“Even simple farmers are capturing Russian soldiers every day, and all of them say the same thing: They don’t know why they are here. These are not warriors of a superpower. These are confused children who have been used. Take them home.” – Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, March 3, 2022
Author: Tetman Callis
“Men with small money will still impress each other over beer, men with medium money will find ways to barter, and men with large money will slice this country like cake if they get sad enough, bored enough.” – Eloghosa Osunde, “Good Boy”
“You, reading this, you’re here, alive, because your parents synced and you showed up. That’s it. Even if they planned for a child, it was still a raffle draw. A hand went in a bowl and picked you. The tree shook and a fruit fell down. If it pains you to read, then cry. It’s deeper for your mum because she probably pushed so hard her body gasped, only for your ungrateful head to come out of it.” – Eloghosa Osunde, “Good Boy”
“I’m not the kind of guy who believes in hell, or in a god who imagines a lake of fire. I just can’t see it—you have a mind that’s wider than the sky and that is what you use it to picture? To me, that sounds too petty, too human, too undivine to be real. People sell all kinds of gods all the time. I know the One that moves me and it’s not the one I was raised on. To me, you can’t say you’re love, choose to roast people for eternity, and then pretend it breaks your heart. Pick a side.” – Eloghosa Osunde, “Good Boy”
“The most dangerous thing in the world is a second lieutenant with a compass.” – Justin King, “Let’s talk about a BBC analysis of Russian personnel”
“It is evident that there is considerable operator bias introduced in designing fuzzy networks. This may not be satisfactory for complex problems where the actual relationships are not understood to begin with.” – H. K. D. H. Bhadeshia, “Neural Networks in Materials Science”
“Sir Steward, the Bailiff, Robert by name, who is here, complaineth of William of the street, who is there, that against the peace of the lord, he sent Thomas, his son, on such a day, at such an hour, in the year that now is, over the wall newly built and erected, and commanded him to carry off of every manner of fruit at his will, and when the bailiff heard the fruit being knocked down, he marvelled who this could be, and at once entered the lord’s garden, and found the boy right high on a costard tree, which he had cultivated for the lord’s use, because of its goodness; he made him come down, and attached him without doing any villany, and debonairely asked him by whose commandment and whose sending he entered the lord’s garden over walls well closed on all sides, and the boy answered and said, that William, his father, who is present there, bade him enter the garden, and urged him on to the tree with the best fruit.” – John Marshall Gest, quoting from Vol. IV of the Selden Society, in The Lawyer in Literature
“There be three kinds of unhappy men: He that hath knowledge and teacheth not ; He that teacheth and liveth not thereafter; He that knoweth not and doth not enquire to understand.” – Sir Edward Coke, Commentary on Littleton
“A right cannot die: trodden down it may be, but never trodden out.” – Sir Edward Coke, Commentary on Littleton
“Hope is the dream of a waking man.” – Sir Edward Coke, Institutes of the laws of England
“There is no greater injustice than when under colour of justice injury is done.” – Sir Edward Coke, Institutes of the laws of England
“There is no knowledge (seemeth it at the first of never so little moment) but it will stand the diligent student in stead at one time or other.” – Sir Edward Coke, Commentary on Littleton
“Pedantry is a useless display of learning, or perhaps a display of useless learning—at any rate, the term involves the double idea of display or affectation and uselessness.” – John Marshall Gest, The Lawyer in Literature
“Now, if a man wants to have his estate properly settled, it is absolutely necessary for him to die. It is not enough for him to disappear, no matter for how long, if he neglects this simple preliminary. When he comes back unexpectedly, and makes himself generally disagreeable, his return to the scene of his former activities will disarrange the most careful administration, and even if his supposed death was mourned, his reappearance will be even more sincerely lamented.” – John Marshall Gest, The Lawyer in Literature
“That every man must work out his own damnation, is not merely a profound theological dogma and a practical rule of life, but also a fundamental canon of literary art.” – John Marshall Gest, The Lawyer in Literature
“Search for downed plane conducted 16 through 20 Nov 50: Patrol attempted to get to area of crash on 16 & 17 Nov without success due to impassable terrain i.e. cliffs, dense timber, no trails etc. . . . On 18 Nov 1st Lt. Perry W. Wales, Co C, 31st Inf, patrol leader, and 9 men started out on different route with rations for two days. They went by vehicle to point A, dismounted and proceeded on by foot. . . . At point C they saw 8 men, 6 women and some children. One civilian had a leg wound. Civilians stated that they had heard of a plane crash to the west. . . . When the patrol reached point E two men had a slight case of frost bitten feet. The patrol leader . . . sent the two men with bad feet plus two others back . . . . When the 4 men arrived at point C they stopped in a house to eat their rations. As they were eating one man, who was on watch at the door, saw an armed civilian approaching. The guard reached for his rifle and the civilian jumped into a ditch. A few shots were traded with no casualties. After this incident . . . . all four started back for point F. While passing point X the 4 men were involved in a short firefight with two guerrillas. They felt they had wounded one due to stains in the snow. The guerrillas then fled. . . . the four men caught up with the patrol. The patrol leader selected a high, inaccessible knoll as a bivouac for the night. . . . The night was uneventful. From point D to G there were no trails whatever. The patrol had to rely entirely on the compass. At no point could the patrol get into position to compare the lay of the land with the map due to the dense timber and undergrowth. At 201130 Nov the patrol reached the scene of the crash. . . . The pilot’s body had been placed in a cellar and covered with brush by the local civilians. The pilot’s body was completely nude and the patrol leader stated that he believed that his clothes had been blown off during the explosion when the plane crashed. . . . The area, covered with 6 inches of snow, was thoroughly searched for documents, dog tags, wallet or a watch. Nothing could be found. The civilians were thoroughly questioned and they stated they had taken nothing from the plane or the pilot’s body. . . . The patrol then had the civilians construct a litter. Five civilians carried the body about one mile where the patrol commandeered an ox and sled. The body was then transported on the sled to point I where the patrol met the 3rd Bn Commander and party. From this point the body was transported via jeep . . . . The patrol then marched on to I Co positions . . . and spent the night with the company. . . . Upon reaching a ration supply all men ate at least a double meal or more before they were satisfied. . . . It was estimated the men had walked over 50 miles through the roughest terrain in Korea. At times it was necessary for the patrol to slide down steep snow covered slopes or to crawl under or climb over acres of fallen timber. As a climax, while crossing the ice on a frozen river the patrol saw a Korean woman with a baby on her back break through the ice. The water was rather shallow and only covered her just above the waist, but she was unable to crawl out herself. The patrol leader and his assistant shed their packs, worked their way out and saved the woman and her child.” – 1st Lt. Perry W. Wales, “Special Patrol Report, 24 Nov 50, 31st RCT War Diary”
“At Singpung-ni civilians reported 2 battalions of NKPA passed through there about one month ago. One half of them were wounded and all that could not walk they shot. They had 100 trucks and one American car. Trucks were loaded with rice, clothing, typewriters, papers and canned food carried from Seoul. . . . 200 Russian soldiers with their families lived there until after the fall of Seoul when they withdrew. Civilians were friendly to the patrol. . . . civilians were holding 25 NK prisoners in a large concrete building. . . . Civilians reported at Bokae-ri, vicinity Tong Sang-Myun mixed groups of NKPA, CCF and NK agents raided this village morning 13 November 1950. They were 20 to 30 in the group and they killed all male personnel (about 40) claiming they were deserters or rightists. They took food and clothing in their raid.” – Captain Byron W. Bonham, Jr., “31st RCT War Diary, 14 Nov 50”
“Chinese Communist and North Korean forces left Yongdong-ni two nights ago by railroad N to lake ferry. . . . Chinese Communist forces took all civ workers with them when they left town. The civ did not want to fight. One hundred workers were shot two (2) days ago because they refused to fight. Ten more were shot later.” – “RCT 31 Unit Report, 12 Nov 50”
“The people on this area are in dire need of clothing, this however, seems to be predominant in all of North Korea. There also appears to be a short supply of salt. The food situation is satisfactory. The diet consists primarily of barley and potatoes of which there is a sufficient quantity to last until next April or May. . . . The Regiment was informed that when the North Korean forces occupied this area they issued orders that the physicians, four Chinese doctors, would discontinue their practices except where NK troops were concerned. . . . The civilian attitude is basically unchanged. They appreciate the fact that they are not being mistreated and that the UN forces do not require a tax in the form of food stuffs.” – Major Carl G. Witte, S-2 and Civil Affairs Officer, 31st Regimental Combat Team, November 17, 1950, “Civil Affairs Weekly Activities Report”
“Is it forever that the sword must devour? Do you not know that it will be bitter afterward? Until when will you not bid the fighting-people to turn back from going after their brothers?” – II Samuel 2:26 (trans. Everett Fox)
“A glass is a nonequilibrium state of matter between that of a solid and a liquid. It is a non-crystalline amorphous solid that has a nanoscopically and microscopically disordered structure but many of the mechanical properties of a solid. Glass is a nonequilibrium, non-crystalline state of matter that appears solid on a short time scale but continuously relaxes towards the liquid state . . . . a nonequilibrium, non-crystalline condensed state of matter that exhibits a glass transition. The structure of glasses is similar to that of their parent supercooled liquids, and they spontaneously relax toward the supercooled liquid state. Their ultimate fate, in the limit of infinite time, is to crystallize. In the glassy state, the viscosity is exceptionally high, conformational changes are severely inhibited, and the material is metastably trapped in a solid but microscopically disordered state. A glass is rigid and brittle.” – Martin Chaplin, Water Structure and Science (internal quotes and citations omitted)
“Solid ice is stable to over 200 GPa and 4400 K in a body-centered cubic structure, near the melt boundary in water-rich Neptune-like planets. This may be responsible for the increased electrical conductivity that may promote the generation of multipolar magnetic fields. Due to the fluidity of the protons in Ice XVIII, and in contrast to the low-pressure ices, this ice is likely to be black. The oxygen ions form a close-packed structure with 12 nearest neighbors to each side, filling 74% of the space. This ice may be considered as a new state of matter, solid and liquid, at the same time, similar to a metallic structure but with free protons rather than electrons. It has been suggested that suitable conditions for Ice XVIII lie deep inside the watery giants Uranus and Neptune and may be common throughout the Universe.” – Martin Chaplin, Water Structure and Science
“Poets should always study law, as [Sir Walter] Scott did, but if more of them did so, there would be less poetry written.” – John Marshall Gest, The Lawyer in Literature
“The clergy live by our sins, the medical faculty by our diseases, and the law gentry by our misfortunes.” – Sir Walter Scott, Antiquary
“Law’s like laudanum, it’s much more easy to use it as a quack does, than to learn to apply it like a physician.” – Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering
“In [Sir Walter] Scott’s first criminal case, he defended a poacher, and whispered to his client, as he heard the verdict, — not guilty —‘You’re a lucky scoundrel.’ ‘I am just of your mind,’ was the reply, ‘and I’ll send you a hare in the morn.’ ” – John Marshall Gest, The Lawyer in Literature
“Fascists are a lot like lead in your drinking water. There is no acceptable safe level.” – Justin King, “Let’s talk about Ukraine’s personnel problem”
“Women play an important role in Judges, to an extent not seen in the Bible since the early chapters of Exodus. While they barely appear in Joshua, in Judges they are present in every major narrative save that of Ehud. And the way they are painted seems to act as a moral barometer for the state of Israelite society as it was conceived of by the writers. Some female characters show strength and independence (Achsah, Deborah, Jael, and Abimelech’s killer), but others appear as the victims of violence within and beyond the patriarchal system (Jephthah’s daughter, the concubine of Gibeah, and the Benjaminite women at the end of the book—all of whom are unnamed), and even as the enemy or corrupt figures (Delilah and the Levite’s mother). These narratives do not merely reflect a patriarchal society. More often than not, they serve to set the male characters in relief, demonstrating the shortcomings of the leaders in Judges. Achsah is not shy about asserting her rights; Deborah has the self-assurance that Barak does not; Jael succeeds in the absence of her husband; Jephthah’s nameless daughter survives in cultural memory despite her early end; Delilah outsmarts the superhumanly strong Samson; and the numberless female victims in the last three chapters of the book serve to indict first a single Levite, then the tribe of Benjamin, and finally the entire people, for their crimes of abandonment, murder, rape, and abduction. If Samson and his ilk symbolize a badly faltering Israel, the female characters in the book function to sharply etch the consequences of the people’s actions.” – Everett Fox, The Early Prophets
“Although the cosmological constant cold dark matter model is very successful in explaining almost all observations, it has some theoretical issues within its backbone structure. These include the mysterious physical origin of the two largest contributions to the energy content of the late-time Universe: cold dark matter and the cosmological constant, together with the unsatisfactory predictability and test-ability of the inflation theory. Therefore, it is important to explore alternative explanations for the late-time acceleration of the Universe. There have been several proposals . . . hints remain from the Dark Energy Survey and several previous galaxy surveys that the Universe today is a few percent less clumpy than predicted. . . . On the other hand, massive binary black holes as standard sirens have the disadvantage that the redshift needs to be measured independently of the gravitational wave observations. If we identify the host galaxy then it should be possible to determine with joint events whether long-wavelength gravitational wave and short-wavelength electromagnetic radiation have the same number of spacetime dimensions. . . . Also, there have been studies considering the propagation from the inspiraling of compact binary systems within the context of teleparallel gravity theories . . . meanwhile it is important to mention that these studies are in the context of a scenario where the general relativity cosmological model is considered as an effective fluid in the standard perturbations equations.” – Sebastian Bahamonde, et al., “Teleparallel Gravity: From Theory to Cosmology”
“Ridicule is stronger than argument, caricature more powerful than a bald recital of sober facts.” – John Marshall Gest, The Lawyer in Literature