Uncertainty Principle goes to war

Washington Times ^ | Wednesday, April 2, 2003 | Tony Blankley

[JohnHuang2]

Warner Heisenberg would understand the current media confusion surrounding the progress of the war. About 80 years ago, the German physicist postulated a theory — known as the Uncertainty Principle — that in sub-atomic physics the observer becomes part of the observed system. Through the act of measurement the physicist becomes himself part of observed reality. Regarding subatomic particles, he argued, the act of measuring one magnitude of a particle — mass, velocity or position — causes the other magnitudes to blur. So that, in his words: "The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known."

[JohnHuang2]

Wednesday, April 2, 2003

Quote of the Day by The Wizard

[KDD]

War is natures way of removing the earths waste by-products.

Civilizations big Dump, so to speak.

And this biological necessity is usually best done in private...at least I prefer it so.

With a thousand t.v. cameras watching... you can conduct a war about as well as you could take a dump in public...that is to say, not very well at all.

Reality television in wartime coarsens society.

[HangThemHigh]

Good find. Excellent as is, but this becomes all the better if the press is being purposely used as a disinformation source by our military leadership.

The press is wrong so often, you could easily get the idea that as soon as they announce that so and so is about to happen, the miltary does exactly the opposite. The reporting may have been accurate when issued, but then armed forces change plans just to keep the Iraqi's guessing. It doesn't do much for the reporters credibility, either. The fog of war swirls thicker all the time.

This is Hunter S. Thompson's gonzo journalism turned back on itself. The uncertainty principle is an absolutely perfect ananlogy for this. Brilliant miltary use of otherwise excess baggage (news reporters) - I love it.