brick quote #16

vineri, 3 mai 2013, 21:34

We talk about the tyranny of words, but we like to tyrannise over them too; we are fond of having a large superfluous establishment of words to wait upon us on great occasions; we think it looks important, and sounds well. As we are not particular about the meaning of our liveries on state occassions, if they be but fine and numerous enough, so, the meaning or necessity of our words is a secondary consideration, if there be but a great parade of them. And as individuals get into trouble by making too great a show of liveries, or as slaves when they are too numerous rise against their masters, so I think I could mention a nation that has got into many great difficulties, and will get into many greater, from maintaining too large a retinue of words.

  • Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

brick quote #15

sâmbătă, 16 mart. 2013, 16:45

Contrary to what’s been written in some quarters, Aaron Swartz didn’t attempt to download those journal articles because „information wants to be free.” No one cares what information wants. He was almost certainly attempting to download those articles because they were publicly funded scholarship that was not available to the public. They were scientific and scholarly truths about the world, information that the public paid for and needs in order to make informed choices about their lives and their governance. Fighting for information’s freedom isn’t the point. It’s people’s freedom that matters.

All of which makes the publishing community’s embrace of DRM and its advocacy for badly written, overly broad legislation to support DRM, fraught with peril. Since Frankenstein, writers and thinkers have recoiled in visceral horror at the idea of technology overpowering its creators. But when we actively build businesses that require censorship, surveillance, and control to thrive, we make a Frankenstein’s monster out of the devices that fill our pockets and homes, and the network that binds them all together.

brick quote #14

duminică, 17 feb. 2013, 19:32

Dear Mary Daisy Dinkle,

[…]

Here is a list of what I eat on the other nights. Mondays — Glicks Potato Knish, Tuesdays — Yiddels Noodle Kugel, Wednesdays — Captain Salty’s Fishstix, Thursdays — Yentls Cheezy Blintz and Fridays — chicken nuggets. On Saturday nights I create my own recipes. Last week I invented canned spaghetti hamburgers. Recipes are like mathematical equations. Dr. Bernard Hazelhof told me you should never weigh more than your refrigerator and to never eat anything bigger than your head. I once ate a watermelon bigger than my head, but not all at once. Do you have any weight loss suggestions? My Overeaters Anonymous meetings don’t seem to be working and just make me tense.

It would be good if there was a Fat Fairy. She would be a bit like the Tooth Fairy, but would suck out your fat.

[…]

People often think I am tactless and rude. I cannot understand how being honest can be… improper. Maybe this is why I don’t have any friends, of course, except for you. A real friend has been one of my three goals in life. The other two are to own every Noblet and a lifetime supply of chocolate. Dr. Bernard Hazelhof says it is good to have goals, but not stupid ones like mine.

brick quote #13

luni, 29 oct. 2012, 23:00

All around me darkness gathers,
Fading is the sun that shone,
We must speak of other matters,
You can be me when I’m gone

Flowers gathered in the morning,
Afternoon they blossom on,
Still are withered in the evening,
You can be me when I’m gone.

  • Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones

brick quote(s), #12

duminică, 2 sept. 2012, 14:51

In all major socializing forces you will find an underlying movement to gain and maintain power through the use of words. From witch doctor to priest to bureaucrat it is all the same. A governed populace must be conditioned to accept power-words as actual things, to confuse the symbolized system with the tangible universe. In the maintenance of such a power structure, certain symbols are kept out of the reach of common understanding — symbols such as those dealing with economic manipulation or those which define the local interpretation of sanity. Symbol-secrecy of this form leads to the development of fragmented sub-languages, each being a signal that its users are accumulating some form of power. With this insight into a power process, our Imperial Security Force must be ever alert to the formation of sub-languages.

  • „Lectures to the Arrakeen War College” by The Princess Irulan (mai mult…)
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