Forest

If a cell phone rings in the forest and you're there to hear it, are you really on vacation?

-- Sean Kutzko

Basic Research

Basic research is when I am doing what I don't know what I am doing.

-- Wernher von Braun (1912-1977), German-born rocket scientist, in an interview in the New York Times, 16 December 1957

No More Dead Robots

This relentless law of death, life. Change is the rhythm of the galaxies and the seasons, the rhythm of the seed. It never stops.

If you've become a dead robot with your consciousness hooked into routines, and *more* routines:

Drop Out - Detach yourself from the external social drama which is as dehydrated and ersatz as TV.

Turn On - Find a sacrament which returns you to the temple of God -- your own body. Go out of your mind. Get high.

Tune In - Drop back in to express it. Start a new sequence of behavior that reflects your vision. Be reborn. Become your highest vision of you. Death. Life. Structure. The sequence must continue. You cannot stand still.

-- Timothy Leary (1920-1996), American writer, psychologist, and 1960s counterculture icon, Start Your Own Religion (1967)

Drop Out, Turn On, Tune In

Into this Garden of Eden each human being is born perfect. We were all born divine mutants, the DNA code's best answer to joyful survival on this planet. An exquisite package for adaptation based on 2 billion years of consumer research (RNA) and product design (DNA). Each baby, although born perfect, immediately finds himself in a [sic] imperfect, artificial, disharmonious social system that systematically robs him of his divinity.

Individual societies begin in harmonious adaptation to the environment and, like individuals, quickly get trapped into nonadaptive, artificial, repetitive sequences. And the social systems? Where did they come from?

When the individual's behavior and consciousness get hooked to a routine sequence of external actions, he is a dead robot, and it is time for him to die and be reborn. It is time to drop out, turn on, and tune in. This period of robotization is called the Kali Yuga, the Age of Strife and Empire, the peak of so called "civilization".

-- Timothy Leary (1920-1996), American writer, psychologist, and 1960s counterculture icon, Start Your Own Religion (1967)

Permanently Succeed

It is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed.

-- Harvey S. Firestone (1868-1938), American businessman, founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company

Second Daughter Of A Second Daughter

Allow me to welcome into the world my number two daughter's second daughter -- Talyn Rose Schwartz was born at 10:01am on Saturday 24 March 2012, weighing in at 7 pounds 11 ounces, and 20 inches long.

Millionaire Graffiti Artist

David Choe must have had a Kafkaesque morning, waking up to find himself changed in his bed into a monstrous millionaire. Seven years ago, the graffiti artist painted murals on the walls of Facebook's first offices in Palo Alto, California, and, according to The New York Times, he was paid in stock options in the realm of, reportedly, 3.77 million shares. On Wednesday [1 February 2012] night, the social network announced that it will seek an initial public offering, and at an estimated $53 a share, you can do the math on Choe's net worth. (He clearly did.) [$200 Million]

-- Jimmy So, thedailybeast.com, "David Choe, Facebook's Millionaire Graffiti Artist" (3 February 2012) http://tinyurl.com/6m3ab2m

No Serious Threat

The Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government.

-- Michael Joseph (Joe) Sobran (1946-2010), American journalist and writer, A Pair of Liberals (5 July 2007), http://www.sobran.com

Blunt Or Rounded

The politician is ... trained in the art of inexactitude. His words tend to be blunt or rounded, because if they have a cutting edge they may later return to wound him.

-- Edward Roscoe Murrow (1908-1965), American journalist, address at London Guildhall (19 October 1959)

Constitutions

Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present but without the experience of the present; and ... years of experience in government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves were they to rise from the dead.


-- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), political philosopher, third President of the United States, Letter to H. Tompkinson (AKA Samuel Kercheval), 12 July 1816

Utilitarianism

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil, in case he do otherwise.

-- John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), English political philosopher and economist, advocate of utilitarianism, On Liberty, Chapter 1 (1859)

Contention

Rights are always asserted in a tone of contention; and when this tone is adopted, it must rely upon force in the background, or else it will be laughed at.

-- Simone Weil (1909-1943), French social and religious philosopher, Human Personality (1943)

Chains Of The Constitution

Resolved [...] that it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is every where the parent of despotism; free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go; [...]. In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

-- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), political philosopher, third President of the United States, The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798

Political Rights

Political rights do not exist because they have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingrown habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them will meet with the violent resistance of the populace. Where this is not the case, there is no help in any parliamentary Opposition or any Platonic appeals to the Constitution. One compels respect from others when he knows how to defend his dignity as a human being. ... The peoples owe all the political rights and privileges which we enjoy today in greater or lesser measure, not to the good will of their governments, but to their own strength.

-- Rudolf Rocker (1873-1958), German-born American anarcho-syndicalist anarchist, writer, and social activist, Anarcho-Syndicalism, Ch. 5 "The Methods of Anarcho-Syndicalism" (1938)

Simplify

Our life is frittered away by detail. ... Simplify, simplify.

-- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American writer and philosopher, Walden (1854)

Judgements

You cannot avoid making judgements but you can become more conscious of the way in which you make them. This is critically important because once we judge someone or something we tend to stop thinking about them or it. Which means, among other things, that we behave in response to our judgements rather than to that to which is being judged. People and things are processes. Judgements convert them into fixed states. This is one reason that judgements are often self-fulfilling.

-- Neil Postman (1931-2003), American educator, media theorist, and cultural critic, Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969)

Clean

We have gained a clean victory. We won! Glory to Russia!

-- Vladimir V. Putin, after winning a six-year term in an election that the opposition called "a shame", New York Times, 5 March 2012

Red Light

How would you like a job where, every time you make a mistake, a red light goes on and 18,000 people boo?

-- Joseph Jacques Omer "Jake the Snake" Plante (1929-1986), Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender, six-time Stanley Cup winner (five were consecutive), inventor of the first practical goaltender mask, commenting on his job as a goaltender

Church And State

The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.

-- Rick Santorum, ABC News "This Week", 26 February 2012

We Tried Poverty

We tried poverty for 200 years. We decided to try something different.

-- Ray Halbritter, the leader of the Oneida Indian Nation, which is manufacturing cigarettes for sale at tribal convenience stores, New York Times, 23 February 2012

NASCAR

Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans. But I have some friends who are NASCAR team owners.

-- Mitt Romney, Daytona, Florida, at the site of the Daytona 500, when asked whether he follows NASCAR, 26 February 2012

Up-Armoring

The argument for up-armoring is always based on the least likely of terrorist scenarios. Anyone can get a gun and shoot up stuff. No amount of SWAT equipment can stop that.

-- Mark Randol, a former terrorism expert at the Congressional Research Service, "Local Cops Ready for War with Homeland Security-Funded Military Weapons", The Daily Beast, 21 December 2011

http://tinyurl.com/77nfjt4


We're going to have our own tank.

-- Mayor Kendall Lane of Keene, NH, in an aside to Councilman Mitch Greenwald during a December city council meeting, regarding a Bearcat, an eight-ton armored personnel vehicle, to be purchased with a $285K grant from the US Department of Homeland Security

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jefLOFbdDHk&feature=player_embedded

Every Advance

Every advance in civilization has been denounced as unnatural while it was recent.

-- Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate in literature

Debate

I once watched several criminals engage in an organized argument, while an audience of supporters cheered them on, but I was so disgusted that I had to turn off the political debate.

-- Jarod Kintz (1982-), American author, This is the best book I've ever written, and it still sucks

Wit

At all events, the next best thing to being witty one's self, is to be able to quote another's wit.

-- Christian Nestell Bovee, Thoughts, Feelings, and Fancies (1857)

Godspeed

Godspeed, John Glenn.

-- Mission Controller Scott Carpenter, as John Glenn was about to launch into orbit on Friendship 7 to become the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American (5th overall) in space, 20 February 1962

Condiment

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.

-- Truman Capote (1924-1984), American writer, Portraits and Observations, The Essays of Truman Capote, "Self Portrait" (1972)

Two Ideas Grow

It is a great thing to teach. I am never more complimented than when some one addresses me as "teacher". ... The teacher is one who makes two ideas grow where there was only one before.

-- Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915), American writer, publisher, artist, anarchist and libertarian philosopher, Fra Elbertus: Elbert Hubbard's Selected Writings Part 6, Teachers and Teaching

Plenty Of Time For Silence

Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the "transcendent" and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence.

-- Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011), author and journalist, Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001)

Smile

Children learn to smile from their parents.

-- Shinichi Suzuki (1898-1998), violinist, inventor of the Suzuki method of music education

Its Own Time

The place where children play is a sort of magic circle, outside and separate from the rest of the world; it has its own time, which cannot be measured by our clocks. Within this all is transformed and controlled by imagination, and a perfect world is possible.

-- Richard Dattner, Design for Play, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., (1969), page 15

TouchPad

New toy -- 32GB HP TouchPad

Obtained for less than 50% of its original price, freshly updated and tweaked to make it slick.

WebOS is now open source, and hopefully will survive and continue to mature. If not, it's already possible to run Android on the TouchPad in dual-boot mode, all the way up to the latest Android 4.x.

Proposition H8

All that Proposition 8 accomplished was to take away from same-sex couples the right to be granted marriage licenses and thus legally to use the designation of "marriage", which symbolizes state legitimization and societal recognition of their committed relationships. Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.

-- Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, writing in a 2-1 ruling that California's 2008 law, popularly known as Proposition 8, violated the 14th Amendment's equal-protection clause by stigmatizing a minority group without legitimate reason, 7 February 2012

Power Corrupts

All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.

-- John Dalberg-Acton (1834-1902), 1st Baron Acton, English historian, letter to Mandell Creighton, 5 April 1887

Not Of That Party

You say that I have been dished up to you as an antifederalist, and ask me if it be just. My opinion was never worthy enough of notice to merit citing; but since you ask it I will tell it you. I am not a Federalist, because I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all. Therefore I protest to you I am not of the party of federalists. But I am much farther from that than of the Antifederalists.

-- Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 - 4 July 1826), author of the Declaration of Independence, founder of the University of Virginia, third President of the United States (1801-1809), political philosopher, letter to Francis Hopkinson (13 March 1789)

How Much Has Changed?

Almost exactly three years ago to this day, I took the oath of office at this podium during one of the darkest moments in history. One former governor was in jail. Another was under arrest, impeached and removed from office. Both my predecessors had disgraced themselves and brought profound embarrassment to the people of our state.

At the same time, our entire nation was in the throes of a massive economic crisis, caused by disgraceful conduct and greed on Wall Street. Our large and small businesses were reeling. Our automakers were in dire straits. Across Illinois, families were losing their jobs, losing their homes, watching their savings disappear.

We were off course and adrift, lacking leadership, and weighed down by a culture of corruption.

-- Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, State of the State address, 1 February 2012

Complex Garden

We have inherited an incredibly beautiful and complex garden, but the trouble is that we have been appallingly bad gardeners. We have not bothered to acquaint ourselves with the simplest principles of gardening. By neglecting our garden, we are storing up for ourselves, in the not very distant future, a world catastrophe as bad as any atomic war, and we are doing it with all the bland complacency of an idiot child chopping up a Rembrandt with a pair of scissors.

-- Gerald Durrell (1925-1995), naturalist, zookeeper, and author, Two in the Bush (1966)

A World Of His Own

I suppose every child has a world of his own -- and every man, too, for the matter of that. I wonder if that's the cause for all the misunderstanding there is in Life?

-- Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), British author, mathematician, and clergyman, Sylvie and Bruno, Chapter 4: A Cunning Conspiracy (1889)

Optimism

I have great faith in optimism as a guiding principle, if only because it offers us the opportunity of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. So I hope we've learnt something from the most barbaric century in history -- the 20th. I would like to see us overcome our tribal divisions and begin to think and act as if we were one family. That would be real globalisation.

-- Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008), British author, inventor, and futurist, 90th Birthday Reflections (2007)

Freedom Of Movement

The right to travel enables the free exercise of the other rights we most cherish. We should not have to check our constitutional freedoms at the curb simply because we decide to leave the house. Sadly, freedom of movement has been one of the most disparaged rights throughout human history, and our country is no exception. If we are ever to be truly free, then we must possess an absolute, uninhibited right to travel throughout America and the world free from interference by government.

-- Judge Andrew Napolitano, Reason.com, 19 December 2011

GPS Vs. Fourth Amendment

Holding: Attaching a GPS device to a vehicle and then using the device to monitor the vehicle's movements constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment.

Judgment: Affirmed, in an opinion by Justice Scalia on January 23, 2012. Justice Sotomayor filed a concurring opinion. Justice Alito also filed a concurring opinion, which was joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan. The five concurring members of the Court do not resolve the question of whether the search was reasonable in this case.

-- SCOTUS opinion in United States v. Jones, 23 January 2012

A First

This is the first real test of the political strength of the Web, and regardless of how things go, they are no longer a pushover. The Web taking a stand against one of the most powerful lobbyers and seeming to get somewhere is definitely a first.

-- Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School on the efforts by the technology industry to fight Congressional bills aimed at curbing online piracy, New York Times, 18 January 2012

Never In My Life

I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.

-- Dudley Field Malone (1882-1950), attorney, politician, liberal activist and actor, defending John T. Scopes (with Clarence Darrow) in the famous "Monkey Trial"

Keystone XL

The rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline's impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment. As a result, the secretary of state has recommended that the application be denied. And after reviewing the State Department's report, I agree. ...

This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people.

-- President Barack Obama, formally rejecting Canadian energy company TransCanada's Keystone XL project, a $7 billion oil pipeline linking tar sands in Alberta to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, 18 January 2012

How Can It Be

For every man, education will have to be a process which continues all his life. We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40 -- and half the things he knows at 40 hadn't been discovered when he was 20?

-- Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008), British author, inventor, and futurist

Where Do We Go From Here

Today the poor are less often dismissed, I hope, from our consciences by being branded as inferior or incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands, it does not eliminate all poverty.

The problem indicates that our emphasis must be twofold. We must create full employment or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by one method or the other. Once they are placed in this position we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), civil rights activist, Nobel laureate, Where Do We Go From Here?, address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (16 August 1967)

Black Hat

Definition for the day:

Philosopher (n): a blind person in a dark room looking for a black hat which is not there.

Faint Light

Wandering in a vast forest at night, I have only a faint light to guide me. A stranger appears and says to me: "My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly." The stranger is a theologian.

-- Denis Diderot (1713-1784), French philosopher, Addition to Philosophical Thoughts, Number VIII (1770)

A Lesson For You There

In the name of tolerance, we're not being tolerated.

-- Bishop Thomas J. Paprock, of the Diocese of Springfield, Ill., which is losing state contracts because it refuses to consider same-sex couples as foster parents, New York Times, 29 December 2011

Sages

Some would be sages if they did not believe they were so already.

-- Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658), Spanish Jesuit author, The Art of Worldly Wisdom, Maxim 176 (1647)

AITS

I am now an Enterprise Application Specialist at AITS, the Administrative Information Technology Services, for the University of Illinois.

http://www.aits.uillinois.edu/