Or news breaking late, as it were. Erin and I are engaged! I proposed to her on October 21 at the Ravenswood Winery in Sonoma and she said, "yes." It was romantic, wonderful and we are both extremely happy. I'm working up a website that has a detailed account and bunch of pictures and information on the wedding and lots and lots and lots of other things. Watch this space for updates! But for now, here is a picture of us absolutely in love.

Amateur Illustrator did a MemberZoom on Marshall Alexander today. Fantastic stuff. I just thought I'd share. Check out his site for more illustrative goodness. And the Spain picture will be here soon!

Today on Digg there was a link to a fantastic google video. This video does an excellent job illustrating how we understand particles to behave as both a wave and a bit of matter at the same time. So good in fact that I recommend everyone watch it. If you already understand the subject watch it anyway; from that point forward you will be able to explain the phenomenon to anyone easily. My only problem with the entire thing is that the animated host busts out with the word "superposition" with no explanation. I know what the word means, but I remember quite well the fairly recent time in my life where I didn't. If you think I'm being overly harsh or out of touch take a look at Wikipedia's quantum superposition page. It's not a one liner.

As far as I can tell this clip was taken from What the Bleep Do We Know!? that I admittedly avoided seeing despite my interest in such topics because I heard their sources were a little more than questionable. I really don't like it when people inject new age hooey into science and then call it science. The new age hooey is fine, just don't tout it as science. As for the old age hooey, well, I think God punishes ignorance too.

Hold up a minute. Don't move on quite yet. Read this. I'm not insisting it's true, but think about your own life. How well do you remember what happened, when it happened or where? What year did you purchase your car? In what theater did you first see your favorite movie? Now imagine there was an anouncement that we'd been keeping track of time incorrectly and your calendar would be updated with a new system. Not only that, we won't have names for the last 15 years. When did you buy that car? That theatre closed down, sometime in the past 15 years or so. When exactly? Who knows, we don't have a good signifier for that time period. Or, we do, but it's special and perhaps complicated. Time is an odd thing that carries us along. If we don't pay attention to it, we'll get lost. Ever been swimming at the beach? Some time in the tide and you're 300 yards from where you started without even realizing it. So, is it possible that in a couple years you won't be able to describe the discrepencies that are confounding your memory?

Now imagine if a large bureaucracy with a questionable track record had the opportunity to adjust a calendar at the time when few people could read or write. Just think about it.

Further Reading:
Did the Early Middle Ages Really Exist? [pdf]

How much do I really need to say here... I don't know that guy. He was obsessed. You can see a bunch more pictures from our antedated halloween revelry on Joel's site.