Declarations

Presumably Watson

“I could actually envision an agent or an executive literally referring to the system in the presence of the consumer or the trainee, saying, ‘Hey, I don’t know this. I’m not positive about that. Let’s ask Watson. ‘Hey, Watson. What do you think?'”

—IBM’s insurance industry representative Jamie Bisker speaking of potential assignments in insurance for “Jeopardy” TV show champion, IBM’s computer Watson.

Totally Preventable

“I think the biggest lesson learned from the Gulf oil spill is that it was totally preventable, totally avoidable.”

—Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, maintaining that the Gulf Coast oil spill occurred because the companies involved deviated from industry standards, not because of the inherent risk of drilling offshore.

Nashville Cats

“Developing a comprehensive flood preparedness program is the next step in our city’s long-term recovery from the May flood. What we experienced in May has been called a 1,000-year flood, but we have to assume it can happen again. And if it does, we have to have the systems in place to better protect our city’s assets, our economy, and most importantly, our citizens’ lives and property.”

—Nashville Mayor Karl Dean announcing that the city has assembled a team to develop a unified flood preparedness program to lessen the damages that could be caused by future flood events in Nashville and Davidson County.