Friday, March 23, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The One Book You Should Read This Year
Still relevant to this day, by a former high-ranking staff member in the Department of Education under Ronald Reagan. Once I started reading I could not put it down. Horrifying as it is enlightening.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Through Whose Looking Glass?
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.: "Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable."
Samuel Johnson wrote, "Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble."
Faulkner once said, "Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."
Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world."
Nietzsche wrote, "The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe."
"I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn." Albert Einstein
"If I am what I have and if I lose what I have, who then am I?" German psychologist Erich Fromm
Voltaire wrote, "There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts."
"Is it not the glory of the people of America, that whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience?" James Madison
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
"The Court Martial of Hiller C. Ranton"
"The Court Martial of Hiller C. Ranton"
Testimony of the Naval Court of Inquiry regarding the sinking of Captain Ranton's ship, the "Banal."
Transcripts:
Court Record 1. On the morning of 21 August Cpt. Ranton ordered his ship to steer a course through uncharted waters of what is now known as Shallow Bay. The result of this order lead the ship to hit a coral reef, tearing a hole in the Banal's hull. Immediate flooding occurred and the ship sank to its deck. There was no loss of life. The HMS Dragon was dispatched to rescue survivors after receiving an S.O.S. from the Banal. The Dragon arrived at the following scene as described by its officer of the deck, Lt. Commander Gestalt:
"The whole scene was chaos. Naval personnel gazing this way and that, some shouting orders, but most in a mad rush to collect floating objects as fast as they could. I distinctly recall Captain Ranton amid this turmoil trying to organize the mess. He floundered from one group to the next whereat he read from one of the two texts he held separately in each hand. Upon noting the arrival of Dragon he swam to us and we hauled him aboard. Then began the retrieval of the Banal's crew."
In further testimony Lt. Commander Gestalt notes Captain Ranton's demeanor:
"It was one of haggardness brought upon by drink, I'd say. His eyes were focused away from me as I sought to get him out of his wet clothes. He fiercely gripped two books which he intended not to be parted from, but with some gentle persuasion I claimed these, plus a third from his trowser's back pocket…"
Court Record 2. These three titles are hereafter included in the court record as exhibits, E/A, E/B, E/C:
E/A: "How to do Anything, Anywhere, Anytime and Under Any Condition, So Help Me Goebbels" --authors, various; edited and with commentary by H. C. Ranton
E/B: "My Camp" --original author's inscription defaced throughout and signed instead by Captain Ranton as the inditer
E/C: "Mixology Made Easy" --Swill Press, 2002
Court Record 3. Banal Crew Testimonies, abstracts.
1st Mate Noermynd: "It all seemed so strange, you know? We were well read and all, the Captain saw to that with his books. He'd rail on us to learn his ways; he was relentless in teaching us about every contingency, how to expect any course change in anything. I just don't understand how this happened; I really don't…"
Of special note are those testimonies of new recruits, known as Newbies by the Banal's crew:
Seaman Uppend: "Well, with all due respect for the Captain and the officers, I was rightly confused. He and they kept at us newcomers, saying that we had to read what they were reading to really know anything, and not to think, just do, you know? One time I gave a suggestion and one of the officers, well, he looked in this book and said, "'Nope, it's not in here, doesn't apply, get back to duty.'"
Seaman Zerozum: "There was so much pressure on the ship and every one talked the same, I mean, you know, THE SAME, repeating things over and over which I'd never heard at the Academy, but who was I, just a Newbie and scoffed at. "They'd teach me," so many said, and I tried to believe, I did…"
Court Record 4. Captain Ranton's testimony, abstracts.
"I followed protocol. I do it by the book and only the book, so help me…. ah… I do it by the book."
"I taught them by the book, even when we'd foundered I read passages in the water to inspire "My Camp," eh, erh, my crew, that is. Yes. My crew. I followed protocol, I did it by the book. How else is one to be inspired? That is how I was taught, that is how I command, how I teach. By the book and only by the book, so help me… ah, yes…"
When court appointed Navy psychologists were allowed to cross examine Captain Ranton they asked if the first book (E/A) was the book used in heightening crew response. He refused to answer the question, but it is noted that he continued to look at exhibit E/A from then on out while requesting various mixed drinks.
Conclusion: It is the Court's conclusion that Captain Ranton be penalized in full for violations of military code as set forth in the attached rider, Duty Codes Violated. Captain Ranton is hereby discharged without ceremony and remanded to the Naval Care Facility at Long Beach for detoxification to last no more than 3 months. At his request the Long Beach Naval Hospital will provide a detention cell of bamboo for his comfort and ease.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Favorite Steve Jobs Quotes X2
"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Sir Ken Robinson: On Creativity
"I think it would be misleading, because the reason is people have to take a personal journey. This is your life, it’s not my life and you have to figure out what you want from it. What we can do, I think, is give people some navigational tools for that trip and some clear principles and examples and some techniques that they can use.
"It’s a two-way journey. The first is, in terms of being in your element and finding your greatest strength, is you have to go inward. You’re a unique person. Everybody is unique, a unique moment in history, and you have to be prepared to be honest with yourself and to spend time with yourself evaluating either the interest you know you’ve got or the ones you thought you would like to explore but never did. The things that you were drawn to, the things that you haven’t yet tried, the things that you would liked to have explored but you never did, the things that maybe you did but you were stopped from taking any further. But you have to do your own map of yourself. The book will have some help for that." Sir Ken Robinson, from an interview here.
Two Books He has Written:
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Save Me From Tomorrow: In Pictures
“The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed”—Hitler's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels
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