“The sand people in StarWars are nomads, right?” BYU planetary scientist Jani Radebaugh (BS ’93, MS ’99), in a story picked up by the Associated Press, talking about a fast-moving sand dune in Tunisia that may soon cover the Star Wars movie set of Anakin Skywalker’s childhood home.
“Dirt analysis may not be as sexy as digging up a jade mask from a former Maya king, but now we can answer more questions about the regular people that made up this ancient civilization.” Grad student Christopher S. Balzotti (BS ’07, MS ’10), in the Huffington Post, talking about the dirt detective work he is doing in Guatemala with microbiology professor Richard E. Terry (BS ’72). Evidence they’ve dug up may reveal how many people the ancient city of Tikal once supported.
“The kids coming out of BYU, they’ve got that box checked.” Barry Weiss, animation executive, in the New York Times Magazine article “When Hollywood Wants Good Clean Fun, It Goes to Mormon Country,” talking about the kind of people he wants on his team: “They’ve got to be hard-working and . . . understand that this is a business—it’s not just art for art’s sake.”
“These paintings have never before been out of the oratory, . . . and they will not be loaned again.” Mette Skougaard, director of Denmark’s Museum of National History at the Frederiksborg Castle, on the eight Carl Bloch paintings in the castle’s King’s Oratory that will be loaned to BYU for the upcoming Sacred Gifts exhibit, opening Nov. 15 at the Museum of Art.
“If I told you before I told my mom, she’d probably forsake me as her son.” BYU alum Daniel C. Reynolds (’10), front man of the chart-topping rock band Imagine Dragons, when Billboard Magazine suggested he reveal the story behind the band’s name.
