> Games for Windows Live is the single worst interface ever introduced in the history of PC gaming. It was designed as a sick practical joke by The Nazis to troll gamers

-VideoGameDunkey

My mother spent the last twenty some odd years of her life in Wisconsin. One winter, I fly out to go see her for Christmas.

At the end of the visit, her husband's dad is the one to drive me back to the airport. It was a four hour drive in good conditions, but there had been a good layer of snow or ice or frozen cheese or whatever the hell it is that makes roads slippery in Wisconsin.

So this guy, my mother's husband's dad was a chain smoker and one of those guys who carried around a 64 oz thermos of coffee, drinking and refilling from morning til night.

On the way to the airport, we spun out like this at least three times on the highway. I swear upon that surly old man's grave that not once did he drop his cigarette out of his mouth or put his jug o' coffee down while spinning. He just kept looking ahead, calm as could be, and waited until he had control to straighten out the car. In fact, I'm pretty damn sure I saw him take a sip of coffee while we were spinning.

W̡̛̖̥͍̭͉͊́͌͂ͯ̚͢ǫ̴͖̙̦̫̝̪͙͉͛ͅo̷͓͓̱̲̣̭̙͎͊̈́̚̕f̶̺̱̘̾́̉͑̍̓!̜͉̩̝̹̦ͣ́̈́ͯ̆ͦ̇͝

The cat disapproves of her moves

SWEET JESUS IT'S MY TIME TO SHINE!

I've just finished my bachelor's degree in physics and this is probably my most favourite thing that I learned in that time. To understand the bridge between classical (big shit) and quantum (little shit) physics, you have to understand path integrals, formulated by Mr. Richard P. Feynman himself! Luckily, a layman's explanation is possible and ought to save you four years of intense and gruelling labor.

Basically, in the realm of the very small, particles aren't so sure where they're going to end up. Given a special starting place, they only have a particular probability that they'll end up at any given endpoint. This gives rise to a series of different *paths* that the particle can take. Now, each path is assigned what we call a phase - two opposite phases will cancel out, and two phases that are aligned will add constructively. I won't go into the details of what produces the phase that each path has, but suffice to say that for small things, these phases vary gradually and in general, the overall picture is that the superposition of all the different paths with all their different phases add up to some complex quantity that tells you the *probability* a particle will end up at any particular place, but there are many options. Picture a pool with several gentle waves being generated at various locations within the pool - the resulting shape of the surface of the water is how the probability function looks.

Now when things get really BIG, the phases behave a lot differently. In all but one particular case, the phases vary so rapidly that they all cancel each other out (picture the water in the pool sloshing around so vigorously that it's just uniform turbulence). However, there is one *very particular* set of circumstances (for my physicists in the crowd, it's where the action is at an extrema) where the waves all line up, and amidst the violent sloshing there is a trough of calm seas. The particle is naturally drawn to that location, and it follows a particular path laid out by this trough. We call this the classical path, because it corresponds to all the fun equations you learn in high school, and all the trajectories you see when you throw a classical (big) object through the air.

So basically, quantum phenomena give rise to the reality we perceive because for large masses, paths far away from the extrema of the action vigorously cancel one another out and the only escape is through the predictable trough created when the action is at an extrema. Can I get on the plane now?

Another, new, reason I will never understand the French.

Corgi don't care

Spell it backwards.

5 cervezas for $120? Shit better be gold, where is this place?