Category Archives: Silly
The Quantum Physics of Whiteboards
Uncertain Principles: On the Quantum Physics of Whiteboards
The black markers write very clearly on the board, but when I attempted to erase the board at the end of class, the erasers just sort of smeared the ink around leaving a greyish smudge on the board.
From this, we can deduce that the operator W, which describes wiping the board clean, and the operator M, which describes making marks on the board, are non-commuting operators.
Just Add Wally
Scott Adams Blog: That Lost 4G Phone
Take a moment to marvel at the fact that I didn’t need to add anything to the story as it has been told in the media. All it really needed was Wally.
Endorsing the Scientific Method
Boobquake determined to prove cleric wrong
Dressing immodestly on April 26th, in order to disprove the statement by a cleric:
“Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,” Sedighi said.
Unfortunately, a single test is not enough, since there may well be an earthquake in close temporal proximity to the event. We need lots of statistics.
Update: Jen recognizes this
And yes, I know I need a larger sample size to make this good science. Maybe I’ll include Mardi gras in my calculations.
Faust Dot Com
It's My Party, and I'll Cry if I Want To
Court to hear suit over “Tea Party” name
Nearly three dozen people and groups who called themselves part of the Tea Party movement filed suit against O’Neal and two associates in January, accusing them of trying to “hijack” the movement and confuse the public.
Reminiscent of the tussle between the Judean Peoples’ Front and the Peoples’ Front of Judea. (Thtwike him, centuwion! Thwow him to the gwound!)
Not a Peep Out of You!
There are several important implications indicated by these [low pressure] results:
1. Peeps are poorly equipped as fighter pilots, supporting the Supreme Court ruling that banning peeps from the cockpits of F-16 planes in combat does not violate the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1992. (Orville & Wilbur Peep vs. US Government, 1994)
2. Peeps should exercise caution when ascending after deep-sea diving excursions, as sudden decreases in pressure may exceed the structural integrity of visceral parenchyma.
3. This may explain the tragic demise of the Col. Lewis Peep expedition which attempted to reach the peak of Mt. Everest in the spring of 1856. It is important to note that these data do not exclude alternative theories suggesting that the group was devoured by a pack of diabetic mountain lions. (Schroedinger, Heisenberg, & Bohr, 1922).
Overflow
April 1 posts.
New Most Accurate Atomic Clock
Man arrested at Large Hadron Collider claims he’s from the future
Science, Nature Team Up on New Journal
Update:
Monolith Action Figure
like a previous April Fool product, I wonder of this will turn into a real product, not just available on Europa, based on consumer demand. I’d buy one. Might be tougher to do with the Canned Unicorn Meat, though.
If You See Someone Drowning
Laugh out loud. Then Call 911.
One Ringy-Dingy, Two Ringy-Dingy
Over at Cosmic Variance, JoAnne tells a story about dialing Pi on the phone:
Several years ago, before pi-day was famous, a student called the phone number associated with the digits in pi that appear after the decimal point, i.e., 1-415-926-5358. Apparently this is rather common now, and in fact, appears to be promoted as a mnemonic for the first 10 decimal places for those folks we need to have those numbers handy at all times. But this story happened in earlier times, back before the Bay Area split into several area codes. And, as the clever reader has already guessed, that student reached the SLAC main gate. How cool to phone pi and reach the main gate of a major national scientific research laboratory!
I remember the Cesium atomic clock frequency as a phone number: 919-263-1770. It should be a number in the Raleigh, NC region, but there is no listing for it. I’ve never actually called it.