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.
Swans on Tea as a geocities page
Oh, gawd. Complete with annoying midi music and dancing gifs.
Courtesy of the Geocities-izer
Make Any Webpage Look Like It Was Made By A 13 Year-Old In 1996
No time is wasted. The bullet train is moving all the time. If there are 30 stations between Beijing and Guangzhou , just stopping and accelerating again at each station will waste both energy and time.
A mere 5 min stop per station (elderly passengers cannot be hurried) will result in a total loss of 5 min x 30 stations or 2.5 hours of train journey time!
A 5-min stop is actually a longer delay owing to the time spent accelerating.
Yes, most of the miracles we mention can easily be explained away by science, that’s why we say the line “fuck scientists.” Their factual findings sometimes explain away the Earth’s cool mysteries. Part of me wishes they were lying. Part of me doesn’t want to know how they really make crop circles. My imagination wants to believe it’s aliens or somethin’. If people can’t relate to that, then that’s their loss. I mean, seriously, it must truly suck to have no imagination about these things. Us Juggalos have deep imaginations, and an awesome sense of humor.
There’s more in the interview, along the lines of how if things aren’t miracles, then they aren’t amazing, and if you think they aren’t miracles, then you aren’t showing appreciation for them. Which is the gist of the lyrics of the song.
To borrow a little from Andy Dufresne: Do you know how to read, you ignorant fuck?
Ignorance truly is bliss, isn’t it? Stupidity must be heaven. I do not, do not, do not understand the position that understanding something destroys the beauty or wonder of nature. I’ll tell you what blows a scientist’s mind — seeing something cool and then figuring out what’s going on. Scientists don’t ignore “miracles,” we try to understand them, because as wondrous as the sight might be, there’s just so much more going on, if only you’d look under the surface. Calling them miracles is the lazy way out.
… but it doesn’t.
Michael Tyznik’s US Currency Redesign
Contrary to rumors circulating in chain emails, this design is not the work of or in any relation to the U.S. government. It was my entry to the Dollar Rede$ign contest and is purely speculative.
American banknotes are in dire need of a redesign. Even though the green color of money is deeply interwoven into the nation’s culture, the need for color differentiation between denominations has forced the inclusion of color. The recent redesign of banknotes by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is poorly executed and aesthetically lacking. Because the coloring of the current notes is so subtle, it is still hard to differentiate between denominations by that method alone.
Smartphone Domino Machine
APOD: 2010 April 25 The Ant Nebula
I will say this: I, for one, welcome our new ant overlords. Because there’s no chance a phrase from The Simpsons could ever become hackneyed.
Compare the population density of the world, with the nighttime image, which should be some kind of proxy of electric power availability.
In most places, there is a reasonable correlation with high population density giving you bright lights. In some places, like the US, even low population density is noticeably lit up. Now take a peek at Nepal and Bangladesh, just above India. That’s scary to me; all those people living in close proximity without access to modern “conveniences.” Scary in a different way is central China, because one might suspect that electrification is going to be expanding there soon, with all the implications to carbon being dumped into the atmosphere.
“Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black”
Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.
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.
