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Hot summer days mean there’s nothing better than enjoying a frosty beverage or treat…until the brain freeze strikes.

While studying something as temporary as the sharp pain that makes the rest of an ice cream experience that much more enjoyable in comparison might appear to be a waste of time, according to neuroscientist Dwayne Godwin, Ph.D. of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center being able to test such an innocuous form of headache can help scientists understand more serious types.

So what is going on when brain freeze hits?

“One thing the brain doesn’t like is for things to change, and brain freeze is a mechanism to prevent you from doing that,” Godwin said.

The brain can’t actually feel pain despite its billions of neurons, Godwin said, but the pain associated with brain freeze is sensed by receptors in the outer covering of the brain called the meninges, where the two arteries meet. When the cold hits, it causes a dilation and contraction of these arteries and that’s the sensation that the brain is interpreting as pain.

And there’s your small talk to break the ice on that innocent first date! No doubt they’ll be wowed by your intelligence and concern for their discomfort, a winning combination if ever there was one.

If you’re looking for a great romantic segway, though, you can’t go wrong with ice cream roses.

Photo by Julie Upmeyer.

Full story at Newswise. Ice cream roses at Dessert Girl via LikeCool.

The frosty side of science.

Photo credit: Fotolia

What is it with cardinals and mockingbirds? It would seem the guys (most likely) doing the choosing were peeking at their neighbor’s paper because there’s a shocking lack of originality with so many better options to choose from.

That’s where Slate’s Nicholas Lund comes in, offering up some much needed commentary on this sorry state of affairs.

If hot-button political issues aren’t your thing, then this is the way to prove you’re still a civic-minded citizen with a cause close to your heart…or at least a very loud voice and desperate need for something to do.

Cohabitating in a small space takes a certain amount of coordination, but none so much as when the living’s being done by the Acrojou Circus Theater and space is The Wheel House.

The amazing hand-built structure is the stage on and in which two acrobats delight audiences with their attempts to lead a “normal” life in the confines of the strangest mobile home we’ve ever seen.

A gently comic dystopia, set in different time where everything has a new value, and endurance relies on sharp eyes, quick hands, and, above all, friendship.

Full story at My Modern Met.

Theater to go.

Think you know your way around social media better than the average bear?

Maybe you have what it takes to be a social media marketing specialist, but rather than going with your gut, check out this infographic from Schools.com to get more information about this growing field.

Via Schools.com.

Finding your way with infographics.

Think you know math?

Then take a stab at identifying these math-related animal illustrations by Kasia Jackowska for the University of Warsaw’s Department of Mathematics.

Best of luck!

Full story at Drawing Mathematics via The Mary Sue.

Fun with math.

Anyone who’s ever skimmed the classifieds for a place to live knows that certain landlords tend to be, um, creative when it comes to finding renters.

DogHouseDiaries took a stab at decoding rental-speak in this comic that comes just in time for everyone looking for new digs.

Via DogHouseDiaries.

Looking for the silver lining.

Switching from Windows to Mac? MacWorld has put together this handy chart to help you. From printers to speakers, it’s all here:

For more on this and other Mac articles see: MacWorld.

Love Macs? So do we. See more stories at mac.

Photo credit: MacWorld Staff

What happens to old subway cars? Well, in some parts of the world they may end up offshore as part of a reef.

Left your bike left in the wrong place at the wrong time in Amsterdam? Could be that you can find it at the FietsDepot – but good luck with that! There are zillions lined up there in row upon row.

There are train boneyards in Bolivia, tank and military truck graveyards in Eritrea.

Tollbooths, space junk, it all ends up somewhere.

Check out this article for pictures and descriptions of where things go…: Mental Floss.

More stories about oddities.

Photo credit: Taken from The Atlantic, Artificial Reefs Around the World, April 8 2011 (URL: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/04/artificial-reefs-around-the-world/100042/) AP Photo/Roberto Borea

Mental Floss has accumulated a list of 38 words that have no equivalent word in English and top of the list is Kummerspeck (German), which means emotional over-eating but is literally translated as “grief bacon”.

Here are a few others. For the complete list, see the link to the article, below.

Cavoli Riscaldati (Italian)
The result of attempting to revive an unworkable relationship. Translates to “reheated cabbage.”

Zeg (Georgian)
It means “the day after tomorrow.” OK, we do have “overmorrow” in English, but when was the last time someone used that?

Seigneur-terraces (French)
Coffee shop dwellers who sit at tables a long time but spend little money.

Layogenic (Tagalog)
Remember in Clueless when Cher describes someone as “a full-on Monet…from far away, it’s OK, but up close it’s a big old mess”? That’s exactly what this word means.

Pelinti (Buli, Ghana)
Your friend bites into a piece of piping hot pizza, then opens his mouth and sort of tilts his head around while making an “aaaarrrahh” noise. The Ghanaians have a word for that. More specifically, it means “to move hot food around in your mouth.”

Read the full text here: Mental Floss.

More stories about linguistics.

Photo credit: Photo of a Latin Dictionary – WikiCommons