Yogi Berra

"Do you mean now?
(when asked for the time)

The Generalist (continued)

"I feel that many scientists reach a point during their graduate student days or perhaps a little later in which they feel it is unfashionable to consider metaphysical views, and so they bury their heads in the sand for the rest of their lives, not making the effort to see a perspective broader than their own immediate field."
(Thomas C. Emmel, Professor of Zoology, University of Florida)

The Generalist

When I was young I devoted my time and study to only what interested me. I resented degree requirements in fields of no interest. But with the passing years, I have developed a much different perspective. Specialization in study and research has provided landmark breakthroughs. But I believe it has its downsides too. It seems to me that a system based on learning more and more about less and less should be recognized by educators as a target for "rethink." I suppose a "jack of all trades and master of none" would not appeal to academia but there is one of them who shares my point of view. I quote Professor Thomas C. Emmel of the University of Florida:
"I think the origin of the universe and the origin of life are two of the ultimate we can ask" "To study these two questions, however, one must be a well read "generalist" and that is rare indeed among today's scientists."

Shakespeare

"The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath; it is twice bless'd,
It blessseth him that gives and him that takes."
(The Merchant of Venice)

Charles B. Newcomb

"If we are not responsible for the thoughts that pass our doors, we are at least responsible for those we admit and entertain."

Dark Matter

"85% of all the gravity in the cosmos comes from an unknown mysterious source that remains completely undetected by all means we have ever devised to to observe the universe. As far as we can tell, it's not made of ordinary stuff such as electrons, protons, and neutrons, or any form of matter or energy that interacts with them. We call this ghostly, offending substance "dark matter", and it remains among the greatest of all quandries."
(Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson)

James Lane Allen

"As you think, you travel, and as you love, you attract. You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you."

Dark Energy

"We've known since Edwin Hubble's seminal work during the 1920s that the universe is expanding, but we've only just learned that the universe is also accelerating, by some antigravity pressure dubbed "dark energy" for which we have no working hypothesis to understand."
(Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson)

Friends

"The firmest friendships have been formed in mutual adversity, as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame."
(Charles C. Colton)

Winners

I have observed that there are two kinds of winners in life. There are those who win because of their superior qualities. And there are those who win because they refuse to be beaten. I admire those who refuse to be beaten.
They have confidence but not arrogance,
Courage not fear,
Disappointments at times but never despair,
Determination - perserverance - and faith in themselves and their goals.

Robert Frost

"Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee, and I'll forgive Thy great big joke on me."

The News Media

I have to keep reminding myself that the news media is a commercial enterprise appealing to our fascination with the aberations of society and that the vast majority of viewers and listeners are decent law-abiding citizens.

Communication

Aftr four score and nine years I have concluded that we do not communicate with each other by means of our native language. I think we do not because our concentration is but minimal and our attention span is inadequate. In verbal communication we make up our minds what the speaker is about to say within the first few words spoken. We are influenced more by his tone, manner of speech, and style of expression, than by his actual words. Another reason we do not understand is that we bring fixed opinions to the conversations and if the speaker trespasses this dogma we conclude immediately that he has nothing to say of interest. In written communication we do not have the writers mannerisms for clues. But many of the impediments to verbal understanding apply as well. Questions arise - who is this writer? - why is he writing? - what are his motives? - Is he trying to impress? - do I disagree with his premise? - is this worth my time? Again we never fully comprehend the writer's words and their meanings.

Mother Teresa

"There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread."

Bernard Lewis

This recognized world authority on Islam reminded us in yesterday WSJ that Islamists have always believed the U.S. to be weak. Some quotes: "We in the Western world see the defeat and collaspe of the Soviet Union as a Western, more specically an American, victory in the Cold War. For Osama bin Laden and his followers it was a Muslim victory in a jihad."
From his writings and speeches it is clear that "Stage One of the jihad was to drive the infidels from the lands of Islam; Stage Two - to bring the war into the enemy camp, and the attacks of 9/11 were clearly intended to be the opening salvo of this stage. The response to 9/11, so completely out of accord with previous American practice, came as a shock, and it is noteworthy that there has been no successful attack on American soil since then."
"More recently developments, and notably the public discourse inside the U.S., are persuading increasing numbers of Islamist radicals that their first assessment was correct after all, and that they need only to press a little harder to achieve final victory."

Robert Frost

"Don't be an agnostic - be something."

The Sea of Life

This ancient mariner has made many mistakes. I have paid a price. I have endured seas angry with my stupidity. I have made some good calls but even than sometimes with angry sea response - but worst of all, dead calm when sails and spirits are limp as I have pondered what has happened and why, as I sat dead in the water.
(Biby Cletus - thank you for your comment yesterday. Best wishes. Roy)

Longfellow

"Wouldst thou - so the helmsman answered -
Learn the secret of the sea?
Only those who brave its dangers
Comprehend its mystery!"

As Longfellow has reminded us, the sea has its secrets, its dangers, its mystery. I think it will always be that way - so also life. How else would you have it? Yearning to understand the mystery seems to me to be inherent in the human spirit.

Peggy Noonan

On Tuesday, Ireland formalized a peace "a piece that most who love that country would not have thought possible in our lifetimes. And it was barely noticed, as sometimes happens with good news. But the Protestants and Catholics of Northern Ireland ratified a power-sharing agreement in which they will govern together and forswear violence."
"What an example for the world. We learn what we already know and need always to be reminded: Breakthroughs can happen even in the oldest, most tortured conflicts. Hearts change."
It will be exciting to see where that energy of conflict will go now!
(WSJ 5/12/2007)

Robert Frost

"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire,
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice."
(Harpers - December 1920)

Robert Frost

He has been described as both innocent and bawdy, God-fearing and sacrilegious, kindly and mean spirited, tenderhearted and tough minded. He was a complex individual defying simple characterization. He liked to share his poetry on college campuses and apparently enjoyed fielding questions that followed. He urged all to read his poetry as a means of understanding how metaphor lies at the heart of all our thinking, whether in science or in poetry.

The Human Mind

The brain is a kind of computer but it can't function without a human mind. Digital computers can never achieve perception. Neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield in his book "The Mysteries of the Mind" wrote "The mind seems to act independently of the brain in the same sense that a programmer acts independently of his computer, however much he may depend upon the action of that computer for certain purposes."

Leo Tolstoy

"Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold."

Beethoven

On this date in 1842, he conducted his ninth and final symphony "Ode to Joy" in Vienna. He was already deaf by this time and, apparently several measures behind the performance, continued directing the piece even after it was completed, not stopping until someone finally turned him around to see the audience thunderously applauding.

Helen Keller

"The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but no vision."

Spring

Spring in the midwest is always a bloody battle between departing winter and emerging summer - neither will concede gracefully and wide swings in temperature, violent thunderstorms and tornados result until summer finally triumphs - but even then thunderstorms linger. Such is life in the midwest.

Robert Browning

"A man's reach should exceed his grasp. Or what's a heaven for?"

Einstein

I have finished reading this biography by Walter Isaacson. It is the fascinating history of a rebellious non-conforming mind which, dissatisfied with generally accepted truth, sought here-to-for unimagined basic truth. His finding that matter is simply condensed energy, of the equivalence of gravity and acceleration, and his theories of relativity revolutionized our understanding of the universe. His lifetime ambition to unify science with a "theory of everything" was never achieved but he never gave up the quest - fascinating insight into the mind of a genius.

Robert Louis Stevenson

"We are all traveling in the wilderness of the world and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend."

Einstein

He never accepted the uncertain randomness of the quantum theory. He thought it, if not wrong, at least incomplete. Quote: "Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing, but an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but it does not really bring us any closer to the secrets of the Old One. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not play dice."
(from "Einstein" by Walter Isaacson)