Substance, Quality, Or Relation?

But suppose we take the noun "truth": here is a case where the disagreements between different theorists have largely turned on whether they interpreted this as a name of a substance, of a quality, or of a relation.

-- John Langshaw Austin (1911 - 1960), English philosopher of language and speech theorist, Philosophical Papers, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford, 1979), p 73

Grave Situation

We formally inform the White House and Pentagon that the ever-escalating U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and its reckless nuclear threat will be smashed by the strong will of all the united service personnel and people and cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means. The U.S. had better ponder over the prevailing grave situation.

-- Spokesman from the General Bureau of the North Korean People's Army to state media, 3 April 2013

My Real Voice

It is human nature to look away from illness.  We don't enjoy a reminder of our own fragile mortality.  That's why writing on the Internet has become a life-saver for me.  My ability to think and write have not been affected. And on the Web, my real voice finds expression.

-- Roger Joseph Ebert (18 June 1942 - 4 April 2013), American film critic and screenwriter, first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, Ted Talk (March 2011)

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