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I never got to meet Drew, and we corresponded only briefly, however, he was an inspiration to me and I am going to miss his creativeness.

It was Drew and the Guild that got me back into writing. It was his Death Threats and Starting Notes that prodded my reluctant nature to realise that despite being my own worst critic, that perhaps I should share the stories that bounced around inside my head like manic methamphetamine stoked winged hamsters circling the broken running wheel at mach speeds of debilitating double digits.

I will miss his unique view of life, the universe and all that is the sum of 42. However, Drew, by sharing his life, taught me never to stop and never to surrender. I’ve let work and other exigencies of life interfere too much in my own dreams and creative processes. His passing reminds me that we do not have the luxury of putting off ‘til tomorrow what we should be creatively doing today.

I will miss him, his work and his universe. I wish I had met him. I will cherish his memory.

Drew Hayes, the creator and driving force behind "Poison Elves" is dead. I feel sucker punched by this. I never met Drew, I had corresponded with him and he was an inspiration to me to start pursuing my own creative dreams (which I'm sad to say life and work have once again shunted aside... recently).

I have missed his creative perspective since his health problems precluded his continuing his work and now that he is dead, I feel that a light has gone out in the universe.

This has been a sad time.

Citizens, I have bad news.



Erwin Schrödinger’s Cat is dead.



In fact, someone call the SPCA we need to file charges with them against Mr. Schrödinger on charges of theoretical cruelty to animals.



Erwin Schrödinger devised a paradoxical thought experiment in which he postulated that in an enclosed system you could place a cat and a can of hydro cyanic acid connected to a Geiger counter set to monitor a miniscule sample of radioactive materiel, so miniscule that it’s decay rate is on the rate of one atom per hour maximum. At the end of the hour, the cat is either dead or still alive, depending on the possibility that a single atom of the sample has decayed and triggered the release of the hydro cyanic acid. However, until someone opens the enclosed system to observe the state of the cat, there exists the possibility that the cat exists in both states of death and life.



However, the experiment as I understand it does not allow for the venting of the hydro cyanic acid after the cat’s potential death, meaning that anyone who opens the system will be exposed to the same effects as the cat… any volunteers?



No?



I didn’t think so.



So right off the bat we have a problem. How do we check in upon the cat to see if it has been poisoned or not without exposing ourselves to the hydro cyanic acid?



So, the cat remains in system.



Now, aside from the obvious poisoning of innocent cats (unless Herr Schrödinger has found a source of convicted felines sentenced to death) we now have the added crime of unlawful confinement, failure to provide the basic necessities of life (food and water) oh and waste removal, that cat can’t be expected to sit there and hold it in until it gets to the litter box.



Now, even if the cat was provided with all the necessary amenities to ensure a reasonable ‘life’ while imprisoned during the experiment.



There is also the possibility that had the experiment proceeded further than the basic theoretical stage that someone, possibly even Herr Schrödinger himself may have devised a method of opening the system to observe the state of the cat without leaving the individual doing so exposed to the potential hazard of the hydro cyanic acid.



All that being postulated though, there is still one important fact to consider with regards to Schrödinger’s cat.



The first publication date for the thought experiment that I could find was for 1935.



Erwin Schrödinger himself died in 1961.



The cat, even if it were a newborn kitten would be long dead by now, 71 years later, unless of course it’s also a vampire cat (but wait, then it would technically be dead already) and therefore immortal (or as immortal as something that is ‘undead’).



That said, there is still the fact that even the life span of a hypothetical cat cannot probably survive the death of the one who hypothesised the existence of the cat in the first place.



Unless of course the cat has taken on a life of it’s own in the collective conscience of modern society, in which case, much like one of the premises behind “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman, the cat has achieved a quasi-divine status and well now…



we’re playing with a whole new deck of cards…



Tarot anyone?