Quotation of the day for December 15, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for December 15, 2015 "Before the wretched prequels started rolling out in the late nineties, George Lucas had already made billions for himself licensing Star Wars toys. That's because, for most children, the only way to see the movie again was to restage it in your home. Lucas's greatest achievement is that he forced an entire generation to become pipsqueak auteurs. "Re-enactments required a critical mass of figures, which, given logistical and financial impediments particular to childhood, was impossible to achieve. "My mother couldn't understand why one Stormtrooper action figure wasn't enough. But you needed multiple Stormtroopers to do the thing properly. I begged for them. Begged. No dice. So I dragooned in other figures to act as undercover/traitorous/triple-agent Stormtroopers. It was a first effort at postmodernism. It didn't hang together very well." - Cathal Kelly, on his youthful obsession with Star Wars. [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/star-wars-and-the-meaning-of-life-cathal-kelly-on-the-sci-fi-series-and-its-profoundimpact/article27711624/] Submitted by: Terry Labach Dec. 14, 2015

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Quotation of the day for December 12, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for December 12, 2015 "No one wants to say it, no one's proud of it, but this is a capitalist society, capitalist system and capitalist rules, and my investors expect to me to maximize profits, not to minimize them, or go half, or go 70 percent, but to go to 100 percent of the profit curve that we're all taught in MBA class." - Martin Shkreli, who raised the price of the drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 a piece overnight. [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/martin-shkreli-i-shouldve-raised-prices-higher/] Submitted by: Dana Weeks Dec. 5, 2015

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Quotation of the day for December 11, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for December 11, 2015 "To people like Dawn and me, people who are obsessive to begin with, the Fitbit is a digital trainer, perpetually egging us on. During the first few weeks that I had it, I'd return to my hotel at the end of the day, and when I discovered that I'd taken a total of, say, twelve thousand steps, I'd go out for another three thousand." "But why?" Hugh asked when I told him about it. "Why isn't twelve thousand enough?" "Because," I told him, "my Fitbit thinks I can do better." - David Sedaris, on his Fitbit. [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/30/stepping-out-3] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Dec. 10, 2015

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Quotation of the day for December 9, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for December 9, 2015 "A father is obligated to do the following for his son: to circumcise him, to redeem him if he is a first born, to teach him Torah, to find him a wife, and to teach him a trade. Others say: teaching him how to swim as well." - The Talmud, Kiddushin 29a. Submitted by: Rob Wood Dec. 8, 2015

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Quotation of the day for December 5, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for December 5, 2015 "At this, Eliza and Ezra rolled together into one giggling snowball of full-figured copulation, screaming and shouting as they playfully bit and pulled at each other in a dangerous and clamorous rollercoaster coil of sexually violent rotation with Eliza's breasts barrel-rolled across Ezra's howling mouth and the pained frenzy of his bulbous salutation extenuating his excitement as it whacked and smacked its way into every muscle of Eliza's body except for the otherwise central zone." - Morrissey, from his novel List of the Lost, which won a 2015 Bad Sex in Fiction awward. [http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/01/morrissey-wins-bad-sex-award-fiction-debut-novel-list-of-the-lost] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Dec. 3, 2015

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Quotation of the day for December 4, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for December 4, 2015 "I am going to translate the complete works of Pirandello, in two hundred and eighteen volumes; it will be very difficult, as I do not know any Italian." - C.K. Scott Moncrieff, in a 1925 letter. Submitted by: Terry Labach Nov. 30, 2015

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Quotation of the day for December 3, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for December 3, 2015 "Secresy is an instrument of conspiracy; it ought not, therefore, to be the system of a regular government." - Jeremy Bentham, in his essay "Of Publicity", published in 1843. [Yes, "Secresy" is the spelling in the original. -eds.] Submitted by: Terry Labach Dec. 1, 2015

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Quotation of the day for December 2, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for December 2, 2015 "As a matter of historical analysis, the relationship between secrecy and privacy can be stated in an axiom: the defense of privacy follows, and never precedes, the emergence of new technologies for the exposure of secrets. In other words, the case for privacy always comes too late. The horse is out of the barn. The post office has opened your mail. Your photograph is on Facebook. Google already knows that, notwithstanding your demographic, you hate kale." - Jill Lepore, writing in the New Yorker. [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/06/24/the-prism] Submitted by: Terry Labach Dec. 1, 2015

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Quotation of the day for December 1, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for December 1, 2015 "My interest in 'Don Quixote' has always been the hero's finding something to live for and sacrifice and serve. Every man wants an inspiration. For the Don, it was Dulcinea. I myself think that the same is true in life, that everything a man does he does for his ideal woman. You live only one life and you believe in something, and I believe in that." - George Balanchine, choreographer. Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Nov. 30, 2015

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Quotation of the day for November 30, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for November 30, 2015 "Normally if I purchase a hammer, if the head of the hammer falls off, I'm allowed to repair it and fix it. I can use the hammer again," Charles Duan, director of Public Knowledge's Patent Reform Project, told me. "For a lot of these newer devices, manufacturers want to say 'We want to be the only ones to repair it' because they make more profits off the repairs. They've found lots and lots of way to do this. Intellectual property law, contracts, end user license agreements, lots and lots of ways to try to make sure you can't do what you want with your stuff." - Charles Duan, interviewed by Vice, on how companies try to prevent product owners from doing their own repairs. [http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-to-fix-everything] Submitted by: Terry Labach Nov. 25, 2015

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Quotation of the day for November 29, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for November 29, 2015 "The best thing that can happen to someone before they retire is that they hate their job at the end. Those that have loved it and are restructured out or pushed out have a harder time. If I had a recipe for good retirement it would be to have a bad job in the last three working years." - Ken LeClair, professor of psychiatry. [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/retirement/retire-health/men-vulnerable-to-boredom-depression-in-retirement/article27490557/] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Nov. 26, 2015

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Quotation of the day for November 28, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for November 28, 2015 "They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace." ["Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant."] - Calgacus, a chieftain of the Caledonian Confederacy, rallying his supporters against Roman Legions c. AD 83. Quoted by Tacitus. Submitted by: Terry Labach Nov. 23, 2015

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Quotation of the day for November 27, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for November 27, 2015 "Apple deals with things by ignoring people." - Kyle Wiens, iFixit CEO, on Apple's hostility to people fixing their own Apple equipment. [http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-to-fix-everything] Submitted by: Terry Labach Nov. 25, 2015

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Quotation of the day for November 26, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for November 26, 2015 "A landmark 2010 study from the Massachusetts General Hospital had even more startling findings. The researchers randomly assigned 151 patients with stage IV lung cancer, like Sara's, to one of two possible approaches to treatment. Half received usual oncology care. The other half received usual oncology care plus parallel visits with a palliative care specialist.... The result: those who saw a palliative care specialist stopped chemotherapy sooner, entered hospice far earlier, experienced less suffering at the end of their lives--and they lived 25 percent longer. In other words, our decision making in medicine has failed so spectacularly that we have reached the point of actively inflicting harm on patients rather than confronting the subject of mortality." - Atul Gawande, from Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. Submitted by: Terry Labach Nov. 23, 2015

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Quotation of the day for November 25, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for November 25, 2015 "Sometimes, what takes place in prison seems like a version of ordinary life beyond the prison gates, just taken to a grotesque extreme. Nowadays in "ordinary" life, too, it can be difficult to distinguish a racketeer from an employee of an official organization. In fact, does this distinction even exist for most people? "And what happens to those of us who are too frightened to stand up for our rights, who adapt and hide behind a mask of submissiveness? Does this protective mask not morph to become our real face? Do we not gradually turn into slaves, silent and unresponsive, but prepared to commit any abomination if so ordered from on high?" - Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former Russian political prisoner, from his book My Fellow Prisoners. Submitted by: Terry Labach Nov. 23, 2015

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Quotation of the day for November 24, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for November 24, 2015 "Patriotism transmutes individual unselfishness into national egoism." - Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian, in his book Moral Man and Immoral Society. Submitted by: Terry Labach Nov. 23, 2015

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Quotation of the day for November 21, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for November 21, 2015 "What I try to show here is it's not the outcome of normal economic forces. It wasn't the laws of supply and demand that had suddenly changed to result in this increase in inequality. "What happened was, in the United States, and then other countries, the rules of the market economy had been written to serve the interests of the 'one per cent.' So they were changing the rules of corporate governance, the way we enforce antitrust laws. "There were some changes in the economy as well: globalization, network effects, association with new technologies. So there were both changes in our world, but most important, changes in the rules of the game." - Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate, discussing his new book Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity. [http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/joseph-stiglitz-economic-inequality-1.3326999] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Nov. 20, 2015

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