New Orts #117

April 12 MMXXVI

“The defendant is charged on five counts: of being selfish, disobedient, inconsiderate, mean-spirited, and acting like a baby. The defendant will come forward and face the bench.”
(A tiny baby crawls forward and faces the bench.)
“How do you plead?”
“Guilty.”
“I remand you to the custody of your parents and sentence you to parole for life.”
— a cartoon by Jules Feiffer (1929-2025)

The only people that like change are wet babies.
— Bob Winegar

When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.
— George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention…
— Herbert A. Simon, in a 1971(!!) essay, Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World

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