[1205] in Central_America
New quotes for Thu Jan 12
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Thu Jan 12 01:35:52 1989
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 89 01:36:07 EST
From: Initializer.SysDaemon <root@CHARON.MIT.EDU>
To: ca-mtg@bloom-beacon.mit.edu
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amgreene (Andrew Marc Greene):
Nobody is claiming that the single-master Adobe fonts are hopelessly
ugly---in fact they are a fairly skillful compromise if you insist
that programming convenience is more important than aesthetic
refinement. But the fact remains that it is a compromise, and is made
entirely for economic reasons and for programming convenience.... The
general impression I get from looking at what passes for Times at 5pt
on a PostScript machine is that it is a shrunken, wizened and
prune-like residuum of Times at 12pt.
The reason for abandoning the ligatures is simple programming
convenience. If that is more important to you than the fine points of
font character design, then maybe you should be using MacWrite or
WordStar, rather than TeX.
Try changing the bar height on one of your Adobe fonts, or try
altering the proportion of ascender to x-height. Try extending the
bowls without altering the hairline, stem and curve proportions.
- TeXhax
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celine (Adam Weishaupt):
What would you say if I presented you with the concept that everything
is idea, in its most fundamental level? "Who cares?", in all
probability, but...
Our senses deceive us. We all know this to be true and will
readily admit to it, to some extent. After all, the tower in the
distance appears to us to be round, when we approach it is square. Or
more poingnantly, take the case of the coin which turns out to be a
bottlecap when we stoop to pick it up. We do actually see it as a
coin to start, because with experience our mind fills in the blanks in
our perception with what we have previously known, tempered a bit by
what we wish to perceive. It is not so simple as to say we wish to
see a coin and thus we do, but if the object is just out of definite
focus, and has the characteristics of a coin, well, our mind... fudges
a little.
So our senses are imperfect, so what of it? For one thing, this
proves that objects are real to us only in the sense that they are
what we perceive them to be and _believe_ them to be. If we had not
stopped to pick up the bottlecap, it would have remained a coin in our
minds forever. It is the idea that actually is known to us itself to
us, and not the object itself. This is all perfectly obvious. You
may be wondering (if you have even bothered to read this far) why I
took the time to make this point. This is, I believe, one of the most
basic absurdities of the human condition.
How do we live? In the broadest sense, we live as if our
perceptions are impeccable. Not surprising, given the alternative is
what? To ignore the car speeding toward us at the busy intersection?
Or perhaps to ignore the hunger we feel in our stomachs? We have no
choice but to act as if our senses are without error. But at the same
time, we realize that every external object could be misperceived, and
we could be acting on fallacious information. This dichotomy presents
man with a difficult situation: he is all but forced to act on
information he has every reason to eternally doubt. Absurd!
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dkk (David K Krikorian):
Writing a poem: When you're writing a poem, eliminate nine out of ten
adjectives and adverbs in the first draft, and cut everything you've
heard before.
[Jennifer Welch, poet and editor, Columbus, Ohio]
[From "Rules of Thumb 2" by Tom Parker, Houghton Mifflin, 1987.]
[Definitely _not_ from ".plan" by Timothy J Stellmach, Project Athena,
1989.]
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dschmidt (Dan Schmidt):
I've been set off by a pretty little girl
I'm like a rocket in a bottle set free
I've been just explosive since you lit me
I've been up with the larks
I've been shooting off sparks
And I'm feeling in love
XTC "Rocket From a Bottle"
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jik (Jonathan I. Kamens):
Sniglet of the day:
CARPERPETUATION
(kar' pur pet u a shun)
n. The act, when vacuuming, of running over a string or a piece of
lint at least a dozen times, reaching over and picking it up,
examining it, then putting it back down to give the vacuum *one more
chance*.
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jtkohl (John T Kohl):
Kerberos is falling down, falling down, falling down...
[well, Kerberos bugs, actually...]
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rosencra (John R Buck):
The diamond dogs are poachers and they hide behind trees.
- "Diamond Dogs", David Bowie, from the album of the same name
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swmpthng (Timothy J Stellmach):
{From system: This user's .plan file is not world readable}
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tytso (Theodore Y. Ts'o):
They hate you if your're clever
And they despise the fool
Till you're so fucking crazy
You can't follow the rules.
- Lennon
---
setenv TEDPATH x3-7788:x3-7787:x3-4261:x5-6361
--- End of Central America ---
