IV.  FROM POOR RICHARD'S ALMANACK

There are no fools so troublesome as those that have wit.

He that is of opinion money will do every thing may well be suspected of doing every thing for money.

If man could have half his wishes, he would double his troubles.

He that falls in love with himself, will have no rivals.

He that best understands the World, least likes it.

If Jack's in love, he's no judge of Jill's beauty.

Think of three things -- whence you came, where you are going, and to whom you must account.

-- Benjamin Franklin

V.  INVENTIONS & ACHIEVEMENTS

c. 510 B.C. -- First known map, invented by Hecataeus in Greece.

c. 250 B.C. -- Principles of the lever and other simple machines developed by Archimedes.

c. 140 B.C. -- Invention of trigonometry by Hipparchus.

1260 A.D. -- Konstantin Anklitzen invented the gun/cannon.

1608 -- Hans Lippershey invented the first telescope.

1654 -- Basic laws of probability propounded by Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat.

1666 -- Isaac Newton laid down the principles of integral calculus.

1752 -- Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning conductor.

1793 -- Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin.

1830 -- Andre Ure invented the first thermostat, and Edwin Beard Budding created the first lawn mower.

1846 -- Elias Howe created the sewing machine.

1867 -- Christopher Latham Sholes invented the typewriter.

1879 -- James Ritty invented the cash register.

1888 -- George Easton created roll film camera.

VI.  ARTICLES OF INTEREST

Fischer's Price. Former chess champ Garry Kasparov discusses Bobby Fischer's legacy.

Lewis Lapham Commencement Address, 5/11/03. "The truth," he says, "isn't about the acquisition of doctrine or the assimilation of statistics, not even about the chicanery in Washington or the scandal in Santa Monica. It's about the courage to trust one's own thought and observation, to possess one's own history, speak in one's own voice."

Is Wall Street Fixed? Frontline documentary about the wrongdoings of Wall Street panjandrums.

Stephen Hawking's Universe. Cosmological  explanations and other imponderable matters.

Beyond The Vote: The Crisis of American Liberalism. "The most salient aspect of the modern crisis of political life in America has been a gradual shift from liberalism to populism," writes political scientist Michael Thompson. "The disappearance of the political, the erosion of civil society and the degradation of the public sphere all spring from the gradual colonization of society by what has been called 'possessive individualism' and the logic of the market."

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