Moore's Law Of Mad Science

Moore's Law of Mad Science: Every eighteen months, the minimum IQ necessary to destroy the world drops by one point.

-- Eliezer Yudkowsky (1979-), American artificial intelligence researcher

Moral Passion

Art is a moral passion married to entertainment.  Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.

-- Rita Mae Brown (1944-), American writer, Starting From Scratch (1988)

Apple Earth

If an apple was magnified to the size of the Earth, then the atoms in the apple would be approximately the size of the original apple.

-- Richard Feynman, (1918 - 1988), American physicist, The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964), volume I; lecture 1, "Atoms in Motion"; section 1-2, "Matter is made of atoms"; p. 1-3

Diligence

Learn diligence before speedy execution.

-- Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519), Advice For The Young Painter

Capitalist?

Do I consider myself part of the casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little by which Wall Street's greed and recklessness wrecked this economy?  No, I don't.  I believe in a society where all people do well.  Not just a handful of billionaires.

-- Bernie Sanders, asked by Anderson Cooper whether he considers himself a capitalist, during the Democratic debate, 13 October 2015

Very Disappointed

Don't get me wrong, 12-year-old me is very disappointed in current me.  But it's the right thing to do.

-- Cory Jones, a top editor at Playboy, on the magazine's decision to dispense with nudity, for cultural and business reasons, New York Times, 13 October 2015

Take One For The Team

He needs to do this for the team, that's what we are all telling him.

-- Representative Fred Upton (R-MI), on calls for Representative Paul D. Ryan to run for speaker of the House, New York Times, 10 October 2015

Tragedy

Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up. That he has to leave the nest, the security, and go out to do battle. He has to lose everything that is lovely and fight for a new loveliness of his own making, and it's a tragedy. A lot of people don't have the courage to do it.

-- Helen Hayes (1900 - 1993), American actress; one of few people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award; Showcase (1966) by Roy Newquist

Not To Be Able To Stop

Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don't realize this because almost everyone is suffering from it, so it is considered normal.  This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being.

-- Eckhart Tolle (1948-), German / Canadian motivational speaker, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (1997)

In Better Shape

I thought I was in better shape.

-- Don Pellmann, age 100, who set five world records at the San Diego Senior Games, but fell short in the pole vault, dislodging the bar three times, New York Times, 22 September 2015

Bottle Of Milk

You don't just go buy a bottle of milk and suddenly the supermarket charges you $100.

-- Gail Mayer, whose monthly supply of the diabetes pill Glumetza went from $519.92 in May to $4,643 in August, New York Times, 5 October 2015

All The People Who Scare Us

We can't round up all the people who scare us.

-- James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, on the difficulty of using a particular profile in efforts to prevent mass shootings, New York Times, 4 October 2015

Taking The Long View

Papa Hegel he say that all we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.  *I* know people who can't even learn from what happened this morning.  Hegel must have been taking the long view.

-- John Kilian Houston Brunner (1934 - 1995), science fiction author, Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

Exponentially

The misuse of the word "exponentially" has increased dramatically.

-- Tweet by B. J. Novak (@bjnovak), 18 July 2014

Can You Hear Me Now?

Can you hear me now?

-- First tweet by Edward Snowden (@Snowden), 11:00AM 29 September 2015; Snowden acquired >1M followers within 24 hours

Deafening Anonymity

In big cities, beneath the roar of traffic, beneath "the rapid pace of change," so many faces pass by unnoticed because they have no "right" to be there, no right to be part of the city.  They are the foreigners, the children who go without schooling, those deprived of medical insurance, the homeless, the forgotten elderly.  These people stand at the edges of our great avenues, in our streets, in deafening anonymity.

-- Pope Francis, in a Mass before 20,000 at Madison Square Garden, reminding New Yorkers to watch for a glimpse of the presence of God among the poorest of the poor, 25 September 2015

Fact Resistant

While scientists have no clear understanding of the mechanisms that prevent the fact-resistant humans from absorbing data, they theorize that the strain may have developed the ability to intercept and discard information en route from the auditory nerve to the brain.

-- Andy Borowitz, "Scientists: Earth Endangered By New Strain of Fact-Resistant Humans," The New Yorker, 12 May 2015

Cycle Of Life

CYCLE OF LIFE

When man is hungry -- he fights
When he fights -- he will grow strong
When he grows strong -- then he conquers
When he has conquered -- he achieves wealth
When he achieves wealth -- he acts philosophically
When he acts philosophically -- his spirit becomes gentle

When his spirit becomes gentle -- he accepts poverty
When he accepts poverty -- he is open to defeat
When he is open to defeat -- he is weak
When he is weak -- he is beaten
When *beaten* -- he is hungry

When a man is hungry ....

-- Bob Griffiths, Cycle Of Life (1993)

Talking To Themselves

All advice is autobiographical.  It's one of my theories that when people give you advice, they're really just talking to themselves in the past.

-- Austin Kleon, "Steal Like An Artist" (2012)

Always A Reason

There is always a reason to chicken out.

-- University of Richmond Economics Professor Dean Croushore, after the Federal Reserve postponed any increase in interest rates, New York Times, 18 September 2015

RIP Yogi Berra

It ain't over 'til it's over.

-- Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra (12 May 1925 - 22 September 2015), American baseball player, manager, and member of Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame, The Yogi Book (1998)

That No Other

And now let me tell you something that no other candidate for president will tell you.  And that is no matter who is elected to be president, that person will not be able to address the enormous problems facing the working families of our country.  They will not be able to succeed because the power of corporate America, the power of Wall Street, the power of campaign donors, is so great that no president alone can stand up to them.  That is the truth.  People may be uncomfortable about hearing it, but that is the reality.

-- Bernie Sanders, Clear Lake, Iowa, 14 August 2015

Called To Lead

Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field.  With this in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately.

To refocus the debate on these types of issues will require leadership, I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same, so that the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive conservative alternative to the current front-runner.  This is fundamentally important to the future of the party and, more importantly, to the future of our country.

-- Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, announcing an end to his presidential run, 21 September 2015

A Movie Of The Past

We are always acting on what has just finished happening. It happened at least 1/30th of a second ago. We think we’re in the present, but we aren’t. The present we know is only a movie of the past.

-- Ken Kesey (1935-2001), American writer, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), Ch. 11: The Unspoken Thing

Cool Clock

Cool clock, Ahmed.  Want to bring it to the White House?  We should inspire more kids like you to like science.  It's what makes America great.

-- President Obama, on Twitter, to Ahmed Mohamed, a Texas 14-year-old who was detained after taking a homemade clock to school, New York Times, 17 September 2015

Conscious Of Its Limitations

Before we can build a stable civilization worthy of humanity as a whole, it is necessary that each historical civilization should become conscious of its limitations and it's unworthiness to become the ideal civilization of the world.

-- Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888 - 1975), Advaita Vedantist philosopher, first Vice President and second President of India, Kalki : or The Future of Civilization (1929)

Eye Opener

This has to be an eye-opener on how messed up the situation in Europe is now.

-- Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, after 6,500 migrants, many from Syria, had reached his country, New York Times, 6 September 2015

Social Creation

The web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effect -- to help people work together -- and not as a technical toy. The ultimate goal of the Web is to support and improve our weblike existence in the world. We clump into families, associations, and companies. We develop trust across the miles and distrust around the corner.

-- Tim Berners-Lee (1955-), inventor of the World Wide Web and director of the World Wide Web Consortium, Weaving the Web (1999)

Flesh And Blood

Corporations can only commit crimes through flesh-and-blood people.  It's only fair that the people who are responsible for committing those crimes be held accountable.

-- Sally Q. Yates, deputy United States attorney general, on new policies that prioritize the prosecution of executives -- not just their companies, New York Times, 10 September 2015

A Certain Amount

It's like a certain amount of being a parent is realizing what an ass you were before you became a parent.

-- Ira Glass, This American Life, "Pink Slip", 14 August 2015

This Was A Mistake

That was a mistake.  I'm sorry about that.  I take responsibility.

-- Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her first direct apology for her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, New York Times, 9 September 2015

Sock It To Me

Sock it to me!

-- Judy Carne (27 April 1939 - 3 September 2015), English actress, on Rowan & Martin's Laugh In

Martyrdom

Martyrdom, as a rule, establishes the sincerity of the martyr, -- never the correctness of his thought.  Things are true or false in themselves.  Truth cannot be affected by opinions; it cannot be changed, established, or affected by martyrdom.  An error cannot be believed sincerely enough to make it a truth.

-- Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899), lawyer, Civil War veteran political leader and orator, The Great Infidels (1881)

Where Are The Eyes?

Where are the eyes in an autonomous vehicle?

-- John Lee, a University of Wisconsin professor  and expert in driver safety on the Google  self-driving car and concerns that it can't  interact with other drivers by making eye contact, New York Times, 2 September 2015

2019 Mindset List

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released its "mind-set list" to help faculty and administrators understand what a new class of freshmen have experienced and not experienced. Here is the list for the entering college class of 2019, most of whom were born in 1997. Among those who have never been alive in this group of students' lifetimes are Princess Diana, Notorious B.I.G., Jacques Cousteau and Mother Teresa.

Since these students have been on the planet:

• Hybrid automobiles have always been mass-produced.
• Google has always been there, in its founding words, "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible."
• Kyoto has always symbolized inactivity about global climate change.
• The Lion King has always been on Broadway.
• Vote by mail has always been the official way to vote in Oregon.
• ... and there has always been a Beloit College mind-set list.

Origins To Cyber1

As you all are surely aware, NovaNET finally took the big sleep last night. It was a sad sight, and I'm sorry to see it go.

In February of 1981, I wrote my first note with the title "trvth" in =pad.  I was appleman / chanute at the time. Over the years, with breaks both short and long, I've posted more than 4700 notes with that title, in =pad. The most recent 2300 have been reposted, with accompanying images, at trvth.org

Two years ago, an area high school (Atwood-Hammond) was demolished after the school merged with Arthur-Lovington. The crowd that came to watch that demolition had a nostalgia that I felt again last night, when the room (=pad) was filled with veterans of 30 or more years of PLATO/NovaNET.

Final NovaNET backout

* sigh *

I Always Thought

I've seen fire and I've seen rain.
    I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end.
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend.
    But I always thought that I'd see you again.

-- James Vernon Taylor (12 March 1948-). American singer-songwriter and guitarist, "Fire And Rain" (1970)



Point of trivia, my "cerl" records were created on his 27th birthday, 40 years ago this spring.

A Part Of Ourselves

What we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

-- Anatole France (1844-1924), French poet, journalist, and novelist, The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard, Part II, ch. 4 (1881)

The World Is Round

The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.

-- Ivy Baker Priest (1877-1965), Treasurer of the United States (1953-1961), Parade Magazine, 1958

No Real Ending

There is no real ending.  It's just the place where you stop the story.

-- Frank Herbert (1920-1986), American science fiction writer, interview, 3 February 1969, California State College, Fullerton

Gains For All Our Losses

There are gains for all our losses,
There are balms for all our pain:
But when youth, the dream, departs,
It takes something from our hearts,
And it never comes again.

-- Richard Henry Stoddard (1825-1903), American critic and poet, The Flight of Youth

The Road

Where you end up isn't the most important thing.  It's the road you take to get you there.  The road you take is what you'll look back on and call your life.

-- Tim Wiley

The Only Thing You Take

The only thing you take with you when you're gone is what you leave behind.

-- John Allston

The Art Of Ending

Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), American poet, one of the five Fireside Poets, Elegiac Verse, stanza 14 (1879)

One Minute At A Time

This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.

-- Narrator in the film Fight Club (1999)

The Past

The past is never where you think you left it.

-- Katherine Anne Porter (1890 - 1980), American journalist, essayist, and novelist, Ship of Fools (1962)

Use The Redline

We tuned the car to preserve the engine and increase longevity. Use the redline when you feel it's necessary for win. Good luck

-- Scion Forums senior member Teseo, aka Scion FR-S Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada, in the thread "How often can I reach red line ?", 20 April 2015

This Is How It Works

This is how it works --
You're young until you're not
You love until you don't
You try until you can't
You laugh until you cry
You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe
until their dying breath.

-- Regina Spektor (1980-), Soviet-born American singer-songwriter and pianist, "On the Radio", Begin to Hope (2006)

See It All Perfectly

I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations -- one can either do this or that.  My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this:  do it or do not do it -- you will regret both.

-- Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Danish Christian philosopher and theologian, Either/Or: A Fragment of Life