Who – only let him be a man and intent upon honor – is not eager for the honorable ordeal and prompt to assume perilous duties? To what energetic man is not idleness a punishment?
~ Seneca
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Who is not eager? →
First successful Turing Test →
First successful Turing Test: First Turing Test success marks milestone in computing history
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Niagara Falls 1968 →
Here are 20 (out of 36 total) slides from their honeymoon to Niagara falls in 1968.
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June 6th, 2014 →
Today is the 70th anniversary of the landings for the Normandy invasion.
A friend asked rhetorically, “Would I have boarded one of those ratty boats and waited for the door to come down?” I can only imagine that the training and “esprit de corps” would carry the day, because otherwise, attempted as individuals, what they accomplished seems inconceivable.
Unfortunately, those two most horrible wars feel as far away now as to be ancient history. I hope that humankind has subsequently climbed far enough up the moral ladder that we no longer need the visceral feeling of the wars to provide us with guidance.
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Des origines a la pratique →
Yes! This just arrived…
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Sacrifice →
If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want will be the sacrifice.
~ unknown
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Bucket list: Chopin →
Bucket list: finally got around to picking up Chopin’s complete works. Something here for any coding/sysadmin occasion!
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Conca d’Or Lily →
A little something Tracy grew in one of our sprawling gardens.
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Human morality →
A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.
~ Winston Churchill
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Finding meaning in the mundane →
Everyone here has done this, of course. But it hasn’t yet been part of you graduates’ actual life routine, day after week after month after year.
But it will be. And many more dreary, annoying, seemingly meaningless routines besides. But that is not the point. The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in.
~ David Foster Wallace
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It occurs to me that I’ve no idea who gave the commencement address at my graduation. After a bit of digging…
Robert W. Galvin, chairman of Motorola, delivered the main address yesterday to the 1,150 graduates at the 125th commencement of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.
Mr. Galvin received an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree.
~ from the May 31st NYT archives listing several school’s commencement addresses.
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