Two weeks ago I was in State College, PA, home of football powerhouse Penn State University. One of the first things I noticed upon entering my tasteful, blue and white hotel room at the Nittany Inn was the brochure for Football Fantasy Camp 2009. For $4,995, one could spend four days in football/PSU alumni bliss: […]
State College is to College Station as Columbus is to Austin Read More »
Somewhere over Montana, our pilot announced there was a malfunction in the food heaters in the front of the plane (used for first class; the unclean masses in coach can purchase an unheated Box O’ Salty Snacks for five buckaroos), so we would be turning around. Odd – the safety concern is great enough that
I gotta stop traveling Read More »
The exhibit hours begin at the insanely sadistic 7:00 a.m., made even worse by this being in EST and my still being sick. If my experiment with fasting yields positive results and I am coherent tomorrow evening, I hope to check out the fireworks downtown (though not the rooftop VIP option ;-). I didn’t even
Initial review of the AGU conference: awesome. Brain is happy from the learndrophins. More on that Sunday, after I catch up on sleep. The BART ticket machines’ user interface must have intentionally been poorly-designed. Buying a ticket went like this: Look up fare on the list posted to the right of the machine. Put credit
He doesn’t bite. The first bloc of today’s presentations were about carbon capture and sequestration. Fascinating stuff. The first presenter, from the Carbon Mitigation Initiative, presented a “stabilization triangle” model. Carbon emissions in 2004 were estimated to be 7 gigatons/year. On the current path, it’s expected to be 14 Gt/y by 2055. Stabilizing output would
Lenny Bruce was not afraid Read More »
I arrived at the Tucson airport at around 3:30 pm, in plenty time to attempt to catch an earlier flight out. Whereas most airlines will let you on if there’s space, Delta insists on a secret handshake bestowed upon their elite SkyMiles members. While the miles I have pooled on Alaska Airlines will let me
Yet another example of when leaving the interstate (I-10) can be rewarding. I missed the turn into the Tucson Mountain District section of Saguaro National Park and followed this road until it dead-ended into a privately-owned quarry. The view back was worth it. The park’s visitor center was closed, but enough daylight remained for a
I’m in an undisclosed coffee shop in Chandler, AZ, basking in its functional air conditioning while I await my next appointment. The greater Phoenix area is much like I imagined it would be: big, flat and hot. It was 86°F when I left my motel this morning, yet it didn’t feel as oppressive the equivalent