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POPSThe Story of Schroedinger's Cat (An Epic Poem) Or atom--whatever--but when it emits, A trigger device blasts the vial into bits Which snuffs our poor kitty. The odds of this crime Are 50 to 50 per hour each time. The cylinder's sealed. The hour's passed away. Is Our pussy still purring--or pushing up daisies? Now, you'd say the cat either lives or it don't But quantum mechanics is stubborn and won't. Statistically speaking, the cat (goes the joke), Is half a cat breathing and half a cat croaked. To some this may seem a ridiculous split, But quantum mechanics must answer, "Tough shit. We may not know much, but one thing's fo' sho': There's things in the cosmos that we cannot know. Shine light on electrons--you'll cause them to swerve. The act of observing disturbs the observed-- Which ruins your test. But then if there's no testing To see if a particle's moving or resting Why try to conjecture? Pure useless endeavor! We know probability--certainty, never.'
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POPSWhy do we nod our heads for "yes" and shake them for "no"? Dear Cecil: "With reference to your column on gestures, did you leave out or just not know that in Greece the five fingers spread out and thrust forward at someone means " in your face"? - Had to Tell You. Cecil replies: "Thank you for sharing that with us. Just shows you how the Greeks continue to enrich civilization. " :lol:
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POPSReport Shows Greater Peril for World's Threatened Animals and Plants The newest report also includes assessments of 845 species of corals. Already more than a quarter are considered threatened, with climate change added to the list of threats they face. Still, IUCN cautions that the health of marine life could be worse than expected, as relatively little is known about biodiversity in the oceans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIJHaQ8EGn0
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POPSItaly to Declare Independence from US Military On the eve of the G8 summit (July 8-10 in L'Aquila), the No Dal Molin organization is inviting people from all over Italy and the world to celebrate the Fourth of July in Vicenza and "declare our independence from the US military, freeing the land from the presence of a new war base." July 4th is the holiday with which the people of the United States celebrate their own independence. This year it will also be the day on which Vicentines, and all those who support peace and defense of the common good, declare their own independence from military servitude. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/43766
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POPSLuxury Pirate-Hunting Cruise Testimonials from previous participants in the Somali Cruise: "Six attacks in 4 days were more than I expected. I bagged three pirates, my wife nailed two, and my 12-year old son sank two boats with the mini-gun. This wonderful cruise was fun for the whole family" -- Fred D., Cincinnati, OH "Pirates 0, Passengers 32! Well worth the trip! Can't recommend it highly enough!" -- Ben L., Bethesda, MD
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POPS The Felid Purr: A Bio-Mechanical Healing Mechanism Given the data on anabolic frequencies, fracture and healing research, the exact match of the frequencies and amplitudes of the cat's purrs to vibrational therapy research, time proven adages, biomechanical therapy, studies on tendon and muscle repair and Dr. Cook's study, it is certainly not a leap of faith to speculate that the cat's purr is a healing mechanism. Having a natural way to increase strength, and decrease healing time, would indeed be very advantageous and would explain the purr's development.
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POPSJudge Says Hyperlinks Should Be Banned to Save Newspapers Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan: No linking or paraphrasing? Let's Screw Up the Entire Internet to Save Newspapers! You can copyright a news story, but you can't copyright the news. "The news" just means "things that happen in the world." What would it mean, in practice, to make it illegal to paraphrase a copyrighted news story? Summing up, for example, political events, or a sports controversy, or even a fashion trend, could be interpreted as paraphrasing copyrighted material. So let's ban talking about anything. And banning links will help us make our references even more obscure, by making it impossible for anyone to refer to source materials! Good idea, Posner.
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