Miles Davis

“Well, I’ve changed the course of music five or six times. What have you done except fuck the president?”

—
Miles Davis to Nancy Reagan at a White House dinner in 1987 after she’d inquired as to what he’d done with his life to merit an invitation. source
(via marxisforbros

If there is a sin against life...

“If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.”

— Albert Camus

Gandhi 7 Sins

Reason's Greetings

“They’ve promised us that dreams come true - but forgot that nightmares are dreams too.”

— Oscar Wilde

Love is all

“Congress is on the verge of wrecking the greatest engine of innovation and greatest platform for democracy ever known to human kind.

“Congress is on the verge of wrecking the greatest engine of innovation and greatest platform for democracy ever known to human kind. And for what? For the sake of propping up an ossified industry that refuses to change with the times, but happens to make a lot of campaign contributions.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2011/12/14/sopa-protect-ip_n_1140180.html

“Animals are my friends. And I don’t eat my friends.”

— George Bernard Shaw

Ooohh I wish

“A New Model of Empathy: The Rat” by David Brown, Washington Post

In a simple experiment, researchers at the University of Chicago sought to find out whether a rat would release a fellow rat from an unpleasantly restrictive cage if it could. The answer was yes.

The free rat, occasionally hearing distress calls from its compatriot, learned to open the cage and did so with greater efficiency over time. It would release the other animal even if there wasn’t the payoff of a reunion with it. Astonishingly, if given access to a small hoard of chocolate chips, the free rat would usually save at least one treat for the captive — which is a lot to expect of a rat.

The researchers came to the unavoidable conclusion that what they were seeing was empathy — and apparently selfless behavior driven by that mental state.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-new-model-of-empathy-the-rat/2011/12/08/gIQAAx0jfO_story.html

She's Alive... Beautiful... Finite... Hurting... Worth Dying for.

We all long for a bright future.

Royal Oak, MI November 13, 2011 Brian Day

Al Franken on the defense authorization act

“With this defense authorization act, Congress will, for the first time in 60 years, authorize the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without charge or trial, according to its advocates. This would be the first time that Congress has deviated from President Nixon’s Non-Detention Act. And what we are talking about here is that Americans could be subjected to life imprisonment without ever being charged, tried, or convicted of a crime, without ever having an opportunity to prove their innocence to a judge or a jury of their peers. And without the government ever having to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. I think that denigrates the very foundations of this country. It denigrates the Bill of Rights. It denigrates what our Founders intended when they created a civilian, non-military justice system for trying and punishing people for crimes committed on U.S. soil. Our Founders were fearful of the military—and they purposely created a system of checks and balances to ensure we did not become a country under military rule. This bill undermines that core principle, which is why I could not support it.”

Al Franken - U.S. Senator, Minnesota
alfranken.com/

Galileo Galilei

I’ve loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night -

(Source: signmysignature, via forumgamer)

Will 2012 Be 1984: DRM and SOPA are Breaking The Internet! via www.singularityweblog.com

Imagine a world where someone has a monopoly over the media, backed by the power to ban personal privacy and political dissent and capable of preventing people from public gathering and collective discussion without due process, judicial review or any evidence! Sound familiar?! Some of you might venture a guess that the above text reads like a passage from George Orwell’s 1984. Others might say that it sounds like the situation under the totalitarian regimes of the former Eastern Block or any other contemporary authoritarian. It is vital to realize, however, that this is not only fiction. This is not just the situation in some geographically obscure country stuck in the last 6 seconds of the evening newscast. This is in fact the future reality that we might be facing today, here, in the “free world.” This is Canada, the United States and the E.U.