Faster-than-light neutrinos impossible?

Had another conversation last weekend over those damn neutrinos. Have I been talking myself blue that there are possibilities that these so-called super-luminal neutrinos can arrive at their destination faster than light without traveling at a velocity greater than light? Yes. Didn't anyone watch Dune?

However, I feel that the press (and certain scientists) are jumping to a sensationalist, provocative conclusion (even if it is damn sexy) without exploring alternate interpretations of the findings.  io9's "Final Proof that Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos are Impossible," focuses on the results the OPERA team's CERN experiment, in which pions produced as a by product of the experiment decay into the sub-luminal neutrinos. Specifically, the article explains how a Washington University team pointed out that the pions did not possess the extreme amount of energy to create faster-than-light neutrinos.

Scientists SHOULD be duplicating the experiments and checking and rechecking the results, but not in some frenzied attempt to save a pillar of physics that seems to be crumbling like so many stale chocolate-chip cookies, but because these findings would introduce an incredibly exciting time into physics and space-time topography (Hey, just in time for the new-cycle year 2012 on the Mayan calendar).

Don't get me wrong, if these results stick, that would be cool. So mind-bogglingly cool that it could be the first step in proving the existence of string theory, quantum foam and other wibbley-wobbley, timey-wimey stuff that Doctor Who probably knows all about. Jason Palmer's BBC News article, "Light speed: Flying into fantasy," outlines some of these exciting possibilities. For instance, the neutrinos could be taking a shortcut through another dimension, a theory that, while not mainstream, has been around since 1935. And that'd be wormholes, ya'll.

Cleverest Women Drink You Under The Table

The Telegraph article, "Cleverest Women are the Heaviest Drinkers," reports on a comprehensive study carried out by the London School of Economics that followed thousands of 39-year-old women. The study determined that the more educated women are, the more likely they are to drink alcohol on most days. Similar trends were spotted for men, but in the case of women, their alcohol consumption could even be predicted from their scores in school tests taken when they are as young as five. "Women who achieved "medium" or "high" test marks as schoolgirls are up to 2.1 times more likely to drink daily as adults."

The scientists reasoned the women tended "to have children later, postponing the responsibilities of parenthood" and also, "may have more active social lives or work in male-dominated workplaces with a drinking culture."

Obviously, the blogosphere has more entertaining speculation. Everything from "college being a four-year pub crawl" and acclimatizing educated women to drinking cultures (*cough*, not my college) to the pleasure women derive from delving in the sense of entitlement drinking provides and the availability of such commodities dependent on the larger size of their pocketbooks. One of my personal favorites, expounded on the amount of alcohol it takes a smart person to deal with how retarded the world is.

But borrowing an example from the Cokie Roberts, Don Imus, and Chris Wallace scandal, "No, We're Not Going to Shut Up," Michel Martin from NPR illustrates how there is a strong historical impression that women should sit down and shut up in the workplace.

"It used to be that men with a shred of power could say whatever they wanted about women and women had to put up with it, or get a man to duel for them or something...I cannot help but think that what the fury is really about is the loss of entitlement."

Studies show that women who are as assertive as men at the office are struck by a Double-Bind Dilemna. From the New York Times article, "Feminine Critique,":

"...women who act in ways that are consistent with gender stereotypes...are considered less competent. But if they act in ways that are seen as more “male” —“act assertively, focus on work task, display ambition” — they are seen as “too tough” and “unfeminine.”

And if you are damned if you do and damned if you don't without cultivating a suitable outlet for your rage, any wonder why that glass of chardonnay is looking a little less frisky? [via the Gothamist, thanks Maria].

Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes

Daina Taimina's book mixing math and crochet won the UK's 'Odd' Prize, the Diagram Award with a non-euclidean tribute to home economic arts. "Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes" is filled with over 200 color photograph's and Taimina, a mathematics professor at Cornell University, also gives you a delightful crash course in curvature and differential geometry using examples like pears and kale to represent complex forms.

The pictures are so awesome I don't know what to do with myself. The images are organic, futuristic and (dare I say) a little bit steam punk in application. Why, why aren't all of our clothes made with hyperbolic planes?

For a more in-depth explanation of hyperbolic geometry including an interview with Taimina, "Crocheting the Hyperbolic Plane: An Interview with David Henderson and Daina Taimina," by Cabinet Magazine contains vivid examples. For more about Taimina, the London Times article, "How crochet solved an age-old maths problem," has an interesting (if albeit overtly patriarchal) overview on how this traditionally feminine handicraft was initially dismissed by Taimina's friends and family but went on to fuel her breakthrough in modeling impossible mathematical forms.

The London Mathematical Society called it a coffee table book of the highest quality and the images should inspire mathematicians and crafty fingers alike. Math is delicious!

The Electric Birthday Cake

On Sunday, the 10th of October, the Splendid Table carried a very splendid segment about the loose collection of engineers and creative minds that form the Hungry Scientist Society. Never heard of them? Well, in Lynne Rossetto Kasper's words, they are "techie science types that take on cooking". Examples of the activities they've engaged in range from single variable variation in recipe creation, testing the volume limits of a gravy fountain and yes, building an incredible, edible electric cake. A preview of the recipe of said electric cake, involves wrapping licorice sticks in super thin, candy foil called Varakh (available in Indian and Pakistani markets, it's the same stuff that's on silver almonds).

This means you can eat the wiring.

Listen to the entire segment at the Splendid Table's American Public Media page. Or buy their most excellent cook book, "The Hungry Scientist Handbook: Electric Birthday Cakes, Edible Origami, and Other DIY Projects for Techies, Tinkerers, and Foodies." And remember, the super-chilled martinis are not for children.

Enter the Mind Map

I've loved me some flow chart. Also, I've threatened quite a few conversations with a Venn diagram. And I've cruelly marked up a few cocktail napkins with bifurcation maps, in my day. My new love, the mind map, I barely know but she's a favorite with yogi gurus and scientists alike.

Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas. They beat a stack of notecards sprinkled over my writing desk. And in my book, one step closer to art. Selecting the right tools to symbolize words and ideas is more essential than every in this technological age. And whether you're corralling ideas for your next grand scheme or coordinating the details of your next work week, mind mapping can help you explore ideas quickly, and in-depth while performing as an aid in organization, decision making and problem solving.


As we enter a paradigm shift as great as the industrial age based on information and technology, it can be difficult to maintain clear focus on our princple intentions and problems (mindless google surfing trap, anyone?). Mind maps are becoming popular non-linear, multi-dimensional diagram to classify ideas. Look at innovative tools like Visuwords (graphical dictionary and word concept map), and LivePlasma (explore band influences in a star chart). And now,
Publisher Bloomsbury Academic is introducing a innovative search using mind maps to explore their content in 2010.

Get started with CollegeDegree.com. While sketchy in so many ways, they a very nice list of "99 Mind Mapping Resources, Tools and Tips," that, among other things, will introduce you to mind mapping software. Even more instructive, the Lifehacker recommended "Managing multiple freelance gigs with Mind Maps" from FreelanceSwitch will show you how to use mind maps to organize your week.

Just love information classification as much as I do? Start reading (and have a laugh) Indexed.

The Great Big Lie

Well my loves, vacation seems inexcusable in the land of blogs and I really did mean to keep up my love of trivia while I was away in Italy, Germany, and the Czech Republic. But I didn't, did I? I'm back now and I learned all sorts of things and saw all sorts of sights in "foreign" countries (I mean, the landscape did change quite a bit in Germany and the Czech Republic, but all the people stayed rather the same, except I couldn't understand them). Which leads me to one of my favorite sites in Prague.

It’s the Prague Astronomical Clock. This fabulous display of medieval artistry and science is still ticking away in the city's Old Town Square. While I was pointing out with appreciable geekiness to my husband and sister-in-law, the meaning of all the golden dials, whirring knobs, and mosaic illustrations of zodiac constellations, my husband noted that the sun could not possibly be in the constellation of Gemini as the clock was indicating. After all, it was only May 10th. And he should know, since he's a Gemini.

Welcome to the Great Big Lie.

I told him how on my first day of Astronomy 101, with no small amount of glee and (a certain degree of pity) my astronomy teacher told us of how the astronomical dates for sun signs were set by the classical Greeks about 2000 years ago. And due to the precession of the earth's axis (don't ask, but basically it's the same reason why Polaris wasn't a pole star for the Greeks either) over time, the positions of the constellations have actually shifted about 25 astronomical degrees. "That's right", I explained to my husband, "you're actually a Taurus."

If you too would like to find out what your "real" astrological sign is, you can visit, the Live Science Article "Your Astrological Sign may Not Be What You Think It Is".

Or like me, if your horoscope seems just a little off today, try reading the one before it.