Highlander's New Writeupshttp://everything2.com/?node=New%20Writeups%20Atom%20Feed&foruser=Highlander2010-03-18T21:35:44ZStop killing me now (fiction)http://everything2.com/user/Highlander/writeups/Stop+killing+me+nowHighlanderhttp://everything2.com/user/Highlander2010-03-18T21:35:44Z2010-03-18T21:35:44ZThey are killing me. I told the police, but they laughed at me and refused to help me. In fact they are bent to kill me every day. When I told this to the police, they kept me and sent me to a psychiatrist.
He was a nice man with a beard, but he didn't understand a thing. He asked me what my age was. I told him, but he just kept asking silly questions, like what my age would be in a year. I refused to answer, after all, I'm old enough to not be in pre-school anymore. He wrote that down too. He asked me what my plans for the day where and I said, I will go swimming. We talked a bit more, and then he let me go. I guess he thinks people who go swimming are harmless. But they aren't, I know that because they probably go swimming too once a week. And they are killing me. Killing me softly. Not.
<p>
I look into the laughing face of the woman selling apples. She is smiling because she doesn't know what they are doing. I buy two apples. It isn't her fault after all. They are at fault. They are well educated.<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…How quantum mechanics is like fog of war (idea)http://everything2.com/user/Highlander/writeups/How+quantum+mechanics+is+like+fog+of+warHighlanderhttp://everything2.com/user/Highlander2009-04-15T18:39:06Z2009-04-15T18:39:06ZLet me start out with explaining some features of <a href="/title/quantum+mechanics">quantum mechanics</a> that are relevant to the idea. One stunning idea is that while photons appear to travel as waveforms, they arrive at a location as discrete particles. This can be shown by the <a href="/title/double+slit+experiment">double slit experiment</a> which will leave your mind boggled, because a single photon will show interference with itself - it appears to sort of travel through both slits. The turning of a photon wave into a photon particle happens when the particle is measured and causes the ''collapse of the <a href="/title/waveform">waveform</a>''.
<p>
Another feature is the <a href="/title/Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen+paradox">spooky action at a distance</a>. The paradox is based on <a href="/title/Quantum+entanglement">Quantum entanglement</a> of two particles. Both particles have not been measured yet, but due to <a href="/title/conservation+laws">conservation laws</a>, if one particle is measured, causing the collapse of the waveform, then the other particle is measured as well and will show a matching property. This effect is immediate, regardless of how far the particles are apart, which appears to<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…CERN and the Anthropic Principle (idea)http://everything2.com/user/Highlander/writeups/CERN+and+the+Anthropic+PrincipleHighlanderhttp://everything2.com/user/Highlander2008-09-12T19:00:37Z2008-09-12T19:00:37ZConcerns have been voiced that the <a href="/title/CERN">CERN</a> LHC experiment will consume and destroy Earth.
<p>
What is the LHC experiment? It stands for <a href="/title/Large+Hadron+Collider">Large Hadron Collider</a>. The experiment will accelerate matter in a big ring and make it collide at very high speeds. The resulting collisions can create exotic matter, for example tiny <a href="/title/black+hole">black holes</a> which it has been said will dissipate before they grow, or maybe <a href="/title/strangelet">strangelets</a> - matter unknown to our <a href="/title/universe">universe</a> at this time - which will feast on reality like <a href="/title/virus">viruses</a> or <a href="/title/prion">prions</a>. All this might happen in the course of an experiment designed to recreate conditions at the <a href="/title/big+bang">big bang</a>.
<p>
The speed at which such a <a href="/title/catastrophe">catastrophe</a> might take place raises the question whether we would even have time to notice it. Also, the collision results are subject to randomness. If we side with the <a href="/title/many+worlds+interpretation">many worlds interpretation</a> of <a href="/title/quantum+mechanics">quantum mechanics</a>, this means that in some possible universe we will survive and there will be no world-destroying bang at<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Ettore Majorana (person)http://everything2.com/user/Highlander/writeups/Ettore+MajoranaHighlanderhttp://everything2.com/user/Highlander2006-08-13T12:32:43Z2006-08-13T12:32:43ZEttore Majorana was born on the 5th of August in the year 1906 in Catania, Sicily, and was, or maybe still is, an <a href="/title/Italy">italian</a> quantum physicist. His teacher was <a href="/title/Enrico+Fermi">Enrico Fermi</a>. He is well known for his proposal that the <a href="/title/neutrino">neutrino</a> is not a <a href="/title/mass">massless</a> particle, which seems to be confirmed by current experiments. He also proposed that the neutrino and its anti-particle, the antineutrino, are the same particle (at least regarding many of their properties, like <a href="/title/charge">charge</a>). This is reflected in the <a href="/title/Majorana+equation">Majorana equation</a> which includes charge unlike the <a href="/title/Dirac+equation">Dirac equation</a>.
<p>
After many travels where he met Heisenberg and Niels Bohr, he returned to Rome in 1933, earning a scholarship in 1937 in Naples, till his disappearance in 1938.
<p>
Before his disappearance in 1938, where he is listed as a passenger aboard a postal vessel, he sent out letters indicating both that he was willing to commit suicide that and that he was not, much like in the experiment of <a href="/title/Schrodinger%2527s+cat">Schrodinger's cat</a>.<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>Bottled imp paradox (idea)http://everything2.com/user/Highlander/writeups/Bottled+imp+paradoxHighlanderhttp://everything2.com/user/Highlander2005-12-22T21:51:55Z2005-12-22T21:51:55ZIn a story by <a href="/title/Robert+Louis+Stevenson">Robert Louis Stevenson</a>, the reader is presented with the <a href="/title/paradox">paradox</a> of <a href="/title/the+bottle+imp">the bottle imp</a> who will fulfill ones every wish, the catch is that if one dies with the bottle in ones possession, one will experience the tortures of hell forever.
<p> The real catch however is that in order to get rid of the bottle, one has to sell the bottle for a lower price than one bought it for.
<br>
The paradox is that because the one buying it for 1 cent cannot sell it anymore, he should not buy it for fear of suffering in hell; and no one should buy it for 2 cent, because there would be no one to sell it to for 1 cent. By <a href="/title/mathematical+induction">mathematical induction</a> we can reason that no one should ever buy the bottle at all.
<br>
<p>
Like many logic problems, this assumes that all participants are sufficently informed, completely rational and bright enough (if not <a href="/title/infinitely+rational">infinitely rational</a>) not to buy the bottle. If one assumes that there are at least some people who are not afraid to end up in hell, then you may still buy the<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…RFC 218705161 (idea)http://everything2.com/user/Highlander/writeups/RFC+218705161Highlanderhttp://everything2.com/user/Highlander2004-12-13T17:10:10Z2004-12-13T17:10:10Z<a href="/title/RFC+218705161">RFC 218705161</a>
<pre><tt>
<a href="/title/Network+Working+Group">Network Working Group</a> <a href="/title/P.+Schaefer">P. Schaefer</a>
<a href="/title/E2+Softlinking+Division">E2 Softlinking Division</a> <a href="/title/E2+DOG">E2 DOG</a>
Request For Comments: 08.12.2004
</tt></pre>
<p>
<h4>Status of this memo</h4>
This RFC describes an experimental <a href="/title/protocol">protocol</a> for audio transmission to be employed by <a href="/title/canine">canine</a>s for the transfer of urgent messages. A test of the protocol has been witnessed firsthand by the author. As an <a href="/title/Internet-Draft">Internet-Draft</a>, it awaits approval by <a href="/title/IETF">IETF</a> <a href="/title/IAB">IAB</a>.
<p>
<h4>Intent and Scope</h4>
In contrast to defining an unyielding dogma, this RFC focuses on an extensible framework for messaging and basic transmission content. Unlike <a href="/title/RFC+1149">RFC 1149</a> and <a href="/title/RFC+2549">RFC 2549</a>, which has strictly defined routes, this RFC is considering an informally connected network infrastructure, forming a larger network from <a href="/title/LAN">LAN</a>s. While variants of this protocol can easily be simulated on the <a href="/title/application+layer">application layer</a>, the protocol is optimized for acoustic data links.
<p>
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