I can resist everything except temptation. -Oscar Wilde

It seems not to have been written. It is the quintessence of life. It is the basic truth. -- Brooks Atkinson

More than iron More than lead More than gold I need electricity I need it more than I need lamb or pork or lettuce or cucumber I need it for my dreams ~ Racter (The Policeman’s Beard is Half Constructed)

The only shibboleth the West has is science. It is the premise of modernity and it defines itself as a rationality capable of, indeed requiring separation from politics, religion and really, society. Modernisation is to work towards this. ~ Bruno Latour

An eagle flies high, it flies higher than a sea gull But the crow wings rapidly from tree to bush to hedge The same can be true of life and of death Sometimes life flies high, sometimes death wings rapidly Sometimes it is spoken That death wings from tree to bush to hedge Sometimes it does not ~ Racter (The Policeman’s Beard is Half Constructed)

Anti-intellectualism has long been the anti-Semitism of the businessman. -- Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling by Mark Twain For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all. Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli. Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

Auribus teneo lupum. [I hold a wolf by the ears.] [Boy, it *sounds* good. But what does it *mean*?]

I will not call the principal "spud head".

mal de coucou n. A phenomenon in which you have an active social life but very few close friends people who you can trust, who you can be yourself with, who can help flush out the weird psychological toxins that tend to accumulate over time which is a form of acute social malnutrition in which even if you devour an entire buffet of chitchat, you'll still feel pangs of hunger. ~ Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Easiest Color to Solve on a Rubik's Cube: Black. Simply remove all the little colored stickers on the cube, and each of side of the cube will now be the original color of the plastic underneath -- black. According to the instructions, this means the puzzle is solved. -- Steve Rubenstein

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." --Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

The Worst American Poet Julia Moore, "the Sweet Singer of Michigan" (1847-1920) was so bad that Mark Twain said her first book gave him joy for 20 years. Her verse was mainly concerned with violent death -- the great fire of Chicago and the yellow fever epidemic proved natural subjects for her pen. Whether death was by drowning, by fits or by runaway sleigh, the formula was the same: Have you heard of the dreadful fate Of Mr. P.P. Bliss and wife? Of their death I will relate, And also others lost their life (in the) Ashbula Bridge disaster, Where so many people died. Even if you started out reasonably healthy in one of Julia's poems, the chances are that after a few stanzas you would be at the bottom of a river or struck by lightning. A critic of the day said she was "worse than a Gatling gun" and in one slim volume counted 21 killed and 9 wounded. Incredibly, some newspapers were critical of her work, even suggesting that the sweet singer was "semi-literate". Her reply was forthright: "The Editors that has spoken in this scandalous manner have went beyond reason." She added that "literary work is very difficult to do". -- Stephen Pile, "The Book of Heroic Failures"

/* * [...] Note that 120 sec is defined in the protocol as the maximum * possible RTT. I guess we'll have to use something other than TCP * to talk to the University of Mars. * PAWS allows us longer timeouts and large windows, so once implemented * ftp to mars will work nicely. */ -- from /usr/src/linux/net/inet/tcp.c, concerning RTT [round trip time]

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good. -- H. L. Mencken

The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries #25 If the damage you do is covered by a manufacturers warranty, you didn't do enough damage. Amended: If a manufacturer's warranty covers the damage you did, you didn't do enough damage.

A reverend wanted to telephone another reverend. He told the operator, "This is a parson to parson call."

Beverly Crusher: Here's a question you shouldn't be able to answer...Computer: What is the nature of the universe? Computer: The universe is a spheroid region 705 meters in diameter. "Star Trek: The Next Generation: Remember Me [4.5], Season 4"

We have little choice but to move beyond quality and seek remarkable, connected, and new. Remarkable, as youve already figured out, demands initiative. -- Seth Godin , Poke The Box: When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?

NYTimes 09/Apr/2020 With $2.3T Injection, Fed's Plan Far Exceeds 2008 Rescue -- Coinbase message in Block 629999, the last 12.5 BTC block.