Effective Antidote

Mortal danger is an effective antidote for fixed ideas.

-- Erwin Rommel (1891-1944), German Field Marshal and commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps in World War II, as quoted in The Rommel Papers (1982) edited by Basil Henry Liddell Hart

Nutters?

The irony of the situation at the moment, with markets opening tomorrow morning, is that the biggest threat to the world financial system comes from a few right-wing nutters in the American congress rather than the euro zone.

-- UK Business Secretary Vince Cable, after European leaders agreed a second rescue package for Greece, BBC Television, 24 July 2011

Nothing More Unequal

There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequals.

-- Thomas Jefferson (attributed)

A Floor, A Ceiling?

Are you really sure that a floor can't also be a ceiling?

-- Maurits Cornelis (M.C.) Escher (1898-1972), Dutch artist, M.C. Escher, His Life and Complete Graphic Work: with a fully illustrated catalogue, Volume 1982, Part 1, H. N. Abrams (1982)

It Is Easy

The Taliban said they were proud to kill my brother. My message for the Taliban is that, my countrymen, my brothers, stop killing your own people. It is easy to kill, and anyone can do it, but the real man is the one who can save people's lives.

-- Afghan President Hamid Karzai, on the occasion of his brother's funeral, 13 July 2011

Jens

Shut up, legs!

-- Jens Voigt (17 September 1971-), German professional road cyclist for Leopard-Trek, speaking to his legs during a climb in the Tour de France

In Charge

The lunatics end up in charge of everything. Sane, normal people don't need power trips.

-- James P. Hogan (1941-2010), British science fiction author, Paths to Otherwhere, Chapter 28 (1996)

Plato Promotes PLATO

Do not train [children] to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.

-- Plato (c 427 BC - 347 BC), Greek philosopher, student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, founder of the Academy of Athens, in The Republic, Book VII, section 16

Nothing More

There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the Establishment -- and nothing more corrupting.

-- Alan John Percivale (AJP) Taylor (1906-1990), British historian of the 20th Century, "William Cobbett", New Statesman (London, 1953)

Neptune's First Anniversary

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the discovery of Neptune -- in Neptune years. 11 July 2011 marks the first full orbit of the planet Neptune since its discovery on the night of September 23-24, 1846.

-- Charlie Jane Anders, io9.com, based on an article by Tammy Plotner, universetoday.com, 11 July 2011

2**18 Miles

Last week my car hit 2**18 miles. I'd like to hit 2**19, but I don't think that's going to happen. Of course, when I hit 2**17, I didn't really expect to make it this far.

Don Appleman

Panetta Channels Bush/Cheney

The reason you guys are here is because on 9/11 the United States got attacked. And 3,000 Americans - 3,000 not just Americans, 3,000 human beings, innocent human beings - got killed because of Al Qaeda. And we've been fighting as a result of that.

-- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta speaking to troops in Iraq, contradicting the White House, the 9/11 Commission, and independent specialists who have said there is no evidence Al Qaeda had a presence in Iraq before the US-led invasion in 2003, Washington Post, 12 July 2011

Space Isn't Remote

Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards.

-- Fred Hoyle (1915-2001), British astronomer and science fiction author, "Sayings of the Week", The Observer (9 September 1979)

Completing A Chapter

We're not ending the journey today, we're completing a chapter of a journey that will never end. Let's light this shuttle one more time ... and witness this nation at its best. The crew of Atlantis is ready to launch.

-- Atlantis Commander Chris Ferguson, just before the 11:29:29am EDT launch of STS-135, the final Space Shuttle mission, 8 July 2011

Life Is Like A Ten-Speed Bicycle

Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears that we never use.

-- Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000), American cartoonist, Linus in the comic strip "Peanuts" (29 May, 1981)

Get A Bicycle

Get a bicycle. You will not regret it if you live.

-- Mark Twain (1835-1910), American humorist, novelist, writer, and lecturer, Taming the Bicycle (1917)

The Amazing Rodrigo Martins

Yesterday my family said farewell to Rodrigo Martins, our foreign exchange student for the past 10+ months. Rodrigo is from Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, and turned 17 this May while living with us in Bement.

The decision to host a foreign exchange student was made almost on the spur of the moment, and it turned into one of the most positive experiences my family has had. For this, all the credit is due to Rodrigo himself, as he proved to be a bright, sensitive, and engaging young man, who I am sure is destined for great success.

My family and the many friends Rodrigo made while living in Bement look forward to the day when he is able to return for a visit.

Equal Creation

We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

-- Thomas Jefferson, (1743 - 1826), draft of the Declaration of Independence, 21 June 1776

Credit Is Due

Always give credit where credit is due
if you didn't write it, don't say it's by you
just copy the credit along with the work
or else you'll come off as an arrogant jerk

Always give credit where credit belongs
we know that you didn't write Beethoven's songs
pretending you did makes you look like a fool
unless you're Beethoven -- in that case, it's cool

A transparent system makes cheating unwise
the simplest web search exposes your lies
no one wants their reputation besmirched
which happens to liars when they are web-searched

Proper citation will make you a star
it shows that you know that we know who you are
Plagiarization will only harm you
so always give credit where credit is due!

-- Credit is Due (The Attribution Song), by Nina Paley

Check out the video:
http://blog.ninapaley.com/2011/06/27/credit-is-due/

Equality

I think you're going to see this message resonate all across the country now. If New York can do it, it's OK for every other place to do it.

-- New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, speaking at New York City's gay pride parade about the legalization of same-sex marriage, New York Times, 27 June 2011

A Little Bit Less

Among the many lessons that I've learned from this whole experience is to try to speak a little bit less.

-- Former Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich, after being convicted of 17 counts in a corruption case, New York Times, 28 June 2011

LulzSec Manifesto

Do you think every hacker announces everything they've hacked? We certainly haven't, and we're damn sure others are playing the silent game. Do you feel safe with your Facebook accounts, your Google Mail accounts, your Skype accounts? What makes you think a hacker isn't silently sitting inside all of these right now, sniping out individual people, or perhaps selling them off?

This is what you should be fearful of, not us releasing things publicly, but the fact that someone hasn't released something publicly.

This is the Internet, where we screw each other over for a jolt of satisfaction.

Lulz Security

-- "Hacker" group LulzSec, from their 1000th tweet statement, 17 June 2011 (pastebin.com/HZtH523f); interestingly LulzSec apparently went out of business over the weekend

Constitution

A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government; and government without a constitution is power without a right. All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning. It must be either delegated, or assumed. There are not other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either.

-- Thomas Paine (1737-1809), Rights of Man (1791)

Administer Justice

In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs.

-- Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), "An Inquiry into the Principles of the Good Society" (1937)

Old Crises Never End

If one looks at what's happening in today's world, we are seeing a multiplication of new crises -- since the beginning of the year, Cote d'Ivoire, Libya, Syria, Yemen. And at the same time, it seems that old crises never end. Look at what's happening in Afghanistan, more than 20 years of fighting; in Somalia, again, 20 years of fighting; in the Democratic Republic of Congo. New crises multiply. Old crises never end.

-- Antonio Guterres, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, reporting that the current 44 million refugees is a 15-year high, 21 June 2011

First Principle

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

-- Richard Feynman (1918-1988), American physicist, What is and What Should be the Role of Scientific Culture in Modern Society", lecture at the Galileo Symposium in Italy (1964)

In A Cave

It's probably tough to count votes when you're in a cave.

-- Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on the 7 weeks it took Al Qaeda to name Ayman al-Zawahri to succeed Osama bin Laden, final Pentagon press conference, 16 June 2011

Fathers Day

The good-enough father is not simply a knight in shining armor galloping to the occasional rescue; he is there through good times and bad, insisting on and delighting in his paternity every pleasurable and painful step of the way.

-- Victoria Secunda, American psychologist and author, Women and Their Fathers, ch. 4 (1992)

Sunset

The best thing we did with the Patriot Act was to sunset it. Almost 800 foreign nationals, immigrants, mostly Arab-Americans or people who looked like Arab-Americans, were arrested, put in jail, held without charges, no notification for their families and no right to counsel. That's un-American and I'll fight to end that. If we fight the terrorists who attacked us because of our liberties by compromising our liberties, shame on us.

-- Senator Joe Lieberman I-CT (1942-), American politician, CNN "Rock the Vote", Nov 5, 2003

Creativity V. Art

Creativity is allowing oneself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

-- Scott Adams (1957-), American cartoonist and satirist, The Dilbert Principle (1996)

Inaction

Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

-- Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian Renaissance architect and artist, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci I, English translation by Jean Paul Richter (1888)

Unable To Recognize Truth

A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others.

-- Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), Russian novelist, The Brothers Karamazov (1879-1880)

A Happy Chance

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

-- William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), English playwright, novelist, and short story writer, The Summing Up (1938)

A Perilous Affair

Why is it that one can look at a lion or a planet or an owl or at someone's finger as long as one pleases, but looking into the eyes of another person is, if prolonged past a second, a perilous affair?

-- Walker Percy (1916-1990), author, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book (1983)

Tiger's Blood

Trial or not, John Edwards is the Charlie Sheen of American politics -- great hair and no chance for rehabilitation.

-- Democratic consultant Jack Quinn, John Edwards' indictment in the cover-up of an extra-marital affair, 3 June 2011

Paid To Go Slower

In our job we get paid more when we go faster, but (with) lawyers, it seems to be the other way round.

-- Cyclist Cadel Evans, on the delayed hearing of Tour winner Alberto Contador's doping case, 26 May 2011

Revolution

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.

-- Gil Scott-Heron (1 April 1949 - 27 May 2011), American poet, musician, and author, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (1970)

Only The Good

For only the good doubt their own goodness, which is what makes them good in the first place. The bad know they are good, but the good know nothing. They spend their lives forgiving others, but they can't forgive themselves.

-- Paul Auster (1947-), American novelist and poet, Man In The Dark, p 63 (2008)

Proud Daddy (again)

Congratulations to #4 daughter Brittany Appleman on her graduation from Bement High School tonight! Four down, one to go. Brittany is an amazing kid who will find her own way going forward; I can hardly wait to see what she accomplishes in her life.

And plus plus congrats to my Brazilian foreign exchange student, Rodrigo Martins, on completing his year at Bement High School; he'll march with the graduates tonight and receive a Certificate of Completion in lieu of a diploma, as he has one more semester to go when he returns to Brazil in July.

w00t!

Surveillance State

That is what the Surveillance State, at its core, is designed to achieve: the destruction of privacy for individual citizens and an impenetrable wall of secrecy for those with unlimited surveillance power.

-- Glenn Greenwald (1967-), American lawyer, columnist, blogger, and author, The always-expanding bipartisan Surveillance State, Salon.com, 20 May 2011

You Lived!

You lived!

-- Becky Carithers, exclaiming to a neighbor she hadn't seen since a tornado struck Joplin, MO on Sunday, New York Times, 25 May 2011

Slaves To Indoor Life

What a pitiable thing it is that our civilization can do no better for us than to make us slaves to indoor life, so that we have to go and take artificial exercise in order to preserve our health.

-- George Wharton James (1858-1923), journalist, author, and speaker, What the White Race May Learn from the Indian (1908), Chapter IV "The Indian and Out-Of-Door Life"

CDC Zombie Apocalypse

There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That's right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you'll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you'll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.

-- Post on the Emergency Preparedness and Response blog of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 May 2011, by Ali S. Khan

Social Media: Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse
http://emergency.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp

Oh Boy

I'll say, "Oh, what are we going to do this summer?" She's going to say, "The world is going to end on May 21, so I don't know why you're planning for summer," and then everyone goes, "Oh boy."

-- Kino Douglas, on his sister, New York Times, 20 May 2011

Got That Right

I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate.

-- Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, on Representative Paul Ryan's (R-WI) proposed changes to Medicare, Face The Nation, 15 May 2011

Afraid Of The Dark

I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.

-- Stephen Hawking (1942-), English theoretical physicist, in a Guardian Newspaper interview, 15 May 2011

Torture NOT

I've sought further information from the staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and they confirmed for me that, in fact, the best intelligence gained from a CIA detainee -- information describing Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti's real role in al-Qaeda and his true relationship to Osama bin Laden -- was obtained through standard, non-coercive means, not through any "enhanced interrogation technique." In short, it was not torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees that got us the major leads that ultimately enabled our intelligence community to find Osama bin Laden. I hope former Attorney General Mukasey will correct his misstatement. ...

Ultimately, this is about morality. What is at stake here is the very idea of America -- the America whose values have inspired the world andinstilled in the hearts of its citizens the certainty that, no matter how hard we fight, no matter how dangerous our adversary, in the course of vanquishing our enemies we do not compromise our deepest values. We are America, and we hold ourselves to a higher standard. That is what is really at stake.

-- Senator John McCain R-AZ, speech on the Senate floor, 12 May 2011

Friday The Thirteenth

Friday the Thirteenth came on a Sunday this month, and it lasted for two days.

Proud Daddy

Congratulations to #2 daughter Sheena Appleman on her graduation from Parkland College tonight, where she's been studying Elementary Education and Psychology. In the fall she'll be a student at Eastern Illinois University to work on her bachelor's in Elementary Education.

w00t!

Inspiration

We don't have education we have inspiration; if I was educated I would be a damn fool.

-- Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 - 11 May 1981), better known as Bob Marley, Jamaican singer, guitarist, songwriter, and social activist, in Time Will Tell (1992) a documentary by Declan Lowney