Random news

Classes started this week. While I'm not going to think about the loads of work and my home away from home, I should share amusing stories.

Every as a little kid asks "why is water blue?" Adults can explain that lakes and rivers are not really blue; merely their coloring is the reflection of the sky. This leads to the inevitable question, "why is the sky blue?"

Now I demonstrate my nerdy side, minus the nerdy glasses. Reading my instrumental analysis book, I can now say that the sky is blue as a result of the Rayleigh scattering. Shorter wavelengths from the sun's radiation scatter when they reach the atmospheric medium. As these shorter wavelengths are in the visible region, we see the scattered waves in the sky as blue. Thus, a blue sky.

Tonight the power went off across Gambier, just before 9pm. Little surprise that I was reading my textbook and working on the computer. To make a long story short, Prof. Lutton loaned four of us students his flashlight and a propane lamp. The four of us dragged a table and chairs out of a lounge and sat and studied by the light of an emergency light and the propane lamp.

As this is Kenyon, a couple friends came by and tried to argue that since power was out, it was a good excuse as any to start drinking. Somehow the excuse that it was early in the night sounded quite lame. I stuck with my coffee and milk and biology textbook.

To end the excitement, the lights came back on around 11pm. It was a bit humorous to hide matches and the propane lamp in the biochemistry lab. Kelly didn't want to set off the smoke detectors either in the restroom and was in a momentary panic.

Enough talk now. Time to read about the principles of democracy.