Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 31, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 31, 2013



"I'm glad she didn't want me to take her name."

- Nelson Mandela on Graça Machel's announcement that she would keep her surname after their marriage in 1998. Quoted in "Postscript: Nelson Mandela" by Nadine Gordimer in the Dec. 18 New Yorker.

[http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2013/12/16/131216ta_talk_gordimer?mbid=social_tablet_e]

Submitted by: John Karabaic
Dec. 11, 2013

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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 19, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 19, 2013



"Imagine two million passengers, hurtling through space, trapped in 17-inch-wide seats, yapping their innermost thoughts."

- Lamar Alexander, U.S. Senator, on why he is proposing legislation to prevent the use of cell phones on aircraft.

[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-11/congress-says-no-with-fcc-set-to-go-on-in-flight-calls.html]

Submitted by: Rob Wood
Dec. 13, 2013

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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 18, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 18, 2013



"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."

- John F. Kennedy

Submitted by: Reddy, Michael
Nov. 22, 2013

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Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 17, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 17, 2013



"But I love music and that's the problem with a lot of dance music, there's no music there. Not that everything has to be over-the-top melodic, but what I look for in electronic music is colour and interesting ideas and music, if that makes sense."

- Noah Pred, DJ.

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Dec. 12, 2013

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Monday, December 16, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 16, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 16, 2013



"People believe that the CIA is forever--that it's an immovable fixture of American government, like Congress or the Supreme Court--but it was begun with an executive order by a president and it could be ended just as easily. It exists by presidential whim. Obama could shut it down tomorrow, but he doesn't want to. People believe that wars are inevitable, that human nature can't change, but think of capital punishment. In England people were once disemboweled and castrated in front of a cheering crowd, with their heads put on spikes for viewing. In India they executed criminals by dragging them through the streets and having an elephant step on their heads. Now most countries have outlawed capital punishment. Or think of dueling. Ben Jonson killed a man in a duel. Manet dueled an art critic and wounded him with a sword. Pushkin, who fought dozens of duels, died of a bullet wound to the abdomen. Abraham Lincoln almost fought a duel. Nobody duels now. It's inconceivable. It isn't basic to anything. Centuries of patrician tradition, absurd rituals, faces slapped, gauntlets stiffly thrown, times appointed, companions holding out pistols in velvet cases in the park at dawn, the iron laws of honor--we know now it's all hokum. Progress is possible. Drones on autopilot are not inevitable."

- Nicholson Baker, in his novel Traveling Sprinkler.

Submitted by: Rob Wood
Dec. 12, 2013

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Sunday, December 15, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 15, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 15, 2013



"When in doubt, Macarena."

- Jimmy Kimmel, giving advice for faking sign language.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-DxGoIVUWo]

Submitted by: Bob Bruhin
Dec. 13, 2013

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Saturday, December 14, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 14, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 14, 2013



"It's that if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves. And growing up, I felt like a monster in some ways. I didn't see myself reflected at all. I was like, "Yo, is something wrong with me?" That the whole society seems to think that people like me don't exist? And part of what inspired me, was this deep desire that before I died, I would make a couple of mirrors. That I would make some mirrors so that kids like me might seem themselves reflected back and might not feel so monstrous for it."

- Junot Diaz, writer and professor, speaking to students at Bergen Community College.

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Dec. 5, 2013

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Friday, December 13, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 13, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 13, 2013



"The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in "Metcalfe's law"--which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants--becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other!"

- Paul Krugman, writing in 1998.

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Dec. 5, 2013

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Thursday, December 12, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 12, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 12, 2013



"Above all, My Lord, we want equal political rights, because without them our disabilities will be permanent. I know this sounds revolutionary to the whites in this country, because the majority of voters will be Africans. This makes the white man fear democracy.

"But this fear cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the only solution which will guarantee racial harmony and freedom for all. It is not true that the enfranchisement of all will result in racial domination. Political division, based on colour, is entirely artificial and, when it disappears, so will the domination of one colour group by another. The ANC has spent half a century fighting against racialism. When it triumphs as it certainly must, it will not change that policy.

"This then is what the ANC is fighting. Our struggle is a truly national one. It is a struggle of the African people, inspired by our own suffering and our own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live.

"During my lifetime I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But, My Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

- Nelson Mandela, from his statement from the dock at the opening of the defence case in the Rivonia Trial in 1964. Mandela died December 5, 2013.

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Dec. 6, 2013

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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 11, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 11, 2013



What Do We Do With the Information We Collect?

Sharing is one of the joys of Christmas. For this reason, we share your personal information with our affiliates, non-affiliated third parties, and anyone else who has a legitimate financial stake in a successful holiday season. Mrs. Claus also likes to have a look-see.

- Laurence Hughes, from Santa's Privacy Policy.

[http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/santas-privacy-policy]

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Dec. 10, 2013

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 10, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 10, 2013



"My understanding is that God and the Devil are often present in our actions. When we work with great energy it's because our best motive and our worst motive-or, to put it another way, God and the Devil-are equally engaged in the outcome and so, for a period, working within us....But my argument is that when we act with great energy, it is because God and the Devil have the same interest in the outcome. (Their differences will be settled later.) Whereas when we work with little energy, it's because they are not only at odds but are countermanding each other's impact upon us."

- Norman Mailer, writer, from an interview with Michael Lennon.

Submitted by: Rob Wood
Dec. 6, 2013

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Monday, December 9, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 9, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 9, 2013



"As the author of the Patriot Act, I am extremely troubled by the FBI's interpretation of this legislation. While I believe the Patriot Act appropriately balanced national security concerns and civil rights, I have always worried about potential abuses. The Bureau's broad application for phone records was made under the so-called business records provision of the Act. I do not believe the broadly drafted FISA order is consistent with the requirements of the Patriot Act. Seizing phone records of millions of innocent people is excessive and un-American."

- Jim Sensenbrenner, U.S. Congressman from Wisconsin, in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Dec. 6, 2013

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Friday, December 6, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 6, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 6, 2013



"I do not like inmates. But if I worked in a cannery for 27 years, I would not like fucking peaches."

- John Kingston, commander of the Correctional Emergency Response Team for western Pennsylvania, USA. Quoted in Joseph Bernstein's Atlantic story, "Have a Safe Riot".

[http://m.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/12/have-a-safe-riot/354671/]

Submitted by: John Karabaic
Nov. 23, 2013

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Thursday, December 5, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 5, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 5, 2013



"You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."

- Cormac McCarthy, from No Country for Old Men.

Submitted by: Steve Hekel
Nov. 21, 2013

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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 4, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 4, 2013



"This is like R2-D2's evil twin."

- Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, on a robot security guard, known as the K5 Autonomous Data Machine.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/science/coming-soon-a-night-watchman-with-wheels.html?_r=1&]

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Dec. 2, 2013

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Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 3, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 3, 2013



"The academic job market is structured in many respects like a drug gang, with an expanding mass of outsiders and a shrinking core of insiders. Even if the probability that you might get shot in academia is relatively small (unless you mark student papers very harshly), one can observe similar dynamics."

- Alexandre Afonso, lecturer in political economy at King's College London, in the post "How Academia Resembles a Drug Gang".

[http://alexandreafonso.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/how-academia-resembles-a-drug-gang/]

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Dec. 2, 2013

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Monday, December 2, 2013

Quotation of the day for December 2, 2013

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Quotation of the Day for December 2, 2013



"Our social behavior is quite damaging to privacy. Technology has outraced our social intellect."

- Vint Cerf, internet pioneer, speaking to the Federal Trade Commission's Internet of Things workshop on Nov. 19, 2013.

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/20/vint_cerf_privacy_may_be_an_anomaly_online/]

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Nov. 21, 2013

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