Ay yo. AyyyyyY YOooooo!

Michael K. Williams, who played Omar Little in The Wire, as Hamlet for a photoshoot by Terry Richardson for Vice magazine.

Hamlet: Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well.
Horatio: A fellow of infinite jest.

Does Schrödinger's cat really exist? You bet. The first ever quantum superposition in an object visible to the naked eye has been observed.

Aaron O'Connell and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, did not actually produce a cat that was dead and alive at the same time, as Erwin Schrödinger proposed in a notorious thought experiment 75 years ago. But they did show that a tiny resonating strip of metal – only 60 micrometres long, but big enough to be seen without a microscope – can both oscillate and not oscillate at the same time. Alas, you couldn't actually see the effect happening, because that very act of observation would take it out of superposition.

"We talk about quantum weirdness and things being in two places at once, but it all involves atoms and molecules, stuff we don't normally interact with."

Via Warren Ellis.

Update: Kottke, of course, has more.

In Tarantino's world, this is the last thing a Nazi should ever see.

Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds was one of his very best films. When a friend of mine disagreed and, shockingly, told me he hated it (emphasis his), I thought it might be worthwhile to explain why I loved the movie so much.

To illustrate, I noted that every / single / line / by Brad Pitt, in the role of Lt. Aldo Raine -- the Gentile leader of a special group of American Jews tasked with raising terror and killin' Nazi's -- was dominant.

Specifically, I loved his lines in the Tavern Scene.

Lt. Aldo Raine: You didn't say the goddamn rendezvous was in a fuckin' basement.
Lt. Archie Hicox: I didn't know.
Lt. Aldo Raine: You said it was in a tavern.
Lt. Archie Hicox: It is a tavern.
Lt. Aldo Raine: Yeah, in a basement. You know, fightin' in a basement offers a lot of difficulties. Number one being, you're fightin' in a basement!

Why is that so funny, you might ask. Well, I can explain, (quite nerdily, I'm sure), in three steps.

First, lots of f-bombs. Always a plus.

Second, Pitt says he's going to list off a bunch of problems, but then only gets to problem number one, which is circular and is just a restatement of the situation.

Third, starting the sentence by saying "Number one" points to the fact that Brad Pitt starred in Fight Club, where of paramount importance was the First Rule of Fight Club: you DO NOT talk about Fight Club. While Tarantino is following this rule here, in this alternative-history film, and not talking about it, he is directly referencing Fight Club by having Pitt himself, who played a second personality -- an unreal persona in an alternate, anarchic, revolutionary future -- in Fight Club, talk about how awful it is to fight in a basement... which, of course, is the location of the bare knuckles exhibitions central to the referenced film.

In other words, Tarantino's more meta than anyone outside of Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Synecdoche, New York, etc.) ... and he knows it.

But where Kaufman works within the always-hilarious confines of loneliness and despair, Tarantino laughs manically, drops another f-bomb and hits you in the head with a baseball bat.

Socially Generated, Machine Filtered, Hand Polished, Electronic Newspaper for Geeks, Designers & Venture Capitalists

TPUTH lists as its captains of industry four stalwart icons of the modern era: Eric of Google, Bill of Microsoft, Steve of Apple and The Jesus of Lebowski. Niiice.

Pullin' the trigger till it goes *click*.

via Daring Fireball.

Thusly The Dude doth abide.

A brilliant adaptation of The Big Lebowski, including couplets to end each section. Can't wait for the zombie version...

THE KNAVE
Good sir, speak plain. I know not these villains, surely would I ne’er traffic with this man of Orient birth who so abused my rug. I have not the facility to present him with the rate of usance and demand money in kind for that which he has spent upon’t; so I entreat you, speak plain.

WALTER
I speak the truth; my words are straight and true.
The man of Orient birth is not the issue.

DONALD
The Orient, Sir Walter?

WALTER
I speak, old friend, of truths in desert land.
The hour is nigh to draw line in the sand.

THE KNAVE
Deserts? I had made it plain that he was Orient-man.

WALTER
Though words in haste be only human nature,
‘Orient-man’ is not preferr’d nomenclature.

THE KNAVE
Give me no further counsel; my griefs cry softer than advertisement.

WALTER
I speak of this other man, Sir Geoffrey of Lebowski. Is not thy name, sir, Geoffrey of Lebowski? To be or not Lebowski, that is the question; I see we still did meet each other’s man. Shall we not make amends? A gentleman of high sentence ought to be of unsequestered location, possessed of resources fit to restore a thousand rugs from vile offence. He’s not well married that lets his wife a borrower be, such that men gravely offended bespoil another man’s rug. Be I wrong?

THE KNAVE
No, but verily—

WALTER
Be I wrong?

THE KNAVE
Yea, but verily—

WALTER
That rug, in faith, tied the room together, did it not?

THE KNAVE
By my heart, a goodly rug.

DONALD
And in most miserable tide did this rogue besmirch it.

WALTER
Prithee, Donald! Thou too eagerly hold’st the mirror up to nature.

THE KNAVE
My mind races; I might endeavour to seek this gentleman Lebowski.

DONALD
His name is Lebowski? Verily, ope thine ear; that is thy name, Knave!

THE KNAVE
On good authority; and his nobleness must oblige. His wife taketh up quarrel and borrows, and they bespoil my rug.

WALTER
Marry, sir, my heartstrings do you tug;
They urinate upon thy damnèd rug.

[Exeunt severally]

The thing about criminal lunatics who live like God’s just keeping their chairs warm is that, well, they do know how to put on a show.

via Warren Ellis » Coming Anarchy.

But it's whose bid the committee won't hear today that's set off a bit of a controversy.

Aides for Senate President pro tem Darrell Steinberg said last week that the committee would not hold a hearing for PUC Commissioner Rachelle Chong. Without the green light from lawmakers, the Schwarzenegger appointee's time on the panel will come to an end later this month.

Chong, who was first confirmed to the post in 2007, has been criticized by consumer groups who say she votes at the bidding of the telecommunications industry.

Chong's supporters cried foul, saying the Senate should at least give her the consideration of a hearing. They also pointed to her voting record, which is identical to Peevey's.

Those complaints have continued, with groups representing the business and Asian-American communities sending letters in support of Chong.

This morning, representatives from several of those organizations are meeting with Steinberg's office to make their case. UPDATE 7:40 : The meeting with Steinberg's office was cancelled by the advocates, Steinberg's office said.

"They're really withholding fair due process of a very highly qualified person," said Filipino Progress board member Norm De Young, who was scheduled to attend the meeting. "Our expectation is that if we present a fair, unbiased representation of the [appointee], that [Steinberg] will do his best to be fair and earnest on her behalf. Our expectation is one of fairness."

I only worked for the Commissioner for a few months, but I can still say this about her: to her core, Commissioner Chong is an earnest, incredibly sharp, hard-working public servant.

She has a stellar record on items she's spearheaded before the Commission, and always has the best interests of the state at heart. I certainly didn't agree with all of her assumptions or opinions, but she is utterly consistent and works from a thoughtful, considered, informed base. An intense free market advocate, she's also passionate about helping minority groups, immigrants, the poor, and those in rural areas. Though she never needed to do so, I saw the Commissioner give up some time at home with her beloved twins in order to personally visit non-profits for the elderly and immigrant groups to make sure they were prepared for the Digital Television transition. Her pet project? Minimizing the digital divide by ensuring that universal high-speed Internet access is available to all. Though it's a little-known fact, only around 10% of the CPUC's work focuses on telecom regulation. Therefore, her other big interests are just as important as her telecom-related priorities: upgrading California's energy grid to increase it's efficiency as a smart grid, and expanding the state's use of renewable energy.

Sure, anti-corporate groups are never going to like her. That's fine. That's their job, and Commissioner Chong, as someone with a free market worldview is an easy and natural target. But her worldview shouldn't be any cause for holding up her confirmation hearing. Her record is spotless and her tireless leadership speaks for itself.

Get to it, Sacramento. Reconfirm Commissioner Rachelle Chong.

His bones never really grew properly in this area, so at age eight he underwent his first corrective operation. This latest was the ninth procedure on this foot.

This go round, his surgeon removed most of the assorted metal implanted in my brother's ankle (pins, staples, screws, broken screw bits, etc.). The surgeon then broke the foot and ankle in three places, inserted pins to hold everything together, stapled together the incisions, and sealed the whole thing in place with a cast.

Hopefully this will be the last surgery the kid will ever need on his ankle.

I've since taken him to get the visible metal removed, and he's asked me to document the process. He has all of the photos and while he hasn't shared many yet I've included a pic of hispre-staple-removal foot below the jump. (Not for the faint of heart). If he sends me more pics, I'll also add them here -- I know I took a great shot of his doctors yanking out the pins with a pair of pliers. Good times.

He's now staple and pin-free and has upgraded to a walking cast. A few more weeks and he'll even be off of crutches entirely. Happy holidays, indeed.

33 staples + 3 six-inch pins = No joke

Now to keep the villagers from stabbing him with pitchforks, and him from using the pins as jewelry for piercings. Yikes.

Walked into an Iraqi Police Headquarters this evening where they were all sitting there watching Anchorman. Strange.

Doesn't get much more surreal than that. It's the little things.

What really bakes my noodle now, though, is the trail of breadcrumbs and the use of modern communication which led up to this whole snapshot.

1. A dispute over poorly-aligned, antiquated punch-card paper ballots in Florida created controversy over whether George W. Bush was our properly elected President in 2000.
2. A bunch of Saudi fundamentalists, trained in remote, mountainous, largely illiterate areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan and armed with simple box cutters, stole jumbo jets -- small, fuel-filled flying towns -- and crashed them into mountain-sized buildings in Manhattan.
3. The Towers collapsed, killing thousands of people whose days had been spent working on computers, communicating instantly with colleagues around the world and using the very latest technology to run America's financial sector.
4. The summary justification for U.S. involvement in Iraq is based on questionable satellite images and photos from surveillance planes presented to the world by Colin Powell, in classic tv anchor style, as proof that Iraq's tyrant was building nukes and/or biological and chemical weapons.
5. We went to war in Iraq, quickly freeing the Iraqi people from a tyrant's grip. Saddam, overthrown and on the run, is captured and later executed. That execution is illicitly recorded on a cell phone and posted on YouTube for the world to see.
6. Using jury-rigged, hand made, improvised explosives, insurgents from around the world gather in Iraq to fight off the Americans and our Western allies.
7. My friend, who I haven't seen since high school, joins the Army and finds his way to Iraq.
8. There, he works with Iraqi citizens who themselves are working to create order and stability. He stops by their office, a police headquarters, and finds them watching Will Ferrell in Anchorman, a movie lampooning San Diego, America in the 1970s, the absurdity of America's recent misogynistic past, and local U.S. tv news generally and on-air personalities in particular. The Iraqi police certainly have no context for any of the subtle humor, though Ferrell in that 'stache and those classic seventies' outfits goes a long, long way.
9. An Army MP goes back to his barrack, fires up his computer and logs on to Facebook, updating his status.
10. As Facebook is what reconnected us, I'm able to glimpse his surreal day from the opposite side of the globe, mixed-in with updates about one friend's Christmas cookies and another friend's love of cheese melted on burgers.

The mind. It boggles.