“When it comes to Iran, Russia’s goal is not to help the United States keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power or to stabilize the Middle East. That outcome would be excellent for the United States, and horrible for Russia; American power in Russia’s backyard would grow, and the price of oil would nosedive, reducing Russia’s biggest source of income. Ditto on nuclear disarmament.[…] President Obama’s foreign policy goals put him in fundamental opposition to Putin. it’s a fact that if the world goes Obama’s way, Putin’s Russia will be squeezed out of the ranks of great powers. “

“Such ups and downs in oxygen contents have always taken place on Earth. However, we shall not expect any dramatic fluctuations in the future, assures Emma Hammarlund. Today there is so much of the planet’s carbon stored in underground rocks that cannot be released and react with oxygen. Only a gigantic disaster, for example if another planet crashed into Earth, could release this hard-bound carbon.”

‘“Birdhouse in Your Soul” refuses to be about one single thing, and elsewhere on the album, this refusal hits fever pitch. On the would-be theme song “They Might Be Giants,” the band uncorks a flood of all the things they might be, never quite hammering down what they are: […]The answer never comes, of course. That sort of ambiguity was the point.’