Princess Leia: The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

I am the mother of all things, and all things should wear a sweater.

An expert is a person who avoids the small errors as he sweeps on to the grand fallacy. -- Benjamin Stolberg

La contradiccin es sta: quieren a Dios y quieren a la humanidad. Se obstinan en poner juntos esos dos trminos, que, una vez separados, no pueden encontrarse de nuevo ms que para destruirse recprocamente. Dicen de un tirn: Dios y la libertad del hombre; Dios y la dignidad, la justicia, la igualdad, la fraternidad y la prosperidad de los hombres, sin preocuparse de la lgica fatal conforme a la cual, si Dios existe todo queda condenado a la no-existencia. Porque si Dios existe es necesariamente el amo eterno, supremo, absoluto, y si amo existe el hombre es esclavo; pero si es esclavo, no hay para l ni justicia ni igualdad ni fraternidad ni prosperidad posibles. Podrn, contrariamente al buen sentido y a todas las experiencias de la historia, reventarse a su Dios animado del ms tierno amor por la libertad humana: un amo, haga lo que quiera y por liberal que quiera mostrarse, no deja de ser un amo y su existencia implica necesariamente la esclavitud de todo lo que se encuentra por debajo de l. Por consiguiente, si Dios existiese, no habra para l ms que un solo medio de servir a la libertad humana: dejar de existir. Como celoso amante de la libertad humana y considerndolo como la condicin absoluta de todo lo que adoramos y respetamos en la humanidad, doy vuelta a la frase de Voltaire y digo: si Dios existiese realmente, habra que hacerlo desaparecer. Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin, God and the State

If you are inside of something, say an atom, you only see electrons whirling chaotically around you. If you moved outside the atom you would see those electrons moving with a pattern around the atom. If you rise further above you see that atoms are actually the building blocks of larger structures called molecules. And so it goes, on up the scale, ad infinitum. The ever familiar ‘forest from the trees’ syndrome. It’s all a matter of perspective. True creativity is allowing yourself to gain the loftiest perspective you can in relation to the object of your quandary or inquiry. - J.L. Read

< asuffield> a workstation is anything you can stick on somebodies desk and con them into using -- in #debian-devel

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. -- S. Johnson, "The Life of Samuel Johnson" by J. Boswell In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of the scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first. -- Ambrose Bierce When Dr. Johnson defined patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel, he ignored the enormous possibilities of the word reform. -- Sen. Roscoe Conkling Public office is the last refuge of a scoundrel. -- Boies Penrose

It's grad exam time... MEDICINE You have been provided with a razor blade, a piece of gauze, and a bottle of Scotch. Remove your appendix. Do not suture until your work has been inspected. (You have 15 minutes.) HISTORY Describe the history of the papacy from its origins to the present day, concentrating especially, but not exclusively, on its social, political, economic, religious and philisophical impact upon Europe, Asia, America, and Africa. Be brief, concise, and specific. BIOLOGY Create life. Estimate the differences in subsequent human culture if this form of life had been created 500 million years ago or earlier, with special attention to its probable effect on the English parliamentary system.

As we were driving, we saw a sign that said "Watch for Rocks." Marta said it should read "Watch for Pretty Rocks." I told her she should write in her suggestion to the highway department, but she started saying it was a joke - just to get out of writing a simple letter! And I thought I was lazy! -- Jack Handey

The Worst Prison Guards The largest number of convicts ever to escape simultaneously from a maximum security prison is 124. This record is held by Alcoente Prison, near Lisbon in Portugal. During the weeks leading up to the escape in July 1978 the prison warders had noticed that attendances had fallen at film shows which included "The Great Escape", and also that 220 knives and a huge quantity of electric cable had disappeared. A guard explained, "Yes, we were planning to look for them, but never got around to it." The warders had not, however, noticed the gaping holes in the wall because they were "covered with posters". Nor did they detect any of the spades, chisels, water hoses and electric drills amassed by the inmates in large quantities. The night before the breakout one guard had noticed that of the 36 prisoners in his block only 13 were present. He said this was "normal" because inmates sometimes missed roll-call or hid, but usually came back the next morning. "We only found out about the escape at 6:30 the next morning when one of the prisoners told us," a warder said later. [...] When they eventually checked, the prison guards found that exactly half of the gaol's population was missing. By way of explanation the Justice Minister, Dr. Santos Pais, claimed that the escape was "normal" and part of the "legitimate desire of the prisoner to regain his liberty." -- Stephen Pile, "The Book of Heroic Failures"

the way things are a metadrama a couple, A and B. A falls into B's arms. B shivers. A goes away. B looks after A. ~ Dick Higgins [NYC, Sept-Oct, 1985]

love, n.: When you don't want someone too close--because you're very sensitive to pleasure.

OBVIOUSLY YOU STRIKE OUT AGAINST PEOPLE WITHIN RANGE. IT'S CATHARTIC TO AFFECT SOMEONE WHEN YOU'RE ANGRY. ALTERNATIVELY, CHOOSE ENEMIES IMPOSSIBLY FAR AWAY SO YOU NEVER HAVE TO FIGHT. -- Jenny Holzer

People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy. -- Circular Letter to My Friends in Italy Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin

There are two ways to slice easily thorugh life; to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking. ~ Alfred Korzybski

Real software engineers don't debug programs, they verify correctness. This process doesn't necessarily involve executing anything on a computer, except perhaps a Correctness Verification Aid package.

When we had no computers, we had no programming problem either. When we had a few computers, we had a mild programming problem. Confronted with machines a million times as powerful, we are faced with a gigantic programming problem. ~ Edsger W. Dijkstra

You would weigh less on the top of a mountain than at sea level.

I will not scream for ice cream.

Ronde, one a live village and the other deserted, as dead as Karnak, Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven