Buzzword Sandwich

[This decision] aligns with N.S.F.'s wider strategy to have a nimbler approach to prioritizing support for evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies as well as a deliberate approach to smart life cycle management within its portfolio of research infrastructure.

-- Michael England, spokesman for the National Science Foundation, justifying the decision to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $368 million network of more than 900 deep-sea instruments collecting data in both the Atlantic and Pacific that has been critical to climate and ocean research, NY Times (1 June 2026)

A Child's Understanding

We're marching through the world, we're cleaning out the bad guys, we're gonna have relationships with new people that will make us prosperous and safe.  I've never seen anything, anybody like it, this is Ronald Reagan plus.  Donald Trump is resetting the world in a way nobody could've dreamed of a year ago, he is the greatest commander in chief of all time, our military is the best of all time, Iran is going down, and Cuba is next.

-- Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), gleefully celebrating chaos on Fox News (9 March 2026), showing a child's understanding of foreign affairs

No Stupid Rules

America, regardless of what so-called international institutions say, is unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history.  B-2s, fighters, drones, missiles, and of course classified effects.  All on our terms with maximum authorities.  No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars.  We fight to win, and we don't waste time or lives.

-- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a press briefing on the war with Iran (2 March 2026)

Delusional

Dear Jonas:

Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.  Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a "right of ownership" anyway?  There are no written documents, it's only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.  I have done more for NATO than any person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States.  The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.  Thank you! President DJT

-- Letter from President Trump to Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, 19 January 2026, the latest and purest evidence that Mr Trump is detached from reality

Immortal Truth

Lower a bucket into a well of self-deception, and what comes up must be immortal truth, mustn't it?

-- Charles Reade (1814 - 1884), English novelist and dramatist, The Cloister and the Hearth (1861) Ch. V

Jargon That Gatekeeps

Being able to effectively curate information to captivate the audience while maintaining maximum value in the distributed information's fidelity is the most important part of dimensionality reduction for effective communication.  This will be the most important way humans will use AI in order to solve real world problems.

I might add that the ability to simplify information for any audience in order to democratize knowledge without depending on jargon that gatekeeps it is an obvious sign of great intelligence in an individual.

-- Jonathan Murphy, who bills himself as a "Solution Maker", in a jargon- & buzzword-filled response to someone stating on LinkedIn that they plan to train an AI to answer the question, "Am I explaining things at the right level" in this deliverable; this post seems to violate everything he claims to favor

Now More Than Ever

Who will stand up for our democracy?  This question, fraught in even the most peaceful times, has only grown more pressing as our country approaches its 250th anniversary.  Each passing day brings growing assaults on essential liberties like freedom of speech and due process.  Meanwhile, our delicately assembled legal system faces a constant barrage of threats.  Even as this issue reaches publication, the U.S. military has been deployed against peaceful protestors.  We teeter on the brink of collapse into an authoritarian state.  That is why, today, The Onion calls upon our lawmakers to sit back and do absolutely nothing.

Members of Congress -- now, more than ever, our nation desperately needs your cowardice.

Our republic is a birthright, an exceedingly rare treasure passed down from generation to generation of Americans.  It was gained through hard years of bloody resistance and can too easily be lost.  Our Founding Fathers, in their abundant wisdom, understood that all it would take was men and women of little courage sitting in the corridors of power and taking zero action as this precious inheritance was stripped away -- and that is where we have finally arrived. ...

But we have not descended entirely from a nation of fearful men, have we?  Let this be the moment to make amends for any missteps of American bravery and valor.  Congress, we are asking, nay, demanding: This coming Independence Day, don't wave the Stars and Stripes, that enduring symbol of liberty and rebellion.

Instead, wave the white flag of surrender.

Tu Stultus Es,
The Onion Editorial Board

-- Editorial from a hard copy edition of The Onion newspaper that was delivered to all members of Congress, along with a letter "Why I'm Sending Issues of 'The Onion' To Every Member Of Congress" (20 June 2025)

Foolish People

Foolish people -- when I say "foolish people" in this contemptuous way I mean people who entertain different opinions to mine.  If there is one person I do despise more than another, it is the man who does not think exactly the same on all topics as I do.

-- Jerome K. Jerome (1859 - 1927), English author, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)

Habeas Corpus

Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their right to -

-- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, at a Senate hearing, responding when asked, "Secretary Noem, what is habeas corpus?" before being interrupted and corrected, New York Times  (20 May 2025)

Least Sensitive

When I hear it contended that the least sensitive are, on the whole, the most happy, I recall the Indian proverb: "It's better to sit than to stand, it is better lie down than to sit, but death is best of all."

-- Nicolas Chamfort (1741 - 1794), born Nicolas-Sébastien Roch, French writer, Maxims and Considerations, #155

Clean

We are currently clean on OPSEC

-- Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (15 March 2025), in a chat on the commercial messaging app Signal about upcoming military strikes in Yemen that included the Secretary of State, White House Chief of Staff, National Security Adviser, Director of the CIA, Director of National Intelligence, other administration officials, and Editor in Chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg, as quoted in The Atlantic, "Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal" (26 March 2025)

Portals Of Discovery

A man of genius makes no mistakes.  His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.

-- James Joyce (1882 - 1941), Irish novelist, short-story writer, and poet, Ulysses (1922) Ch. 9: Scylla and Charybdis

New Bedfellows

Belarus                 Mali

Burkina Faso            Marshall Is.

Burundi                 Nicaragua

Central African Rep.    Niger

Equatorial Guinea       North Korea

Eritrea                 Palau

Haiti                   Russia

Hungary                 Sudan

Israel                  United States

-- Complete list of 18 countries that voted against a UN Resolution titled "Advancing a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine", which passed with 93 votes in favor, on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine (24 February 2025)

Break Things

Move fast and break things.  Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

-- Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, to his developers and team, as quoted in Business Insider, 14 October 2010

He Is A Talker

Time will explain it all.  He is a talker, and needs no questioning before he speaks.

-- Euripides (480 BC - 406 BC), Greek playwright, Æolus, Frag. 38

Establishment Clause

Section 2122. Ten Commandments; displays

A.(1) Each public school governing authority and the governing authority of each nonpublic school that receives state funds shall display the Ten Commandments in each building it uses and classroom in each school under its jurisdiction.  The nature of the display shall be determined by each governing authority with a minimum requirement that the Ten Commandments shall be displayed on a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches.  The text of the Ten Commandments shall be the central focus of the poster or framed document and shall be printed in a large, easily readable font.

(2) The text shall read as follows:

"The Ten Commandments
I AM the LORD thy God.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images." etc.

-- Louisiana House Bill No. 71, signed into law by Republican Governor Jeff Landry (19 June 2024) h/t CNN

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

Do Anything

To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.

-- Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), Irish dramatist, essayist, novelist, and poet, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) Chapter 19

Friday

It's fine work.  Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner, burn 'em to ashes, then burn the ashes.  That's our official slogan.

-- Guy Montag to Clarisse McClellan in "The Hearth and the Salamander" Pt. 1 of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953), p. 6

Amarillo Division

CONCLUSION

For the foregoing reasons, the Court GRANTS the Motion IN PART.  FDA's approval of mifepristone is hereby STAYED.  The Court STAYS the applicability of this opinion and order for seven (7) days to allow the federal government time to seek emergency relief from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

SO ORDERED.
April 7, 2023

-- US District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk granting the plaintiffs motion for a stay in Alliance For Hippocratic Medicine, et al., v U.S. Food And Drug Administration, 7 April 2023