Sunday 28 August 2011

Lost Cause

The value of a college education
is not the learning of many facts
but the training of the mind to think.
 — Albert Einstein

Saturday 27 August 2011

The Nurture Of Nature

Intelligence is inherited to the same extent that stupidity is.

Friday 26 August 2011

The Emotional Subtext Of Music

Anything too silly to be said can be sung.
— George Bernard Shaw Man and Superman, act II

Tuesday 23 August 2011

One More Mystery Explained


I wonder where that fish has gone?
You did love it so,
you treated it like a son.
And it went... where-ever I... did go.

Is it in the cupboard?
Wouldn't you like to know!
It is a most elusive fish.
That went where-ever I did go.

Oh, fishy, fishy, fishy fish!
A fish, a fish, a fishy OOOOH!
Oh, fishy, fishy, fishy fish!
That went wherever I... did go!

— Monty Python 'The Meaning Of Life'

Monday 22 August 2011

Absurd, Farcical & Tragic

Human relationships are patterned and cross-patterned and restricted and limited and delimited and caged and freed again by the elaborate conventions, rules and games which we call civilisation. They're often absurd and farcical, and sometimes they're tragic, yet we acknowledge that they are necessary.
— Peter Greenaway

Saturday 20 August 2011

Rough Rhymes

rough
t•rough
th•rough

d•rough•t
b•rough•t

Thursday 18 August 2011

Parthian Shot

Sola lingua bona est lingua mortua.

[The only good language is a dead language.]

Wednesday 17 August 2011

US

No one likes us — I don't know why
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let's drop the big one and see what happens

We give them money — but are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful and they're hateful
They don't respect us — so let's surprise them
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them

Asia's crowded and Europe's too old
Africa is far too hot
And Canada's too cold
And South America stole our name
Let's drop the big one
There'll be no one left to blame us

We'll save Australia
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin', too

Boom goes London and boom Paris
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We'll set everybody free
You'll wear a Japanese kimono babe
And there'll be Italian shoes for me

They all hate us anyhow
So let's drop the big one now
Let's drop the big one now

— Randy Newman 'Political Science'

Monday 15 August 2011

Caucasians

Armenians
Azerbaijani
Georgians
"White" Americans

Saturday 13 August 2011

Being & Having

I am dead if I lack desire
I lack desire because
I think I possess
I think I possess because
I do not try to give
Trying to give,
You see that you have nothing
Seeing you have nothing,
You try to give of yourself
Trying to give of yourself,
You see you are nothing
Seeing you are nothing,
You desire to become
In desiring to become,
You begin...to live
 — Doug Anderson

Friday 12 August 2011

When In Ancient Rome, Do As The Ancient Romans Do

Antiquis temporibus, nati tibi similes in rupibus ventosissimis exponebantur ad necem.

[In the good old days, children like you were left to perish on windswept crags.]

Sunday 7 August 2011

Monday 1 August 2011

Profit And Loss


James Hardie reported net profit of $US104.9 million in the three months to June 30 2010, up from a loss of $US77.9 million in the first quarter of 2009/10. Net operating profit was $US40.5 million, excluding the company's asbestos obligations, down three per cent on the prior corresponding period.

On the other hand, my 79 year old mother is now dying from pleural mesothelioma. The only cause of this lethal cancer is exposure to asbestos.  My father worked for James Hardie's for 30 years as an electrician on the factory floor.


The building giant yesterday blamed restructuring for the move, which it said was likely to reduce the amount it paid into the fund in July next year by up to $US11.4m ($10.76m).
Asbestos campaigners reacted angrily. "It's not the case that asbestos isn't manufactured any more and therefore is no longer a problem," Karen Banton, widow of veteran asbestos campaigner Bernie Banton, told Seven News last night. "Asbestos is everywhere."
Mesothelioma, a cancer usually triggered by asbestos exposure, has long been seen as a disease affecting men. But a study by the NSW Cancer Institute found that while the mesothelioma rate in men had stabilised, the rate in women was increasing by 4.9 per cent every year.

The Devil-You-Know Anagram


Double Life Anagram