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Ill at Ease

A problem:
I spent much of this long holiday weekend feeling guilty about not doing any work. I don't really like long weekends. They mess me up, make me feel out of sorts, ill at ease.

Q: Why?
A: I lose my grasp on time and place.

Q: What do I mean by that?

I'm not sure if this is exactly true, but the answer I'm coming up with right now is: I thrive on consistency and routine.

Maybe it has something to do with me being a Virgo, or maybe it just has something to do with me being me. In any case, long weekends break consistency and routine…

Silly Parts Talking Emo

Briana (11), my youngest sister, has a Myspace page whose icon announces: "I Love Emo."

The big brother in me is just a wee bit embarrassed, but what can I do? She's eleven, after all, and when I was eleven, I was listening to Whitney Houston and MC Hammer.

We were in the kitchen. Briana was watching as my other sister, Nerissa (23), was preparing the desserts. Our mom (43) — go ahead and do the math — was getting the turkey ready.

I was crying (the onion I was chopping up for the stuffing was incredibly strong) when I asked my mom if I could play a CD.

…

What Do an Oscilloscope Do?

And how do you do that voodoo it do so well?

At Last, My Instrument Is Taken Seriously

Air guitar—the next generation!

A Sense of Scale

Ever gotten confused by the difference between one fermi and the diameter of the nucleus of a gold atom? This puts it all in perspective.

I'm No Physicist . . .

. . . but I've read enough comic books to know you shouldn't go mixing matter and antimatter. However, that's exactly what these guys have done in producing positronium.

Is this the first step in producing the dreaded grey goo?

The Rules of Random

Randomness has rules? Counterintuitive as it is, it makes sense.

Escherization

An algorithm that can turn any image into an Escher illustration.

Breakthrough for Quantum Measurement

Two teams of physicists have measured the capacitance of a Josephson junction for the first time.

Ohhh, baby, I love when you talk quantum to me!

Spectacles, Testicles, Wallet, & Watch

In a recent review of The Multi-Purpose Solution's latest album, we were kinda sorta referred to as "emo." Actually, the reviewer — Jim Testa — wrote:

This stuff would be positively emo with any other vocalist...

And a lot of people seem to feel that way, so I should be pretty familiar with emo. Shouldn't I? I mean, according to the Wikipedia definition, I might even be emo. Preppy emo, that is. And, it occurs to me now, maybe that's why David Andrews had such problems with my spectacles. He actually just hates emo.

Nevertheless, I had a difficult time explaining it…