A Blog of the Ridiculous and Sublime, by Mark Sackler
“When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.”–Thomas Jefferson
“If you live to one hundred, you’ve got it made. Very few people die past that age.”–George Burns
Wow. It only took me six years and two months to count to 100. Just think, in dog years, this blog is middle-aged.
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”–Douglas Adams
One deadline you absolutely can’t miss is Towel Day. Keep your towel handy and don’t panic.
“One human data is worth a billion mice.”–Bioviva CEO, Elizabeth Parrish**
So what about goldfish data? And don’t even ask about the mice’s point of view on human data. All they care about is the cheese.
**Don’t look for this quote anywhere else on the internet–yet. It comes directly from my interview with Parrish that will air on the next Seeking Delphi™ podcast, and appear in the March issue of Age of Robots.
“Ring out the false; ring in the true.”–Alfred Lord Tennyson
Happy belated New Year. Let your resolution be to ring in the true. I’ll take care of the rest.
“Let’s be naughty and save Santa the trip.”–Gary Allan
Santa would never dare mess with my lawyer. And I had naughty nailed decades ago. Naughty or nice, enjoy the holiday season. In a few days, we return to reality.
“We view ourselves as separate from the cosmos, and separate from each other. The truth is, we are a continuum. One line of code in an enormously complex computational system.”–Gray Scott
Let’s just hope that code isn’t corrupt. I have my doubts.
“This you may say of man – having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back.” –John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
“Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”–boilerplate investment disclaimer
The last time I took a half step back, I tripped over the lawn sprinkler and almost sprained an ankle. But I managed to recover. As for the current state of Western society, I’m not so sure that past performance will save us. For deeper analysis of what all of this means for the future, visit my other blog (and podcast) at Seeking Delphi.™
“I look to the future because that’s where I’m going to spend the rest of my life.”–George Burns
‘Ol George, ever the straight man. If I could only live to 100, like him, there’d be plenty of future to look forward to. Too bad so many people are looking to relive the past. Believe me, it wasn’t as good as they think it was.
“For thousands of years, billions of people have found meaning in playing virtual reality games. In the past, we have called these virtual reality games ‘religions’.”–Yuval Noah Harari
Geez, I’m already self-absorbed enough with two blogs and a podcast. Why would I need to bother (with) that guy?
“If it turns out that there IS a God, I don’t think that he’s evil. I think that the worst you can say about him is that basically he’s an underachiever.”–Woody Allen in ‘Love and Death.’
And, as Woody also said: “There is no question there is an unseen world. The problem is, how far is it from midtown and how late is it open?” Anyway, if relativity, evolution and carbon dating aren’t enough to convince you creationism is bunk, consider this. Even god couldn’t screw humanity up this bad in just 6,000 years. (Boy am I gonna get hate mail)
I'm not the most interesting man in the world, but I might have the most cluttered mind.
