Ah, But Under Quantum Rules, The Observer Affects The Observed!

Physicists Modify Double-Slit Experiment to Confirm Einstein’s Belief

In this modified double-slit experiment, a laser beam hits a screen with two small pinholes. As a particle, light goes through one of the pinholes. Through a lens system, the light is then imaged onto two detectors, where a certain detector measures only the photons, which went through a particular pinhole. In this way, Afshar verified the particle nature of light. As a wave, light goes through both pinholes and forms a so-called interference pattern of bright and dark fringes.

“Afshar’s experiment consists of the clever idea of putting small absorbing wires at the exact position of the dark interference fringes, where you expect no light,” Knoesel said. “He then observed that the wires do not change the total light intensity, so there are really dark fringes at the position of the wires. That proves that light also behaves as a wave in the same experiment in which it behaves as a particle.”

Light is a strand. Bloody hell, I could have used a blog even just ten years ago when I was reading quantum physics. I had some tantalizing questions that would have made very interesting experiments!

Note: I don’t know what’s wrong with this post. I’ve examined the HTML. It’s fine. WordPress’s Visual window shows it’s fine. Preview shows it’s fine. Yet when it’s posted, I get everything highlighted as if it’s just one big link. Watch. I bet this note will change that to put egg on my face. Or not.

Read Kornbluth’s Story!

Ben Bova: The ‘Marching Morons’ show prescience of science fiction

We’re living among the Marching Morons. And it’s not getting any better.

I read it over fifteen years ago.

I think if I had read it in High School, I would have killed myself.

Zoom-zoom-zoom.

An Unhappy Wii Tale

Why I’m returning the Wii

I was excited about the Nintendo Wii. Standing in line before the store opened, I was confident that the Wii was going to change everything- It was the first console that I’d bought since my trusty NES almost 15 years ago… The first time I’d been excited about console games in nearly as long.

It was the first console I’d bought in 15 years, since my good old NES… And I’m going to be returning it this Saturday…

Prior coverage of the Wii in this blog:
Wii = The Sound Fun Makes
Reference: Wii Games, Best And Worst
Wii: Shit Or No Shit?
Sony Flails While Nintendo Sails
Good Thing It’s Not Called The Wii-Wii
Wii Wowws, Cann Bee iPPod Too Gaames?
Bravo, Nintendo! Now Can You Please Do A PDA?
Wii Maan
Cue Bob Dylan: The Times They Are A-Changin’
Mother Of Mercy, Is This The End Of Ken Kutaragi?
Wii Partiies
Wii Wee-Wees On Nokia 770
Wii Wiinniing Buuzz Baattle
Nintendo: Great Ad Line!
You Mean It Won’t?!!?

Godspeed, Regis Philbin

Regis Philbin to Have Bypass Surgery

NEW YORK — Regis Philbin, co-host of “Live With Regis and Kelly,” announced on Monday’s show that he will have heart bypass surgery this week.

“Well, listen, I gotta tell you something. … I had been feeling chest pains, you know, and, uh, shortness of breath and all those little symptoms that you hear about,” Philbin, 75, told his TV audience. After a number of tests, doctors recommended bypass surgery.

Update: I see people are coming to this post via an AOL referral. I just did a new post about Regis.

Aha! Read This, You Lighting Nazi Bastards!

A Note To Employers: 8 Things Intelligent People, Geeks and Nerds Need To Work Happy

#3. Let them control their lighting
There is nothing more annoying than working in bright crappy fluorescent lighting if you prefer to work in the dark, or vice versa. Geeks usually have sensitive eyes from staring at CRT monitors for too long. The last thing you want is your geeks to have headaches. Most geeks aren’t very pleasant to work with when they have headaches.

Prior coverage in this blog of the motherfuckers trying to make me blind, drowsy, and to wish for death:
Eat Mercury And Die, Lighting Nazis!!!
Thank God! I Am Saved From The Lighting Nazis!!
Your Final Warning: Don’t. You. Fucking. Dare!
Don’t You Bastards DARE To Even TRY This Here!

OK, This Freaks Me Out More Than Anything Else

These are links to two photorealistic CG renders of human faces.

Most Realistic CG Image Ever

Most Realistic CG Render Ever

I do not want to see the day when these are similarly lifelike in movement. Think of the brainwashing/interrogation angle.

(Yes, I know they have the same damned title! Just click! Click!)

–linkswipe via reddit

Reference: How Many Tree Rings Do You Have?

Days Calculator

I made a little calculator that calculates the number of days between two dates. Plugging in the numbers I found out that I’m 13,662 days old!

No. I won’t say. Suck it, stalkers.

–linkswipe via reddit

Nerd Word

Book Chronicle

Our task will be challenging, but very important. Nerds (or geeks) have an affinity for specific kinds of literature, and yet their literary tastes remain outside the scope of traditional book sites and blogs on the Net. This deficiency needs to be fixed… and we are the ones who will do it.

Let’s see if they wind up with any of the authors already in my Blogroll: Christopher Fowler, Dennis Potter, Derek Raymond, Harry Stephen Keeler, James Hadley Chase, John Straley, K.A. Bedford, Ken Bruen, Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, Mark Billingham, Victor Gischler, John Scalzi. Also Tito Perdue, who has no website. Same for Barry M. Malzberg.

I’m patient. I can wait.

But not too long.

“Oh My God, There’s No More World Trade Center.”

What We Saw
Never before-released video of the WTC attacks

Here is a never before-released video of the WTC attacks. This has to be the clearest and most detailed video surrounding the terrorist attack on the towers. The video is graphic in depicting the collapse of the first tower.

Google video: 26 min 25 sec

Reference: Clip The Web

Clipmarks

We created Clipmarks because we’re fascinated by the moments that snap people out of a day dream. Lets face it, when we read articles in newspapers, magazines, or on the web, we often drift in and out of space. But then there are those moments that smack us in the face and make us take notice. Offline, they’re the moments when you reach for a highlighter or pair of scissors. But online, what do we do when something within a web page jumps out at us? Bookmarking the whole page is not an adequate solution because it doesn’t let us shine the spotlight on the parts that matter the most to us. And copy/paste, forget about it.