Kyte Quotes

ODE TO A HAGGIS Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race! Aboon them a’ ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy of a grace As lang’s my arm The groaning trencher there ye fill, Your hurdies like a distant hill, You pin wad help to mend a mill In time o’need While thro’ your pores the dews distil Like amber bead His knife see Rustic-labour dight, An’ cut you up wi’ ready slight, Trenching your gushing entrails bright Like onie ditch; And then, O what a glorious sight, Warm-reeking, rich! Then, horn for horn they stretch an’ strive, Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive, Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve Are bent like drums; Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive Bethankit hums Is there that owre his French ragout, Or olio that wad staw a sow, Or fricassee wad mak her spew Wi’ perfect sconner, Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view On sic a dinner? Poor devil! see him owre his trash, As feckless as a wither’d rash His spindle-shank a guid whip-lash, His nieve a nit; Thro’ bluidy flood or field to dash, O how unfit! But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed, The trembling earth resounds his tread, Clap in his walie nieve a blade, He’ll mak it whissle; An’ legs, an’ arms an’ heads will sned, Like taps o’ thrissle Ye pow’rs wha mak mankind your care, An’ dish them out their bill o’fare, Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware That jaups in luggies; But, if ye wish her gratefu’ pray’r, Gie her a Haggis!

At a time when our nation is facing an epidemic of loneliness, when communities are suffering from loss of trust, low levels of engagement, despair, and political polarization, what if the answer to many of our problems lies in a simple idea? What if we just need to pay attention to the places where we find ourselves?

A Commonwealth of Dominica passport provided visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to more than 115 countries around the world, including the entire European Union, which made it the perfect accessory for any fugitive’s well-stocked go bag. As an added bonus, he could sock away millions of dollars of his Kyte profits in Dominica’s banks without attracting the attention of the IRS or the FBI.

He was making so much money from Kyte that it was becoming apparent to the cartels. Now the chum was in the water, and the sharks were circling. He should have known that people would come for him and try to take the site from him.

Tis true, the world may wonder at my confidence, how I dare put out a book, especially in these censorious times; but why should I be ashamed, or afraid, where no evil is, and not please my self in the satisfaction of innocent desires? For a smile of neglect cannot dishearten me, no more can a frown of dislike affright me … my mind’s too big, and I had rather venture an indiscretion, than lose the hopes of a fame.[43] This is the Margaret Cavendish that feminists adore, emerging from her chrysalis: singular, ambitious, confident of her intelligence and proudly dismissive of what others think.

They argued, after the ancient philosophers Plato and Plotinus, that the nature of the universe was spiritual rather than material, and that moral virtues and reason were God-given. The mortal life was meaningless, the appetites and senses a distraction; the important truths, and access to God, could only be attained through abstract thinking and intellectual reasoning.

hanged or burned for it, that is.[11] These elaborate tortures pointed to one simple fact: that the potential power women had – be it sexual, intellectual, even supernatural – scared the living daylights out of the patriarchy. In response, it did everything it could to suppress that power and preserve its own supremacy: it kept them ignorant, incapacitated, voiceless and dependent.

The Kyte network was a thicket of proxy-server IP addresses and usernames that led nowhere. In order to truly make the case against CaptainMal, she needed to locate Kyte’s server, which could be anywhere among the hundreds of millions of computers in the world.

The problem, as the Stoic philosopher Epictetus pointed out nearly two thousand years ago, is that the more we focus on changing the world around us to make us feel better, the more we feel emotionally tethered to it. If our emotional life is bound too closely to the circumstances outside our heads, then no matter how much better we make things, we will always feel as if we don’t have control over our lives.

When it comes to the dangers that threaten our bodies, we eventually realize the threats and do our best to address them. Our need for things like water, food, security, and health are tied directly to universal perceptions of pleasure and pain. If our water is contaminated and we are unable to drink it, we suffer from thirst. If we do not have food, we become hungry. Our natural desire corresponds to that which our bodies need. But what happens when we lack beauty in our surroundings? What happens when our lives lack purpose? What happens when we do not have any friends?

What if the reason for rising rates of anxiety is not that things are getting worse but that we are getting worse at thinking about things in constructive ways?

They are pushed from one place to another until they end up together, in shelters or tent cities or under bridges—entire populations of people who in a less technologically advanced society would be widely distributed throughout many different communities composed of people who routinely helped one another as a matter of course.

Anyone who cannot form a community with others, or who does not need to because he is self-sufficient, is no part of a city-state—he is either a beast or a god.

building with the specific intention of bringing members of our communities together into shared public spaces.

We still have places where people can socialize, but, for the most part, we are no longer building with the specific intention of bringing members of our communities together into shared public spaces. If we don’t build for that purpose, we will lose the sense of common ties that bind us together as a people.

The overall effect of advances in technology is to lessen our dependence on one another, which inevitably results in a weakening of ties throughout society. Whether we are talking about a smartphone, a car, or a washing machine, most forms of technology increase our power and freedom. They provide us with the ability to do more and the ability to do it more conveniently.

But we are increasingly choosing to withdraw from public participation, and we are building cities and towns that make it more difficult to get involved.

Social capital comes in two forms: bonding capital and bridging capital. Bonding capital forms when friends and acquaintances get together to share mutual interests. An example would be a regular gathering of friends at a coffee shop or a book club. Such gatherings tend to strengthen existing social ties by deepening friendships. Bridging capital is when people from diverse backgrounds and identities come together for a common purpose. Organizations

It is often a conversation among friends (bonding) that generates new ideas and provides the initial impetus for a project, but it takes a larger number of people with a shared purpose but weaker social ties (bridging) to bring the project to fruition and maintain

Communities with high levels of trust are composed of people who enjoy working together and know how to do it. Communities with low levels of trust have people who undermine one another or who refuse to collaborate because they are pursuing their own interests.

They believe defeating their opponents’ aims is more important than achieving shared goals.

Over the following months we began to make slow but steady progress, reducing the jail population by improving the intake process, reducing courthouse delays, and eliminating ineffective programs. Neither side won the debate; instead, we got rid of the sides and started to focus on fixing the problem. Whenever we get into oppositional attitudes we tend to exaggerate policy differences in order to define ourselves and our opponents.

First, they tend to be meaningful; that is, they contribute to some worthwhile goal. Second, they are creative, either making or transforming something into a form that is new and interesting. Third, and most important, they are relational, broadening and deepening one’s connection to others.

what matters most to people is not just the type of work they are doing but the people with whom they are doing it.

there are limits to what even the best companies can do because they function within a larger cultural context that has fully adopted the language and the norms of “systems thinking.

Besides, it is simply not true that goodness is boring, it’s just that the most interesting aspects of goodness are participative. They do not lend themselves to spectacle. It is not very exciting to watch corn grow, but the life of the farmer who plants, tends, and harvests crops can be richly rewarding.

The more time we spend entertaining ourselves with fantastic diversions that turn us away from one another instead of nurturing our lives in creative and sociable occupation, the worse we become.

Deep, lasting friendships are nearly always formed during times of personal transformation. High school, college, military service, raising a child, entering a new career—these are times when one meets significant challenges, discovering and defining who one is, shaping who one will become. When two people support and encourage each other through such times, friendships are born.

Don’t like standing in the checkout line next to that guy who hasn’t showered all week? Let me route you over to the self-checkout where you can breeze right through. Suspicious of that Uber driver with the unpronounceable name? Well, self-driving cars are coming to your city soon. Need a movie recommendation for this evening? Netflix has already analyzed your viewing habits and made suggestions for you. No need to call a friend.

is designed to satisfy the customer’s longings, but satisfying those longings may deprive the customer of what they need.

It is through our friends that we become who we are.

it is not just the fact of having a shared experience that creates friendship but also the process of sharing. We do this through shared narrative. We talk about our lives with one another, discussing what we are going through, telling stories about our respective pasts, and sharing dreams about our futures.

They take us out of ourselves. We find that we are not seeing other people as objects, as things that either further or stand in the way of our own interests; we see them instead as subjects. This distinction is crucial.

I think we would all be better off if we regularly asked ourselves the question, “Am I acting in a way that is conducive to friendship?

It means disregarding the opinion of the majority and finding commonality with a few. Over time, one comes to the realization that one belongs, not because strangers approve, but because one is situated within a network of stable and caring relationships. This knowledge, which functions chiefly at the subconscious level, affords one freedom both to enter and depart from the company of others with ease.

there is goodness deep in the heart of many strangers, but you need patience to see it revealed.

As I sat there, I looked upon each face in turn, determined to think of one good thing about that person, and only that good thing. Then something remarkable happened. For the next few hours, even in the midst of argument about whatever issue was being debated, I felt as if I were surrounded by love, as if the goodness of everyone present was real and palpable and the issues we debated were mere phantasms, pale and insubstantial in comparison to the light shining within each human heart.

Physical force can repress, restrain, coerce, destroy, but it cannot create and organize anything permanent; only love can do that. Yes, love—which means understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill, even for one’s enemies.29

It is understandable that in a world where we have a vast number of options for spending our free time, we would be hesitant to make a commitment to join an organization in which we are expected to show up every week. It is understandable but unfortunate, because showing up is what it takes. You can’t have an organization without members. You can’t have a third place without regulars. You can’t have friendship without spending time together. Just because we have options for spending our free time independently does not mean it is good for us or our communities. We must be careful not to sacrifice well-being for the sake of convenience.

Thus, teachers and parents encourage children not to love their neighbors, but instead to “celebrate diversity” and “respect differences.” Such contemporary values are not unworthy, but they keep our relations superficial.

Part of the task of reestablishing a robust, integrated life that allows for human flourishing is recovering the idea of leisure as a time for meaningful activity and the idea of work as allowing us opportunities for contributing to the common good.