Quotation of the day for April 30, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 30, 2015 "So what advice should one give to a young person? By all means, go to college. In fact, approach college in the spirit of craftsmanship, going deep into liberal arts and sciences. In the summers, learn a manual trade. You're likely to be less damaged, and quite possibly better paid, as an independent tradesman than as a cubicle-dwelling tender of information systems. To heed such advice would require a certain contrarian streak, as it entails rejecting a life course mapped out by others as obligatory and inevitable." - Matthew B. Crawford in his essay Shop Class as Soulcraft. He later expanded the essay into a book, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. Submitted by: Terry Labach Apr. 29, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 28, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 28, 2015 "Maybe something awesome will turn up. Or not. As the Empire declines, so does culture, literacy, and almost everything else. Ironically, high technology, once thought to be the savior of civilization, has become our Alaric the First, our barbarian invasion. Increasingly, it looks like life in the future will be nasty, brutish and long." - Donald Fagen, from his 2015 Coachella diary in Rolling Stone. [http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/steely-dan-donald-fagen-coachella-tour-diary-part-six-20150420] Submitted by: Terry Labach Apr. 27, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 23, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 23, 2015 "I think the camera is something of a nuisance in a way. It's recalcitrant. It's determined to do one thing and you may want to do something else. You have to fuse what you want and what the camera wants. It's like a horse. Well, that's a bad comparison because I'm not much of a horseback rider, but I mean you get to learn what it will do. I've worked with a couple of them. One will be terrific in certain situations, or I can make it be terrific. Another will be very dumb but sometimes I kind of like that dumbness. It'll do, you know. I get a great sense that they're different from me. I don't feel that total identity with the machine. I mean I can work it fine, although I'm not so great actually. Sometimes when I'm winding it, it'll get stuck or something will go wrong and I just start clicking everything and suddenly very often it's all right again. That's my feeling about machines. If one sort of looks the other way, they'll get fixed. Except for certain ones." - Diane Arbus [http://inconstanttransition.tumblr.com/post/97369974888/i-think-the-camera-is-something-of-a-nuisance-in-a] Submitted by: Bob Bruhin Apr. 20, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 22, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 22, 2015 "Sometimes a girl just needs a spacesuit to feel like a real astronaut." - Sophie Milam, Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation crew member, quoted in The New Yorker. [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/20/moving-to-mars] Submitted by: John Karabaic Apr. 15, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 17, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 17, 2015 "There are thinkers who have compared [concentration] to a muscle that does get strengthened. But I think there are big cultural consequences to having that ability or not. I give the example of sitting down to read a challenging book, and after a page or so I'm getting antsy and I realize it's Tuesday night and my favourite TV show is on. So I turn it on and maybe that's for the best, because the next day I have some basis for chitchat with other people and I'm not a freak as I would have been if I'd been absorbed in Aristotle. But I think what that means is that we're becoming more similar to one another. "The ability to concentrate on things that aren't immediately engaging, or a lack of such ability, seems to be tied up with the question of whether intellectual diversity is going to persist or not. If we're all sort of tied into these sources of mass culture, then I think it does have a homogenizing effect." - Matthew Crawford, philosopher and author of the new book, The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction. Submitted by: Terry Labach Apr. 14, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 16, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 16, 2015 "Mandatory minimum sentences, by their very nature, have the potential to depart from the principle of proportionality in sentencing. They emphasize denunciation, general deterrence and retribution at the expense of what is a fit sentence for the gravity of the offence, the blameworthiness of the offender, and the harm caused by the crime. They function as a blunt instrument that may deprive courts of the ability to tailor proportionate sentences at the lower end of a sentencing range." - Beverly McLachin, Chief Justice of The Supreme Court of Canada, in a ruling that the mandatory minimum sentences in place for illegal possession of a firearm are unconstitutional. [http://www.canadianlawyermag.com/legalfeeds/2640/scc-quashes-mandatory-minimums-for-gun-crimes.html] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Apr. 14, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 15, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 15, 2015 "If I had been Jay Z, I would have brought out ten artists that were underground or independent and said, 'These are the people who are struggling to make a living in today's music industry. Whereas this competitor streaming site pays this person 15 cents for X amount of streams, that same amount of streams on my site, on Tidal, will pay that artist this much.' I think they totally blew it by bringing out a bunch of millionaires and billionaires and propping them up onstage and then having them all complain about not being paid." - Ben Gibbard, Death Cab for Cutie frontman on Jay Z's recently unveiled subscription streaming service, Tidal. [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/11/death-cab-for-cutie-frontman-ben-gibbard-slams-indiana-and-talks-divorce.html] Submitted by: Terry Labach Apr. 14, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 11, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 11, 2015 Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who knew a lot about maps according to which life is on its way somewhere or other, told us this story from the war due to which history is on its way somewhere or other: The young lieutenant of a small Hungarian detachment in the Alps sent a reconnaissance unit out into the icy wasteland. It began to snow immediately, snowed for two days and the unit did not return. The lieutenant suffered: he had dispatched his own people to death. But the third day the unit came back. Where had they been? How had they made their way? Yes, they said, we considered ourselves lost and waited for the end. And then one of us found a map in his pocket. That calmed us down. We pitched camp, lasted out the snowstorm and then with the map we discovered our bearings. And here we are. The lieutenant borrowed this remarkable map and had a good look at it. It was not a map of the Alps but of the Pyrenees. Goodbye now. - Miroslav Holub, Notes of a Clay Pigeon, reprinted in G.Y. Craig and E.J. Jones, A Geological Miscellany, 1982. [http://www.futilitycloset.com/2015/03/24/unfolding-hopes/] Submitted by: Bob Bruhin Mar. 24, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 10, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 10, 2015 my internal monologue is saturated analog it's scratched and drifting I've become attached to the idea it's all a shifting dream bittersweet philosophy I've got no idea how I even got here I'm resentful I'm having an existential time crisis what bliss daylight savings wont fix this mess under worked and oversexed I must express my disinterest the rats are back inside my head what would Freud've said - Courtney Barnett [http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/courtneybarnet/pedestrianatbest.html] Submitted by: Bob Bruhin Mar. 24, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 9, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 9, 2015 "Woolsey always said that the making of the treaty is the treaty. It doesn't matter what the terms are, just that there are terms. It's the goodwill that matters. When that runs out, the treaty is broken, whatever the terms say." - Hilary Mantel, from her novel Wolf Hall. The historical character Thomas Cromwell is referring to his mentor Thomas Woolsey, Archbishop of York, cardinal, papal legate, and Lord Chancellor. Submitted by: Joan Carroll Stevens Apr. 4, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 8, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 8, 2015 "Over the years, I have come to understand that the basic premise behind the Cookbook is profoundly flawed. The anger that motivated the writing of the Cookbook blinded me to the illogical notion that violence can be used to prevent violence. I had fallen for the same irrational pattern of thought that led to US military involvement in both Vietnam and Iraq. The irony is not lost on me." - William Powell, who wrote the infamous Anarchist Cookbook in 1969. [http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/19/anarchist-cookbook-author-william-powell-out-of-print] Submitted by: Rob Wood Apr. 6, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 7, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 7, 2015 "I am particularly struck that the alleged bombers made use of online bombmaking guides like the Anarchist Cookbook and Inspire Magazine. These documents are not, in my view, protected by the First Amendment and should be removed from the Internet." - Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senator. [The Senator did not suggest a means to remove these from the Internet. -eds.] [http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=5aa2afc1-2616-439a-a7bf-1f54b71b40ca] Submitted by: Rob Wood Apr. 6, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 4, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 4, 2015 "Perhaps more than any other people, Americans have been locked in a deadly struggle with time, with history. We've fled the past and trained ourselves to suppress, if not forget, troublesome details of the national memory, and a great part of our optimism, like our progress, has been bought at the cost of ignoring the processes through which we've arrived at any given moment in our national existence." - Ralph Ellison, 1964 Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Apr. 1, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 3, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 3, 2015 "However, there is a danger. Dazzling presentations do not necessarily result in learning. The more technologies allow lecturers to illustrate concepts, or large amounts of information, in ways that students cannot record in their notes or immediately commit to long term memory, the less efficient lecturing becomes. It may be entertaining for the big occasion; but entertainment is a different objective from learning and educational development." - Donald A. Bligh, from What's the Use of Lectures? Submitted by: Terry Labach Mar. 31, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 2, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 2, 2015 "...a couple of times that my assistant put in [a claim] for a breakfast when I was on a plane, and they say I should have not claimed because I should have eaten that breakfast. Well, those breakfasts are pretty awful. If you want ice-cold camembert with broken crackers, have it." - Nancy Ruth, Conservative Senator, complaining of auditors reviewing her expense claims. [April 2015] "I just don't think they understand anything of what it's like to have to fly around the world to get here to Ottawa. They just don't know." - Nancy Ruth, Conservative Senator, complaining of auditors not understanding her herculean work efforts. [April 2015] The Senator lives in Toronto, 450 km from Ottawa. [http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/senator-nancy-ruth-slams-auditors-over-breakfast-claims-1.3018132] Submitted by: Terry Labach Apr. 1, 2015

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Quotation of the day for April 1, 2015

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Quotation of the Day for April 1, 2015 "A wave of legislation, introduced in more than two dozen states, would allow people to discriminate against their neighbors. Some, such as the bill enacted in Indiana last week that drew a national outcry and one passed in Arkansas, say individuals can cite their personal religious beliefs to refuse service to a customer or resist a state nondiscrimination law. "Others are more transparent in their effort to discriminate. Legislation being considered in Texas would strip the salaries and pensions of clerks who issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples -- even if the Supreme Court strikes down Texas' marriage ban later this year. In total, there are nearly 100 bills designed to enshrine discrimination in state law. "These bills rationalize injustice by pretending to defend something many of us hold dear. They go against the very principles our nation was founded on, and they have the potential to undo decades of progress toward greater equality." - Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/pro-discrimination-religious-freedom-laws-are-dangerous-to-america/2015/03/29/bdb4ce9e-d66d-11e4-ba28-f2a685dc7f89_story.html] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Mar. 30, 2015

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