Quotes of the Day

'The time for political settlement was yesterday.'
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. Secretary of State, on resolving the differences between rival parties in Kenya, where 1,000 have died in ethnic strife triggered by disputed elections

'He's the next Justin Timberlake.'
VICTORIA BECKHAM, former Spice Girl, on her 3-year-old son Cruz, whose breakdancing during a Feb. 18 Spice Girls reunion concert became a YouTube hit

'I bought it because I want to be the best in the world.'
SAEED KHOURI, 25, scion of a wealthy Abu Dhabi real estate family, after spending $14 million at a charity auction for a license plate that displays the number 1

'We'll have intelligent nanobots go into our brains through the capillaries and interact directly with our biological neurons.'
RAY KURZWEIL, American engineer and futurist, prophesizing at a meeting of scientists in Boston that human-level artificial intelligence will be a reality by 2029 and that nanotechnology will help "make us smarter"

'We don't have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them, we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands.'
MAO ZEDONG, former Chinese leader, attempting to barter the country's women during 1973 trade discussions with the U.S., according to a document released by the historian's office of the State Department on Feb. 14

'Don't get me wrong. I'd love to do more comedy, but that kind of thing is just not truthful to me.'
NAOMI WATTS, actress, on her choice of film roles

Numbers

SPACE
$60 million Estimated cost of launching a missile that the U.S. Navy hopes will destroy a potentially hazardous satellite
200 Number of industry experts and scientists working since January to modify the sea-based Aegis missile-defense system so it could bring down a satellite in low orbit

MEDIA
80% Percentage of high-definition DVDs sold last year in Sony's Blu-ray format. Because of Sony's dominance, Toshiba this week shelved its competing HD DVD format
$2 billion Estimated amount Toshiba spent on HD DVD including efforts to gain film studios' support

COLLECTIBLES
$10.7 million Amount earned at a California auction for 301 rare U.S. pennies sold by a coin collector
1793 The year one of the coins in the collection was minted. The penny was in circulation for just two weeks before Congress concluded Lady Liberty looked too frightening. That coin and a similar 1794 penny brought in $632,500 each

INFLATION
7.1% Inflation rate in China last month, the highest in 11 years. Inflation was made worse by severe winter storms that paralyzed parts of the country's economy
18% Estimated average increase in food prices due to crop losses and transportation delays

Sources: New York Times; E! Online; A.P.; BBC; A.P.; Esquire (U.K.)
Numbers Sources: CNN (2); Wall Street Journal; Times of London; A.P. (2); BBC (2)