The Strong

The true purpose of the strong is to promote greater strength in the weak, and not to keep the weak in that state where they are at the mercy of the strong.

-- Christian D. Larson (1874-1962), American New Thought leader, teacher, and author, Your Forces and How to Use Them (1912) Chapter 14, p. 210

The Maker's Intentions

The primary purpose of all art forms, whether it's music, literature, or the visual arts, is to say something to the outside world; in other words, to make a personal thought, a striking idea, an inner emotion perceptible to other people's senses in such a way that there is no uncertainty about the maker's intentions.

-- M. C. Escher (1898-1972), Dutch artist, On Being a Graphic Artist

Should The Value Change

The primary purpose of the DATA statement is to give names to constants; instead of referring to pi as 3.141592653589793 at every appearance, the variable PI can be given that value with a DATA statement and used instead of the longer form of the constant.  This also simplifies modifying the program, should the value of pi change.

-- Early FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers, attributed

Primary Purpose

The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure.

-- Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986), essayist and drama critic

NPCF

Weight                  : >683,000 pounds

Number of processors    : >49,000 AMD CPUs, +3000 NVidia GPUs

Number of CPU cores     : >380,000

Memory (RAM)            : 1,500,000GB (1.5 petabytes)

Data storage            : >25,000,000GB (25 petabytes)

External network speed  : 100,000Mbps

-- National Petascale Computing Facility facts about the Blue Waters supercomputer at the University of Illinois, open house handout, March 2013

The One

Being at one is god-like and good, but human, too human, the mania
Which insists there is only the One, one country, one truth, and one way.

-- Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843), German lyric poet, "The Root of All Evil" as translated by Michael Hamburger

Make 'Em, Amuse 'Em

You make 'em, I amuse 'em.

-- Theodor (Dr.) Seuss Geisel (1904-1991), American writer, poet, and cartoonist, statement about children, as quoted in Enter, Conversing (1962) by Clifton Fadiman, p. 108

Saint Patrick

I am Patrick, yes a sinner and indeed untaught; yet I am established here in Ireland where I profess myself bishop.  I am certain in my heart that "all that I am," I have received from God.  So I live among barbarous tribes, a stranger and exile for the love of God.

-- Saint Patrick (c. 385 - 17 March 462, 492, or 493), Christian bishop and missionary, and patron saint of Ireland, Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus (c.450?)

Conclusions

I have come to the conclusion, after many years of sometimes sad experience, that you cannot come to any conclusion at all.

-- Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962), English poet, novelist, and writer on gardening, In Your Garden Again (1953), p. 71 of 2004 edition

W00t! AnaLeigh

Welcome into the world, AnaLeigh Lillian Schum, born today, 14 March 2013, at 1:03pm to my eldest daughter Tia and her husband Joe at 7 pounds 12 ounces and 19 1/2 inches.  AnaLeigh has two older brothers, and is my 6th grandchild.

W00t!

Pope Francis

Brothers and sisters, good evening.

-- Newly ordained Pope Francis (17 December 1936-), formerly Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio, speaking for the first time as the 266th Pope, St. Peter's Square, The Vatican, 13 March 2013

Trvth Upgrade

Ahhhhh ... 16GB, 3.8GHz, quad-core goodness, running from SSD.  Smooth like butter.

Mutually Satisfying Weirdness

You want my opinion?  We're all a little weird.  And life is a little weird.  And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness -- and call it love -- true love.

-- Robert Fulghum (1937-), American author, True Love (1998)

Business Of The Future

It is the business of the future to be dangerous; and it is among the merits of science that it equips the future for its duties.

-- Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), British born American mathematician and philosopher, Science and the Modern World (1925) Ch. 13: Requisites for Social Progress

Debate

I believed if the public -- in particular the American public -- had access to the information [in hundreds of thousands of military incident reports], this could spark a debate about foreign policy in relation to Iraq and Afghanistan.

-- Pfc. Bradley Manning (17 December 1987-), confessing in open court to providing vast archives of military and diplomatic files to the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks, 28 February 2013

Bicyclists Are Actually Polluting When They Ride

Also, you claim that it is environmentally friendly to ride a bike.  But if I am not mistaken, a cyclists [sic] has an increased heart rate and respiration.  That means that the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider.  Since CO2 is deemed to be a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride.

-- Washington State Representative Ed Orcutt (R-20), in an email to a constituent defending a proposed tax on bicycles, 25 February 2013

Psalm Of Life

Life is real! Life is earnest!
    And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
    Was not spoken of the soul.

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1881), American poet, A Psalm of Life (1839), St 2

Candle

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends --
It gives a lovely light.

Edna St. Vincent Milay

Thank you

Rest in peace, Herbert Stanley Appleman (24 April 1917 - 21 February 2013)

My Dad was a WW II veteran, a meteorologist, and the father of 4 boys, and he will be missed.

The World Is Moved

The world is moved along not only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.

-- John Richard Green (1837-1883), Life and Letters of John Richard Green, Leslie Stephen, Ed (1901)

Cuts Both Ways

We did not see (as a result of brain scans of partisan loyalists) any increased activation of the parts of the brain normally engaged during reasoning.  What we saw instead was a network of emotion circuits lighting up, including circuits hypothesized to be involved in regulating emotion, and circuits known to be involved in resolving conflicts.  None of the circuits involved in conscious reasoning were particularly engaged. Essentially, it appears as if partisans twirl the cognitive kaleidoscope until they get the conclusions they want, and then they get massively reinforced for it, with the elimination of negative emotional states and activation of positive ones. ...  The result is that partisan beliefs are calcified, and the person can learn very little from new data.

-- Drew Westen, Director of Clinical Psychology at Emory University, regarding a study using fMRI, NBC News, 24 January 2006

Something Of The Youth

As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so am I no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth.  He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.

-- Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

We All Like Our Own

One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best.

-- Jane Austen (16 December 1775 - 18 July 1817), English novelist, Persuasion (posthumous, 1818)

A Very Long Time

And the thing is, once you're dead, you're dead for a very long time.

-- John Gilpin, on the Champaign County Bikes listserv, 10 February 2013

Bark Of St. Peter

In today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of St. Peter and proclaim the gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.

-- Pope Benedict XVI, announcing his resignation, 11 February 2013

For Richer, For Poorer

Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.

-- Charles Abrams (1902-1970), creator of the New York Housing Authority, cited in Michael Harrington's "The Other America" (1962)

Whirling Snow And Blinding Mist

Each must act as he thinks best; and if he is wrong, so much the worse for him.  We stand on a mountain pass in the midst of whirling snow and blinding mist, through which we get glimpses now and then of paths which may be deceptive.  If we stand still we shall be frozen to death.  If we take the wrong road we shall be dashed to pieces.  We do not certainly know whether there is any right one.  What must we do?  "Be strong and of a good courage." Act for the best, hope for the best, and take what comes. ...  If death ends all, we cannot meet death better.

-- Sir James Fitzjames Stephen (1829-1894), English lawyer and judge, in Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, p. 353, 2d edition (London, 1874)

Benghazi

The United States military, as I've said, is not and, frankly, should not be a 911 service capable of arriving on the scene within minutes to every possible contingency around the world. The U.S. military has neither the resources nor the responsibility to have a fire house next to every U.S. facility in the world.

-- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in his opening statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee, 7 February 2013

Optimist

Basically I'm an optimist.  Intellectually I can see man's balance is about fifty-fifty, and his chances of blowing himself up are about one to one.  I can't see this any way but intellectually.  I'm just emotionally unable to believe that he will do this.  This means that I am by nature an optimist and by intellectual conviction a pesimist, I suppose.

-- Sir William Golding (1911-1993), English poet, novelist, and Nobel laureate, interview with James Keating, Purdue University, 10 May 1962, printed in Lord of the Flies: The Casebook Edition (1964)

White Paper

[T]he United States would be able to use lethal force against a US citizen, who is located outside the United States and is an operational leader continually planning attacks against US persons and interests, in at least the following circumstances: (1) where an informed, high-level official of the US government has determined that the targeted individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States; (2) where a capture operation would be infeasible -- and where those conducting the operation continue to monitor whether capture becomes feasible; and (3) where such an operation would be conducted consistent with applicable law of war principles.  In these circumstances, the "realities" of the conflict and the weight of the government's interest in protecting its citizens from an imminent attack are such that the Constitution would not require the government to provide further process to such a US citizen before using lethal force. ...

Finally, the Department notes that under the circumstances described in this paper, there exists no appropriate judicial forum to evaluate these constitutional considerations.

-- Department of Justice White Paper, Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a US Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al-Qa'ida or An Associated Force, excerpt, NBC News, 4 February 2013

Hold Still

People tell me I sing the words "love" and "hunger" like no one else. Well, everything I know is wrapped up in those two words.  You've got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to behave.

-- Billie Holiday (1915-1959), jazz singer and songwriter, Lady Sings The Blues (1956), p 201

Popular Delusion

It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth.  Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.

-- Patrick Jake (P.J.) O'Rourke (1947-), American political satirist, Parliament of Whores (1991), p 36

What A Nut

We are on the cusp of this time where I can say, "I speak as a citizen of the world" without others saying, "God, what a nut."

-- Lawrence Lessig (1961-), American professor and political activist, "One Planet, One Net" symposium, 10 October 1998

Star That Guides Us Still

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths -- that all of us are created equal -- is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

-- Barack Hussein Obama II (4 August 1961-), 44th President of the United States, Second Inaugural Address, Washington D.C. (21 January 2013)

A Revolver

Here is a revolver.
It has an amazing language all its own.
It delivers unmistakable ultimatums.
It is the last word.
A simple, little human forefinger can tell a terrible story with it.
Hunger, fear, revenge, robbery, hide behind it.
It is the claw of the jungle made quick and powerful.
It is the club of the savage turned to magnificent precision.
It is more rapid than any judge or court of law.
It is less subtle and treacherous than any one lawyer or ten.

When it has spoken, the case can not be appealed to the supreme
    court, nor any mandamus nor any injunction nor any stay of
    execution come in and interfere with the original purpose.
And nothing in human philosophy persists more strangely than the
    old belief that God is always on the side of those who have the
    most revolvers.

-- Carl Sandburg, A Revolver, unpublished, found in University of Illinois archives, January 2013

Big Fake

Luke's name is Armstrong and people know that name, and when he goes to school I don't want them to say, "Oh yeah, your dad's the big fake, the doper." That would just kill me.

-- Lance Armstrong, in his second autobiography, "Every Second Counts" (2003)

Roe V. Wade

State criminal abortion laws, like those involved here, that except from criminality only a life-saving procedure on the mother's behalf without regard to the stage of her pregnancy and other interests involved violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects against state action the right to privacy, including a woman's qualified right to terminate her pregnancy.  Though the State cannot override that right, it has legitimate interests in protecting both the pregnant woman's health and the potentiality of human life, each of which interests grows and reaches a "compelling" point at various stages of the woman's approach to term.

-- Supreme Court of the United States, ruling in 410 U.S. 113 - Roe v. Wade, 22 January 1973

Unarmed Truth

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.  That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), Baptist minister and civil rights activist, Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, 10 December 1964

Scale Of Dollars

A host of positive psychological changes inevitably will result from widespread economic security. The dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning his life are in his own hands, when he has the means to seek self-improvement. Personal conflicts among husbands, wives and children will diminish when the unjust measurement of human worth on the scale of dollars is eliminated.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), Baptist minister, civil rights activist, Nobel laureate, Address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 16 August 1967

Half-Baked

The tough mind is sharp and penetrating, breaking through the crust of legends and myths and sifting the true from the false.  The tough-minded individual is astute and discerning.  He has a strong austere quality that makes for firmness of purpose and solidness of commitment.

Who doubts that this toughness is one of man's greatest needs?  Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking.  There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions.  Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

-- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (15 January 1929 - 4 April 1968), Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and Nobel laureate, Strength to Love (1963), Chapter 1

Up To You

A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back -- but they are gone.  We are it.  It is up to us.  It is up to you.

-- Marian Wright Edelman (1939-), Children's Defense Fund founder, as quoted in The Art of Winning Commitment (2004) by Dick Richards

Curator

I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners -- all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty -- and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), Baptist minister and civil rights activist, Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, 10 December 1964

Choice

When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.

-- William James (1842-1910), American psychologist and philosopher

The Tumult Soon Subsides

Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favour; a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.  But the tumult soon subsides.  Time makes more converts than reason.

-- Thomas Paine (1737-1908), English-American political writer and activist, Common Sense, Introduction (10 January 1776)

Uneasy

I'm kind of glad that nobody got in this year.  I feel honored to be in the Hall of Fame.  And I would've felt a little uneasy sitting up there on the stage, listening to some of these new guys talk about how great they were. ... I don't know how great some of these players up for election would've been without drugs.  But to me, it's cheating.

-- Baseball Hall of Famer Al Kaline (1934-), as for only the second time in 40 years no one was elected on this year's ballot, rejecting first-time nominees Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa, all accused of steroid use, 9 January 2013

Valuable

The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake - you can't learn anything from being perfect.

-- Adam Osborne (1939-2003), American entrepreneur

Not Every Mistake

Non enim omnis error stultitia est dicenda.
We must not say that every mistake is a foolish one.

-- Marcus Tullius Cicero (3 January 106 BC - 7 December 43 BC), De divinatione ii, 43, as cited in Cicero: a sketch of his life and works, by Hannis Taylor, Mary Lillie Taylor Hunt, second edition (1916), p. 481

Dance Dance

Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit.
[No one dances sober, unless he is insane.]


-- Marcus Tullius Cicero (3 January 106 BC - 7 December 43 BC), also known by the anglicized name Tully, in and after the Middle Ages) orator and statesman of Ancient Rome, Pro Murena Ch. vi, sec.  13

Until I Got Here

I didn't realize how much I didn't want to be here until I got here.

-- Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), on returning to the Capitol, New York Times, 27 December 2012

Palace Intrigue

Americans are tired of the palace intrigue and political partisanship of this congress, which places one upmanship ahead of the lives of the citizens who sent these people to Washington DC in the first place.

-- Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ), on the failure of the House of Representatives to vote on aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy, 2 January 2012