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"

Father Of The Man

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
  So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
  Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
  Bound each to each by natural piety.

-- William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850), major English poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, launched the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 publication of Lyrical Ballads, My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold, (1802)

Looking Young

Whenever a man's friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old.

-- Washington Irving (1783 - 1859), American short story writer, essayist, and biographer, Bracebridge Hall. Bachelors (1822)

The Next 5000

Today while taking attendance after teaching Taekwondo I noted that on March 28th I reached 5000 total student-hours of teaching (5 kids in a class counts as 5 student hours).  That took a little under 9 years to accumulate, with a 6-month gap in there while I recuperated from ACL reconstruction surgery.

I'm already looking forward to the next 5000.

Getting Wrinkles

When you're 50 you start thinking about things you haven't thought about before.  I used to think getting old was about vanity -- but actually it's about losing people you love.  Getting wrinkles is trivial.

-- Joyce Carol Oates (16 June 1938-), American author and creative writing professor, interview in The Guardian (London, 18 August 1989)

[I used this 15 years ago, when I was 50.  It feels right to use it again this year.]

Unforeseen Consequences

In the mind of a human being, a hundred years is a long time, but to the earth a hundred years is nothing, a million years, nothing.  We've been guests here for the blink of an eye and if we're gone tomorrow, the earth, she ain't gonna miss us.  My point is that the planet is not in jeopardy, we are in jeopardy.  Human beings have no greater right to safety and liberty than any other creature on this planet.  We not only lack dominion over nature, we're subordinate to it.  Yet humans destroy things so effectively I sometimes wonder, is that our function?  Maybe every few eons an animal comes along that's exceptionally murderous so that evolution can proceed to its next phase. ...

Unforeseen consequences occur.  And every time, every single time, we all act surprised, because deep down I don't think that any of us actually believe that these dangers are real.  

-- Jeff Goldblum, as Dr Ian Malcolm, in Jurassic World Dominion (2022), written by Emily Carmichael and Colin Trevorrow

I Discovered Something

This summer I have discovered something totally useless.

-- Peter Ware Higgs FRS FRSE (29 May 1929 - 8 April 2024), British theoretical physicist and emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh, writing to a colleague about his proposal for a particle at the origin of mass (1964), as quoted in The Hunt for the Higgs Boson, Science Scotland, issue no. 3

Dreams Come True

Words cannot express my love for my teammates, coaches, fans and our university - Thanks for making my dreams come true.  Wearing Iowa across my chest the last four years has been an honor.  This place will always be home

-- NCAA basketball player and all-time scoring leader (men's or women's) Caitlin Clark, posting as @CaitlinClark22 on Twitter, shortly after her team took second place in this year's March Madness (7 April 2024)

Eclipse Day 2024

Today I joined millions of others to pause in the middle of the day to observe the solar eclipse.  Totality could be found just 75 miles from my home, but with my 2017 experience of both totality and the insane traffic that accompanied it, I opted to enjoy today's eclipse standing in the driveway of my house.

We had about 98% totality here.  At the start of the event the temperature was in the low 70s, and the sun provided plenty of warmth.  The light in the sky changed noticeably with a little over 30 minutes to go, and continued to diminish with an eerie dimming that didn't quite match the clear sky and sun.  The loss of the sun's warmth was even more dramatic.

My daughter and I watched the eclipse through our eclipse glasses, and cast images of the sun onto various surfaces using a small hole through a 3x5 card.  The experience stirred memories of watching a partial solar eclipse during my elementary school years.  At that time, as I recall, we didn't have eclipse glasses and instead used several layers of 35mm film negatives that had been overexposed and were therefore completely dark.

Love My Teacher

As for myself, I always willingly acknowledge my own self as the principal cause of every good and of every evil which may befall me; therefore I have always found myself capable of being my own pupil, and ready to love my teacher.

-- Giacomo Casanova (1725 - 1798), Italian adventurer and author, Memoirs (trans. Machen 1894), book 1, Preface

NATO’s 75th Anniversary

In 2024, NATO celebrates 75 years of collective defence.

Since its creation on 4 April 1949, the transatlantic Alliance has grown from 12 founding members to 32 member countries, all working together to keep our people safe.  A community of Allies bound together by common values of democracy, individual liberty, human rights and the rule of law, NATO celebrates its anniversary on 4 April at NATO Headquarters in Brussels and at the upcoming summit on 9-11 July in Washington, D.C., where its founding treaty was signed. 

-- Statement on the website of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) on the occasion of NATO's 75th anniversary, 4 April 2024

Pragmatic Maxim

It appears, then, that the rule for attaining the third grade of clearness of apprehension is as follows: Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have.  Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object.

-- Charles Sanders Peirce (1839 - 1914), American scientist, logician, and philosopher, original statement of the Pragmatic Maxim, p. 293 of "How to Make Our Ideas Clear", Popular Science Monthly, v. 12 (1878), pp. 286-302

Professional Sanction

While attorneys have a duty to advocate zealously for their clients, they must do so within the bounds of ethical and legal constraints.  Eastman's actions transgressed those ethical limits by advocating, participating in and pursuing a strategy to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election that lacked evidentiary or legal support.  Vigorous advocacy does not absolve Eastman of his professional responsibilities around honesty and upholding the rule of law.  While his actions are mitigated by his many years of discipline-free practice, cooperation, and prior good character, his wrongdoing is substantially aggravated by his multiple offenses, lack of candor and indifference.  Given the serious and extensive nature of Eastman's unethical actions, the most severe available professional sanction is warranted to protect the public and preserve the public confidence in the legal system.

Eastman has exhibited an unwillingness to acknowledge any ethical lapses regarding his actions, demonstrating an apparent inability to accept responsibility.  This lack of remorse and accountability presents a significant risk that Eastman may engage in further unethical conduct, compounding the threat to the public.

Guided by the standards, case law, and the purposes of attorney discipline, the court recommends that Eastman be disbarred.

John Charles Eastman is ordered transferred to involuntary inactive status pursuant to Business and Professions Code section 6007, subdivision (c)(4).

-- Yvette D. Roland, Judge of the State Bar Court of California, ruling on 11 counts of misconduct arising from Eastman's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election (27 March 2024)

The Place

Home is the place where, when you have to go there,

    They have to take you in.

-- Robert Frost (1874 - 1963), American poet; winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, "The Death of the Hired Man" (1914)

Happy Easter!

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860), German philosopher, Counsels and Maxims (1851), Vol. 2, Ch. 26, § 310, as translated by Eric F. J. Payne

Packaged Opinion

There is simply too much to think about.  It is hopeless -- too many kinds of special preparation are required.  In electronics, in economics, in social analysis, in history, in psychology, in international politics, most of us are, given the oceanic proliferating complexity of things, paralyzed by the very suggestion that we assume responsibility for so much.  This is what makes packaged opinion so attractive.

-- Saul Bellow (1915 - 2005), Canadian-born American writer, Nobel Laureate in Literature in 1976 and National Medal of Arts winner in 1988, It All Adds Up (1994) "There Is Simply Too Much to Think About" (1992), pp. 173-174

RIP Joe Lieberman

I will not hesitate to tell my friends when I think they're wrong and to tell my opponents when I think they're right.

-- Joseph Isadore "Joe" Lieberman (24 February 1942 - 27 March 2024), American politician from Connecticut, "Lieberman announces presidential bid", CNN (13 January 2003)

On Balance

There are pros and cons in America, and so far, we have risen to the occasion.  So naturally, on balance, I’m optimistic.

-- Former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer in an interview with Ankush Khardori for POLITICO Magazine, 26 March 2024

Manipulate Or Consume

We consume, as we produce, without any concrete relatedness to the objects with which we deal; we live in a world of things, and our only connection with them is that we know how to manipulate or to consume them.

-- Erich Fromm (1900 - 1980), German social psychologist and humanistic philosopher, The Sane Society (1955) Ch. 5: Man in Capitalistic Society, p. 134 Sect.C.2.b "Alienation"

Most Important Product

Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is.  The most important product of his effort is his own personality.

-- Erich Seligmann Fromm (23 March 1900 – 18 March 1980), German social psychologist and humanistic philosopher, Man for Himself (1947) Ch. 4 "Problems of Humanistic Ethics"

More Rational

I've always wanted to make the world a more rational place.  I'm still working on it.

-- Penn Fraser Jillette (1955 -), American magician, scientific skeptic, actor, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller as half of the team Penn & Teller, "10 Questions: Penn Jillette", IGN (18 June 2003)

True Spirit

The true spirit of conversation consists more in bringing out the cleverness of others than in showing a great deal of it yourself.

-- Jean de La Bruyère (1645 - 1696), French essayist and moralist, "Of Society and conversation", 16

Human Consensus

Human consensus does not generate reality.  Were it able to do so, the Sun would have taken to orbiting the Earth some time ago.

-- Ursula Goodenough (16 March 1943 -), professor of Biology and a leading proponent of Religious Naturalism and the epic of evolution, on the scientific worldview in "A Setback to the Dialogue: Response to Huston Smith" in Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science Vol. 36, Issue 2 (June 2001), p. 201

Ultracrepidarian

ultracrepidarian
ul·tra·crep·i·dar·i·an
/ˌəltrəkrepəˈderēən/

adjective

expressing opinions on matters outside the scope of one's knowledge or expertise.

noun

a person who expresses opinions on matters outside the scope of their knowledge or expertise.

-- Definition from Oxford Languages via Google.com

Opposed Ideas

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

-- F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940), Irish-American novelist and short story writer, "The Crack-Up" in Esquire (1 February 1936)

A Big Lift

When I was growing up and being taught the American system of government, we would always be taught that the U.S. government has checks and balances in its design, so you can't take it over with a sentiment of the moment.  But I think what we've learned is that the institutions that protect us are fragile.  History suggests that all democracies are fragile.  So we have to be on the alert for political movements that want to undermine democratic institutions, because the purpose of democratic institutions is not to put the best people in power, it's to maintain democracy even when the worst people are in power.  That's a big lift.

-- Mike Godwin, who in 1990 coined "Godwin's Law", in an interview with Politico, "‘Trump Knows What He's Doing': The Creator of Godwin's Law Says the Hitler Comparison Is Apt" (19 December 2023)

One Thing

Remember one thing about democracy.  We can have anything we want and at the same time, we always end up with exactly what we deserve.

-- Edward Albee (12 March 1928 - 16 September 2016), American playwright, known for works including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, as quoted in Unleashing Intellectual Capital (2000) by Charles Ehin, p. 99

Golden Anniversary

On this date 50 years ago today, 12 March 1974, my first PLATO signon "donald appleman / cerl" was created for me by Bill Golden.  

I was a 9th-grade student in Urbana at the time, and my Chemistry teacher had an "in" with Don Bitzer, and was able to arrange this for me.  That act on her part launched my lifelong career.

Sweden Joins NATO

Since Thursday last week Sweden is a proud member of NATO.  The most successful organisation for peace and security that has ever existed.  We are now an ally amongst allies.  After more than 200 years of military non-alignment, this is a historic step. 

But also, a very natural step.  We have been preparing for decades.  And in details the last two years.  With this membership, Sweden has come home. 

Home to the security cooperation of democracies.  Home to the security cooperation of our good neighbours. 

Today, I'd like to say thank you to all of our Allies.  We have chosen you, and you have chosen us.  All for one, one for all. ...

Sweden will be a safer country in NATO, and NATO will be a stronger alliance with Sweden in it.

By joining NATO, Sweden -- like Finland just before us -- has exercised our right to freely choose our own security arrangements. 

That invaluable right is at the core of the European security order -- so bravely being defended in Ukrainian battlefields, as we meet here in Brussels. ...

Sweden joining NATO is not the end of something -- it's a beginning.  I look forward to help making the world a safer and freer place together with all of our Allies.

-- Speech by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at a ceremony in Brussels to mark Sweden joining NATO, 11 March 2024

In Season

It is always in season for old men to learn.

-- Aeschylus (525 BC - 456 BC), playwright of ancient Greece, the earliest of the three greatest Greek tragedians, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, Age

Times Like These

In times like these, it's helpful to remember that there have always been times like these.

-- Paul Harvey Aurandt (1918 - 2009), American radio broadcaster, famous for his idiosyncratic delivery of news stories with dramatic pauses, quirky intonations, and many of his standard lead-ins and sign offs, as quoted in Respectful Treatment : The Human Side of Medical Care (1977) by Martin R. Lipp

Gumdo Class

Tonight I was pleased to teach my first Haidong Gumdo (Korean swordsmanship) class.  

Although we are not yet certified by the World Haidong Gumdo Federation, they encouraged us to take on a few hand-picked White-belt students.  This will allow us to practice teaching the basics, which will help us as instructors to get our own practice on the basics.  We're also taking our proposed curriculum on a much-needed shakedown cruise.

Tonight I had three students in class, and we went over the most basic of basics.  Our master instructor Grandmaster Jeong-Woo Kim, Chief of Education for the World Haidong Gumdo Federation, will be back this summer to complete our training and, if all goes well, certify us as instructors.  At that point, we'll open up the class to more students and start awarding rank in Gumdo.

Original

Don't worry about people stealing an idea.  If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats.

-- Howard H. Aiken (1900 - 1973), pioneer in computing, being the primary engineer behind IBM's Harvard Mark I computer, as quoted in Portraits in Silicon (1987) by Robert Slater

Prairie Play Pavers

Back in 1995 the Prairie Play Playground at Meadowbrook Park in Urbana, IL, a large wooden structure that looks a bit like a castle, was constructed using volunteer labor including my own.  It was also financed, at least partly, by the sale of over 1200 concrete pavers.

The pavers were 16x16x4 inch cement slabs that weighed about 80 pounds each.  You could pay for a paver, and then write your name or whatever you liked in the wet cement.  The pavers were then laid out around the outside of Prairie Play.  At the time, my family ordered 2 pavers, and my 4 (at the time) daughters left handprints in the wet cement, along with their names, and the date 4-95 for April 1995.

The playground is set for tear-down early this month after nearly 30 years.  The park district reached out to the community, making pavers available to their original owners.  Saturday morning I drove out with my youngest daughter (not born yet in 1995) and we retrieved our 2 pavers.  Those pavers now reside in the garden on either side of the porch in front of my house, and still show those 1995 handprints of my 4 oldest girls, who are now 38, 37, 34, and 30.

Without A Shadow Of A Doubt

The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.

-- Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910), Russian writer, philosopher, and social critic, whose novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina are internationally praised classics of world literature, The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894) Chapter III, Christianity Misunderstood by Believers

Leap Day

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
February eight-and-twenty all alone,
And all the rest have thirty-one:
Unless that leap-year doth combine,
And give to February twenty-nine.

-- Return from Parnassus (London, 1606)

Undefeated

But Father Time remains undefeated.  I am no longer the young man sitting in the back, hoping colleagues would remember my name.  It is time for the next generation of leadership.

So time rolls on.  There will be a new custodian of this great institution.  There will be other times to reminisce.  I'm immensely proud of the accomplishments I have played some role in obtaining for the American people.

Today is not the day to discuss all of that because, as I said earlier, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.  I still have enough gas in the tank to thoroughly disappoint my critics and I intend to do so with all the enthusiasm which they have become accustomed.

To my colleagues, thank you for entrusting me with our success.  It has been an honor to work with each of you.  There will be plenty of time to express my gratitude in greater detail as I sprint towards the finish line, which is now in sight.

-- Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), announcing on the Senate floor that this will be his last term as Republican Leader (28 February 2024)

Necessity

Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity. 

-- Wystan Hugh (W. H.) Auden (1907 - 1973), Anglo-American poet known for his vast poetic work in many forms on many themes, "A Poet of the Actual", p. 266

Standing Up

[F]orgive me if this sounds pompous, but it's better to die standing up than live on your knees.

-- Alexei Anatolievich Navalny (4 June 1976 - 16 February 2024), Russian opposition leader, dissident, lawyer, and anti-corruption activist, as quoted in "Net Impact: One man's cyber-crusade against Russian corruption" (4 April 2011), by Julia Ioffe, The New Yorker

Of Many Persuasions

But we must not forget that in our country are evangelists and zealots of many different political, economic, and religious persuasions whose fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds -- that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.

-- Robert H. Jackson (1892 - 1954), United States Solicitor General (1938-1940), United States Attorney General (1940–1941) and an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1941–1954), American Communications Association v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382, 438 (1950)

Odysseus

What we can confirm, without a doubt, is our equipment is on the surface of the moon and we are transmitting.  So congratulations.  Houston, Odysseus has found its new home.

-- Intuitive Machines Chief Technology Officer Tim Crain, on the success of their lunar lander Odysseus, which today became the first US vehicle on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, New York Times, 22 February 2024