Good Quotations by Famous People by Gabriel Robins.

Good Quotations by Famous People:

Famous quotes, witty quotes, and funny quotations collected by Gabriel Robins over the years.

Some samples:

“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance”

– Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.”

– Jimi Hendrix

“A clever man commits no minor blunders.”

– Goethe (1749-1832)

“Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours.”

– Richard Bach

“A witty saying proves nothing.”

– Voltaire (1694-1778)

“Sleep is an excellent way of listening to an opera.”

– James Stephens (1882-1950)

“The nice thing about being a celebrity is that if you bore people they think it’s their fault.”

– Henry Kissinger (1923-)

“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”

– Will Durant

“I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.”

– Xenocrates (396-314 B.C.)

more…

Gabriel Robins has assembled the following:

The Legacy of Randy Pausch

My friend and mentor Professor Randy Pausch is a virtual reality pioneer, human-computer interaction researcher, co-founder of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center, and creator of the Alice software project.

“> I have known Randy since 1992, and over the years I have been collecting and archiving his video lectures and newspaper articles, which I am happy to share below.

“> See also the background surrounding Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture”, and Randy Pausch’s Wikipedia page.

ABC ran a 1-hour special on Randy (with Diane Sawyer) on April 9, 2008. Randy’s book, called “The Last Lecture”, was published by Disney/Hyperion in April, 2008.

Randy Pausch – “Time Management”

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch gave a lecture on Time Management at the University of Virginia in November 2007. Randy Pausch — http://www.randypausch.com — is a virtual reality pioneer, human-computer interaction researcher, co-founder of Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center — http://www.etc.cmu.edu — and creator of the Alice — http://www.alice.org — software project. The slides for this lecture and high-res downloadable versions of this and other lectures can be found at: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Ra…

Doctor Who – S04E04 The Sontaran Strategem

Another interesting story which will take more than on episode to see the resolution. The Sontarans are good solders and are planning some sort of takeover but it’s not quite clear yet. Donna meets Martha.

 

 

 

Donna even flies the tardis. 

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World

Is this the beginning of food shortages in America? When word of shortages of flour for bakeries was made public some people distorted the food chain by buying extra amounts that they don’t really need – in other words they hoard food creating a shortage I remember a case where they were saying there might be a shortage of toilet paper-within a day it happened because everyone went out and purchased the toilet paper, just in case, and created the shortage-therefore it was a self fulfilling prophecy. You can add to this the increase in demand for biofuels and you have farmers growing different products to meet that need since it pays more and you have less food production therefore creating a shortage. Our market system is fragile and can be manipulated fairly easily by getting the word out. Farmers are free to sell their product to the highest bidder and it’s becoming more lucrative to sell abroad. There is also increasing pressures from developing nations as their standard of living improves they demand the same opportunities as we in North America have for consumer goods and foods increasing pressure on prices and availablility.

Something to think worry about.

In a New York Sun article “Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy. “Where’s the rice?” an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. “You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.” The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.

“You can’t eat this every day. It’s too heavy,” a health care executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. “We only need one bag but I’m getting two in case a neighbor or a friend needs it,” the elder man said.

The Patels seemed headed for disappointment, as most Costco members were being allowed to buy only one bag. Moments earlier, a clerk dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap.

An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.

The curbs and shortages are being tracked with concern by survivalists who view the phenomenon as a harbinger of more serious trouble to come. “The number of reports I’ve been getting from readers who have seen signs posted with limits has increased almost exponentially, I’d say in the last three to five weeks.”

Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia, and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and Vietnam blocked the signing of new contract for foreign rice sales.”

Doctor Who – S04E03 The Planet of the Ood

The Ood can sing.

Another excellent episode of the Doctor and Donna.

Dogs or Cats, maybe both

Dogs or Cats, maybe both.

As a parent who’s children have had children (making me a grandpa), it is important to find an alternative to having children around your home. In my early years, families lived close to each other and we had almost daily interaction with our extended family. If we didn’t see someone for a couple of days we wondered what was wrong. It seems that today our children are dispersed across the country and those that live close (within an hours drive) they are busy with their own lives.

Our children of today are focused upon their nuclear family more than ever. They are more likely to have both spouses working outside the home leaving weekends to accomplish things that we used to do during the week. Their children are more involved with organized activities than ever before. Personally, I was involved in few organized activities early; I did get involved with Air Cadets and their Band and later on with the Militia but nothing in the early days. My father didn’t put me in hockey so I never played the game, baseball wasn’t that organized, basketball was popular in my region but I wasn’t that good at it so I couldn’t play in the organized leagues.

That brings me to today; we see some of our children once a year (if we are lucky – 3,000 miles is a restriction) or we see the local children every month or so. They are busy and we know how hard it is for them to get everything done. So where do we focus our attention?

It’s pretty basic. Get a dog or a cat or both. We have two cats (Ragdolls) and a dog (Yorkshire terrier) as the focus of our love and attention. My wife and I volunteer at a senior’s residence (her more than me) and we see interesting people who in most cases are alone.

One feisty senior said that she threw her husband out two years ago, she lost her dog 6 months ago and she misses her dog the most.

Our pets become our substitute children and they become our companions and confidents. They keep us going because they need us as much as we need them. They are an important part of our lives.

The Fires of Pompeii-Doctor Who S04E02

The second episode of the new series of Doctor Who is great. The production values have improved dramatically as have the stories. The Doctor is finding Donna to be a handful. They work well together. In the first episode Partners in Crime S04E01 they spent a good deal of the time finding each other but now that they are together it’s working quite well.

As his companion, Donna is stronger than the younger women that have been his companions in the past, even Martha is stronger now than before. Can’t wait for CBC to start showing the series here.

We have to wait now for season 3 of Torchwood. Season 2 was excellent.

2007-08 Ottawa Total Snowfall By the Numbers – The Sequel

**Numbers adjusted April 13th at 12:20 from available data**

So as reported in the Ottawa Citizen, it appears that Environment Canada wasn’t exactly consistent in expressing the statistics for the record snowfall year and this winters numbers. The record snowfall has been given by them in a range from 444.1 to 444.6 at various times this winter. David Phillips decided to get things closer to an “official number”. So they have decreed that the official record is 444.1. I checked the climate data base this morning and one of the numbers has changed.

The total up to April 12 was posted April 13th.

Nov-07	59.8
Dec-07	121.0
Jan-08	42.4
Feb-08	89.9
Mar-08	117.4
Apr-08	6.2
	436.7

So now we have had 436.3 436.7 cm after a change in the data for March. That means we are 7.9 7.4 cm from the record.

From the Ottawa Citizen:

It snowed …444.1 Record snowfall for one winter, in centimetres (1970-71)

436.4 436.7 Snowfall so far this year (up to April 10 12)

How much is that? -About the height of eight newspaper pages stacked lengthwise one upon another.

7.9 7.4 Centimetres needed to break record

18 Number of years since 1938-39, when more than 7.9 cm of snow fell after April 10 266 Average winter snowfall in the 1970s (cm)

216 Average for past 10 winters (not counting this year).

143 Number of days with continuous snow cover in 2007-08

139 Number of days in 1970-71

It stayed …

Number of days in which measurable amounts of snow fell (0.2 cm or more):

78 in 2007-08

68 in 1970-71

64 on average

It’s one for the record books …

Three snowiest months in Ottawa history

1. February 1971 159.5 cm

2. December 2007 121 cm

3. March 2008 117.4 cm

six snowiest days in Ottawa history

1. March 2, 1947 40.6 cm

2. Feb. 16, 1954 39.6 cm

3. Jan. 30, 1966 38.6 cm

4. Dec. 26, 2007 35.6 cm

5. Feb. 13, 1993 34.4 cm

6. March 8, 2008 33.6 cm

It had to be removed …-4 million cubic metres

Estimated amount of snow hauled by the city — the equivalent of 200,000 trucks

(if parked end to end would stretch from Ottawa to Florida)

650,000 -Estimated total number of hours logged by winter workers (about 81,000 eight-hour days)

523 -Pieces of equipment used

154 road salt spreaders

150 road plows

114 sidewalk plows

76 front-end loaders, backhoes

29 four-by-four salt spreaders – 5,600

Kilometres of maintained roads – 1,900

Kilometres of sidewalks maintained by city – $65 million

Budget for snow removal in 2008 (January-December) – $60 million

Estimated actual cost of snow removal January-March. -$88 million

Revised forecast for snow removal for 2008, including estimates for the rest of year.

It was a parking headache …22,180 Number of overnight parking ban tickets issued, December to March, 2,506 Number of tickets issued for violating on-street parking during snow removal, December to March

3,026 Number of tickets issued for violating overnight parking ban during special snowstorm emergency, March 6 to 9.

(Statistics from Environment Canada Climate Database and Ottawa Citizen – Apr 12, 2008)

The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch

“The Last Lecture” has been published. I just picked up my copy at Costco.

Randy Pausch’s story was on TV by Diane Sawyer this last week. You should watch the 4 parts of the video on Youtube or on the ABC website. His is an inspirational story. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LastLecture/

He is still fighting the good fight. His recent treatments have kicked him around as he explains “For those of you familiar with boxing, I would describe the weeks since my heart & kidney failure to be a “standing eight count.” I got knocked down pretty good and needed time to gather myself. Now I’m back on my feet; still a little wobbly, but ready to engage in the fight again.”

This video lasts 76 minutes.

“Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving talk, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.

“Journeys” are special University Lectures in which Carnegie Mellon faculty members share their reflections on their journeys — the everyday actions, decisions, challenges and joys that make a life.”

Total Ottawa Snowfall Nov 07 – Apr 08

**Check the post for April 12 – Environment Canada updated their figures and there are additional statistics available.

(Update: Apr 10 looks like there is a chance for more snow in the next 3 days – a real collage of weather is on the way.)

So the missing data appeared and so far we’ve had 5.8 cm of snow in April. So the Ottawa winter 07-08 total to date (Apr 8 ) is 434.9 so Ottawa is about 10 cm from the record snowfall. So we are close but no cigar yet but rest assured Mother Nature may still have more in store for us and remember that statistically 1 in 3 May’s has snow.

Source: Environment Canada Climate Database – Ottawa Airport.

Nov-07	59.8
Dec-07	121.0
Jan-08	42.4
Feb-08	89.9
Mar-08	116.0
Apr-08	5.8
	434.9

Torchwood S02E13 Exit Wounds

The final episode of the season proved to be full of action. I think they tried to do too much in the hour and so the story lines weren’t fully developed. Still is was great to watch but not quite the emotional reaction that came in other episodes in spite of what happened at then end. It is a good series but hard to get any detailed information about plans etc, seems they won’t let anyone outside UK access their web site. I’d give it 7.5 out of 10.

Doctor Who’s newest season starts this evening and the teasers look to be full of adventures for the Doctor.

Ottawa Snowfall-November 2007 to End of March 2008

*** The current year 2008-2009 Data to date is available in Winter 2008-2009 Snowfall.

**Check the post for April 12 – Environment Canada updated their figures and there are additional statistics available.

Apr 6/08 **Update** no data available in climate db for Apr 4 so no idea how much snow, they have just skipped a day – hopefully they will add the missing data on Monday.

Update: only trace amounts of snow for April 1 and 2 so no change in totals.

So we are 15 cm from the record – one good freaky April or May snowfall could do it. The final tally for March was 116.0 cm bringing this winters total 429.1 cm (441.1 Ottawa Record 70-71). According to the climate database we still have 52 cm of snow on the ground. No wonder our snowbanks are so still so high. Hopefully we will have minimal flooding with this massive thaw.

Nov-07	59.8
Dec-07	121.0
Jan-08	42.4
Feb-08	89.9
Mar-08	116.0
	429.1