Gaseous!

From an article on the BBC News Site:

"This time period is associated with a very enhanced green house effect," explained Appy Sluijs, a palaeoecologist from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and the lead author on one of the papers.

"Basically, it looks like the Earth released a gigantic fart of green house gases into the atmosphere - and globally the Earth warmed by about 5C (41F)."

Sometimes, the comedy comes to you...

NP: Genesis - Hairless Heart

Hot!

Here we are, at the end of May, and it's a bit of a steamy hotness up here in Hanover. I haven't checked the temperature, but I would guess it's in the mid 80's F, with a high level of humidity. It's not horrible, but I'm waiting for a thunderstorm to help break the weather. There was some lightning earlier this evening, around 8ish, but no storm developed. Ah well, perhaps while sleeping...

I'm generally packed for my travels south tomorrow. What, you are probably asking, does a well dressed Mike wear for a job interview? Well, here it is, courtesy of a photo I took back at the ACPA conference I attended in March.

A little blurry, but hey, what do you want?! A bisquit?

I've spent the evening preparing some of my own questions for the interview, reviewing the college's website to get familiar with their campus and their approach to the world of Res Life I work in. We shall see how it goes, I'll report when I can about it, upon my return to the Great White North.

Sue's visiting NJ right now, and she's coming back tomorrow, so I'm sure we'll pass each other on the road at some point. Of course, we won't really know where, but we'll be able to make some good estimates once I'm down there, and she's up here.

NP: John McLaughlin - Sing Me Softly of the Blues

Travel!

I'm preparing to travel down to NJ on Thursday, for a job interview on Friday. We'll see how it goes. I don't want to share too much about it, but obviously, if I get the job, I'll fill you in on all the details.

I will say right now, without jinxing myself, that I feel pretty good about the possibilities for this one. Of course, as I've jokingly said to some people, relationships can be fickle...

I had a *great* three day weekend, sleeping late, hanging out with Sue, and just generally relaxing. I slept late on all three days, and just took it easy. Memorial Day weekend is one of the few three day weekends we get here at Dartmouth, so it was good to be able to enjoy it.

On Monday afternoon, I watched the DVD of the new Battlestar Galactica, which I watched when it was initially on the Sci-Fi channel a few years ago. I enjoyed it then, but I haven't really been able to watch the series regularly (it's on my cue from Netflix). Watching the movie the second time, I enjoyed it a lot more, and saw a lot more depth and planning in the series. Here's some bulleted thoughts, that may have been answered or shown in the series since the pilot aired...

• At the end, Adama has a note on his desk, stating that there are 12 Cylon "types." Who left the note? As far as I know, Baltar was the only one who knew that.
• I'm a bit unclear if the 12 types mean that there are only 12 of the humanoid cylons in existence, or are there 12 models with multiple copies? There are doubles we see at the end, but are they part of the 12?
• Does Baltar really have a chip in his head? That was a bit too reminicent of "Harvey" from Farscape, being planted in Crichton's head, for my tastes... Although, it's not an uncommon SF plot trick, so I really can't hold it against BG.
• Who was the female Cylon (the blonde one, does she have a name?) meeting with at Caprica City after she left Baltar's company?
• Baltar's trick of blaming the PR guy for being a Cylon actually paid off, as he was truly a Cylon. Did Baltar's "test" actually pick something up? Or was he "guided" to choose him as a patsy, by the chip in his head?
• And, if there is a chip in Baltar's head, can it be used by the Cylon's to trace the fleet?

Those are my thoughts for now. I look forward to watching the series to see where it goes. I did see part of the season 2 finale, so I know where the show is going in some general areas, but it'll be interesting to see how it gets there...

NP: Queen + Paul Rodgers - All Right Now

Kids!

Today, Sue and I were in the Dartmouth Bookstore, and a kid, probably about 14-15, approached me, looking for donations to a charity for Darfur. I gave him a few bucks, because he did have fliers for the charity.

I've seen other kids on the street up here, asking for money for a variety of charities. It's an interesting way to get money, to just ask people on the street, without even a table set up with info, or any other "normal" charity activities, like a bake sale or other things.

I don't think the kids were lying about it at all, but it does seem like an odd way of raising money. I'm kind of surprised the people who run the bookstore allow solicitation like that in the store... Or perhaps they don't, and the kid was just getting away with something.

Ah well, whatever the deal is, I'm only out a few bucks, and who knows, it *might* actually go to charity.

NP: Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists - A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur