Lucifer In The Flesh

Lucifer in the flesh.  I have Democrat friends and Republican friends.  I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.

-- Former House Speaker John Boehner, when asked his opinion of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, at a recent event at Stanford, Stanford Daily, 28 April 2016

Not Themselves

things explain each other,
Not themselves.

-- George Oppen (1908 - 1984), American poet, This in Which (1965), "A Narrative", 3

It's Moving

It's pure psychological effect.  Your pizza is not going to come any sooner.  But it's moving.

-- Nicholas Goubert, chief of project management at Here, a digital maps company that provides location data to Amazon and other businesses, on location-tracking devices for services including pizza delivery, New York Times, 25 April 2016

Error Will Flourish

We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to enquire. We know that the wages of secrecy are corruption. We know that in secrecy error, undetected, will flourish and subvert.

-- Julius Robert Oppenheimer (1904 – 1967), American physicist and scientific director of the Manhattan Project, "Encouragement of Science" (Address at Science Talent Institute, 6 March 1950), Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, v.7, #1 (Jan 1951) p. 6-8

It's Going To Get Rougher

It's a hurtful place, the world, in and of itself.  We don't need to add to it.  And we're in a place now where we all need one another, and it's going to get rougher.

-- Prince Rogers Nelson (7 June 1958 – 21 April 2016), funk/rock/pop/R&B singer, songwriter, and actor, Tavis Smiley Show, PBS (27 April 2009)

Small Things Become Noble

To lie is so vile, that even if it were in speaking well of godly things it would take off something from God's grace; and Truth is so excellent, that if it praises but small things they become noble.

-- Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian Renaissance architect, musician, inventor, engineer, sculptor, and painter, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, XIX: Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations, Richter (1888)

Actually Think

The most important thing is to actually think about what you do.  To become aware and actually think about the effect of what you do on the environment and on society.  That's key, and that underlies everything else.      

-- Jane Goodall (3 April 1934-), English primatologist, as quoted in Going Blue: A Teen Guide to Saving Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands (2010) by Cathryn Berger Kaye and Philippe Cousteau, p. 14

956,166,000 Pounds

Amount of cheese produced in the United States in February 2016.  The U.S. puts out roughly a billion pounds of the good stuff per month, with mozzarella accounting for slightly more than a third of the production and cheddar accounting for about a quarter.

-- FiveThirtyEight.com, Significant Digits for April 13, 2016

Count Me Out

Let me be clear.  I do not want, nor will I accept, the nomination for our party.  Let me speak directly to the delegates on this.  If no candidate has a majority on the first ballot, I believe that you only choose from a person who has actually participated in the primaries.  Count me out.  I simply believe that if you want to be the nominee for our party, to be the president, you should actually run for it.  I chose not to do this.  Therefore, I should not be considered.  Period.  End of Story.

-- House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), at a news conference, 12 April 2016

Conscience Is A Dog

Conscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing but that we cannot prevent from barking.

-- Nicolas de Chamfort (1741-1794), French writer

Tactics And Techniques

I will not agree to carry out some of these tactics and techniques I've heard bandied about because this institution needs to endure. ...  Absolutely, I would not agree to having any CIA officer carrying out waterboarding again.

-- CIA Director John Brennan in an interview with NBC News, 11 April 2016

A Guilty World

War is to be ranked among the most dreadful calamities which fall on a guilty world; and, what deserves consideration, it tends to multiply and perpetuate itself without end. It feeds and grows on the blood which it sheds. The passions, from which it springs, gain strength and fury from indulgence.

-- William Ellery Channing (1780-1842), Unitarian theologian and preacher in the United States, War (1816)

Photograph Everything

In the future, we will photograph everything and look at nothing

-- Om Malik, The New Yorker, 4 April 2016

Play The Same Level

It's like trying to play the same level on Super Mario Brothers over and over again and just restoring from your saved game every time you kill Mario.

-- Jonathan Zdziarski, iOS forensics expert, on a technique the FBI could have used to unlock a terrorist's iPhone by removing a chip and foiling a mechanism used to prevent password guessing, New York Times, 30 March 2016

Money Can't Buy You Happiness

Money can't buy you happiness, but neither can poverty.

-- Leo Rosten (1908-1997), American teacher, academic and humorist

Tesla

On April Fool's Day I reserved my place in line.  Apparently I'm in the front half of the queue.


-- Tweet relating the pace of madness:

276k Model 3 orders by end of Sat
-- Elon Musk ‏@elonmusk on Twitter, 3 April 2016


-- Confirmation email:

Thank You. Your reservation is confirmed

Model 3 production is scheduled to begin in late 2017. North American deliveries will be first, followed by Europe, Asia and Pacific countries then countries with right-hand drive configurations. Those who own Model S or Model X cars will be  offered priority production slots as a special thanks for supporting the Tesla mission.

Tesla Motors | 3500 Deer Creek Road | Palo Alto, CA 94304