Thoughts

Thoughts ... August 26, 1997

Lead,
Follow,
or Get The Hell Out Of The Way

EXTINCTION:

Save the whales.

Collect the whole set.

THE PRESS:

When asked why the Confederates lost the battle of Gettysburg, George Pickett is said to have answered, "I think the Union Army had something to do with it."

Explain not;

Friends

don't expect it

and

Enemies

won't believe it.

Funny Things
Weird Thoughts from London, a forwarded message.
System Administrator's Dictionary
Humor on the Web

My Humor
How to Suck Up to the Boss (a memo)
Downlink .. a short cautionary tale.
The Fluff Pump

Your lot in life is rental properly, subject to change without notice,

payments due daily, utilities not included.

Reality is only a special case of the universe we live in. Don't get too attached to it.

Don't take life too seriously . . . you'll never get out of it alive.

Stupidity has always been a capital crime.

(L. Niven)

Adapt or die!

(L. Niven, attributed to C. Darwin)

Civilization exists by geological consent. Subject to change without notice.

(unknown)

The Three Laws Of Thermodynamics (interpreted by John W. Campbell, Jr.)

First Law: You can't win.

Second Law: You can't break even, either.

Third Law: You can't even quit the game.

The Actual Laws of Thermodynamics

First law: The change in internal energy of a system is the sum of the heat transferred to or from the system and the work done on or by the system.
Second law: The entropy -- a measure of the unavailability of a system's energy to do useful work -- of a closed system tends to increase with time.
Third law: For changes involving only perfect crystalline solids at absolute zero, the change of the total entropy is zero.
Zeroth law: If two bodies are each in thermal equilibrium with a third body, then all three bodies are in thermal equilibrium with each other.

There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL)

Robert A. Heinlen

Appearances to the mind are of four kinds.

Things either are what they appear to be;
or they neither are, nor appear to be;
or they are, and do not appear to be;
or they are not, and yet appear to be.

Epictetus. c. 60 AD

From The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,

Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

Stanza ixxi; Omar Khayyám. -1123.

Marriage is that relation between man and woman in which

the independence is equal,

the dependence mutual, and

the obligation reciprocal.

Louis Anspacher. 1934

Ockham's (Occam's) Razor

"Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate"

(Lit: "entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily")

William of Ockham, 15th Cent AD

In more modern terms, if you have two theories which both explain observed facts then you should use the simplest until more evidence comes along.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity"

R. A. Heinliein, 1941, "The Logic of Empire"

The Declaration of Independence, one of Tommy's better works ...

"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately"

B. Franklin, at the signing of the Declaration, July 4, 1776.

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety

deserve neither liberty nor safety." (B. Franklin)

Quotes

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