This led to this, which led to this, which then led to this (and this), which in turn brought me to this. Good finds.

“In the end, science offers us the only way out of politics. And if we allow science to become politicized, then we are lost. We will enter the Internet version of the dark ages, an era of shifting fears and wild prejudices, transmitted to people who don’t know any better. That’s not a good future for the human race. That’s our past.” – Michael Crichton, “Environmentalism as Religion,” (A lecture at the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, CA, September 15, 2003).

The insomniacs are form watchers.(via)

You know what lives a short life? Toothbrushes. You know what lives an even shorter life? A soda can. And do you you know what lives a shorter life still? Toilet paper. Seriously. You use it for a while (the toothbrush), for maybe an hour (soda can), or for approximately 10 seconds (your brain. No, wait. Toilet paper.) What kind of disposable society do we live in?

Lyrics

[rant] There simply MUST be a way for the world to be something other than it is. (See? I write that sentence, and immediately the answer hits me like a magic eight-ball to the skull.) The answer! Is! …serpective. Er, perspective. I just have to look at things a different way. [random] By the by, I love the people you see in book stores. Sometimes they’re eclectic hipsters with a definite chic they’re trying to attain.

Out of the night that covers me,Black as the Pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstanceI have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeonings of chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms but the Horror of the shade,And yet the menace of the yearsFinds, and shall find, me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate,How charged with punishments the scroll.

I believe in nothingNot the end and not the startI believe in nothingNot the earth and not the starsI believe in nothingNot the day and not the darkI believe in nothingBut the beating of our heartsI believe in nothing100 suns until we partI believe in nothingNot in sin and not in godI believe in nothingNot in peace and not in warI believe in nothingBut the truth in who we are