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by **Arion** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 5:20 pm

Lord Simian wrote:Let's see...

Nixon and the Scandal of Watergate, Barry Sussman
History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides
Wheel of Time Book Ten: Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan
Inferno, Dan Brown
Physics of the Impossible, Michio Kaku

That is an odd combination, eh?

by **Spektre** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 5:41 pm

Fiction: A reread of Atlas Shrugged

Nonfiction: A white paper on the delayed quantum eraser

by **outsider** » Sat Jul 13, 2013 11:54 pm

I've started The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.
It better be as good as Old Man's War by Scalzi! :smt013

by **Zero** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 3:42 am

So far it's not my favourite Atwood but it's worth a read nonetheless.

by **Chris** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 11:40 am

outsider wrote:I've started The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.
It better be as good as Old Man's War by Scalzi!

It's not.

by **Midas** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 12:50 pm

Spektre wrote:Fiction: A reread of Atlas Shrugged

Every time I've read that book I've enjoyed it more and it has gone faster. Still, it's a massive book.

by **Arion** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 10:23 pm

Spektre wrote:
Nonfiction: A white paper on the delayed quantum eraser

I gotta ask what's that about...

by **xaraan** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 10:47 pm

The Crown Tower by Michael Sullivan

by **Spektre** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 11:20 pm

Midas wrote:
Every time I've read that book I've enjoyed it more and it has gone faster. Still, it's a massive book.

It is a page turner...and turner...and turner...and turner........

by **Spektre** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 11:38 pm

Arion wrote:
I gotta ask what's that about...

There is a strange effect described correctly by quantum physics whereby if you pass light through two near field slits, two possible behaviors can occur.

If you measure the photons, so that you are aware which of the two slits they pass through, the light behaves as particles and clump up in a distribution of two lines on a film behind the slits.

If you do NOT measure the photons, and as such have no idea what slit they travelled through, the light acts as a wave, and what you observe on the film is an interference pattern like when ripples from two pebbles dropped in water interact with one another.

One explanation for the change in behavior between the two cases has classically been something in the measurement must have affected the photons and thus the outcome of the experiment.

So, an elaborate experiment was set up whereby (through beam splitters and prisms) you actually measure which slit the photons go through long in the future (long in a speed of light sense) from when they actually did and long after they have already formed either a clump of two lines, or an interference pattern. In fact we measure some of them but not others.

What we find is, the ones we measure actually formed two clumps, and the ones we do not formed an interference pattern. This is fascinating, as it would seem impossible that photons, that have already passed through a slit and struck a film, long before we actually measure which slit they passed through, could somehow be influenced by a measurement taken AFTER they struck the film...yet there ya go.

by **Spektre** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 11:29 am

Well that brought the thread to a screeching halt.

by **outsider** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 12:14 pm

Chris wrote:
It's not.

So should I bump it down the list and move Peter Clines's ExCommunication to the top?

by **misac** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 12:24 pm

outsider wrote:So should I bump it down the list and move Peter Clines's ExCommunication to the top?

I finished that a couple of days ago! Major call backs to the previous books and a cool new character.

In the back of the book he mentions that there'll likely be two more books.

by **outsider** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 12:33 pm

misac wrote:
I finished that a couple of days ago! Major call backs to the previous books and a cool new character.

In the back of the book he mentions that there'll likely be two more books.

Cool, glad to hear you liked it.
It's funny, I had literally just finished Martin's "A Dance with Dragons" when I got an email from Amazon that ExCommunication was now available. I was tempted to dive right into it, but I've had "Forever War" on my Kindle Favorites for months now, like an ugly chubby Plan 'B' option.

by **misac** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 12:53 pm

outsider wrote:Cool, glad to hear you liked it.
It's funny, I had literally just finished Martin's "A Dance with Dragons" when I got an email from Amazon that ExCommunication was now available. I was tempted to dive right into it, but I've had "Forever War" on my Kindle Favorites for months now, like an ugly chubby Plan 'B' option.

I had preordered it a couple of months ago when I got an email from Amazon about it.