Three Things

There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.

-- Linus, in Charles M. Schulz's It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)

I Reach My Hand

I come in and my job is I reach my hand across 100-million miles of emptiness and move something on the surface of another planet.  That never gets old.

-- University of Illinois computer science graduate and NASA Mars Rover Driver Team Lead Scott Maxwell, on driving Curiosity

Age Of The Internet

Moderate giftedness has been made worthless by the printing press and radio and television and satellites and all that.  A moderately gifted person who would have been a community treasure a thousand years ago has to give up, has to go into some other line of work, since modern communications put him or her into daily competition with nothing but world's champions.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007), American novelist, Bluebeard: A Novel (1987)

Dark Ages

In the end, science offers us the only way out of politics.  And if we allow science to become politicized, then we are lost.  We will enter the Internet version of the dark ages, an era of shifting fears and wild prejudices, transmitted to people who don't know any better.

-- Michael Crichton (1942-2008), American author and film producer, Environmentalism as a Religion (2003)

Capitalism Triumphed

In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism.  In this country, capitalism triumphed over democracy.

-- Fran Lebowitz (1950-), American journalist and author, Social Studies (1981)

Timing

You know, sometimes, when they say you're ahead of your time, it's just a polite way of saying you have a real bad sense of timing.

-- George McGovern (19 July 1922 - 21 October 2012), American historian, author, US Representative and Senator, 1972 Democratic presidential nominee

Not The Kernel

For money you can have everything it is said.  No, that is not true.  You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge but not intelligence; glitter, but not comfort; fun, but not pleasure; acquaintances, but not friendship; servants, but not faithfulness; grey hair, but not honor; quiet days, but not peace.  The shell of all things you can get for money.  But not the kernel.  That cannot be had for money.

-- Arne Garborg, (1851-1924) Norwegian writer

Rest In Peace Joe Seeley

For those of you who know Joe Seeley, I heard tonight that he passed away this past weekend.

http://joes-blasts.blogspot.com/2012/10/rest-in-peace-joe-seeley.html

Ask The Young

Ask the young. They know everything.

-- Joseph Joubert (1754-1824), French moralist and essayist

Way Harder

It was way harder than I expected.  ... Sometimes you have to get up really high to know how small you are.

-- Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner, 43, on his 10-minute fall after jumping from a height of 24 miles, setting altitude and speed (833.9 mph) records for skydiving, 14 October 2012

10/11/12

What, it's up to me to point out that today is 10/11/12?

Only About Myself

Two years ago, I was approached by U.S. federal investigators, and more recently by USADA, and asked to tell of my personal experience in these matters.  I would have been much more comfortable talking only about myself, but understood that I was obligated to tell the truth about everything I knew.  So that is what I did.

-- Retired professional cyclist George Hincapie on the US Anti-Doping Agency's case file against Lance Armstrong in which Hincapie and 10 other Armstrong teammates testified about a culture of organized doping centered around Armstrong, 10 October 2012

72 IF

Christ said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." And the Indians say that, and the Zen people say that. We're all God. I'm not a god or the God, but we're all God and we're all potentially divine -- and potentially evil. We all have everything within us and the Kingdom of Heaven is nigh and within us, and if you look hard enough you'll see it.

-- John Lennon (9 October 1940 - 8 December 1980), singer, songwriter, and political activist, The Beatles Anthology (2000), p 226

Answers

Can you live without answers?  All of you, ask that of yourself.  Can you live without answers?  Because if you cannot, then most assuredly you will invent your own answers and they will comfort you.  And all those who do not share your view will by their very existence strike fear and hatred into your heart.

-- Steven Erikson (7 October 1959-), pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin, Canadian archaeologist, anthropologist, & novelist Toll The Hounds (2008)

Antidote

Learn to control ego.  Humans hold their dogmas and biases too tightly, and we only think that our opponents are dogmatic!  But we all need criticism.  Criticism is the only known antidote to error.

-- David Brin (6 October 1950-), American scientist and award-winning science fiction author, interview at ActuSF.com, March 2008

Cycling 100

I did a little better than I hoped.  However, the going was tough in the last few kilometers.

-- French centenarian cyclist Robert Marchand (26 November 1911-), as he set a record for fastest 100-year-old to cover 100km (4:17:27, 14.3mph avg speed), Lyon, France, 28 September 2012


http://tinyurl.com/8npknek

Pension

This is my pension.

-- Victor Victorio, 67, who forages for fruits and vegetables in the garbage at a market in Madrid, New York Times, 25 September 2012