The Open Mind Exchange: February 2014

Thursday, February 20, 2014

The Headline of the Year

However you feel about Vlad Putin, we owe him thanks for setting in motion the events that made possible a news story that could be summarized with perhaps one of the greatest headlines in human history: Pussy Riot horse-whipped by Cossacks

Cost of Sochi Olympics: $51,000,000,000
Pussy Riot horse-whipped by Cossacks: Priceless

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Two and a Half New Features on the Exchange!

Although I am certain nobody noticed, a short while ago I added a quotation to my front page. I decided that I should also link to a quotation archive where all previously displayed quotations are available for your pleasure. That's one and a half new features. Tonight I added an entirely new section titled, "Puzzles, Trivia, and General Interest" which I hope is as exciting to someone else as it is to me. I think my only readers thus far are probably NSA data mining algorithms, but here's to hoping!

Something to think about...

"To give aid to every poor man is far beyond the reach and power of every man. Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole."

-Baruch Spinoza

"Happiness is a virtue, not its reward."

-Baruch Spinoza

"Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad."

-Baruch Spinoza

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."

-Soren Kierkegaard

"Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays."

-Soren Kierkegaard

"While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

-Eugene V. Debs

"Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong."

-H.L. Mencken

"Even cohabitation has been corrupted—by marriage."

-Friedrich Nietzsche

"Religion always remains higher than everyday life. In order to make the elevation towards religion easier for people, religion must be able to alter its forms in relation to the consciousness of modern man."

-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, uh, people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our children."

-Caitlin Upton

May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.

-Franz Kafka

One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

-Franz Kafka

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.

-Ernest Hemingway