”
― Steven Pinker, The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

“Even when we have an inkling that we are speaking in a specialized lingo, we may be reluctant to slip back into plain speech. It could betray to our peers the awful truth that we are still greenhorns, tenderfoots, newbies. And if our readers do know the lingo, we might be insulting their intelligence by spelling it out. We would rather run the risk of confusing them while at least appearing to be sophisticated than take a chance at belaboring the obvious while striking them as naïve or condescending.”
― Steven Pinker, The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

“The combination of close personal relationships, coupled with threats of punishment, is the standard Chinese modus operandi. Beijing hoped to turn Australia into a ‘second France’, ‘a western country that would dare to say “no” to America’.”
― Clive Hamilton, Silent Invasion: China's Influence In Australia