4:10 pm PST--Davis, CA
In what has been heralded as the greatest feat of modern history, a group of physicists at the University of California, Davis, has inadvertantly conquered gravity and confirmed that levitation is possible. Jim Schrödinger, a member of the breakthrough team, said "this has opened the door to what was once thought impossible."
The research began several years ago with a modest budget of "just a few dollars", but has resulted in what may indeed be the greatest accomplishment of all time. Speaking by phone, Schrödinger said that he was proud to follow in the footsteps of his father, Erwin Schrödinger (1887--1961). "I've been working on solving this problem for many years."
Jim Schrödinger 's father, Erwin Schrödinger was a Vienna born physicist most famous for his 1935, three part paper published in 'Die Naturwissenschaften'. In that paper Schrödinger describes quantum mechanics through the use of a cat in a box.
A fellow student of Schrödinger once said about him "Especially in physics and mathematics, Schrödinger had a gift for understanding that allowed him, without any homework, immediately and directly to comprehend all the material during the class hours and to apply it. After the lecture ... it was possible for [our professor] to call Schrödinger immediately to the blackboard and to set him problems, which he solved with playful facility."
In what can be described as the outcome of old age, binge drinking, and the encouragement of his fellow fraternity members at a hazing party, Schrödinger discovered that if you strap a cat and a slice of buttered bread back to back, the two will hover effortlessly!
"The 'patently obvious' results of this research are made possible through the conclusion that cats always land feet first down, and that bread never lands buttered side up. I have many pages of equations used to describe this behavior, but let me simplify by saying that it's like magnets of opposite polarity repelling each other. The combination of cat and buttered bread will hover exactly six inches off the ground indefinately when affixed properly."
Immediately following the announcement, animal-rights groups began picketing at the local Burger King. Several of the protesters, who couldn't remember their own names, mumbled a few incoherant responses before disbanding to confront their "munchies".
When asked if he was concerned about the protests, Schrödinger commented "My family and I have been using dead cats for years, err, figuratively speaking, to prove quantum mechanics,. I don't see how Mrs Johnsons hovering cat is any more cruel than denying a buttered slice of bread the ability to land face down on the floor."
As for the future, Schrödinger plans to breed a "more durable, lighter, friendlier" cat of his own "that will hover higher, doesn't mind being dropped from greater distances, and can be recycled to demonstrate quantum mechanics."