“I mean, if you've ever been a governor of a state, you understand the vast potential of broadband technology, you understand how hard it is to make sure that physics, for example, is taught in every classroom in the state. It's difficult to do. It's, like, cost-prohibitive.” IfsMeanHardStatesDifficultTechnologyExampleTaughtCostPhysicsClassroomGovernorsBroadband Author:George W. Bush
“In the end, this is a difficult story to sum up. The making of the atomic bomb is one of history's most amazing examples of teamwork and genius and poise under pressure. But it's also the story of how humans created a weapon capable of wiping our species off the planet. It's a story with no end in sight. And, like it or not, you're in it.” HumansEndsStoriesDifficultExamplePlanetsGeniusWeaponsCapableSightPressureSpeciesBombsTeamworkMost AmazingAtomic BombUnder PressurePoise Author:Steve Sheinkin
“When scientists need to explain difficult points of theory, illustration by hypothetical example - rather than by total abstraction - works well (perhaps indispensably) as a rhetorical device. Such cases do not function as speculations in the pejorative sense - as silly stories that provide insight into complex mechanisms - but rather as idealized illustrations to exemplify a difficult point of theory. (Other fields, like philosophy and the law, use such conjectural cases as a standard device.” NeedsWellsPhilosophyStoriesUseLawDifficultCasesExampleFieldsTheoryStandardsScientistFunctionComplexesInsightSillyDevicesMechanismAbstractionSpeculationIllustrationRhetoricalHypothetical Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms
“I am obliged to interpolate some remarks on a very difficult subject: proof and its importance in mathematics. All physicists, and a good many quite respectable mathematicians, are contemptuous about proof. I have heard Professor Eddington, for example, maintain that proof, as pure mathematicians understand it, is really quite uninteresting and unimportant, and that no one who is really certain that he has found something good should waste his time looking for proof.” ShouldCertainFoundDifficultHeardSubjectsExamplePureWasteImportanceMathematicsProofGood ManProfessorsMathematicianPhysicistObligedRemarksRespectableUnimportantContemptuousDifficult Subjects Author:G. H. Hardy
“Bird taxonomy is a difficult field because of the severe anatomical constraints imposed by flight. There are only so many ways to design a bird capable, say, of catching insects in mid-air, with the result that birds of similar habitats tend to have very similar anatomies, whatever their ancestry. For example, American vultures look and behave much like Old World vultures, but biologists have come to realize that the former are related to storks, the latter to hawks, and that their resemblances result from their common lifestyle.” WorldWayLooksDifficultRealizingResultsCommonAirExampleDesignFieldsEvolutionCapableBirdLifestyleFlightFormerBehaveRelatedLatterSevereInsectsCatchingConstraintsAncestryAnatomyResemblanceHawksBiologistHabitatOld WorldVultureTaxonomyStorks Author:Jared Diamond
“I spent more than ten years working on the Neues Museum. It was a wonderful experience, an example of real collaboration between architects, conservationists, curators, client, politicians, the media, and the public. Discussions, even when difficult, were always about ideas. Ideas matter to Germans. They're a reflective people. That's attractive.” PeopleYearsIdeasRealMatterDifficultWonderfulMediaExamplePoliticianTenDiscussionAttractiveMuseumsCollaborationArchitectClientsWonderful ExperienceCurator Author:David Chipperfield
“Most cooks would not, for example, prepare an important, elaborate, and difficult dish on the back-burner. Neither should we relegate the cultivation and preparation of happiness for a position where it is both hard to reach and difficult to infuse with new ingredients.” ShouldImportantHardDifficultExamplePositionPreparationCooksIngredientsDishesCultivationBack Burner Author:Gina Barreca
“My dad was a preacher. My relationship, for example, with my father -- very difficult, and very painful, and it took me 50 years to wipe the face of my father off the face of God.” YearsFacesFatherDifficultExampleDadMy DadPainfulPreacherWipe Author:William P. Young
“Examples ... which might be multiplied ad libitum, show how difficult it often is for an experimenter to interpret his results without the aid of mathematics.” ShowsMightDifficultResultsExampleMathematicsAidsAdsOften Is Author:John William Strutt
“Human relations tend to be more difficult when you're dealing with someone who weighs 30 kilograms more than you do. That's when you worry about whether a well-meaning gesture could produce complications. We have no problems with countries like Madagascar or Bolivia, for example. But Germany is our neighbor and we have a shared past. Besides, Germany is powerful and ambitious and more than four times as large as we are. It makes complete sense that we would act cautiously. It's simply Realpolitik.” HumansWellsCountryProblemPastDifficultPowerfulWorryFourExampleProduceRelationNeighborGermanyGesturesAmbitiousNo ProblemHuman RelationsComplicationBoliviaRealpolitikMadagascar Author:Vaclav Klaus
“It's much easier, for example, to play a heroin addict and you're withdrawing - you tear the ceiling off - that's much easier than it is to come in and say, 'Hello.' Or, 'I love you'. When you judge it in that way, the heavy isn't as difficult.” WayPlayDifficultLove YouExampleTearsJudgingEasierHeavyHelloAddictCeilingsHeroinWithdrawing Author:James Stewart
“I have not lost Allah's hope in us to show compassion where none exists and to extend mercy in the most difficult of circumstances. We as Muslims must lead by example.” ShowsLostDifficultCompassionExampleCircumstancesMercy Author:Muhammad Ali
“Indeed, we have reached a level of complexity where simplicity itself is suspect. For example, the simple reality is that jobs migrate to less difficult nations. It's the old Rule of Capital: Capital goes where it is treated well.” WellsRealityJobsNationsDifficultSimpleLevelsExampleSimplicityTreatedComplexitySuspectsMigrate Author:Oliver DeMille
“If children really want to learn something, and have the opportunity to learn it in use, they do so even if the teaching is poor. For example many learn difficult video games with no professional teaching at all!” IfsWantChildrenUseOpportunityGamesDifficultPoorTeachingExampleVideoOpportunities To Learn Author:Seymour Papert
“We do not have many women leaders in the world. But if you look at the current examples, most of those few female leaders that we have today lead their countries under the pressure of difficult political and economic circumstances. They all posses strong personalities and have real political influence on the domestic and international scene.” IfsWorldLooksRealCountryTodayPoliticalStrongDifficultLeaderInfluenceEconomicExamplePersonalityCircumstancesSceneFemalePressureInternationalCurrentsPosseStrong PersonWoman LeaderFemale LeadersStrong PersonalityPolitical Influence Author:Dalia Grybauskaite
“Usually it's just material that resonates with me and I never know exactly what that's gonna be. And there's obviously a certain persuasion, if you will. It's dependent upon the fact that I'm known for certain genres. So, that influences my decision making as well. I mean I'd love to, for example, do an action thriller but there are a lot of very talented people doing that and so it would be very difficult for me to switch over to that genre. So, I do look for things that I know (will resonate with) my audience.” PeopleIfsKnowsWellsLooksMeanFactsWould BeActionCertainDifficultDecisionKnownAudienceInfluenceExampleMaterialsGenreDependentDecision MakingPersuasionThrillers Author:Michael Landon, Jr.
“It is not possible to starve an organised terrorist group because it is number one a state, so it levies taxation inside the territory that is controlled by Islamic State. But also the activity, for example the smuggling of oil, is taking place in an area which is a war zone. So of course people will buy that oil because they don't have any alternative. So even if we wanted to stop that kind of trade, it will be very, very difficult to do that.” PeopleIfsKindWarStatesWantedCoursesDifficultNumbersGroupsExampleActivityAreasTradeOilTerroristAlternativesIslamicZoneControlledTerritoryTaxationOrganisedIslamic StateWar ZonesSmugglingTerrorist Groups Author:Loretta Napoleoni
“Not long time ago there was a striking example of the extent to which English has diverged: a television company put out a programme filmed in the English city of Newcastle, where the local variety of English is famously divergent and difficult, and the televised version was accompanied by English subtitles!” LongDifficultCitiesCompanyExampleTelevisionLong TimeLocalsVersionsVarietyLong Time AgoProgrammesDivergentNewcastleSubtitles Author:Larry Trask
“In contemporary music, the challenge for me is to make the recorder sound as naturally expressive as, for example, the violin - without doing it too much and forcing the instrument. It is very easy to be overly expressive on the recorder, and finding the balance is quite difficult.” EasyDifficultSoundChallengesToo MuchExampleBalanceFindingsInstrumentsContemporaryViolinExpressiveRecordersContemporary Music Author:Michala Petri
“We spent a long time learning the craft of songwriting, Roger Glover and I, for a few years before we joined Deep Purple. You learn about the percussive value of words, and you learn about rhyme and meter. You learn that you can't transform a poem into a song lyric, mostly because the spoken shape of words is different than the sung shape of words. You wouldn't use the vowel 'U' or the vowel sound 'ooo' for a high note for example, its very difficult.” YearsLongDifferentUseValuesSongDifficultSoundExampleShapesLong TimeNotesCraftsSongwritingRhymePurpleRogerMeterVowelsHigh NotesDeep Purple Author:Ian Gillan
“What does interest me is how difficult my culture seems to find it to look the dark side of life directly in the eye. It seems to me that if we look back at mediaeval culture, for example, we see a society which faces the reality of death and pain and limitation, because it has to. Our society, which is progressive and technological and seems to have a slightly fanatical utopian edge to it, gets very uncomfortable when anybody highlights the dark side of humanity, or the world we have built, or what we are doing to the rest of life on Earth.” IfsWorldLooksDoeRealitySeemsEyeEarthPainFacesHumanityCultureDifficultSidesInterestDarkExampleBuiltEdgesLimitationUncomfortableOur SocietyProgressiveTechnologicalDark SideHighlightsUtopianRest Of LifeReality Of Death Author:Paul Kingsnorth
“I think Amy is a really difficult example. With any artist, none of us understands what it's like having the world's media scrutinising everything you do.” ThinkingWorldArtistDifficultMediaExampleAmy Author:Nicki Chapman