“The electron does anything it likes. It just goes in any direction at any speed, forward or backward in time, however it likes, and then you add up the amplitudes and it gives you the wave-function.”¹ You may not be an electron, but you’re still welcome to do anything you like this weekend.

Geek Out

Pass The Time. On second thought, we might not be so different from electrons. Williams College religion professor Georges Dreyfus and NYU philosophy prof J. David Velleman will discuss the question “Does Time Go By?” at the Rubin Museum of Art this Sunday. The two professors will compare traditional Eastern and Western conceptions of time, with special attention to Buddhist thinking. This event, like last weekend’s Dark Crystal screening, is part of the Brainwave NYC series, which runs until June. “Does Time Go By?” begins at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, at least by our crude chronological reckoning.

Levitate Your Dipole. If Eastern philosophy is too mushy for you, ditch work early and head to Columbia University today at 3:10 p.m. for the Plasma Physics Colloquium. Every Friday, a bunch of scientists and eager observers gather at the city’s Ivy campus for a cordial chat about our least understood state of matter. This week, they’re analyzing results from the First Flight of the Levitated Dipole Experiment, “which consists of a 560 kg superconducting coil floating within a 5m diameter vacuum chamber.” (No, I don’t think they’ll let you touch it.)

Geek In

Miss The Point. The ASUS Eee PC notebook has quickly earned a following for being cheap, quiet, small, and hackable. When you buy an Eee PC, you’re getting no frills, but some people just view that as an opportunity. Like one enterprising Eee owner who cracked open his rig and added: eight USB ports, GPS, Bluetooth, a 56k modem, an FM audio transmitter, a 4GB flash drive, and improved 802.11 wireless. This is all internal, mind you—no ugly geegaws hanging out of the case. It may seem a little silly to spend so much time and money on what is supposed to be a just-the-basics computer, but in this case, missing the point is the point. There’s an instructions wiki, so you can spend the weekend making your own enhancements.

Make Contact. Reviewers weren’t entirely sure what to do with Nintendo DS game Contact when it came out, so while I was always intrigued by the strange backstory of the game, it was never at the top of my list. I started playing it this week, and if you passed it by, it’s worth another look. “Breaking the fourth wall” has become a cliché, but Contact does so as an effective storytelling device. The player is part of the story in this game, and not just through the proxy of the main character. If you have a game store nearby, consider shuffling out to pick up Contact and then waiting out the weather with this fun oddity.

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1. According to a guy who met a few electrons in his time. ↑