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Natural selection is about as non-random a force as you could possibly imagine.
It was the cheese. The cheese was my undoing. This is the miracle of life melted over these chili fries, the bacterial flirtation with enzymes, the co-mingling of friendly micro-organisms giving birth to curds and whey. And from dust He created the universe.
TV: Wonderfalls
Vincent van Gogh war ein holländischer Maler
Er schnitt sich ab sein linkes Ohr
Das kommt bei Künstlern manchmal vor
Wären alle wie van Gogh
Dann hätten wir ein großes Loch
In der Mitte der Gesellschaft
Dann hätten alle nur ein Ohr
Dann wären alle im Radio
Und keiner säße mehr davor.
Er schnitt sich ab sein linkes Ohr
Das kommt bei Künstlern manchmal vor
Wären alle wie van Gogh
Dann hätten wir ein großes Loch
In der Mitte der Gesellschaft
Dann hätten alle nur ein Ohr
Dann wären alle im Radio
Und keiner säße mehr davor.
Song: Mittelmäßiger Klaus
‘Keep avay from me! And do not breathe like zat!’ Otto wailed.
‘Like what?’
‘Zer bosoms going in and out and up and down like zat! I am a vampire! A fainting young lady, please understand, zer panting, zer heaving of zer bosoms … it calls somezing terrible from vithin …” With a lurch he pushed himself upright and gripped the black twist of ribbon from his lapel. ‘But I vill be stronk!’ he screamed. ‘I vill not let everyvun down!’
‘Like what?’
‘Zer bosoms going in and out and up and down like zat! I am a vampire! A fainting young lady, please understand, zer panting, zer heaving of zer bosoms … it calls somezing terrible from vithin …” With a lurch he pushed himself upright and gripped the black twist of ribbon from his lapel. ‘But I vill be stronk!’ he screamed. ‘I vill not let everyvun down!’
Book: The Truth
Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
Book: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
It was a couple of days before Kate Schechter became aware of any of these things, or indeed of anything at all in the outside world.
She passed the time quietly in a world of her own in which she was surrounded as far as the eye could see with old cabin trunks full of past memories in which she rummaged with great curiosity, and sometimes bewilderment. Or, at least, about a tenth of the cabin trunks were full of vivid, and often painful or uncomfortable memories of her past life; the other nine-tenths were full of penguins, which surprised her. Insofar as she recognised at all that she was dreaming, she realised that she must be exploring her own subconscious mind. She had heard it said that humans are supposed only to use about a tenth of their brains, and that no one was very clear what the other nine-tenths were for, but she had certainly never heard it suggested that they were used for storing penguins.
She passed the time quietly in a world of her own in which she was surrounded as far as the eye could see with old cabin trunks full of past memories in which she rummaged with great curiosity, and sometimes bewilderment. Or, at least, about a tenth of the cabin trunks were full of vivid, and often painful or uncomfortable memories of her past life; the other nine-tenths were full of penguins, which surprised her. Insofar as she recognised at all that she was dreaming, she realised that she must be exploring her own subconscious mind. She had heard it said that humans are supposed only to use about a tenth of their brains, and that no one was very clear what the other nine-tenths were for, but she had certainly never heard it suggested that they were used for storing penguins.
Book: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
They have called this day the eleventh of March. And whom-so-ever of you gets through this day, unless you are shot in the head or somehow slain you will stand a hipnal when e’er you hear the name again and you will get excited at the name March the eleventh. We happy few, we few, we band of brothers, our names will be as like household names. Those who are not here be they sleeping or doing something else, they will feel themselves — sort of crappy. Because they are not here to, to join the fight. On this day the Eleventh of March!
TV: Due South, 4x13 - Call Of The Wild Pt. 2
I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code
- My uncle won’t come in.
- Your uncle… Oh, right. Why? Doesn’t like doctors?
- He doesn’t trust them.
- Why’s that?
- He *is* a doctor.
- Oh really? Which kind?
- Witch.
- Which which?
- Which what?
- Which doctor.
- Right.
- Your uncle… Oh, right. Why? Doesn’t like doctors?
- He doesn’t trust them.
- Why’s that?
- He *is* a doctor.
- Oh really? Which kind?
- Witch.
- Which which?
- Which what?
- Which doctor.
- Right.
TV: Northern Exposure, 1x02
In den finsteren Zeiten,
wird da auch gesungen werden?
Da wird auch gesungen werden.
Von den finsteren Zeiten.
[In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing
About the dark times.]
wird da auch gesungen werden?
Da wird auch gesungen werden.
Von den finsteren Zeiten.
[In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing
About the dark times.]
[about the HHGG radio series] I think that the BBC’s attitude toward the show while it was in production was very similar to that which Macbeth had toward murdering people—initial doubts, followed by cautious enthusiasm and then greater and greater alarm at the sheer scale of the undertaking and still no end in sight.
Book: The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Foreword
An elephant’s penis swings at a frequency much slower than sound (although in the same ballpark as sound when you compare it with the ultra high frequencies of light).
Book: Unweaving the Rainbow
I hate America, Louis. I hate this country. Nothing but a bunch of big ideas and stories and people dying, and then people like you. The white cracker who wrote the National Anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word free to a note so high nobody could reach it. That was deliberate.
Movie: Angels in America (Chapter Five)
Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
Movie: The Princess Bride
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Movie: The Princess Bride
I opened up a container of yogurt, and under the lid it said “Please Try Again” because they were having a contest I was unaware of. But I thought I might have opened the yogurt wrong, or maybe Yoplait was trying to inspire me. “C’mon, Mitchell, don’t give up. Please try again. A message of inspiration from your friends at Yoplait. Fruit on the bottom, hope on top.”
* In fact it’s the view of the more thoughtful historians, particularly those who have spent time in the same bar as the theoretical physicists, that the entirety of human history can be considered as a sort of blooper reel. All those wars, all those famines caused by malign stupidity, all that determined, mindless repetition of the same old errors, are in the great cosmic scheme of things only equivalent to Mr Spock’s ears falling off.
Book: The Last Continent
I was feeling kind of crappy. I thought, “I wish I could just hide under the bed for awhile.” And there I was in front of the bed, so I did. It was fun, but not in a “I’m going crazy” kind of way.
Jareth: You remind me of the babe.
Goblin: What babe?
Jareth: The babe with the power.
Different Goblin: What power?
Jareth: The power of voodoo.
Goblin: Who do?
Jareth: You do.
Goblin: Do what?
Jareth: Remind me of the babe.
Goblin: What babe?
Jareth: The babe with the power.
Different Goblin: What power?
Jareth: The power of voodoo.
Goblin: Who do?
Jareth: You do.
Goblin: Do what?
Jareth: Remind me of the babe.
Movie: Labyrinth
He’d never realized that, deep down inside, what he really wanted to do was make things go splat.
Book: “Reaper Man” by Terry Pratchett
Sometimes the gods have no taste at all. They allow sunrises and sunsets in ridiculous pink and blue hues that any professional artist would dismiss as the work of some enthusiastic amateur who’d never looked at a real sunset. This was one of those sunrises. It was the kind of sunrise a man looks at and says, ‘No real sunrise could paint the sky Surgical Appliance Pink.’
Nevertheless, it was beautiful.*
* But not tasteful.
Nevertheless, it was beautiful.*
* But not tasteful.
Book: Thief of Time
The singers were halfway down Park Lane now, and halfway through ‘The Red Rosy
Hen’ in marvellous harmony.*
* ‘The red rosy hen greets the dawn of the day’. In fact the hen is not the bird traditionally associated with heralding a new sunrise, but Mrs Huggs, while collecting many old folk songs for posterity, has taken care to rewrite them where necessary to avoid, as she put it, ‘offending those of a refined disposition with unwarranted coarseness’. Much to her surprise, people often couldn’t spot the unwarranted coarseness until it had been pointed out to them.
Sometimes a chicken is nothing but a bird.
Hen’ in marvellous harmony.*
* ‘The red rosy hen greets the dawn of the day’. In fact the hen is not the bird traditionally associated with heralding a new sunrise, but Mrs Huggs, while collecting many old folk songs for posterity, has taken care to rewrite them where necessary to avoid, as she put it, ‘offending those of a refined disposition with unwarranted coarseness’. Much to her surprise, people often couldn’t spot the unwarranted coarseness until it had been pointed out to them.
Sometimes a chicken is nothing but a bird.
Book: Hogfather
I wouldn’t say ‘the glass is half-empty’.
I wouldn’t say ‘the glass is half-full’.
I might say ‘the glass contains 284ml’. If it’s a pint pot.
Engineers, eh?
I wouldn’t say ‘the glass is half-full’.
I might say ‘the glass contains 284ml’. If it’s a pint pot.
Engineers, eh?
+++ Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++
Book: Hogfather
Det finns små trick som får folk
att ge dig mer än du är värd
[There are little tricks that make people
give you more than you are worth]
att ge dig mer än du är värd
[There are little tricks that make people
give you more than you are worth]
Song: Kent - Max 500
What do you get when you convolute with yourself?
talking about convoluting a function with itself
Money smells like feet. Feet get us from where we are standing to other places so that we can stand there. I know what you are thinking…so do bicycles, but even then YOU NEED FEET.
The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.
FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC. [motto of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch]
Book: Guards! Guards!
I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means “put down”.
Si hoc legere scis numium eruditionis habes.
[If you can read this, you are over-educated.]
[If you can read this, you are over-educated.]
The primary function of the government is—and here I am quoting directly from the U.S. Constitution—“to spew out paper.”
There are two kinds of people in this world, and I am one of them.
Building a deck is NOT as hard as you think! I’ve watched TV personality Bob Vila do it many times, and he is a regular ‘do-it-yourselfer’ just like you, except that he has knowledge, skill, an unlimited budget and a large staff of experts.
There comes a time when we should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about our birthday. That time is age 11.
For the user who spends 50% of the time in the Web browser and 40% in the mail client, the Linux desktop is already there.
In elementary school, in case of fire you have to line up quietly in a single file line from smallest to tallest. What is the logic? Do tall people burn slower?
For some reason, your picture reminds of a friend who used to tell girls “on a scale from the square root of two to pi, you rate an e”.
Film-making has all the appeal of waiting 12 weeks for a plane at London Airport.
who added that “A Fish Called Wanda” is the only movie he actually enjoyed making
The difference between British and Americans is, Americans think a hundred years is a long time and the British think a hundred miles is a long drive.
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