James Clerk Maxwell

He created the paradigm of present day physics with his theory of electromagnetism. He showed that the structure of mathematical language seems to reflect hidden physical structures so that the unseen realms of the world, such as the heart of atoms, radio waves, and black holes are best perceived by imagining them mathematically.

Dalai Llama

"My religion is simple. My religion is kindness."

Mother Teresa

"Kind words are short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."

Horizon

The universe has a horizon much like the one that surrounds a ship at sea. We see only objects whose light has had time to reach us. The observable universe is therefore like a bubble centered on earth, with the horizon being the surface of the bubble. Every day the universe gets older and the light of stars has more time to arrive and therefore new things may become visible just like ships coming over the horizon at sea.

Helen Keller

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart."

Energy

A quantity that is almost impossible to define! It can never be created or destroyed, only converted from one form to another - familiar forms are heat energy, energy of motion, electrical energy, sound energy.

"A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle."

Gracie Allen

"When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half."

The Pantheon

This almost 2000 year old wonder is graced by a soaring and sensuous interior. It boasts the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome, rising to 71 feet. Michelangelo proclaimed it to be "of angelic and not human design." Goethe was "overwhelmed with admiration" for the site. My grandson Philip is in Rome at the moment. Hopefully he will return with photos I can share.

Guatemalan Proverb

"Everyone is the age of their heart."

Caring

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." (Leo Buscaglia)

Friends

"Friendship without self-interest is one of the rare and beautiful things in life." (James F. Byrnes)

Robert B. Strassler

This amateur scholar published "The Landmark Thucydides" ten years ago - an account of the Peloponnesian War. He is now working on a new translation of Herodotus. He reminds us that the classics remain the underpinning of Western phylosophy and he says: "We are the heirs of the Greeks and the prisoners of their thought."

A Christmas Card

It arrived yesterday, delayed because of an incorrect address. It is from an old World War II army buddy who lives on Cape Cod. Enclosed is a note from his beautiful wife Helen with her treasured wish "May something wonderful happen to you every day."

Electromagnetic Waves

The air around us is saturated with these tiny bundles of energy traveling at the speed of light. Some are man made (TV,radio) some God made - the full spectrum from the Sun and outer space. With receivers set to the proper frequencies we can snatch the one we want from the many choices available.

"Thoughts have power; thoughts are energy. And you can make your world or break it by your own thinking." (Susan Taylor)

Samuel Johnson

"There is nothing too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible."

Art Linkletter

"I interviewed a 100-year-old lady at the San Francisco World's Fair. And I said What's the best thing about being 100? She says there's so little peer pressure."

Fred Allen Wolf

He prefaced his book "Dr. Quantum's Big Ideas" with this thought: "Asking yourself the deeper questions opens up new ways of being in the world. It brings in a breath of fresh air. It makes life more joyful. The real trick to life is not to be in the know, but to be in the mystery."

Dark Matter

Astronomers know it exists because the gravity of the invisible stuff bends the paths of visible stars and galaxies. Some scientists believe it constitutes as much as 90% of all matter in the universe. The identity of dark matter is the outstanding problem of astronomy.

Agatha Christie

I learned that one can never go back, that one should not ever try to go back - that the essence of life is to go forward. Life really is a One Way Street.

William Butler Yeats

"Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing or that but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing."

More Whys

* Why is it so hard to accept that complexity can be reality?
* Why do we seek to reduce nature's shades of gray to a black and white focus?
* Why have we missed the opportunity to really know some whose trails we have crossed on our journey?

Why

In my life I have done reasonably well with Who, What, When, Where, and How - but Why has always troubled me. Some Whys:
*Why do we persist in labeling people?
*Why are we so quick in judgement?
*Why do we always seem to take the easy most apparent answer? Is it lack of curiousity or is it just too much trouble?

Kin Hubbard

The man who says "I may be wrong, but---" does not believe there can be any such possibility.

Clifton Fadiman

"When you read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before."

Albert Schweitzer

"Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light."

Birthdays

Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.

Happy New Year!

The beginning of a new year - a fresh start - if I make it until April 2007 I will have lived 89 years - strange, I don't feel that old - good friends keep me young. A New Years wish for all: Good friends, Happiness, Good Health.