Tolstoy, after Rousseau, on Knowledge and Wisdom

“Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know. Among the most necessary knowledge is the knowledge of how to live well, that is, how to produce the least possible evil and the greatest goodness in one’s life. At present, people study useless sciences, but forget to study this, the most important knowledge.”

Randoms

Apple now has more cash than the US Government.

The last time I laughed (I mean really laughed) was a couple of weeks ago. I laughed so hard, I nearly passed out--twice. We were watching "Enterprise," and the Klingons were experiencing the holodeck for the very first time. The Klingon captain (Volok) gave the officer a geographic survey of the home planet for the experiment. The next scene is looking over the shoulder of this knife-wielding, growling, be-fanged alien as he surveys his home planet. He points and says, "I can see my house from here!" I nearly died--I just wanted to share that with you. It was funny.

7 ways our earth changes in the blink of an eye.

Lessons in Leadership: The PBS documentary, "The Greely Expedition" relates following account: "In 1881, 25 men led by Adolphus Greely set sail from Newfoundland to Lady Franklin Bay in the high Arctic, where they planned to collect a wealth of scientific data from a vast area of the world’s surface that had been described as a 'sheer blank.' Three years later, only six survivors returned, with a daunting story of shipwreck, starvation, mutiny and cannibalism. The film reveals how poor planning, personality clashes, questionable decisions and pure bad luck conspired to turn a noble scientific mission into a human tragedy." Also read "Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk."

Literary passage of the week: "We went to his study for coffee, a jolly room full of books and trophies and untidiness and comfort." (John Buchan, "The 39 Steps.")

And remember: anything unrelated to the subject of elephants is irrelephant.

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