This Will Mindfuck You: The Double-Slit Experiment

The video below shows scientific proof that there is something NOT quite logical or scientific about this universe. The mere act of observation can completely change the outcome of an event! Before I get too ahead of myself, you need to watch the video below to understand:

(Forgive the corny cartoon character explaining the concept — at least he knows his stuff)

Recap: When a camera observed the electrons, they acted as particles. However, when the no equipment was used to observe the electrons, they acted as waves and particles simultaneously.

So what’s the reason for this? Does the electron somehow know that it is being watched? That was the only “logical” reason that scientists could come up with so much skepticism and controversy followed.

Want even further proof?

Then in 2002, a group of researchers set up the experiment in a way that the electron could not possibly receive information about the existence of an observing instrument. The setup was on a much smaller scale: a single photon was emitted and an interferometer that observed the wave-or-particle behavior was either inserted or not inserted. (Click here to download the full report)

Here’s the kicker: The insertion of the interferometer took only 40 nanoseconds (ns) while it would take 160 ns  for the information about the configuration to travel from the interferometer to reach the photon before it entered the slits. This means in order for the photon to “know” if it was being watched, that information would have to travel at 4 times the speed of light, which isimpossible (the speed of light is the universal speed limit).

The Results: The photons acted like particles 93% of the time that they were observed. Even if the photon “guessed” the configuration each time, statistically speaking it would never have more than 52% accuracy. In scientific experiments, a 93% success rate is as conclusive as they come.

What are the implications of this?

1. Matter can act as both a wave and a particle depending on whether or not it is being observed (Wave-Duality Theory)

This is the least meaningful implication for you as a macroscopic organism, but nonetheless it’s a pretty crazy concept.

2. Observation can (possibly) affect the outcome of macroscopic events

After all, you and everything you know are composed of these microscopic particles, so why couldn’t something large be influenced as well? It would be the sum of a seemingly infinite amount of pieces of matter acting as either waves or particles. Scientists have very mixed opinions on this topic so I’ll just say it makes sense to me that this could happen on a larger scale.

3. We don’t know very much about this universe (Science is not yet an ‘exact science’)

There are a couple things out there that science still cannot explain like the characteristics of gravity, but this blows Newton’s discovery out of the water. As we study smaller and smaller particles in order to understand more about what we’re made, we seem to find more things that just don’t make sense. Point being that nothing should be ruled out completely because we simply cannot know anything for certain at this point.

How to Make Proper Barbecue Chicken

No offense, but you're probably doing it wrong

There's a lot of misconception when it comes to "barbecue." The problem is the word itself. It's used as a synonym for grilling, refers to the grill itself, or to the meat being grilled; it also has a sauce named after it; and sometimes it's just the word for the party itself held outdoors in somebody's backyard. What, actually, is "barbecue"?

American purists see things a little differently. To them, "barbecue" is a wonderful Southern tradition of slow-cooking with indirect heat and woodsmoke to transform cuts of meat, often inexpensive ones, into succulent, unbelievably delicious results. That's true barbecue.Anything else on a grill cooked hot and fast rather than low and slow is called grilling. Brits and anybody else in their commonwealth be damned.

Which brings us to barbecue chicken, a staple of the summer grill. Does it earn its name in the true sense of the word?

The sad fact is that often times the answer is no. The way I've seen it cooked most is like this: the chicken is slathered in sauce, the coals are lit (or the gas grill is fired up to high) and it's then grilled until the inside is no longer pink. Seems simple enough.

The problem, and the result, is charred all over the place, a crapshoot for succulence, often dry and sad. Not to offend you or your talented uncle manning the grill, but he's probably cooking your barbecue chicken all wrong.

I believe good barbecue chicken is low and slow followed by fast and hot; that's the easiest way to achieve fantastic results.  (Now, before we get too far with this idea, it's important to mention that even this method deviates a little bit from the barbecue orthodoxy for chicken, which stipulates that the meat should never see high heat at all.  Bob Gibson, arguably the most famous name in barbecue chicken, believes that the chicken should be cooked at a very cool 300 degrees until it's done, with no exposure to caramelizing high heat at all.)

This way is a vast improvement over most methods, and won't take all afternoon. But it will take a couple principles:

1. the dry rub
2. keeping half the grill hot and half of it cooler, i.e. "banking the coals" or using half the gas
3. a final sear with the mopped-on barbecue sauce

As the chicken cooks on a relatively cooler part of the grill covered in a pungent rub of spices--essentially slow-roasting in its smoky environs--the skin gradually crisps into a mouthwatering crustiness and the interior juices baste the chicken while it cooks.

Then, and only then, we see the appearance of barbecue sauce, when the chicken is essentially finished cooking. Then it gets painted on the chicken liberally and constantly over a hotter part of the grill, allowing it to caramelize and turn syrupy just the right amount. Then you devour it like crazy.

Proper Barbecue Chicken

For the rub, I turned to a famous thing "magic dust" invented by barbecue god Mike Mills. A blend of mustard powder, paprika, granulated garlic, and other goodness, it's good enough to mix up and keep around for rubbing on just about anything, including sauteed vegetables. I recently rubbed it on some pork chops and they were stellar.

Magic Dust

(makes 2 cups)

• 1/2 cup paprika
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons mustard powder
• 1/4 cup chile powder
• 1/4 cup ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup granulated garlic
• 2 tablespoons cayenne (or less to taste)

Combine ingredients in a container and mix thoroughly.

To begin, mix up the magic dust and sprinkle it pretty liberally all over the chicken. While you can proceed right away, see if you can plan ahead long enough to let the chicken sit, covered loosely in the refrigerator, for a few hours or even a day. The magic dust has salt in it, so there's no need to salt the chicken otherwise.

Barbecue Sauce

While there are great bottled sauces out there, and they'll work pretty well, I seem unable to avoid the possibility of making something from scratch.

It's easy enough: just take ketchup and start doctoring it up. Homemade sauce ups the game considerable, and for barbecue chicken, ketchup-based is probably the way to go. Common augments include soy sauce, brown sugar, mustard or mustard powder. I used this recipe adapted from Steven Raichlen.

• 2 cups ketchup
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 2 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
• 1 tablespoon magic dust (recipe above)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Hot sauce (such as Tabasco) to taste

Prepare the barbecue sauce by putting all the ingredients into a small saucepan and bringing them to a boil. Turn down the heat so that it just bubbles a tiny bit and simmer it, whisking once in awhile, until it's dark and thickened, 10-15 minutes.

Now, the chicken.

I used a charcoal grill, but you could also do the gas route by turning on just one side. In the case of charcoal, bank all the coals on one side of the grill and line up the chicken on the cool side. Cover the grill to build up some heat and cook until the chicken starts to turn golden and brown, 25-30 minutes. 

Make sure to switch the pieces halfway through so that the ones closer to the coals trade places and get equally cooked.Once the chicken is golden and looking close to done (a thermometer should read somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 degrees; by the end the chicken should be up to 165), move the chicken nearer to the coals and start brushing sauce on the pieces, turning often to completely cover them with sauce.

This is a pretty focused process, so stay in front of the grill brushing, turning, and moving the pieces all over to get them equally cooked and sauced. Try to cook the skin-side down as much as possible. Just as the sauce starts to turn syrupy and caramelized, the skin should be crisping up beautifully.

Once the internal temperature is 165 degrees fahrenheit or hotter and outside is all dark and crisp (some black is okay, but I try to keep it to a minimum), remove the chicken to a platter and let it rest for at least 5 minutes. Serve! 

Interesting Posts

Can bloggers really earn 12%?

Is it true that bloggers earn 12% of the retail price of any Product, Service or Premium Blog -- when someone clicks from their blog?

The answer is yes! I'll show you how it works below.

But first, have you noticed the new look of the blog editor?

Two things have changed:

1) The look of the editor has changed, to be more closely WYSIWYG (pronounced Wizzy Wig).

WYSIWYG stands for "What You See Is What You Get" -- and the new look is designed to help your published blog look just like it did in the editor. (Same width)

2) Check out the new Provider button:

When you click the Provider button, you'll see the Provider insertion pop-up:

From there, you can insert any Product, Service or Premium Blog that you created; that someone else created; or even something that you recently inserted (into another blog post or Ad) -- or bookmarked.

Just click "Insert" after choosing something, and the editor will automatically insert a link into your post.

That link has two characteristics:

1) When your readers click the link, they will immediately see a "Buy Now" pop-up (for the item you inserted):

When the reader clicks "Buy Now" -- you make 12% of the price of the Product, Service or Premium Blog Package.

You earned that for doing such a great job at using your writing skills and creativity to create interest in the reader -- such that he or she would want to learn more and/or buy the item.

2) The text of the link is the name that the Provider chose for his or her Product, Service or Premium Blog Package.

If you prefer, you could make the text of the link say something else -- whatever you want -- such as "Buy it now, big spender", "Check it out", or "Take it from me, you really want this".

Here's how:

In the editor, select some text, such as "Buy it now, big spender". Then, press the Provider button:

Choose the Product, Service or Premium Blog, and press "Insert" -- and the text you selected will automatically be turned into a link.

When your readers click the link, they can purchase the item using their FanBox Bank with only one click.

Oh, so how do you bookmark interesting items -- so that later you can remember to blog about them?

Everytime you see something cool, simply click the "Bookmark this" link:

After you do, you'll always have easy access to that item from your blog editor, as well as from the Ads creation page.

From both those areas, the bookmarked item will appear in the Provider pop-up under the green "Recently Inserted or Bookmarked" button.

Any questions? I'm here for you.

How You Can Make Good Use of Your Old Machines

Almost everyone reading the articles on this site will have spare computers languishing about. The rapid growth and improvements in hardware means that we cycle through a whole machine in only a few years.

If you have spare machines and parts languishing about, you can put them to good use! In this article I have outlined some of the purposes your old hardware can serve.

Like the article? Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter to stay up on recent content.

Local File Server

Everyone secretly wants one, and if you have the resources kicking around then why not have one?

There are so many reasons to have a personal server. I use mine for my media, so I can easily stream music and video around my house. Other folks may want to set up a system for family members to share photo’s or swap files. A lot of people also use a local file server to store their main computer’s backup files.

If you set up a Windows Share correctly, then you needn’t use FTP programs like FileZilla to conduct transfers. You can just drag and drop like any other folder. Windows Shares also allow media streaming.

I am connected to my local server, and streaming music to my Windows box.

Web Server

This uses pretty much the same software and simple tech as the Local File Server. The system you have it running on is just set to accept incoming connections from the web too.

In order to achieve this properly, you do need to own a domain name or at least have a static-IP address. This way people can access your web server repeatedly, and not worry about whether your Internet provider has cycled your routers IP address. If you are sending or sharing small files only once, then giving out your current dynamic IP to people is not a problem. However for large files over a long term period, you have to ensure that your address will not change.

Don’t forget to set up port forwarding on your router, so that unknown connections on ports like 80, 22, and 21 are forwarded to your server. Ensure that the server has some good anti-virus and firewall software on it!

Companies like No-IP let you register a domain name to your host providers dynamic IP, and then attempts to keep the two synchronised. Most Internet providers cycle your router’s IP regularly, so an IP address you give out would need to be updated. If you wanted to run a web server from your home, try a free account with No-IP.

BOINC Node

Of all the suggestions I will make in this article, this is perhaps the best in terms of making your hardware useful and helpful.

BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) is a wonderful piece of a software that allows you to donate your system’s processing power to help science. Many aspects of the sciences require vast amounts of computational resources to perform simulations and calculations needed to further our scientific understanding.

For instance, the SETI@Home project sends you genuine radio data from Arecibo, then has your computer run search algorithms across the data to find patterns or suggestions of extraterrestrial transmissions. When your machine has processed the data, pattern results are sent back to the SETI team. Another project called Rosetta@Home performs protein structure modelling and chemical simulations. This helps us get closer to finding cures for diseases like AIDS. Einstein@Home scans radio data for interstellar pulsars.

You get the idea, and all you need to do is install BOINC on an old machine, subscribe to some projects, and let it chug away happily. Mine runs pretty much 24/7.

Here is Rosetta@Home running away. Cures for diseases come that much closer through applications like this.

Torrent Box

All legal torrents of course! If you have an unlimited or large transfer limit with plenty of bandwidth or even a fibre-optic connection. Then you could be very useful by running a torrent system on one of your old machines. Many of BitTorrent’s aspects make it appealing to people who want to shift large files around. Many popular games that are available for download use BitTorrent, such as EVE and Black Prophecy.

If somebody has a poor connection they can complete a download over a long period of time, byte by bye. Something they would not be able to do through a direct file download. By acting as a Peer for these programs you are helping these folks get the large files. The whole point of torrenting is that somebody has to act as a seeder!

The sharing of files over a torrent system is very useful to some people. In this screenshot I am offering all the pieces of Orbiter and FlightGear to anyone who wants them.

Note the ‘Drop Files to Send’ area in the bottom left corner of this torrent application: uTorrent. With this you can make torrenting more personal. If you have a 200mb video file you want to send to some friends, but can’t be bothered to set up a web share or wait hours on Skype, use this! Drop the file in there and uTorrent will give you a link you can send to your friends. This leads them to a torrent file uTorrent made for them, and within a minute they can start receiving the video bit by bit.

Proxy Server

A Proxy Server acts as a relay and filter to traffic requests on a network. It behaves a bit like a network router, processing incoming and outgoing traffic and forwarding it to the appropriate destinations. However a Proxy Server and it’s filters can be configured to restrict and inspect traffic with more ease, and with far more scrutiny than a network router.

These servers are not very useful in a home environment, but in a corporate environment they are invaluable. You can put a stop to staff procrastinating on Facebook and Twitter, and restrict website viewing to what is necessary. If you like, lock down specific network ports, protocols and IP addresses to stop employees playing games, torrenting, using shells and so on.

A great list of proxy software can be found here.

Business Intranet

If you have a small business, why throw away old hardware when you can recycle it? Many businesses use the SAGE system for monitoring financial data, and you could dedicate a whole machine to being your SAGE Server. Alternatively, set up a small Intranet system for shared data and an internal website for corporate announcements.

Game Servers

Many people would love to have their own Game Server. Popular games such as Minecraft and Cube2:Sauerbraten have small terminal/command prompt server processes you can download and run. If another member of your family plays these games, then you have your own Minecraft world or Cube2 arena to mess around in on your local network. Set up port forwarding on your router and you can open it up to friends too.

An alternative to port forwarding for gaming is Hamachi. This is a piece of free software which lets you link several computers together in a way that makes them think they are on the same local network. You need quite a decent connection for this to work without a lot of lag though.

These game servers don’t require much computational power either. For Minecraft, an old laptop would make a great server.

A Minecraft server running happily on an old laptop.

Give Your Kids A Computer

Kids love games and the Internet, but you probably don’t want to let them mess about on your expensive machine. Why not give your old machine to your kids, or scramble one together from parts? So long as it can play Lego Racers and show them pictures of animals pulling daft expressions, they should be kept happy. This helps to ensure there is no more ice cream and chocolate on your own keyboard.

Synergy – Mouse and Keyboard Sharing

I have four screens on my desk which consists of a dual monitor desktop and two laptops. Having to squirm around to reach each keyboard, mouse, and trackpad would be very frustrating.

Thankfully a program exists which sends the signals from my desktop’s mouse and keyboard to the other machines. The screens are ‘stitched’ together however I like, so scrolling to the right of my desktop’s screen moves my cursor to the laptop, and the same applies for the left of my desktop to the other laptop. When my mouse moves onto the laptops, all my keyboard presses are sent there instead of to my desktop. If you decide to re-use old computers, this tool allows you to use one keyboard to control them all.

Synergy is cross-platform too, so if you have a Mac or Linux box they can all harmoniously share the one keyboard and mouse. All the screensavers and password requests are also linked. Unlock one machine and they are all unlocked. Very useful indeed!

You can grab Synergy for free here.

That’s all!

These are all the uses I thought were worth writing about, but I am sure there are many more I haven’t come across.

If you can think of anything I missed out in this article, please mention it in the comments below!