Start of the Week Quotations

I took a bit of a break in putting up quotations recently, so here is a set to tie you over for the next two weeks.

"Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word." - Charles de Gaulle, French soldier and President of France from 1959-69, 1890-1970

"By convention there is colour, by convention sweetness, by convention bitterness, but in reality there are atoms and space." - Democritus, Greek philosopher, c. 460- c.370 BC

"Damn them! They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder!" - John Dennis, English critic, poet, and dramatist, 1657-1734
Said after hearing his new thunder effects used at a performance of Macbeth, following the withdrawal of one of his own plays after only a short run. Thus, we get the phrase "to steal one's thunder".

"The absent are always in the wrong." - Philippe Nericault Destouches, French dramatist, 1680-1754

"Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open." - attributed to James Dewar, Scottish physicist, 1842-1923

"Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States." - attributed to Porfiro Diaz, Mexican revolutionary and President of Mexico from 1877-80 and 1884-1911, 1830-1915

The State of the Blog Address

As most will have noticed, I haven't been very attendant to blogging recently. Things should pick up a bit this week, but then next week I am going on vacation and will only have shoddy internet access at best. Once I get back from that, though, things should really start back up around here (and I'll start posting over at Computing Intelligence again as well).

So, there will be some light posting this week, a week off, and then things should get back to normal (and by normal, I mean the normal of about eight months ago).