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Quantum Mechanics may be the ultimate mindfuck. Einstein was no fan — he famously wrote “God does not throw dice,” referring to his distaste for the statistical formulation underlying quantum theory. Despite his misgivings, quantum physics has proven effective at describing all manner of natural phenomena since its formulation in the early 20th century. That said, the formalism does lead to some rather odd or paradoxical conclusions.

Not least among these is the notion of Quantum Entanglement — that observable qualities of systems may be statistically correlated, even though the systems may be separated by vast spatial distances. An example is a pair of entangled electrons — one will have spin up, one spin down, but the individual states are indeterminate until a measurement is made. However, once the spin of one electron is measured, the spin of the other will become determinate instantaneously, and more importantly, superluminally. Einstein labeled this theoretical phenomenon “Spukhafte Fernwirkung” — “spooky action at a distance.”

These graffiti, placed on opposite ends of a bridge, embody the notion of entangled states, each with Einstein’s appellation and a measured spin wavefunction — up for Alice and down for Bob, whose wavefunction has collapsed once Alice makes her measurement.

For more on entanglement and Einstein’s view, I also suggest reading about the EPR Paradox.

Here are a couple updates regarding previous projects. I’ve been spending free time lately reading, but I should have some new stuff soonish.

[citation needed] stickers have been slowly showing up in new places. I’ve still got a number left, so if you want a few, just send me an email or a message via Flickr. A few from around Tempe and San Francisco are in the Flickr tag pool:

I especially dig this one from Flickr user cutlerite:

Reason Magazine also recently published a short article about the project, in their March issue. Don’t be afraid — they’re much nicer Libertarians than some of the Randroids I’ve met!

I also finally had a chance to really test my bicycle camera mount — the lead-up to the Game Developers Conference had left me with little time for biking anywhere other than work. I went riding with Matthew and took a few shots as well as this video:

On a side note I don’t recommend trail riding with this particular mount — the constant jostling broke the conduit hanger I was using to mount the tripod head. Luckily it’s the cheapest piece at only 50 cents, but the weight of the assembly demands something a bit sturdier than cheap plastic if you’re going to be navigating bumpy terrain!

I was biking through Kiwanis Park in Tempe earlier today and came across this excellent street sign mod. Someone has placed clear vinyl stickers with hula hoops (complete with motion lines!) printed on them around the waists of a few crosswalk signs. They’re apparently a meme that started via distribution at The String Cheese Incident concerts. I cracked up when I saw the first — I’m glad there are other people in Tempe who want to bring some spirit into the streets, especially if it’s an irreverent Discordian spirit! I saw four total — luckily I had my camera with me so I snapped a couple photos:

It’s no secret that I’m a big Wikipedia fan — I’ve got a serious case of NADD and about half my browser tabs at any given time are Wikipedia articles. One of my favorite quirks about the site are the little [citation needed] tags that users can place in an article, indicating that a dubious claim needs a reference. One day an idea struck — what statements are more dubious or outright ridiculous than those in advertisements? Thus, an OM project was born. I had 250 8×2 inch stickers printed, which I handed out to friends, who circulated them further. In true wiki fashion, the final placement of the stickers is a collaborative effort, now distributed and anonymous. If anyone sees one somewhere, please make a photo! I’ve been tagging my photoset on Flickr with citationneeded and wikiffiti — more should start showing up in the next few weeks. I’m also providing the source Photoshop file (or as pdf) for anyone who wants to print their own batch. Note that you may have to resize the canvas or change the image mode to CMYK depending upon the print service used.
Update: A few people have asked via Flickr about printing services. I found uprinting.com via google, and ended up using them simply because their minimum order size was 250 instead of 500 — there may be better or cheaper options available. They simply have a quote form you fill out, then you upload your file (such as the CMYK one above). Very painless overall.

After playing with one of these little fellows last weekend I resolved that I had to have one of my own - I can’t stand TVs in restaurants in particular, or ones that do nothing but play ads in stores. So I ordered up my own kit and assembled it per Limor’s instructions. A selection of the photos:

It had been about a year and a half since I’d had a chance to solder anything, which I realize now was far too long! Luckily, soldering seems to stick like bike riding - my joints were as clean and pretty as ever! Now just to test it out!

Operation Mindfuck is a wide-reaching decentralized conspiracy that extends to the highest levels of power in the world. Its purpose is to disrupt the reality grids that the general populace functions on, reminding people that there exist experiences and stimuli outside the confines of their everyday lives. As evidence of its popularity among even the powerful, I cite U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, particularly his Incredible Hulk tie.

For Halloween I joined friends making some LED Throwies (photoset - thanks Becky). We used them to make temporary improvements to a building and a sculpture:

I also spent a couple hours last weekend walking the new Tempe Marketplace shopping center with an accomplice, using one of Limor’s TV-B-Gone kits to disrupt the incredibly annoying TVs that seem to be in every store for no good reason. While the most satisfying was the one in the Cold Stone (also: delicious sorbet), the most impressive was the electronics section in the Target:

I’ve ordered one as well - the plan is to have two that cycle out of phase so as to turn off TVs twice as fast!

Overall, some of the best fun I’ve had in months!

New blog is up now - I’ve moved over to using a modified Wordpress since maintaining the codebase for my own was a bit more time than I wanted to put into it. Among other things I plan to document my increasing involvement in Operation Mindfuck.