Planet Earth to Major Tom ...

Qotd: When teaching a well-established truth, better to please 1 intelligent person and displease 10K fools [paraphrase] Maimonides

Here's the full quote:

[W]hen I have a difficult subject before me -- when I find the road narrow, and can see no other way of teaching a well established truth except by pleasing one intelligent man and displeasing ten thousand fools -- I prefer to address myself to the one man, and to take no notice whatever of the condemnation of the multitude; I prefer to extricate that intelligent man from his embarrassment and show him the cause of his perplexity, so that he may attain perfection and be at peace.
("Directions for the Study of this Work," The Guide for the Perplexed; Friedlander translation from 1904)

Maimonides (Mosheh ben Maimon, 1135-1204) is the author of today's quote. It's from his The Guide for the Perplexed (later 12th century), today, 12 December marks his death

And so, it just so happens, I stopped by Maimonides house earlier this year when I was in Fes (see more posts on Morocco!); here's a picture peeking in:

Peeking in the house

Maimonides was also an alum of the University of al-Karaouine (some shots of the Uni below):

Nelson Mandela's new walk to freedom ...

Robben Island Prison Ferry Sight

Nelson Mandela recently transitioned after a long illness. The "Madiba" (his clan name by which is was often affectionately known) was a towering figure in the 20th and early 21st century, as much for what he did not do as what he did do. His many flaws (played out in worldwide media) served only to highlight the accomplishments - mostly peaceful - that his mere presence sanctioned.

I've only visited South Africa once, and that was just over a year ago. I certainly can't comment on the state of racial affairs there (being barely able to comment on the complexities of race in my own country), I of course saw evidence of racially based inequality (often subtle), but was also amazed at what must have been the changes that have occurred in less than 30 years and with generations still alive who where oppressed and oppressors.


On a personal note, I vividly recall watching Mandela's prison release in 1990. In grad school at the time, a good friend and fellow student was a young woman from South Africa (Titi Pitso has since gone on to do some great work in the South African government). Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison (in Cape Town) on 11 February 1990. It was a Sunday morning and a quiet day in Arlington and Titi called to say that the news was out and the Mandela was being set free and to quick turn on the TV.

From thousands of miles away, I watched Mandela walk to freedom.

Sadly, when I visited Cape Town, I had hoped to visit the Robben Island Prison where Mandela and many other political prisoners were held. Unfortunately, there were no tickets available for the one free day that I had on the waterfront.

On President Obama's recent visit to South Africa, he compared Mandela to George Washington (a comparison that surely caused consternation), but one that was quite apt. Like Washington, Mandela stepped away from power, both let their countries grow up without their oversight, knowing that the greatest gift is freedom - in this case, freedom from the temptation of demagoguery.


(and, as a pop culture side note, there are some great Mandela songs), I'll randomly choose this catchy one by The Specials):

"Free Nelson Mandela"
Free Nelson Mandela
Free, free, free, free, free Nelson Mandela

Free Nelson Mandela
21 years in captivity
Shoes too small to fit his feet
His body abused but his mind is still free
Are you so blind that you cannot see? I said…
Free Nelson Mandela, I'm begging you
Free Nelson Mandela
- The Specials (Jerry Dammers)

QotD: "And that moment when the bird sings very close / To the music of what happens" RIP Seamus Heaney

Earlier today the Irish poet Seamus Heaney died (1939-2013). I first came across Heaney in college in a graduate seminar on Irish Poetry. Yeats was, of course, the focus, but we also covered "Irish poetry after Yeats" (which was the title of the book we used!).

Heaney also did some interesting translations (Beowulf and Greek plays), that made him one of the best selling poets of our time.

And here's more from the quote of the day:

There are mud-flowers of dialect
And the immortelles of perfect pitch
And that moment when the bird sings very close
To the music of what happens.
- From "Song" by Seamus Heaney

The loss of Aaron Swartz (1986-2013)

I first met Aaron Swartz in 2007 at the Internet Archive during the Open Content Alliance meeting. He was working on the Open Library project at the time.

Today, we learned that he'd killed himself in New York City. I don't really have anything else to add to this that many others have said much better. Larry Lessig has perhaps said it best in this post.

Brewster Kahle has also posted his thoughts, "Aaron Swartz, hero of the open world, dies."


 Here's Aaron on SOPA:

QotD: We're all gonna die one day anyway and we'll lose all our stuff

2010-08-22-IMG_9455
Originally uploaded by martin_kalfatovic

Great quote from Tim O'Reilly (thanks to Gluejar @ Go to Hellman) for reporting on this:

To me, you gotta care about something more than preserving your business. Because, obviously companies have made these types of transitions, and this is just my personal response. We're all gonna die one day anyway and we'll lose all our stuff. So don't worry too much about it. Just do something that lights you up, and lights up your customers, and lights up the world and scale to that. Because what's going to happen is people who are lit up by the future are going to be pursuing that future, and the people who hold onto the past are going to hold on too long. - Tim O'Reilly (interview, 29 Sep 2010)