People From England

"Every company has two organizational structures: the formal one is written on the charts; the other is the everyday living relationship of the men and women in the organization."

"Appointed by the Parliamentary Commissioners in England, Puritan governors twice convened unicameral legislatures in Maryland, first in 1654, and again in 1657. Catholic Lord Baltimore regained control of the colony in 1658 with the aid of several loyal Protestants, including Josias Fendall. To show his appreciation, Baltimore appointed Fendall governor of Maryland. In 1660 though, Fendall turned traitor, conspiring with the Lower House to abolish the Upper House and establish a commonwealth system of government (Archives of Maryland I: 388-391). "Fendall's Rebellion", however, was short-lived, as Proprietary forces quickly regained control of the government. Once restored, the Upper House kept the same composition for the next century. The only major change was the removal of the governor's position from the Upper House in 1675."

"It is much more difficult to measure non-performance than performance. Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Non-performance can almost always be explained away."

"Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.."

"Calvert, however, proved extremely agile and managed to convice Cromwell and Parliament that religious toleration and hence his own rule should be reestablished. Calvert was permitted to appoint a new governor in 1656 and this governor, Josiah Fendall, joined with the Puritans in agreeing to establish religious toleration, including toleration for Catholics.With the death of Cromwell, Fendall tried to seize the opportunity to liberalize the colony further by casting off proprietary rule and submitting himself to appointment by the Maryland Assembly. The restoration of Charles II, however, ended such hopes for the remainder of the century, and Baltimore moved swiftly to crush this move for independence, appointing Philip Calvert as governor."

"Management manages by making decisions and by seeing that those decisions are implemented."

"However, the struggle against the oppression of the feudal proprietary in Maryland had not been crushed. The veteran rebel Josiah Fendall of Charles County, elected to the Assembly but barred from his seat for his rebellious activities in 1660, now took up the libertarian torch. In particular, Fendall led a movement against high taxes and quitrents imposed by the proprietor. Fendall also championed freedom of speech—a rarity in that era. Philip Calvert denounced Fendall for "telling the people they were fools to pay taxes" and for allegedly saying that "now nothing was treason . . . a man might say anything." Assisting Fendall were Thomas Gerrard, a veteran rebel and a Catholic, and John Coode, an ex-Catholic and ex-clergyman, in a welcome display of religious amity. In 1681 Lord Baltimore had a law passed forbidding the dissemination of "false" news—that is, news aiming to stir up unrest and rebellion—in an attempt to hamper the Fendall movement. Finally, in the same year, a Fendall-Coode plan for rebellion was betrayed and the leaders imprisoned. The jury, drawn necessarily from the populace, favored the defendants, whereas the judges, being appointees of the proprietor, were hostile. Fendall was convicted, fined heavily, and exiled forever from the province. Coode, an Assemblyman, won acquittal. Lord Baltimore denounced Fendall and Coode as "rank Baconists" and wrote afterwards to a friend that had these leaders not "been secured in time, you would have heard of another Bacon.""

"The question of his drunkenness was never finally determined, however, as Gerrard was soon faced with a far more serious charge and that was of being implicated in a rebellion fomented by Josias Fendall. Fendall, it seems, had tried to change the government of Maryland "into the form of a Commonwealth," of which he aspired to be head, to "the great prejudice of his Lordship's right.""

"I'd hate to spend the rest of my life trying to outwit an eighteen-inch fish."

"The other case of hanging a woman as a witch occurred on a vessel also bound for Maryland of which John Greene was the master, and Edward Prescott, a merchant, the owner. … Josias Fendall, who was governor of Maryland at this time, at once ordered Prescott arrested."

"The real causes of the disturbances that now arose are scarcely explained by Maryland historians. Governor Fendall is charged with being the chief cause of rebellion. It is true that Fendall tried to keep in favor with the party of resistance, and that he initially connected with Gerrard, whose party was destined to triumph in 1689; but it was really the question of taxation that caused the so-called Fendall's Rebellion. It is sometimes said it was a Puritan movement, and so it was in one sense; but Gerrard, who seemed to be the real leader, was a Catholic who had been and was then a member of the Council. In 1647 an act was passed by the Assembly granting the Proprietor a duty of ten shillings on every hogshead of tobacco exported from the province. This act, by admission of the Proprietor, was the cause of complaints."

"The upper house being dissolved, Governor Fendall gave up the remaining powers of government given to him by Lord Baltimore's commission into the hands of the provincial delegates, and, in order to abolish his lordship's dominion over the province, he accepted from them a commission as governor. … Among other acts which they passed, was one commanding all persons to own no authority save that which came from the king of England or the "grand assembly" of the province of Maryland. These men sheltered their rebellion against Lord Baltimore under the name of the king about to ascend the throne in England, expecting thereby to overthrow all proprietary government in the province. From the time of the beginning of the Puritan revolution in England to the time of the end of Fendall's rebellion in Maryland, ten years went by in which Lord Baltimore was almost entirely deprived of his government. … On the 24th of June, in the same year, Lord Baltimore appointed his brother, Philip Calvert, governor of Maryland. He was sworn in at the provincial court, held at Patuxent, on the 11th of December following; and Fendall's rebellion was at an end. Fendall and certain members of his council surrendered themselves to the new governor, were indicted by a grand jury, tried, and found guilty. They were sentenced to banishment from the province, and confiscation of their estates, real and personal. … It will be seen that the great seal generally called Fendall's seal sealed his own pardon."

"The best way to inspire people to superior performance is to convince them by everything you do and by your everyday attitude that you are wholeheartedly supporting them."

"[A]fter Leonard Calvert died in 1648, Lord Baltimore appointed the Protestant William Stone as governor. He required the governor to take an oath not to violate the free exercise of religion by any Christians, specifically including Roman Catholics. Subsequently, in April 1649, the Maryland Assembly passed the famous Toleration Act, which guaranteed all Christians the free exercise of their religion. However, tolerance and religious liberty went only so far and the death penalty was levied against all non-Christians, including Jews and Unitarians. Neither did toleration extend to freedom of speech, for any use of such religious epithets as "heretic" and "popish priest" was outlawed. Also prohibited on the Sabbath were swearing, drinking, unnecessary work, and disorderly recreation. Actually, the much vaunted Toleration Act was a retreat from the religious liberty that had previously prevailed in Catholic-ruled Maryland, and was a compromise with the growing spirit of Puritan intolerance."

"The Catholic royalist deputy governor, Thomas Greene, foolishly decided to recognize Charles II in the same year as the legitimate ruler of England. This proclamation naturally angered Parliament and precipated severe reaction. The following year Parliament sent to the Chesapeake colonies commissioners, of whom the angry Claiborne was one, to subdue the recalcitrants. After settling matters in Virginia, the commissioners proceeded to Maryland, where they removed the governor and ousted the proprietary. Governor Stone was reinstated, but he, in turn, persisted in trying to reinstate the authority of the proprietor. He compounded his difficulties by insisting on imposing an oath of allegiance on Lord Baltimore. The oath offended Puritans. Stone then denounced the Puritans and the commissioners as fomenters of sedition. The result was the capture of St. Marys by the commissioners in 1654, and their appointment of a Puritan Council and of Capt. William Fuller as governor. Catholics were now excluded from voting and from the Assembly, and the Toleration Act as well as the rule of the proprietor were canceled. A law of 1654 declared that "none who professed and exercised the popish religion could be protected in this province." The law disfranchised not only Catholics, but also Anglicans. The Puritans made it clear that freedom of worship would now be extended only to Protestants free of either "popery or prelacy."Former governor Stone now raised his insurrectionary army loyal to the proprietary, and in 1655 attacked Providence, the principal Puritan settlement in Maryland. The erstwhile governor was crushed by a force of Puritan planters, Stone was imprisoned, and several of his followers executed, even though they had been promised their lives before surrender."

"Until Stone's appointment, Maryland's Catholic rulers had had to struggle with indigenous Protestants, Protestants from Virginia, and Protestants in England to retain control. Stone further complicated matters when in 1649 he invited a group of some 500 Puritans to settle what is now Annapolis. As the proprietor's representative, he soon found himself on the defensive when the Commonwealth government in England appointed Maryland's old enemy Claiborne, the Puritan leader at Annapolis, and two Protestant sea captains to obtain the submission of the Chesapeake colonies. Claiborne and the Puritan leader went to St. Mary's in 1652, ejected Stone from governorship, and sought to establish a new administration under their control. When Stone, under orders from Lord Baltimore, resisted, they appointed William Fuller as governor, and in 1655 civil strife broke out. The Puritan faction quickly won a decisive victory."

"Hon. William Stone, Governor of Maryland, was the second son of Lord Dunlam of Sussex, England, whose family name was Stone. Owing to unkind feelings between him and his father and a brother, William Stone left England to seek his fortune in the American colonies. ... A letter was written urging his son to return (was supposed to be the contents), but his son, deeply resentful, destroyed the letter unopened. Some years later another letter came which met the same fate. Many years later the respected Governor had been gathered to his fathers. After his death it was discovered the announcement of his succession of the title and estate in England. He had unwittingly destroyed the proof of his inheritance. This was discovered by his descendant, Thomas Stone, the signer of the Declaration of Independence. A British officer, Captain Ponsonby, was found to be a younger member of the family and the succession went to him in default of the real heir."

"…not only we, that prate Of rights and wrongs, have loved the people well, And loathed to see them overtax'd; but she Did more, and underwent, and overcame, The woman of a thousand summers back, Godiva, wife to that grim Earl, who ruled In Coventry…"

"… She told him of their tears, And pray'd him, "If they pay this tax, they starve.""

"Then she rode forth, clothed on with chastity: The deep air listen'd round her as she rode, And all the low wind hardly breathed for fear."

"A woman portraying the 11th Century Lady Godiva, but wearing a flesh-colored bathing suit, rode a horse to the Capitol on Friday and sang a tax protest to the governor's receptionist. Liise Root, 22, a "singing telegram" woman hired by the Libertarian Party, dismounted and walked into the Capitol, where she handed a written protest to receptionist Mae Shaw and sang a Beatles song: "I'm the tax man, yeah, the tax man. And you're working for no one but me.""

"…whence reissuing, robed and crown'd, To meet her lord, she took the tax away And built herself an everlasting name."

"Taxes have a long and ugly history. … From then to now—whatever the form of government—Kings, Commissars Chancellors: even Presidents and Prime ministers lust for loot. It's enough to set one pining for the reincarnation of Lady Godiva."

"The records indicate that Leofric was much older than his wife, but they made a handsome couple and were generally admired. … High taxes and widespread poverty go hand-in-hand. … Leofric's wife was a a very beautiful, kindly, and generous woman named Lady Godiva. And when, through her maids and ladies in waiting, she learned of the condition of the taxpayers of Coventry, she was heartsick and indignant, and took the complaints before her husband. … [A]s Leofric leans back in his gilded chair, and raises the final goblet to his lips, his lady speaks, timourously, but sincerely. Across a half a venison and a demolished goose, she tells the story of oppression that, unbeknownst to him, has come into her husband's realm. "M'lord, the townpeople dine on bread and water while we have only the best to please our fancy. I am ashamed to go out among the people. They are in rags, whilst I am clad in costly raiment. And the children, only of ricket, make my heart break to hear their piteous wails, to see their sad and hungry eyes following me wherever I go." Her eyes flash as she relates instance after instance of poverty and oppression, her long, golden hair is caught up in coils framing a face beautiful in its earnestness, her aura of sincerity finally penetrates the wall of indifference surrounding Leofric. Begrudgingly—for, after all, what can a woman know of worldly things?—Leofric listens to his wife's story. As she feels his attention, she becomes more confident. He is not the villain, she explains, but he has a lack of understanding of the problems of those from whom he collects taxes. "Taxation itself is the evil, and there are many taxes which are inequitable, unfair, exorbitant. Look," she cries in the climax of her appeal, "if it would do any good, I would take my jewels and pawn them, leaving my arms and throat bare of any adornment, so that the money raised thereby could be returned to those poor unfortunates who own thee, Lord, and who have been taxed beyond all bounds." Leofric is grudgingly impressed. He had not known of his wife's hitherto unrevealed gift of rhetoratory, her interest in politics, or her knowledge of taxation; they came as a complete surprise. With a half-smile of admiration—and half-teasingly—Leofric nods in some portion of agreement. "M'lady, thou hast a silver tongue, and thou hast argued thy case fairly and wisely, yet with temperance and judgement. But, thinkest thou that these problems can be solved so readily? Men must be taxed, else they grow unruly! Tribute is always paid, for how else will the people in the distant realms, who never see their Earl, know that they are ruled, and have respect for law and order? No, my love, tribute and taxation are good; but, perhaps I have been more careless about taxes in certain specific instances than is my want, but surely thou knowest this comfort we enjoy comes from this same tax money which thou go without this meal? Thou sayest thou wouldst put aside thy jewels, come now, that is no sacrifice with thee! Thou carest little for jewels. Wouldst thou have us live in a common hovel? Which put aside thy fine clothes. Haha! Thy eloquence is fine, but it should be matched by noble deeds; words alone prove nothing." … "Madam, if thou art sincere, and if thou dost really have the welfare of my subjects in thy heart, prove it thus. Mount thy horse naked, and pass through the market of the village from one end to the other. Do this, and upon thy return, I will repeal the onerous and unpleasant laws thou namest and grant thine every wish in alleviating the excessive burdens borne by my people." It was said partially in jest, for the modesty and decorum of English ladies were a byword. … We may actually hear little of Leofric in modern time, but all the world remembers the beautiful Lady Godiva who took her husband at his word. The following day, mounted on a milk-white steed, and, history tells us, clad only in her golden tresses, she rode the length and breadth of market street without a stitch on. And Leofric, humbled and ashamed, kept his word to the letter: taxes were repealed, and immediately good fortune descended on Coventry. A lowering of the tax burden inevitably provides incentives and a spurt in business activity. Good times usually follow. … A mature civilisation does not require government."

"Perhaps it is just a matter of time before some new Godiva will coax the current earls of Mercia and bring about the perfection to which Mark Twain alluded...; and usher in a greater era of understanding, compassion, and tolerance, "with liberty and justice for all," to accompany our scientific progress, and this outcome--Godot himself would no doubt deem worth waiting for."

"I like to take man-made objects and push them to the point where they almost lose their reference, so that they become something else, take on other alliances."

"My work has threads of ideas from all over the place. I try to crystallise them in something simple and direct that the viewer can then take where they want."

"Recognition that art was located in an interactive system rather than residing in a material object... provid[ed] a discipline as central to an art of interactivity as anatomy and perspective had been to the renaissance vision."

"Roy Ascott... aimed to achieve a wider 'cybernetic' awareness through acting on the psychology of the spectator, who was invited to regroup the elements of the technological universe and exploit certain of its meanings."

"Ascott’s early vision of cybernetic art was founded on the concepts of process, behavior, and system."

"In 1968 Ian Wilson made his final sculpture. Since then, he has explored the idea of oral communication as an art form... Wilson’s work is very hard to track down, even in terms of documentation. He has been compared to the Socratic philosophers but if there is a similarity between his practice and theirs, it probably lies mainly in the fact that everything we have from that period of philosophy takes the form of secondary fragments embedded in other texts. Wilson’s work functions almost like archaeological or geological evidence: it consists of objects that we examine in order to deduce, from scanty clues, what must have happened."

"Roy Ascott was among the first artists to launch an appeal for total spectator participation: for him, the strict antinomy between action and contemplation needed to be abolished."

"I think your subconscious knows far more than your conscious, so I trust it. I just make it first and then it becomes much clearer to me why."

"When art is a form of behaviour, software predominates over hardware in the creative sphere. Process replaces product in importance, just as system supersedes structure."

"Science is a special kind of explanation of the things we see around us. It starts with a problem and curiosity. Something strikes the scientist as odd. It doesn’t fit in with the usual explanation. Maybe harder thinking or more careful observation will resolve the problem. If it remains apuzzle, it stimulates the scientist’s imagination."

"O God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul."

"…I am a stupid, stupid man. I am a very, very dumb person. I…" [laughs in self-deprication] "He has an Auchenai Soulpriest! Why would you do that?! What is wrong with you?!"

"Ubisoft, I just want to like your games. Why won't you let me!"

"WHAT?! YOU FFFFFFFfffffff…" [Silence.] "…I just lost. I just lost…!"

"The last part of that statement is the only thing that's true."

"Yes! It is—n-no! Nooo! NOOOOO! Why would you have that happen?! That was a win! Ahhhhhhhh!"

"Should've played the bloody Sky Golem. And now he's got my other one. Give it BACK!"

"It's an Avenge?! Ahhhh! Oh, no! …I was bamboozled!"

"…Yeah, and that was just the damn start of it, because Ubisoft simply cannot shut UP!"

"…So really, it's just y—" [enemy player kills him] "—oh, dammit!—you, your gun, and your friends."

"Oh, goddamn! What the hell?!" [opens fire, then laughs] "Suppressing fire!"

"…Why am I even whispering? It's not like they're actually gonna hear me."

"[to a teammate, who just shot at him] "I[t]—Don't shoot me!" [chuckles] "What's wrong with you?""

"[about Phil Fish leaving the game industry] "My first reaction, when thinking about covering this, was just to finish by saying, 'NNNope!' and go straight onto the next segment.""

"We will not join enemy server." [catches himself] "'Enemy server', what? Let's try that again—empty server. I do want enemies."