“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

This is often claimed to be from Nelson Mandela’s Inaugural Speech. It is actually from a book by Marianne Williamson.

The men wrote:

“A woman, without her man, is nothing.”

The women wrote:

“A woman: without her, man is nothing.”

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

If you are at all interested in punctuation, then this is for you: Eats, Shoots and Leaves, by Lynne Truss. Witty and enlightening, it is simply brilliant.

“The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

(Fitzgerald’s quatrain 51 in his 1st edition)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubaiyat_of_Omar_Khayyam

I have known this for more years than I can remember, so I was surprised to hear one of my friends had never heard of it.

(But then you were surprised that I dislike Dickens; for me it is depression writ large.
For you then – who would never agree that this is better than Dickens. Though of course it is)

Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.
Niels Bohr

Quantum mechanics is commonly said to be a theory of microscopic things: molecules, atoms, subatomic particles.

Nearly all physicists, though, think it applies to everything, no matter what the size.

via Living in a Quantum World: Scientific American.

It is now thought to help migratory birds navigate, and to increase the efficiency of photosynthesis. Understanding how may lead to improved solar panels.

Alex Knapp at Forbeshas come up with five leadership lessons from Star Trek’s Captain Kirk.

I’ve summarised them here, but really you need to read the whole piece:  www.forbes.com/…/james-t-kirk/

1. Never Stop Learning

“You know the greatest danger facing us is ourselves, an irrational fear of the unknown. But there’s no such thing as the unknown– only things temporarily hidden, temporarily not understood.”

A rebel at Star Fleet academy, he famously hacked a simulated battle to make it winnable, Kirk was also described as a “walking stack of books”.

Have Advisors With Different Worldviews

“One of the advantages of being a captain, Doctor, is being able to ask for advice without necessarily having to take it.”

It would be hard to imagine two more different worldviews than those of the emotionless Spock, with his passion for logic, and Dr. McCoy, caring, humane and driven by values and gut feeling.

Be Part Of The Away Team

“Risk is our business. That’s what this starship is all about. That’s why we’re aboard her.”

Kirk was always part of the team that did the job on the planet, taking the risks and seeing the issues at first hand.

Play Poker, Not Chess

“Not chess, Mr. Spock. Poker. Do you know the game?”

Take risks, bluff when necessary or expedient. The world operates by chance rather than rules.

Blow up the Enterprise

“‘All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.’ You could feel the wind at your back in those days. The sounds of the sea beneath you, and even if you take away the wind and the water it’s still the same. The ship is yours. You can feel her. And the stars are still there, Bones.”

James T Kirk was devoted to his ship, the Enterprise. A ruling passion he would sacrifice anything for it. Ultimately he saw that this passion had had its day and a change was needed. A particular situation required the Enterprise be crash landed in order for the greater mission to continue.

The vending machine doesn’t sell crows, it sells to crows. They buy food from it.

If you are pushed for time start watching at 3:20 for half a minute.

A great piece of SF writing in the tradition of Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov.

Actually the second in the Revelation Space series though a good place to start if you’re not too sure.

Click for link to Amazon

Specifically this book has a detailed description of what would happen to a space elevator if someone cut the cable at the planet end!

Susan Cain speaking at TED in eloquent defence of introversion.

Hero

This has a cast that is virtually a who’s who: Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang. And then it is directed by Zhang Yimou and ‘presented’ by one Quentin Tarantino. After that it will either be a great disappointment or heroic. For me it is definitely the latter.

The colour, the scope, the story with its twists and turns and multiple perspectives, are all things that I will remember for a long time. And still somehow the film transcends even these and becomes something that is greater than the sum of it parts. It has something intangible, some other worldly quality that makes it a great, rather than a good film.

For me it is simply a film I cannot forget, and would never want to forget. A film that simply changed me, and changed the way I see the world. A film that you simply must see.

This land doesn’t know a real hero. Yet.