Reinhold Niebuhr quote

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. ... Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore, we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.”

From David Brooks NYTimes editorial

Response to the Chinese Mother post

[A]s Erma Bombeck said, no mother is arrogant because she knows that, regardless of her other accomplishments in life, at any moment she may get a call from the school principal saying that her child rode a motorcycle through the auditorium.

From Why American Mothers are Superior

Essay from "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother"

Things a Chinese Mother will not let her children do:

• attend a sleepover

• have a playdate

• be in a school play

• complain about not being in a school play

• watch TV or play computer games

• choose their own extracurricular activities

• get any grade less than an A

• not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama

• play any instrument other than the piano or violin

• not play the piano or violin.


excerpt from the Wall Street Journal Online.

Akin's Laws of Spacecraft design

31. (Mo's Law of Evolutionary Development) You can't get to the moon by climbing successively taller trees.

via a University of Maryland Engineering Professor

Janelle Monáe - Tightrope

Tried to embed the video, but it was blocked. It's worth going to her site to watch it.

Partial Solar Eclipse and transit of the International Space Station

via Thierry Legault

Ken Block's Gymkhana THREE, Part 2; Ultimate Playground; l'Autodrome, Fr...

I was not aware that cars could be driven this way.

Douglas Adams: Parrots the Universe and Everything