The very existence of neutrinos is something that admirers of The Big Bang Theory (the television show, not the actual theory) might think of in terms of a conversation between Leonard and Sheldon. The theoretical physicists (Sheldon Cooper's real-world colleagues) have been saying they exist for a long time now. Since a paper in 1930 by Wolfgang Pauli. But the experimentalists (Leonard Hofstadter's tribe) have never been able to find one of the little buggers. Now, it seems they have. Leonard has reported this and Sheldon has said "I told you so." Heck, the Japanese built a huge facility specifically devoted to the detection of neutrinos, called the Super Kamiokande. In essence, it is a big tank of water with a lot of photomultiplier tubes in it. The tubes allow the physicists to watch for the predicted "Cherenkov radiation." Whatever that is supposed to be. It didn't help. Now, the credit for the key experimental observation goes to the Large Hadr...
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My day-to-day calendar for 2017 (a Christmas gift stocking-stuffer from Diane) has a Big Bang Theory theme. My monthly calendar for 2017 will be just like my monthly (wall) calendar for 2016 -- modeled each month by a dog of a different breed. My desktop appointments book for 2017 is a pale blue covered generic "at a glance" thing, utterly unlike the Amex calendars of earlier years. I've given up those and their monthly factoids about distant places aimed at selling me on the delights of credit-driven travel. This year my Christmas gifts to each of Beth's children were ... calendars. She has three kids, so each of them received a calendar of one of these three types. The day-by-day calendar, for Alex, was Dilbertian, the monthly calendar for Shannon was scenic, and the appointments book for Alison was appropriately collegiate. All of which reminds me of a joke. Did you hear about the burglar who broke into a calendar factory? No, what did he get? ...
I begin this year, as I seem to begin each year, with three calendars. I have a new desktop/appointment calendar from American Express; a month-by-month wall calendar advertising the Boston Red Sox baseball team, and a day-to-day calendar atop my dresser filled with trivia regarding a television program, The Big Bang Theory. The AMEX calendar, as is its year-by-year custom, tells me to travel to various exotic places where I can use my blue card to go into debt. Among the locales highlighted this year: Cancun, Mexico; Oslo, Norway; Cusco, Peru. In connection with the latter, we're told amidst space for mid-September 2015 appointments that visitors to high-altitude Cuzco should keep well hydrated and avoid heavy meals and alcohol. Got it. The Red Sox calendar gives the stats for different players each month, starting in January with Jon Lester, Pitcher, #31. Lester also gets a very dramatic photo portraying him in full stretch, mid-pitch. If you're curious, he was born...