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May 12, 2006

Providence Geeks to meet Wednesday; Army balks at West Point Grads Against the War; Vineyard cerebral-palsy camp splits in two; Light moves backwards

It must be spring. Three geese and 16 goslings cross the road this morning in Canandaigua, N.Y. (AP)

Providence Geeks gets its own domain -- providencegeeks.com of course -- just in time to spread the word about the next Geek Dinner: next Wednesday, May 17, at AS220, 115 Empire St. You can mill in the performance space from 5:30 to 7 p.m., then move over to the adjoining bar and lunch counter. You can drop a note to say you're coming. Heres the permalink.

West Point Graduates Against the War-- a group that claims a membership of around 50 -- "have been warned by the Army to stop using the words "West Point" in its name, saying they are trademarked," according to AP. (This came out last week but didn't get much play.)

A co-founder of West Point Graduates Against the War countered that his organization is simply following the cadets' code.

"At West Point, we were taught that cadets do not lie, cheat or steal _ and to oppose those who do," said William Cross, a 1962 West Point graduate. "We are a positive organization. We are not anti-West Point or anti-military. We are just trying to uphold what we were taught."

Cross founded the group with two fellow members of the Class of 1962.

Internal dispute splits Camp Jabberwocky: The longtime cerebral palsy camp on Martha's Vineyard has split into two camps -- the faction with the campers moves to Nantucket, the one with the land stays on the Vineyard. The issue: whether counselors can have a cocktail after hours. The Martha's Vineyard Times does a long, New Yorker-like treatment of the split.

Feed your head: Light's Most Exotic Trick Yet: So Fast it Goes ... Backwards? I almost understand some of this. (Sounds like time travel through a back door.)

Robert Boyd, the M. Parker Givens Professor of Optics at the University of Rochester:
"We sent a pulse through an optical fiber, and before its peak even entered the fiber, it was exiting the other end. Through experiments we were able to see that the pulse inside the fiber was actually moving backward, linking the input and output pulses."

So, wouldn't Einstein shake a finger at all these strange goings-on? After all, this seems to violate Einstein's sacred tenet that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.

"Einstein said information can't travel faster than light, and in this case, as with all fast-light experiments, no information is truly moving faster than light," says Boyd. "The pulse of light is shaped like a hump with a peak and long leading and trailing edges. The leading edge carries with it all the information about the pulse and enters the fiber first. By the time the peak enters the fiber, the leading edge is already well ahead, exiting. From the information in that leading edge, the fiber essentially 'reconstructs' the pulse at the far end, sending one version out the fiber, and another backward toward the beginning of the fiber."

Boyd is already working on ways to see what will happen if he can design a pulse without a leading edge. Einstein says the entire faster-than-light and reverse-light phenomena will disappear. Boyd is eager to put Einstein to the test.

It's way too late for this tonight

Feed your moms: If you have mom to honor Sunday, you might start by feeding her. I put together Mother's Day recipes for kids and occasional cooks from decades of Journal Food sections (on projo.com and in the previous post on this blog).

Food for thoughtfulness.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 10:24 AM | Permalink