It's all in the timing: What I learned this week

• After decades of searching, physicists have solved one of the mysteries of the universe - The Economist

On July 4th physicists working in Geneva at CERN, the world’s biggest particle-physics laboratory, announced that they had found the Higgs boson (see article). Broadly, particle physics is to the universe what DNA is to life: the hidden principle underlying so much else. Like the uncovering of DNA’s structure by Francis Crick and James Watson in 1953, the discovery of the Higgs makes sense of what would otherwise be incomprehensible. Its significance is massive. Literally. Without the Higgs there would be no mass. And without mass, there would be no stars, no planets and no atoms. And certainly no human beings. Indeed, there would be no history. Massless particles are doomed by Einstein’s theory of relativity to travel at the speed of light. That means, for them, that the past, the present and the future are the same thing.

• And this.

What You See Is Not Always What You Get: What I Learned This Week

• Listening to a fanstastic episode of Radiolab on Color I learned that, despite mentioning other colors in various contexts, Homer does not mention the color blue at all in The Odyssey leading some academics to believe he was color blind. 
• If you buy a painting you own the physical object but not the copyright of the image itself. Upon thinking about it this makes sense but it was still surprising to realize. 
• Earlier in the week I had to visit the Motor Vehicles Agency to renew my driver’s license. I took a picture and posted it with the caption “where bureaucracy goes to die” as I was going in. But the truth is that the wait was short, I’ve waited longer for lunch, and the lady that ended up helping me was extremely competent and truly very funny. 

Perceptions: What I've Learned This Week

• Virus is Latin for poison.
• I will never get used to, every now and then, getting out of a train at Penn Station to see multiple special forces personnel in full body armor with M16s across their chests and two revolvers strapped to each thigh.
• Bronchial infections will force you to take a break. 

Leoš Janáček was crazy: What I've Learned This Week

• Thanks to Free Comic Book Day I discovered that, when added, opposite sides of a 20-sided die total 21. In normal 6-sided dice, they total 7. The general rule seems to be that how ever many sides a die has, the total of the opposing sides equal one more. 
• Prolific design writer Steven Heller works on ten books at the same time. His current book 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design is a must read for anyone interested in visual communication. 
• Leoš Janáček was crazy. His composition Intimate Letters, his “manifesto on love,” was written in honor of a woman he was obsessed with. How obsessed? He wrote her over 700 letters. Of the work he said “You stand behind every note, you, living, forceful, loving. The fragrance of your body, the glow of your kisses – no, really of mine. Those notes of mine kiss all of you. They call for you passionately…”
• Seeing something I created on a t-shirt worn by a complete stranger in the streets of NYC will never get old.

Improv (What I Learned This Week)

• Pitching is like playing jazz. Everyone in the “ensemble” has their strengths and a path they have to follow, but some times you are compelled to improvise. If the whole thing clicks and everyone is in tune with each other it works and it is like the best jazz. 
• Adapt or Die: The state of the publishing industry is mind-blogging. And if you like books and reading, a little bit sad. 
• TED is spreading: on the radio, in the classroom.