Stray Info

A couple of interesting tidbits I've read recently....

According to CNN, a woman in, I believe, Oregon is accused of buying a lottery ticket with a stolen credit card. The ticket is a winner -- one million dollars worth. But Oregon says that if she did use the stolen credit card, she doesn't get to keep the money. I suppose the point is that they don't want you to benefit from theft, so whether you bought a winning lottery ticket or a candy bar, you don't get to keep it. Somehow, that doesn't seem fair, though. Not sure why....
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A book I'm reading, Structures, in a section about stresses and strains (which turn out not to be the same thing) describes how stress can focus at a point. The example is a sheet of metal where the lines of stress are evenly spread as they propagate across the sheet. When a hole is placed in the sheet, as with a door or window, the lines diverge, concentrating at the corners and along the edges of the hole until they can spread out again. When the forces are concentrated, the effect is greater -- to the point that the material can tear even though, overall, the stress is below the breaking point of the material. I wonder if thats why you can open a bag more easily by snipping (or biting) a small tear first?
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Last night I was rereading sections of The Vicar of Christ, a novel by Walter F. Murray, and came across this:

The dignity of man rests at the core of the galaxy of American constitutional values. Its spirit suffuses every clause. Government's duty to protect and cherish is the moral and political motive force of the whole constitutional system.

Wow, I thought. Suffuses every clause? I liked the way that was put, and found myself wondering if the character of the fictional Chief Justice had had words lifted from an actual justice. So, I google'd it -- and found this --

The Supreme Court Historical SocietyIts spirit suffuses every clause. Government's duty to protect and cherish that dignity is the moral and political motive force of the whole constitutional ... www.supremecourthistory.org/ 04_library/subs_volumes/04_c09_l.html - 77k -

I was right, I thought, smiling, and went to the page -- where I found the full reference:

For anyone interested in the history and practices of the Court, these works--and especially the novels -- offer a body of well-researched background information, coupled with a soap opera plot that includes some painful romantic entanglement for the susceptible protagonist. But the most valuable lesson they impart is that the adjudication of constitutional rights involves a continuing dialogue between the Justices and the public over the meaning of the national experience and the democratic ideals that have shaped it. "The dignity of man rests at the core of the galaxy of American constitutional values," comments the Chief Justice in The Vicar of Christ.

Its spirit suffuses every clause. Government's duty to protect and cherish that dignity is the moral and political motive force of the whole constitutional system.[35]

In such imagery one may also glimpse the literary legacy of the Warren Court.

Oh.