Educated

For on these matters we should not trust the multitude who say that none ought to be educated but the free, but rather to philosophers, who say that the educated alone are free.

-- Epictetus (c. 55 - c. 135 AD), born a slave, Greek Stoic philosopher.  The name given by his parents, if one was given, is not known.  The word epiktetos in Greek simply means "acquired", Discourses, Book II, ch. 1, § 22

Voyager 1

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- NASA has finally heard back from Voyager 1 again in a way that makes sense.

The most distant spacecraft from Earth stopped sending back understandable data last November.  Flight controllers traced the blank communication to a bad computer chip and rearranged the spacecraft's coding to work around the trouble.

It takes 22 1/2 hours to send a signal to Voyager 1, more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away in interstellar space.  The signal travel time is double that for a round trip.

Launched in 1977 to study Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 has been exploring interstellar space since 2012.  Its twin, Voyager 2, is 12.6 billion miles (20 billion kilometers) away and still working fine.

-- Marcia Dunn for Associated Press, "NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, after months of quiet" (23 April 2024)

Soluble

Ideology can be dissolved by reality; alcohol can be dissolved by will-power; the love of money can be dissolved by integrity.

-- Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Non-Compete Clause Rule

Pursuant to sections 5 and 6(g) of the Federal Trade Commission Act ("FTC Act"), the Federal Trade Commission ("Commission") is issuing the Non-Compete Clause Rule ("the final rule").  The final rule provides that it is an unfair method of competition -- and therefore a violation of section 5 -- for persons to, among other things, enter into non-compete clauses ("non-competes") with workers on or after the final rule's effective date.  With respect to existing non-competes -- i.e., non-competes entered into before the effective date -- the final rule adopts a different approach for senior executives than for other workers.  For senior executives, existing non-competes can remain in force, while existing non-competes with other workers are not enforceable after the effective date.

-- Summary of a new rule issued by the Federal Trade Commission banning the creation or enforcement of non-compete agreements, 23 April 2024

Small And Blue And Beautiful

To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold -- brothers who know now they are truly brothers.

-- Archibald MacLeish (1892 - 1982), American poet, writer, and Librarian of Congress, as quoted in Richard Nixon's First Inaugural Address (20 January 1969)

Quiet Life

The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.

-- Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), German-born theoretical physicist, Out of My Later Years : The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words (1950) Chapter 16

Ought To Be

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.

-- William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830), English writer remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819), "On Wit and Humour"