Henry Aaron never hit 50 [home runs] in a season . . . Bonds hit 73 [in 2001], and he would have hit 100 if they would have pitched to him. I mean, come on, now. There is no way you can outperform Aaron and Ruth and Mays at that level.
Warren Buffett Gets the Last Laugh
Warren Buffett published his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders this week:
Our gain in net worth during 2003 was $13.6 billion, which increased the per-share book value of both our Class A and Class B stock by 21%. Over the last 39 years (that is, since present management took over) per-share book value has grown from $19 to $50,498, a rate of 22.2% compounded annually.
Zelda Fitzgerald
Nobody has ever measured, even the poets, how much a heart can hold. . . . When one really can’t stand anymore, the limits are transgressed, and one thing has become another; poetry registers itself on the hospital charts, and heart-break has to be taken care of.
On this date in 1948, she and eight other patients died in a fire at the Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville, NC. Because they had been locked in their rooms for the night, the patients were unable to escape the flames.
Like Father, Like Son?
The number of students majoring in computer science is falling, even at the elite universities. So [Bill] Gates went stumping at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, M.I.T. and Harvard, telling students that they could still make a good living in America, even as the nation’s industry is sending some jobs, like software programming, abroad.
My brother is a doctor.
He doesn’t encourage his kids to go into medicine though, because he’s incredibly frustrated by the fact that you go to school for 20 years to learn something, only to have clerks from insurance companies decide if a procedure you’ve recommended is or is not “medically necessary.”
I’ve worked in computing for 20 years.
I don’t push my kid to get into it because during that time, it’s become less and less like a professional business and more like a big class project, full of people who have no aptitude, no education and no role models.
A friend of mine teaches a computer science class at a local community college. He loves it.
I don’t think I could bring myself to stand up in front of a group of young people and encourage them to be programmers. I’d probably wind up yelling at them to go be flight attendants or meeting planners and stop wasting their time.
Where are you going to go as a programmer to do interesting, influential work with bright, educated people? The list of possibilities is very short.
Microsoft is on the list — but the fact that Bill Gates is out recruiting at Illinois, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, M.I.T. and Harvard while you’re sitting here in a community college class suggests that a Microsoft career may not be in the cards for you.
Thus spoke The Programmer.
Song Lyrics That Didn’t Resonate Till Years Later
Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out
It doesn’t matter much to me.
Better Look Again
20 Alleged Illegal Immigrants Found in LA
I would have guessed there were a lot more than that . . .
Foreigners for Kerry
I’ve met foreign leaders who can’t go out and say this publicly, but boy they look at you and say, ‘You’ve got to win this, you’ve got to beat this guy, we need a new policy,’ things like that.
SEOUL — North Korea’s state-controlled media is known for its reverential reporting on Mr Kim Jong-il.
But the Dear Leader is not the only one getting deferential treatment: Mr John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic candidate in the United States, is also getting good play in Pyongyang.
His speeches are being broadcast on Radio Pyongyang and reported in glowing terms by the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA).
Quotes on Kerry
Yet not all Democrats are thrilled with John Kerry. (As an aside, try to wrap your mind around the phrase ‘thrilled with John Kerry’ and you’ll see why he might not be the strongest nominee.)
I have never met anybody, nor seen anybody interviewed, nor received an email from anybody, nor read a letter to a newspaper from anybody who really woke up in the morning and thought: If John Kerry doesn’t win, I just don’t know what I shall do.
Kids in America
The woman cutting my hair today tells me her son’s favorite things to watch are horror movies — he really likes The Evil Dead — and The Simpsons.
Did I mention that her son is 4-1/2 years old?
You’ve Got a Problem
You know you’ve got a problem when:
- You take your stroller-age child to an amusement park and you’re buying a beer at 11:30 in the morning; or
- You are the stroller-age child.
I was at California Adventure yesterday and I saw this happening over and over . . .
I’d Like to Buy a Bowel
Today’s Text
Time passes. Listen. Time passes. . . .
Happy Birthday, Spam
On this date in 1994, a message was posted to some Usenet newsgroups by the law firm of Canter and Siegel, advertising its services for the Green Card lottery.
Others soon followed in the footsteps of Canter and Siegel, torpedoing the usefulness of newsgroups with junk messages, which eventually spread from Usenet to email.
According to Brightmail, most email is now spam.
Come On!
The Noble Pug
The pug is among the oldest breeds of dog. It is believed to have originated in China before 400 B.C., and is known to have been a pet in Buddhist monasteries in Tibet.
The pug made the long trek to Europe with 17th-century traders of the Dutch East India Company.
I bet they had their heads out the window the whole way!
Famous pug owners include the Empress Josephine, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
We Need to Know the Truth
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, said he thought there ought to be some investigation of the claim that Aristide was forced out and escorted by U.S. troops.
‘I have a very close friend in Massachusetts who talked directly to people who have made that allegation,’ Kerry said on Today on NBC. ‘I don’t know the truth of it. I really don’t. But I think it needs to be explored and we need to know the truth of what happened.’
This has become standard operating procedure for Democrats: put out some outlandish statement (President Bush had foreknowledge of Sept. 11, Bush was a ‘deserter’), then say you ‘don’t know the truth of it’ but it’s ‘out there’ and ‘we need to know’ what happened.
Stop the Presses
Black Voters Align With Democrats Against Bush
French Marines
From a Wall Street Journal article on the arrival of French troops in Haiti:
U.S. Marines set up a security perimeter at the airport, kneeling in the grass as about 80 French Marines arrived in C-160 transport planes. The French Marines’ supplies included crates of bottled Evian water.
Separated at Birth
A Riddle
Q: What do a 10-year-old boy and a 4-month-old dog have in common?
A: When you ask them to do something they don’t want to do, they just look at you like they’re unable to understand human language . . .