He who builds a better mousetrap these days runs into material shortages, patent-infringement suits, work stoppages, collusive bidding, discount discrimination–and taxes.
-HE Martz
If we hit that bull’s-eye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.
-Zapp Brannigan (Futurama)
Rumors are circulating that Futurama may be resurrected in response to DVD sales, making Futurama the second series to require resurrection because Fox executives haven’t a clue.
The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
-Henry Kissinger
Nature published a review of 42 articles from Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia, finding an average error rate of 3 per article for EB and 4 per article for WP. WP has sprung into action to first discern whether this is true and second to fix it.
One Slashdot user was quick to point out that EB lacks an article on the lightsaber and is thus qualitatively inferior.
Fig Newton: The force required to accelerate a fig 39.37 inches per sec.
-J. Hart
No longer satisfied with suing twelve-year-old girls for copyright infringement, the industry has begun serving cease and desist orders to operators of sites hosting copyrighted song lyrics.
The argument that music piracy limits sales has at least some merit, but the notion that lyrics sites are eating into sheet music sales is ludicrous. Most users of lyrics search sites are in fact looking for music they’ve heard SO THEY CAN BUY IT.
History records the continual struggle between faith and knowledge. New ideas battle the old, earning slow acceptance amid violent setbacks.
The path forward is beset by staunch defenders of tradition and dogma. The dominant conflicts of the present are not so different from those of old save one thing: never before has the fastest growing religious assembly been nonbelievers.
In response, those singing old choruses simply sing louder, in growing desperation, threatened by change and information. By the time their voices crack, they’ve forgetten what truly inspired the singing and undertake irrational defenses, even in the face of overwhelming evidence.
I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas.
I’m frightened of the old ones.
-John Cage
Education… has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.
-GM Trevelyan
What do the British, the Germans, the Communists, Terrorists, SARS, Anthrax (not the recording artists), and Avian Flu have in common? Enemies of the moment.
Some were/are more real than others. Tobacco and obesity are orders of magnitude more dangerous than any item (however nondescript) on the trendy fear list. Why aren’t they the focus of fear-mongering?
All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.
-Carl Sagan