“Our knowledge is a receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance” — Will Durant, 20th century American historian. * The Municipal Employee Retirement System handles pension accounts for more than 700 local governments in Michigan, covering almost 90,000 retirees. Blogger Steve Harry has been looking into changes in the management ranks at MERS. Using […]
Land O Links
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“The understanding of art depends finally upon one’s willingness to extend one’s humanity and one’s knowledge of human life” — Ralph Ellison, 20th century American author. * The Downtown Development Authority in Kalamazoo is looking to cut off funding for a police officer for the downtown area because it needs money to repay a $700,000 loan. […]
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“Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement” — Peter Drucker, 20th century American management guru. * Before a single class is held, most Michigan public schools will have seen their high-school football teams play two games. So, if it is vital to the state’s tourism industry that public school classes be banned […]
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“Without knowledge action is useless and knowledge without action is futile” — Abu Bakr, seventh-century Islamic political leader. * The invaluable Citizens Research Council of Michigan did a two-year study of teacher training, retention and cost issues. The report was released this summer. One of its concluding points: “Teachers are now also facing increased risk of […]
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“I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone” — John F. Kennedy. * The way people speak around the Great Lakes is diverging from the rest of North America. “‘(T)he starkest […]
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“Knowledge is not eating, and we cannot expect to devour and possess what we mean. Knowledge is recognition of something absent; it is a salutation, not an embrace” — George Santayana, philosopher. * A tick bite can make you allergic to meat: http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jul-aug/09-how-a-tick-bite-made-me-allergic-to-meat * “A recent (automotive engineering) recruit got a $17,000 raise and bonus of as […]
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“He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts” — Samuel Johnson, 18th century English essayist. * City officials in Birmingham want lawmakers to change Michigan’s open-carry law to bar weapons in council chambers: http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20120814/NEWS02/120814008/Birmingham-seeks-ban-guns-public-buildings?odyssey=nav%7Chead * Disease is taking its […]
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“Fools act on imagination without knowledge, pedants act on knowledge without imagination” — Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician. * A great deal of energy has been expended in Michigan, and elsewhere, on voting rules, particularly on the question of voter identification. Such laws are meant, of course, to prevent impersonation at the polling place and prevent voter […]
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“Poverty and lack of knowledge must be challenged” — Russell Simmons, American music entrepreneur and philanthropist. * This New Yorker piece lays out a case for having national chains take over American health care, thereby ensuring consistent quality. Marianne Udow-Phillips of the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation in Ann Arbor wrote in Bridge recently […]
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“All science requires mathematics. The knowledge of mathematical things is almost innate in us. This is the easiest of sciences, a fact which is obvious in that no one’s brain rejects it; for laymen and people who are utterly illiterate know how to count and reckon” — Roger Bacon, 13th century English philosopher. * Doug Luciani, […]