Saturday 31 December 2011

Moving

Work begins when you don't like what you're doing. 
Tension, a lack of honesty, and a sense of unreality come from following the wrong force in your life. 
As an adult, you must rediscover the moving power of your life!
 — Joseph Campbell 'Reflections on the Art of Living'

Friday 30 December 2011

We

It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.
 — Leonard Cohen

Thursday 29 December 2011

Killed By James Hardie (Amaca) Asbestos This Morning

My Mum

Mum

I see your picture
as though it were a mirror 
but there's no part of you 
outside the frame 
except the change that you gave to me: 
this will never come again. 
You are gone 
and I am with you: 
this will never come again.
 — Peter Hammill 'Again'


Look at the sky, but it's empty now; 
look at the sea, it holds nothing but despair. 
I raise my eyes, but my head stays bowed... 
I look to my side, but you're not there. 
And I can't get you out of my mind, 
no, no, no, no, I just can't get you from my mind.
 — Peter Hammill 'The Shingle Song'


I can't get used to living here,
While my heart is broke, my tears I cried for you.
But all I got is a photograph
And I realise you're not coming back anymore.
 — Richard Starkey 'Photograph'

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Mirror Neurons

A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself.
 — Niels Bohr

Monday 26 December 2011

Idiot Grin

behind the smirk of the macho man 
is the quivering lip of the little boy.
 — Peter Hammill

Sunday 25 December 2011

Navigational Aid

I see a twinkle in your eye,
so this shall be my Christmas star 
and I will travel to your heart: 
the manger where the real things are.
 — Michæl Leunig 'Christmas'

Saturday 24 December 2011

Throw Of The Die

All persons living and dead are purely coincidental.
 — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Timequake

Friday 23 December 2011

What Counts

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.
 — Tom Stoppard

Thursday 22 December 2011

American Collateral

All that happens is that the destruction of human beings — unless they're Americans — is called collateral damage.
 — Harold Pinter

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Just Add Salt

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.
 — Douglas Adams

Sunday 18 December 2011

Nevertheless

He may be an athlete, but he's quite bright.
 — Will Parker on Fritz Eger in Tripods

Friday 16 December 2011

Reverse Nonlinearity

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.
 — Dr. Seuss

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Time Heals

ZEAL, n. A certain nervous disorder afflicting the young and inexperienced. A passion that goeth before a sprawl.
 — Ambrose Bierce

Sunday 11 December 2011

A Nation Of Customers

To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers.
 —Adam Smith 'The Wealth of Nations'

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Sage Advice

Do not let a flattering woman coax and wheedle you and deceive you; she is after your barn.
 — Hesiod

Tuesday 6 December 2011

No Matter What

You know Tom Paine wrote the first best-seller at a dark time in the Revolution when we were losing and all the soldiers were deserting. Giving up. And the book was called Common Sense and it was really just a long list of questions. And one of the questions was: Does it make common sense for an island to rule a continent? And everybody kind of went hmmm and they signed back up.
And today you could ask: Does it make common sense for a country to rule the world? But no matter what your answer, no matter what you think, no matter what you vote for–

We just keep calling em up, calling em, calling em up. No matter what.
We just keep calling em up, calling em, calling em up. No matter what.

 — Laurie Anderson 'Dark Time In The Revolution'

Monday 5 December 2011

Consumerism

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
 — HL Mencken

Wednesday 30 November 2011

Brave, Brave James Hardie

Brave, Brave James Hardie
When lawsuits raised their ugly head, 
they bravely changed their name and fled
Brave, Brave, Brave, Brave James Hardie

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Mysterious Ways

God for you is where you sweep away all the mysteries of the world, all the challenges to our intelligence.
You simply turn your mind off and say God did it.
 — Carl Sagan

Monday 28 November 2011

Clairvoyants

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
 — Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, in 1943

640K ought to be enough for anybody.
 — Bill Gates, in 1981

Sunday 27 November 2011

Faithless

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.
 — Friedrich Nietzsche

Saturday 26 November 2011

Shoaling

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
 — Mark Twain

Friday 25 November 2011

Corporate Intelligence

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.
 — Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977

Thursday 24 November 2011

The Way Out

We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.
 — Decca Recording Company, rejecting the Beatles, in 1962

Wednesday 23 November 2011

The Evolution Of Error

Science is the record of dead religions.
 — Oscar Wilde

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Slight

The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations. 
 — Ambrose Bierce

Monday 21 November 2011

Variation And Selection

Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.
 — HL Mencken

Wednesday 16 November 2011

We Care A Lot

We Care A Lot About Disasters, Fires, Floods And Killer Bees
We Care A Lot About The NASA Shuttle Falling In The Sea
We Care A Lot About Starvation And The Food That Live Aid Bought
We Care A Lot About Disease, Baby Rock, Hudson, Rock, Yeah!

We Care A Lot About The Gamblers And The Pushers And The Geeks
We Care A Lot About The Crack And Smack And Whack That Hits The Street
We Care A Lot About The Welfare Of All The Boys And Girls
We Care A Lot About You People Cause We're Out To Save The World

YEAH!

And It's A Dirty Job But Someone's Gotta Do It

We Care A Lot About The Army Navy Air Force And Marines
We Care A Lot About The SF, NY And LAPD
We Care A Lot About You People, About Your Guns
About The Wars You're Fighting Gee That Looks Like Fun

We Care A Lot About The Garbage Pail Kids, They Never Lie
We Care A Lot About Transformers Cause There's More Than Meets The Eye

We Care A Lot About The Little Things, The Bigger Things We Top
We Care A Lot About You People Yeah You Bet We Care A Lot,

YEAH!

Well, Its A Dirty Job But Someone's Gotta Do It
And It's A Dirty Song But Someone's Gotta Sing It

 — Faith No More

Sunday 6 November 2011

Friday 4 November 2011

Homeland Insecurity

Like was the Constitution written in invisible ink?
Has everybody here forgotten how to think?
Is this great big boat starting to sink?
 — Laurie Anderson 'Dark Time In The Revolution'