-- Benjamin Jowett (1817 - 1893), theologian and classical scholar who became one of the great public figures of Victorian England; Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford from 1855, Master of Balliol College, Oxford from 1870, and Vice-Chancellor of the university from 1882, as quoted in Notebooks (1984) by Geoffrey Madan, p. 61
Thursday, March 30, 2023
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Exercising Excellence
-- Hyman George Rickover (1900 - 1986), United States Navy admiral known as the "Father of the Nuclear Navy", Thoughts on Man's Purpose in Life (1974)
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Use Them To Battle
-- Chaplain Barry Clayton Black, 62nd chaplain of the United States Senate (27 June 2003 -) in his opening prayer, 28 March 2023
Monday, March 27, 2023
RIP Gordon Moore
-- Gordon Earle Moore (3 January 1929 - 24 March 2023), co-founder of Intel Corporation, first writing about Moore's Law (which has held for 50 years) in Electronics Magazine, "Cramming more components onto integrated circuits" (19 April 1965)
Friday, March 24, 2023
On Those Days
as though your memories,
are sharp enough,
to slice through skin and bone,
and do that,
for yourself.
in their honour.
as they loved you.
love yourself harder.
-- Donna Ashworth, poem "On Those Days", from the book "Loss" (2023) (h/t Alyssa)
Thursday, March 23, 2023
You Will Be Tomorrow
-- James Allen (1864 - 1912), British philosophical writer known for his inspirational books and poetry, Above Life’s Turmoil (1910)
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Deep Learning
You could think of it as a continuous generalization of database technology.
-- François Chollet, deep learning @google, posting as @fchollet on Twitter, 26 August 2022 (h/t Grady Booch)
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Monday, March 20, 2023
Journey
I recall seeing them at that same venue (then called Assembly Hall) in the early 1980s -- a quick Googling suggests it was likely May 1st, 1980. Neal Schon clearly had a good time tonight laying down guitar, and Arnel Pineda is very impressive on lead vocals. Good stuff.
Friday, March 17, 2023
ICC Arrest Warrants
Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, born on 7 October 1952, President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022.
[T]he Chamber considered that it is in the interests of justice to authorise the Registry to publicly disclose the existence of the warrants, the name of the suspects, the crimes for which the warrants are issued, and the modes of liability as established by the Chamber.
-- International Criminal Court, in a press release, "Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova", 17 March 2023
Thursday, March 16, 2023
Charm Us
-- Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809 - 1892), Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign, after William Wordsworth, Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886), line 112
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
No Longer Count
-- Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr. (1913 - 1973), American animator and cartoonist, usually known simply as Walt Kelly, most famous for the comic strip Pogo
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Integrity
-- Roger Ward Babson (1875 - 1967), American entrepreneur, economist, and business theorist, Fundamentals of Prosperity (1920) p. 12
Monday, March 13, 2023
Delusional
-- Nina Paley (3 May 1968 -), American cartoonist, animator, and free culture activist, most famous for her film Sita Sings The Blues, tweeting as @ninapaley, 9 March 2023
Friday, March 10, 2023
Method Of Treatment
-- Jin Jing Zhong, Andrew Timofeevich, Authentic Shaolin Heritage: Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin, "72 Kinds of Shaolin Martial Art and Man's Internal Organs" (1934) p. 48
Thursday, March 09, 2023
Nature's Little Way
-- Tim Huntley, One on Me (1980), Chapter 11
Wednesday, March 08, 2023
The Moment You Believe
-- 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", The Discourses of Epictetus, with the Encheridion and Fragments, Enchiridion 30 (c. 125 CE), h/t Evan Restivo
Tuesday, March 07, 2023
Alone In A Room
-- Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904 - 1991), best known as Dr Seuss, American children's author, political cartoonist, illustrator, and poet, on becoming a writer, NY Times (21 May 1986)
Monday, March 06, 2023
Conservation And Sustainable Use
-- United Nations Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, Draft agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 5 March 2023
Friday, March 03, 2023
Proper Method
-- William Godwin (1756 - 1836), English journalist and political philosopher, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) Vol. 2, bk. 8, ch. 6
Thursday, March 02, 2023
The Democratic Principle
-- Leo Szilard (1898 - 1964), Hungarian-American physicist, as quoted in "Some Szilardisms on War, Fame, Peace", LIFE magazine, Vol. 51, no. 9 (1 September 1961), p. 79
Wednesday, March 01, 2023
Dark Side Of The Moon
-- Mark Beaumont, "'Sublime menace and sonic enormity': Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon at 50", The Independent, 1 March 2023
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
But One Coward
-- William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868 - 1963), American civil rights activist, sociologist, and educator, The Study of the Negro Problems, paragraph 51, in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. XI (January 1898)
Monday, February 27, 2023
Only Ones
-- John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (27 February 1902 - 20 December 1968), American writer, 1962 Nobel Laureate in Literature, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Ma Joad, p. 376
Friday, February 24, 2023
Not Experts
-- Associate Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, during oral arguments on Gonzalez v. Google, which challenges Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, 21 February 2023
Thursday, February 23, 2023
Small Again
-- Ministry of Defense of Ukraine posting as @DefenceU on Twitter, 24 January 2023
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Extreme Rashness
-- Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (1564 - 1642), Italian astronomer, physicist, and mathematician, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632)
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Buster Brown
Alyssa received her Buster Brown, a dachshund, for her fifteenth birthday 9 1/2 years ago, when he was reportedly already 8 years old. He had been neglected in his early years, and was happy to make himself comfortable as a part of our family.
In recent years he lost much of his eyesight and hearing. He was always happy, as long as he had a person to rest against on the couch. Today marked the end of an amazing 17-year run.
I'll catch you on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge, Buster.
Monday, February 20, 2023
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
-- The Carter Center, Statement on President Carter’s Health, 18 February 2023
Friday, February 17, 2023
Skeptical
-- Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (1917 - 2008), British author, inventor, and futurist, "Sir Arthur's Quotes", The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation
Thursday, February 16, 2023
Looking Back
-- Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr. (1913 - 1973), American animator and cartoonist, usually known simply as Walt Kelly, most famous for the comic strip Pogo, Impollutable Pogo (1970)
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
A Consequential Difference
Bret: Right, they weren't conservatives. They were just illiberal.
-- Bret Stephens and David Brooks, "The Party’s Over for Us. Where Do We Go Now?", New York Times (11 January 2023)
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Look At Them Each Time
-- Volodymyr Zelenskyy (1978 -), in his Inaugural Address as President of Ukraine, 20 May 2019
Monday, February 13, 2023
Passion And Desire
-- Kumazawa Banzan (1619 - 1691), Japanese Confucian, as quoted in Bushido, The Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobi (1899), "Honor"
Friday, February 10, 2023
Religion Or Policy
-- John Ruskin (1819 - 1900), English author, poet, and painter, Time and Tide (1867), Letter VIII: Things Written, section 330
Thursday, February 09, 2023
RIP Burt Bacharach
And just like the guy whose feet
Are too big for his bed
Nothin' seems to fit
Those raindrops are fallin' on my head
They keep fallin'
And I said I didn't like
The way he got things done
Sleepin' on the job
Those raindrops are fallin' on my head
They keep fallin'
The blues they send to meet me
Won't defeat me
It won't be long 'til happiness
Steps up to greet me
-- Burt Bacharach (12 May 1928 - 8 February 2023), American composer, songwriter, and pianist, Academy Award-winning "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" (1969, with Hal David)
Wednesday, February 08, 2023
Love The Game
It's also about making sure your team gets their moments to shine and thrive and pursue their own greatness. A record is nothing if you used other players' careers as stepping stones just for self-aggrandizement. For me, I strove to play at the highest level I could in order to be a good teammate. The points -- and the record -- were simply a by-product of that philosophy.
I think LeBron has the same philosophy.
Bottom line about LeBron and me: LeBron makes me love the game again. And he makes me proud to be part of an ever-widening group of athletes who actively care about their community.
-- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (16 April 1947 -), "What I Think About LeBron Breaking My NBA Scoring Record", SubStack, 8 February 2023
Tuesday, February 07, 2023
We Are Not Bystanders
We are not bystanders to history. We are not powerless before the forces that confront us. It is within our power, of We the People. We are facing the test of our time and the time for choosing is at hand.
We must be the nation we have always been at our best. Optimistic. Hopeful. Forward-looking.
A nation that embraces, light over darkness, hope over fear, unity over division. Stability over chaos.
We must see each other not as enemies, but as fellow Americans. We are a good people, the only nation in the world built on an idea.
That all of us, every one of us, is created equal in the image of God. A nation that stands as a beacon to the world. A nation in a new age of possibilities.
Because the soul of this nation is strong, because the backbone of this nation is strong, because the people of this nation are strong, the State of the Union is strong.
-- President Joe Biden, State of the Union Address, 7 February 2023
Monday, February 06, 2023
Hurry History?
-- Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (1900 - 1965), American politician and statesman, Speeches of Adlai Stevenson (1952), p. 39
Friday, February 03, 2023
Art Of Persistence
-- Albert Ellis (1913 - 2007), American psychologist and psychotherapist
Thursday, February 02, 2023
Just Another Step
-- Bill Murray as Phil Connors in the movie Groundhog Day (1993), written by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis
Wednesday, February 01, 2023
The Heaven Of Animals
If they have lived in a wood
It is a wood.
If they have lived on plains
It is grass rolling
Under their feet forever.
Outdoing, desperately
Outdoing what is required:
The richest wood,
The deepest field.
-- James Lafayette Dickey (2 February 1923 - 19 January 1997), popular American poet and novelist, appointed eighteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1966, "The Heaven of Animals" from The Whole Motion: Collected Poems 1945-1992
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Queen Of The Skies
-- Aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia, as Boeing delivers its final 747 jumbo jet, #1547, as quoted by Gene Johnson, USA Today, 31 January 2023
Monday, January 30, 2023
Im See
Im See In The Lake
heute kann's nicht schaden, today it can't hurt,
schnell hinunter an den See, quickly down to the lake,
heute gehn wir baden! Today we go swimming!
Stiefel, Wams und Wäsche! Boots, doublet and underwear!
Und dann -- plumps ins Wasser rein! And then -- plop into the water
Gerade wie die Frösche! Just like the frogs!
brennt uns nach dem Bade burns us after the bath,
Brust und Buckel knusperbraun, breast and hump crispy brown,
braun wie Schokolade! brown like chocolate!
Friday, January 27, 2023
Nothing More Certain
-- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), Scottish novelist and poet, "Crabbed Age and Youth" (1878), Virginibus Puerisque, II
Thursday, January 26, 2023
A Good Action
-- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), Scottish novelist and poet, "Reflections and Remarks on Human Life", VI: Right and Wrong, published in Works: Letters and Miscellanies of Robert Louis Stevenson -- Sketches, Criticisms, Etc. (1895), p. 628
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
The Swing
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside --
Down on the roof so brown --
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!
-- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), Scottish novelist and poet, "The Swing" from A Child's Garden of Verses (1885)
[I received this collection of poetry as a gift on 16 September 1968. When I had a school assignment to memorize a poem, this is the poem I chose. When I pulled the book off the shelf just now, I found a bookmark on this page.]
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Our Last Cruise
-- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), Scottish novelist and poet, "Crabbed Age and Youth" (1878), Virginibus Puerisque, II
Monday, January 23, 2023
The Cruelest Lies
-- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), Scottish novelist and poet, Truth of Intercourse
Friday, January 20, 2023
Nothing So Strange
-- Daniel Webster (1782 - 1852), United States Senator and Secretary of State, famed for his ability as an orator, Argument on the murder of Captain White (1830)