mimoSite Programming and some other things

Over the years, peaks in sewage flow have greatly diminished, notes Rob Smith, chief sewer-flusher for Thames Water

The Economist in ‘The British at table’

..no, you can’t.

You have no control over your genes. If you are not tall, not fast and not well-coordinated you’ll never be even an half-decent basketball player (believe me – I tried that) – you can put your mind to the NBA (or even to a starting position in an amateur team) as much as you want, but ain’t going to happen.

You have no control over where and when you are born. It makes a lot of difference if you are the son of two Russian academics living in Russia or the son of two Russian academics that emigrated to the US. In the first case you can put your mind to your Internet venture idea as much as you can, but Google ain’t going to happen.

You have a maximum amount of time and energy to spend on the pursuit of your dreams. If you are gifted in math and music (lucky you!) you’ll have to choose, you won’t be able to become a math professor AND a concert pianist – regardless of how much you put your mind to both.

Chance plays a big parts in your life. There is a big difference if out of college you go to work for a company in a growing industry or in an industry that is dying – and where you end up depends on any number of irrelevant and random things. Once you are in the bad place putting your mind to improving your career would not do even nearly as good as in the good place.

Having said that, ‘You can do anything you put your mind to’ has definitely a better ring that ‘you should asses what you can realistically do given your innate abilities, birthplace and family, and then wisely invest your time and energy to achieve what you like most – or dislike the least – of the possible achievable choices’.

I didn't hate school; I learned things [. . .] plus I was too big to be bullied efficiently.

Iain Banks in 'The Quarry' 

In order that we should understand things fully, the winter of ninety forty-one was given to us as a measure.

Konstantin Simonov, as quoted in 'Leningrad' by Anna Reid

[It is like] shearing a piglet…a lot of squealing and very little wool

Vladimir Putin, quoted by The Economist in 'Travels and travails'

Infinite monkeys impractical - seeking talented developers instead

Austin Digital (GE Aviation) job ad title

I think he was taken aback. (He might not have been. It can be hard to tell with engineers.)

Frances Woolley in 'The lunch problem'

He has a great work ethic when he is in the mood

My wife

A Book on Those Geometric Constructions Which Are Necessary for a Craftsman

A Book on What Is Necessary from the Science of Arithmetic for Scribes and Businessmen

Titles of X century mathematical texts by Abū al-Wafā' Būzjānī 

And so I dream of a day when the only people who suffer from money-losing investments are the money-losing investors, whose only penance is lost money.

Ryan Avent of The Economist in 'The wages of sin'