For this was Laks’s one and only trick. He was not that fluent in Punjabi, no matter how much time he spent watching Punjabi soap operas on TV. He did not have an easy smile. And yet he found that if he just kept showing up, nothing bad would happen, and gradually people would stop noticing him. And that—the simple comfort of not being noticed—was all he wanted. — 188: 2685-2687
“That ‘smoke’ would be sulfur dioxide,” Saskia said. “Yes, Your Majesty, and as I’m sure you know it loves to get together with water to make H2SO4.” “Sulfuric acid.” Bob shrugged. “So if there’s more rain—?” “Think lungs,” T.R. suggested. “There’s available water in your lungs,” Saskia explained, “so if you inhale sulfur dioxide, next thing you know you’ve got sulfuric acid in a place where you really don’t want it.” — 259: 3733-3738
soaping rails and disconnecting brake lines. The economy — : /mnt/onboard/Stephenson, Neal/Polostan - Neal Stephenson.kepub.epub!!Chapter_6.xhtml#ch9
consequences as implacable as emptying — : /mnt/onboard/Stephenson, Neal/Polostan - Neal Stephenson.kepub.epub!!Chapter_10.xhtml#ch13
Drawing Ordzhonikidze’s eye, Proton said, “It is as if a few scientists discovered a new continent with thousands of hitherto unknown species of butterflies. Catching them all and drawing pictures of them is going to take awhile. But the possibility exists that at least one of them might be a magic butterfly that gives its discoverer powers we thought were reserved to wizards and gods.”“That’s theunsaid bit,” his father emphasized. “Talk to any of those scientists and they’ll pooh-pooh the ‘wizards and gods’ bit and insist they’re just butterfly collectors.”Whether or not it was the case that Oleksandr Fizmatov was really being that clever—that devious—the fact of the matter was that this sort of explanation jibed perfectly with the way men like Beria and Ordzhonikidze were wont to view the world. Namely that the outward pretenses maintained by important men—scientists, in this case—concealed subtle and hidden motives, and that to understand as much was to be sophisticated and therefore strong. — : /mnt/onboard/Stephenson, Neal/Polostan - Neal Stephenson.kepub.epub!!Chapter_17.xhtml#ch20