Quote of the Day

Good company and good discourse are the sinews of virtue. 

- Izaak Walton

Scrambling Stoic

I'm out doing noble things. 

Look for me on Friday morning. 

Write it down. I'll be looking for you.

First Paragraph

At seven fifteen a.m., his bedroom slightly colder than the vacuum of space, Joshua Joseph Spork wears a longish leather coat and a pair of his father's golfing socks. Papa Spork was not a natural golfer. Among other differences, natural golfers do not acquire their socks by hijacking a lorryload destined for St. Andrews. It isn't done. Golf is a religion of patience. Socks come and socks go, and the wise golfer waits, sees the pair he wants, and buys it without fuss. The notion that he might put a Thompson sub-machine gun in the face of the burly Glaswegian driver, and tell him to quit the cab or adorn it . . . well. A man who does that is never going to get his handicap down below the teens. 

- From Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

Quote of the Day

I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark. 

- Henry David Thoreau

Moore's Law

Brian Krzanich, the current CEO of Intel, opened the evening by putting the achievement of Moore’s Law into perspective. Intel’s chips have improved performance a factor of 3,500 since they were introduced, he said, reflecting a 90,000-times improvement in energy efficiency and at one-60,000th of the cost. Were a 1971 Volkswagen Beetle to undergo the same transformation, he said, it would travel at 300,000 miles per hour, achieve 2 million miles per gallon, and cost four cents.

Read the rest of the Fortune article about Gordon Moore.

U.S. Religious Denominations

Althouse: The recent Pew Study on the U.S. Religious Landscape. 

This is not good news but I can understand why the mainstream churches are losing members. Many resemble a sociology department with a pulpit.

Intolerance on Campus

The root of nearly every free-speech infringement on campuses across the country is that someone—almost always a liberal—has been offended or has sniffed out a potential offense in the making. Then, the silencing campaign begins. The offender must be punished, not just for justice’s sake, but also to send the message to anyone else on campus that should he or she stray off the leftist script, they too might find themselves investigated, harassed, ostracized, or even expelled. If the illiberal left can preemptively silence opposing speakers or opposing groups— such as getting a speech or event canceled, or denying campus recognition for a group—even better.

Read all of the Kirsten Powers essay at The Daily Beast.

Memorable Subjects and Professors

Kurt Harden at Cultural Offering remembers some extraordinary professors from his college days.

I had some amazing professors. In those days, there were fewer required classes and you could pack in a wide variety of subjects. My undergraduate degree was in Government and my minor was History and yet I took classes in Roman, Soviet, American, French, Mexican, English, and Russian history and several subcategories such as the History of the French Revolution. That's in addition to classes in Humanities, Introduction to Government, American Government, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Soviet Foreign Policy, American Foreign Policy, the American Presidency, Public Administration, Political Philosophy, Public Opinion and Polling, Economics, Comparative Government, and a slew of others.

It was like being in a candy store.

A common characteristic of the great professors: a mixture of solid subject matter knowledge, teaching expertise, tolerance for dissenting opinions, and a love of the material.

A Beautiful Point

That is a beautiful point. You know, if we had more time, we'd be able to sit here and appreciate its subtleties and the fine shadows it casts.

But we don't.

We have to move on. The clock and the calendar are our enemies and this is one of those moments when a beautiful point which is not a solution does not get the respect it deserves. 

We can't always stare at the mountain tops. Today we must root about in the mud and stones for a solution.

Quote of the Day

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant? 

- Henry David Thoreau