Vote For The Meteor

It's kind of like two football teams and you want both of them to lose.  Maybe a meteor will hit the stadium.  This is the opportunity for the American people to vote for the meteor.

-- Libertarian Party Chairman Nicholas Sarwark on the role of his party, at their convention in Orlando, Florida, 30 May 2016

You Can Do It With Either Hand

I made a fist of my right hand -- you can do it with either hand, by the way -- and put my arms around her.

-- Dr Henry J Heimlich, 96, on using the Heimlich maneuver to save an 87-year-old woman who was choking at their senior residence community in Cincinnati, New York Times, 28 May 2016

Perspective

A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points.

-- Alan Kay (17 May 1940 -), computer scientist

Not Equal

All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.

-- Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001), English author and satirist, The Salmon of Doubt (2002)

Right At The Top

The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered to be your style.

-- Fred Astaire (1899-1987), dancer, actor, singer, musician, and choreographer, in The Notorious Landlady, written by Blake Edwards and Larry Gelbart (1962)

RIP Morley Safer

It makes me uneasy.  It is not natural to be talking to a piece of machinery.  But the money is very good.

-- Morley Safer (8 November 1931 - 19 May 2016), CBS television correspondent and mainstay of the network's newsmagazine "60 Minutes" for almost five decades, in a recent interview

Faced With The Prospect

Obituaries & In Memoriam

NOLAND, MARY ANNE

NOLAND, Mary Anne Alfriend.  Faced with the prospect of voting for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, Mary Anne Noland of Richmond chose, instead, to pass into the eternal love of God on Sunday, May 15, 2016

-- Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, VA, 17 May 2016


http://www.richmond.com/obituaries/article_c21b60bc-1153-5abd-b3c8-268cfd32eb57.html

The Last Thing

The last thing a parent teaches a child is how to die.

-- John DeVore, The Moth podcast, May 2016

All Will Be Lost

We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

-- Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (1889-1977), English comic actor and filmmaker, in The Great Dictator (1940)

Easier Than You Think

It's far easier than you think to manipulate a nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep who crave instant gratification.

-- Anonymous Congressman X, allegedly a sitting congressman, in The Confessions of Congressman X (2016)

Because America

We are embarking on what should be the most patriotic summer that this generation has ever seen, with Copa America Centenario being held on U.S. soil for the first time, Team USA competing at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

-- Budweiser Vice President Ricardo Marques, announcing that Budweiser is renaming its beer "America" through the presidential election in November, 9 May 2013

A Londoner

I'm a Londoner, I'm European, I'm British, I'm English, I'm of Islamic faith, of Asian origin, of Pakistani heritage, a dad, a husband.

-- Newly-elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan, New York Times, 30 April 2016

It Will Take Them

There are certainly areas within the city which have not been burned, but this fire will look for them, and it will take them.

-- Darby Allen, a regional fire chief in Alberta, Canada, on a rampaging wildfire that forced the evacuation of all 88,000 residents of Fort McMurray, Canada, New York Times, 5 May 2016

The Years Thunder By

The years thunder by,
    The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie
caked in dust on the shelves of patience.
    Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.      

-- Sterling Hayden (1916 - 1986), American actor, writer and seaman, Wanderer (1963) Book I: Man at Bay, Ch. 5

My Results

I have had my results for a long time: but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them.      

-- Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, quoted in The Mind and the Eye (1954) by A. Arber

Obama Out

And with that I just have two more words to say: Obama out.

-- President Barack Obama ending his final White House Correspondents' Dinner with a mic drop, 30 April 2016

Lucifer In The Flesh

Lucifer in the flesh.  I have Democrat friends and Republican friends.  I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.

-- Former House Speaker John Boehner, when asked his opinion of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, at a recent event at Stanford, Stanford Daily, 28 April 2016

Not Themselves

things explain each other,
Not themselves.

-- George Oppen (1908 - 1984), American poet, This in Which (1965), "A Narrative", 3

It's Moving

It's pure psychological effect.  Your pizza is not going to come any sooner.  But it's moving.

-- Nicholas Goubert, chief of project management at Here, a digital maps company that provides location data to Amazon and other businesses, on location-tracking devices for services including pizza delivery, New York Times, 25 April 2016

Error Will Flourish

We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to enquire. We know that the wages of secrecy are corruption. We know that in secrecy error, undetected, will flourish and subvert.

-- Julius Robert Oppenheimer (1904 – 1967), American physicist and scientific director of the Manhattan Project, "Encouragement of Science" (Address at Science Talent Institute, 6 March 1950), Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, v.7, #1 (Jan 1951) p. 6-8

It's Going To Get Rougher

It's a hurtful place, the world, in and of itself.  We don't need to add to it.  And we're in a place now where we all need one another, and it's going to get rougher.

-- Prince Rogers Nelson (7 June 1958 – 21 April 2016), funk/rock/pop/R&B singer, songwriter, and actor, Tavis Smiley Show, PBS (27 April 2009)

Small Things Become Noble

To lie is so vile, that even if it were in speaking well of godly things it would take off something from God's grace; and Truth is so excellent, that if it praises but small things they become noble.

-- Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian Renaissance architect, musician, inventor, engineer, sculptor, and painter, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, XIX: Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations, Richter (1888)

Actually Think

The most important thing is to actually think about what you do.  To become aware and actually think about the effect of what you do on the environment and on society.  That's key, and that underlies everything else.      

-- Jane Goodall (3 April 1934-), English primatologist, as quoted in Going Blue: A Teen Guide to Saving Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands (2010) by Cathryn Berger Kaye and Philippe Cousteau, p. 14

956,166,000 Pounds

Amount of cheese produced in the United States in February 2016.  The U.S. puts out roughly a billion pounds of the good stuff per month, with mozzarella accounting for slightly more than a third of the production and cheddar accounting for about a quarter.

-- FiveThirtyEight.com, Significant Digits for April 13, 2016

Count Me Out

Let me be clear.  I do not want, nor will I accept, the nomination for our party.  Let me speak directly to the delegates on this.  If no candidate has a majority on the first ballot, I believe that you only choose from a person who has actually participated in the primaries.  Count me out.  I simply believe that if you want to be the nominee for our party, to be the president, you should actually run for it.  I chose not to do this.  Therefore, I should not be considered.  Period.  End of Story.

-- House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), at a news conference, 12 April 2016

Conscience Is A Dog

Conscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing but that we cannot prevent from barking.

-- Nicolas de Chamfort (1741-1794), French writer

Tactics And Techniques

I will not agree to carry out some of these tactics and techniques I've heard bandied about because this institution needs to endure. ...  Absolutely, I would not agree to having any CIA officer carrying out waterboarding again.

-- CIA Director John Brennan in an interview with NBC News, 11 April 2016

A Guilty World

War is to be ranked among the most dreadful calamities which fall on a guilty world; and, what deserves consideration, it tends to multiply and perpetuate itself without end. It feeds and grows on the blood which it sheds. The passions, from which it springs, gain strength and fury from indulgence.

-- William Ellery Channing (1780-1842), Unitarian theologian and preacher in the United States, War (1816)

Photograph Everything

In the future, we will photograph everything and look at nothing

-- Om Malik, The New Yorker, 4 April 2016

Play The Same Level

It's like trying to play the same level on Super Mario Brothers over and over again and just restoring from your saved game every time you kill Mario.

-- Jonathan Zdziarski, iOS forensics expert, on a technique the FBI could have used to unlock a terrorist's iPhone by removing a chip and foiling a mechanism used to prevent password guessing, New York Times, 30 March 2016

Money Can't Buy You Happiness

Money can't buy you happiness, but neither can poverty.

-- Leo Rosten (1908-1997), American teacher, academic and humorist

Tesla

On April Fool's Day I reserved my place in line.  Apparently I'm in the front half of the queue.


-- Tweet relating the pace of madness:

276k Model 3 orders by end of Sat
-- Elon Musk ‏@elonmusk on Twitter, 3 April 2016


-- Confirmation email:

Thank You. Your reservation is confirmed

Model 3 production is scheduled to begin in late 2017. North American deliveries will be first, followed by Europe, Asia and Pacific countries then countries with right-hand drive configurations. Those who own Model S or Model X cars will be  offered priority production slots as a special thanks for supporting the Tesla mission.

Tesla Motors | 3500 Deer Creek Road | Palo Alto, CA 94304

It Makes The World Look Scarier

Two things have always been true about human beings.  One, the world is always getting better.  Two, the people living at that time think it's getting worse.  It's because you get older, your responsibilities are different.  Now I'm taking care of children instead of being a child.  It makes the world look scarier.  That happens to everyone.      

-- Penn Jillette (1955-), American illusionist, juggler, and comedian, "Honest Questions with Penn Jillette" (2 November 2007), CNN

Superior Talent

In the long run, there is not much discrimination against superior talent.  It constrains men to recognize it.

-- Carter Godwin Woodson (1875 – 1950), African American historian, author, journalist, and the founder of Black History Month, The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933)

Voices From Downstairs

You have to let go of everything to be the parent you're going to be.  Your kids are unique individuals who have never been before and will never be again.  You almost have to let them teach you how to be a parent rather than the other way around.

-- Ray Spooner, Voices From Downstairs, 29 March 2016

http://rayslittleride.com/2016/03/29/voices-from-downstairs/

Alternatives

Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.

-- Maya Angelou (1928-2014), American author, poet, and civil rights activist, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)

RIP Andy Grove

Success breeds complacency.  Complacency breeds failure.  Only the paranoid survive.

-- Andrew Stephen "Andy" Grove (born András István Gróf; 2 September 1936 - 21 March 2016), Hungarian-born American businessman, engineer, and author, former president, CEO, and chairman of the board of Intel Corporation, attributed in: William J. Baumol et al (2007) Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth. p. 228

Cocksure

Certitude is not the test of certainty.  We have been cocksure of many things that were not so.

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935), American jurist and Supreme Court Justice, "Natural Law", 32 Harvard Law Review 40, 41 (1918)

Aposiopesis

I learned a new word today:

aposiopesis:
(rhetoric) An abrupt breaking-off in speech, often indicated in print using an ellipsis (...) or an em dash (--).

The Answer

The answer to that is certainly, yes.

-- Jeff Miller, NFL senior vice president for health and safety policy, in the league's first acknowledgment of a link between football and degenerative brain disorders, New York Times, 16 March 2016

Art Of Living

In the Art of Living, man is both the artist and the object of his art; he is the sculptor and the sculpture.

-- Erich Fromm (1900-1980), German social psychologist, Man For Himself: An Inquiry Into The Psychology Of Ethics (1947)

Axel

Back in September 2001, a farmer noticed a stray dog on his property. The dog was friendly, and would hang out with the farmer's dog behind his house. The stray, a husky-looking mix, didn't leave, and after three days the farmer took the dog to the Champaign County Humane Society. They estimated that he was 18 months old, giving him a birth date in March 2000.

I took my daughter, Sheena, who was 14 at the time, to the Humane Society in October 2001, where we first met Axel and heard his story. He was young and springy. When we took him to the outdoor play area he would spring into the air, chest high, with exuberance. He became Sheena's dog and a part of our family.

Dubbed Axel Rose by my daughter, he could leap over the fence around our yard, and dug furiously when he was bored. He was a fixture in our household. When Sheena eventually moved out of the house, she realized how hard it is to rent a place that allows dogs. And Axel remained a fixture in our household. He and I had a camaraderie that held fast as one by one the kids moved out. Axel was never my dog. But Axel and I were always solid, both of us constant in a household of swirling change, the comings and goings of children and other pets.

In recent years I've seen Axel lose much of his eyesight and hearing. Eventually he could no longer handle stairs. Lately, he had to be carried in and out of the house. He was still a happy dog, and still could have a good time. Today marked the end of an amazing, 16-year run.

Respect.

Don't Think

The work's not hard, if you don't think about radiation.

-- Minoru Ikeda, 63, a retired postal worker who joined the cleanup effort at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant damaged in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, New York Times, 10 March 2016

RIP George Martin

I've had a bloody good innings.  I can't imagine anyone who's been luckier than I have with the kind of artists I've been able to record.

-- Sir George Henry Martin CBE (3 January 1926 - 8 March 2016), English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer and musician, referred to as the "Fifth Beatle"

RIP Nancy Reagan

Our relationship is very special.  We were very much in love and still are.  Thank God we found each other.  When I say my life began with Ronnie, well, it's true.  It did.  Forty-six years?  Can't imagine life without him.

-- Nancy Reagan (6 July 1921 - 6 March 2016), born Anne Francis Robbins, American actress, political activist, and wife of US President Ronald Reagan, as quoted in an interview with Vanity Fair (July 1998)

A Little Magic

A little magic can take you a long way.

-- Roald Dahl (1916-1990), British novelist and short story author of Norwegian descent, James And The Giant Peach (1961)

Where Art Begins

If you have ever experienced something intensely and shared that experience with others, then you have been where art begins.

-- Marsha McRae Hogue, Texas high school art educator

Feels Great

I haven't quite figured it out yet, but it feels great.

-- Albert Woodfox, former Black Panther and one of the Angola 3, on being released after 43 years in solitary confinement, Democracy Now!, 22 February 2016

Luxurious Leisure

If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed.  Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution.  So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.

-- Stephen Hawking (1942-), Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) Science, 8 October 2015

No Smoke-Filled Room

There is no mechanism.  There is no smoke-filled room.  If there is, I've never seen it, nor do I know anyone who has.  This is going to play out in the way that it will.

-- Michael O. Leavitt, former governor of Utah, on how the Republican Party was unable to come up with a united front to quash Donald J. Trump's campaign, New York Times, 28 February 2016