(3089/898) Babies and stuff

1890) A baby is the most complicated object made by unskilled labor.

unknown
quoted by Arlene S. Skolnick in
The Psychology of Human Development (1986)
posted by Amy Denise Osborn [IQM] (7/21/1996)

1891) Our society has passed from a period which was ignorant of adolescence to a period in which adolescence is the favorite age. We now want to come to it early and linger in it as long as possible.

Philippe Aries
Centuries of Childhood (1962)
quoted by Arlene S. Skolnick in
The Psychology of Human Development (1986)
posted by Amy Denise Osborn [IQM] (7/21/1996)

1892) The human being, at all times, from the first kick in utero to the last breath, is organized into groupings of geographic and historic coherence: family, class, community, nation. A human being, thus, is at all times an organism, an ego, and a member of society.

Erik Erikson
Childhood and Society (1950)
quoted by Arlene S. Skolnick in
The Psychology of Human Development (1986)
posted by Amy Denise Osborn [IQM] (7/21/1996)

Sources

[IQM] - Internet Quotations mailing list


Note: "3089/898" is the designation I've given to the project of posting all my collected quotes, excerpts and ideas (3089 of them) in the remaining days of the Bush administration (of which there were 898 left when I began).

As of today, there are 423 days remaining in the administration of the worst American President ever.

(3089/898) Facts and ... facts?

1887) I thought about getting funding for a grant to study graffiti. Clearly, graffiti is the work of space aliens. It's too complex and patterned to be the product of natural forces. It couldn't be a prank because no one could create such complex patterns overnight in a public place, without being noticed. Therefore, ipso facto, post hoc ergo propter hoc, ALIENS.

As final evidence, consider that the government has published absolutely no studies on the alien-graffiti connection. Therefore, those studies must all be top top secret. Therefore, there must be a really important story which the government is hiding from us!!!

Zenon M. Feszczak
posted on [IDM] (8/5/1996)

1888) [In his book The End of Science, John] Horgan argues [...] the big [scientific] problems that can be solved have been solved, and the big ones that haven't been solved can't be solved. Where does this leave contemporary scientists? The can either pursue small, manageable and vaguely boring science (sequencing the complete complement of human DNA may fall into this category), or they can turn to what Mr. Horgan calls "ironic science." Such science is "speculative, postempirical," resembling literary criticism "in that it offers points of view, opinions, which are, at best, interesting." Ironic science is provocative, he says, but it fails to converge on the truth. "It cannot achieve empirically verifiable surprises that force scientists to make substantial revisions in their basic descriptions of reality."

Natalie Anger
"The Job Is Finished" in
New York Times Book Review (6/30/1996)
[reviewing, and quoting from,
The End of Science (1996)
by John Horgan]

1889) The great tragedy of Science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.

Thomas Huxley
"Biogenesis and Abiogenesis" in
Collected Essays (1894) [ODQ]
quoted by Arlene S. Skolnick in
The Psychology of Human Development (1986)
posted by Amy Denise Osborn [IQM] (7/21/1996)

Friday Photography: Lake Reflections

Daryl Samuel
Location: Somewhere in the wilds of Florida
Previous: Photos posted in 2006 / 2007: Pagoda / Ferry / Sand Tracks / General Store / Taverna Tables / Finger Piano / Bridge at Sunset / Snowfall in Cambridge / Boats / Grandma in Motion / Museum Silhouette / Brooklyn Bridge / Seascape / City Hall / Santa Fe Hotel / Lunch Break / Low Rider / Giant Crab Invades Boston! / East Meets West / Building Reflections / Flatiron Spring / Hands With Glasses / Fishing Net / Steps / Oil and Vinegar / Gas Station / Brooklyn Bridge in Sepia / Windmill on the Paralia / Santa Fe Art / Island Time / Battleship Rock / Copper Mine / Slide! / Playing Piano / Underground Cistern / Broken Windmill / Forked River / Manhattan Bridge / Hot Air Balloon / Island Engine / Park Reflections / Sultan Ahmed Mosque / Clasped Hands / Washing the Boat / Central Park Bridge

(3089/898) Names

1884)
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.

William Shakespeare
Romeo & Juliet [II,ii,42] (play, 1595)

1885) Call things by their right names...

Robert Hall
quoted by Olinthus Gregory in
"A Brief Memoir of the Life of Hall" (1832) in
The Works of Robert Hall, A.M. (1832)

1886) You can't tell the players without a scorecard.

Saying

(3089/898) Memorable lines

1877) Not a word I heard could I relate, but the story was quite clear.

Jimmy Page, Robert Plant & John Bonham
"Kashmir" (song, 1975) from
Physical Graffiti (lp, 1975) by
Led Zeppelin (John Bonham, John Paul Jones,
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant)

1878) Here comes another one, just like the other one!

Firesign Theatre
(Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman
and Philip Proctor)
I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus (lp, 1971)

1879) Same as it ever was...

David Byrne, Brian Eno & Talking Heads
"Once in a Lifetime" (song, 1980) from
Remain in Light (lp, 1980) by
Talking Heads (David Byrne, Chris Frantz,
Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth)

1880) Does anyone care?

The Cranberries
(Dolores O'Riordan, Noel Hogan,
Mike Hogan and Feargal Lawler)
"Ode to My Family" (song, 1994) from
No Need to Argue (cd, 1994)

1881) What's in your head? In your head? Zombie.

The Cranberries
(Dolores O'Riordan, Noel Hogan,
Mike Hogan and Feargal Lawler)
"Zombie" (song, 1994) from
No Need to Argue (cd, 1994)

1882)
I meant what I said,
And I said what I meant.
An elephant's faithful,
One hundred percent.

Dr. Seuss (Theodor S. Geisel)
Horton Hatches The Egg (1940)
and Horton Hatches The Egg (cartoon, 1942)
directed by Bob Clampett

1883)
Paranoia strikes deep.
Into your life it will creep.
It starts when you're always afraid,
Step out of line, the man comes
and takes you away.

Stephen Stills
"For What It's Worth" (song, 1967) from
Buffalo Springfield (lp, 1967) by
Buffalo Springfield (Richie Furay, Dewey Martin,
Bruce Palmer, Steven Stills and Neil Young)

(3089/898) Potpourri

1871) Boundary, n. In political geography, an imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of the other.

Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
"sig" (signature) of "pardoz", seen on rec.art.sf.written (7/5/1996)

1872) Brain, n. An apparatus with which we think we think. [...] In our civilization, and under our republican form of governmnt, brain is so highly honored that that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.

Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Joan Haller, personal e-mail (7/6/1996)

1873) [T]he difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' [is] like a order of ham and eggs. The difference between the chicken and the pig is, the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed.

unknown
"JDolomite1", personal e-mail (7/6/1996)

[Note: Strangely, this story is frequently used as part of an effort to encourage people to stop being merely "involved" in causes and to instead become "committed" to them, but the most superficial parsing of the story will indicate that the involved, but living, chicken is a heck of a lot better off than the committed pig, who is dead and being eaten.]

1874) The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.

Paul Valery (attributed)
Joan Haller, personal e-mail (7/6/1996)

1875) London is chaos incorporated.

George Mikes
Down With Everybody (1951)
posted by Amy Denise Osborn [IQM] (7/9/1996)

1876) To Europe she was America, to America she was the gateway of the earth. But to tell the story of New York would be to write a social history of the world.

H.G. Wells
The War in the Air (1908)
posted by Amy Denise Osborn [IQM] (7/9/1996)

Friday Photography: Central Park Bridge

Daryl Samuel
Location: New York City
Previous: Photos posted in 2006 / 2007: Pagoda / Ferry / Sand Tracks / General Store / Taverna Tables / Finger Piano / Bridge at Sunset / Snowfall in Cambridge / Boats / Grandma in Motion / Museum Silhouette / Brooklyn Bridge / Seascape / City Hall / Santa Fe Hotel / Lunch Break / Low Rider / Giant Crab Invades Boston! / East Meets West / Building Reflections / Flatiron Spring / Hands With Glasses / Fishing Net / Steps / Oil and Vinegar / Gas Station / Brooklyn Bridge in Sepia / Windmill on the Paralia / Santa Fe Art / Island Time / Battleship Rock / Copper Mine / Slide! / Playing Piano / Underground Cistern / Broken Windmill / Forked River / Manhattan Bridge / Hot Air Balloon / Island Engine / Park Reflections / Sultan Ahmed Mosque / Clasped Hands / Washing the Boat

(3089/898) Juries - part 4 (OJ redux)

1869) [Barbara Allen] Babcock and [Diana] Trilling separately note [in their respective essays] the possibility that the jurors misunderstood Judge Ito's instructions on reasonable doubt. Correctly understood, reasonable doubt means that, taking the evidence as a whole, the jury must be convinced to the ultimate level. But the [Simpson] jury may have thought that it should disregard each separate piece of evidence if it had reasonable doubts about it standing alone. This misunderstanding would at least explain the bizarre ending of the trial where the jury asked to have the testimony of Alan Park, the limousine driver, read back to them. Apparently, the jurors decided they had reason to doubt all of Park's otherwise damning testimony simply because he hadn't noticed any white Bronco drive up.

Jeffrey Abramson
Postmortem: The O.J. Simpson Case (1996)

1870) The alternative give-and-take model defines the democratic ideal of deliberation. On this model, jurors do not strike compromises between the different interests they represent. They each take seriously the goal of reaching the truth, earnestly seeking to harmonize their different understanding of the facts, their different assessments of an accused's culpability or reponsibility for his acts. In the face of these differences, the conversation grows animated, intense, even angry. The unanimous verdict rule makes the deliberations all the more intense because the alternative of outshouting or outvoting their opponents does not exist. In such circumstances, jurors certainly have incentives for compromising or
harmonizing. But the cue we are giving jurors in requiring unanimity is that there are compromises and there are compromises. On the basic issue of whether an accused is guilty or not guilty, there can be no compromise, and even deadlocked jurors are carefully instructed that individual jurors should not "cave in" to achieve unanimity.

The whole point of having jurors deliberate face-to-face is to change people's preconceptions about a case through conversation with others. Unanimity empowers the conversation by signaling to jurors to put their opinions at risk. The ideal, which is often realized, is that power flows to the persuasive on the jury - that people change their minds not out of expediency but because their views actually have shifted through hearing the views of others. When deliberation works in this way, the achievement of unanimity speaks to the collection of wisdom, not the politics of compromise.

[...][D]eliberation is the essence of a juror's duty. [...] [When] they are instructed to return a unanimous verdict, jurors know their task is not to vote. For all their differences, they must approach justice through conversation and the art of persuading or being persuaded in turn.

Jeffrey Abramson
We, The Jury (1994)

Note: "3089/898" is the designation I've given to the project of posting all my collected quotes, excerpts and ideas (3089 of them) in the remaining days of the Bush administration (of which there were 898 left when I began).

As of today, there are 428 days remaining in the administration of the worst American President ever.