The class geek

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From the web site of my Irish class

We played a game with Will’s students [the advanced class] as the quizmasters and the rest of the students worked in teams to answer the questions. Wes and Terri had an interesting way of working as a team that was very successful and fun to watch and Glenn was able to answer the question regarding what num pad combination on a PC was needed to make ‘é’ [Alt-0233]. It was a pleasant way to do some review and something we might do “anois ‘is aríst” [now and again].

Despite my management’s best efforts….

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My blood pressure is still OK. I had an apheresis (platelet donation) appointment this afternoon at the Red Cross, and as part of the procedure they checked my BP: 112/76.

It was a particularly good experience. We in colgaffneyis are all worried about our friend M, who has been in the hospital for a week and will be going to the Mayo Clinic tomorrow. And there is nothing we can do to help her. At least this way I could help somebody.

Not that I did anything heroic in the process. They stuck the needle in my arm, and I just dozed off for two hours while they extracted the platelets.

Freudian Slip?

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This afternoon I got an all-hands e-mail from one of the managers here. She was announcing a new hire, about whom we read

I am pleased to announce that M has accepted a Project Manager position within the Development PMO [Project Management Office]. M comes to …[us] with expensive Project Management experience.

A few minutes later came another e-mail from the same manager, which said

Everyone goofs, and my goof was very visible. I meant to say that M has extensive experience. Thank you to those who pointed out my mistake.

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Blast from the Past

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Blast of Giant Atom Created Our Universe, from the December, 1932 issue of Popular Science. From the (2007) introduction:

This is a pretty amazing article. It’s a concise summary of the big bang theory published only 3 years after Edwin Hubble made his famous observations about the redshifts of distant galaxies. Yet it’s pretty much identical to one you’d see today. Only a few details like the size of the initial “atom” and the age of the universe seem off. Keep in mind it took another 35 years or so before the scientific community came to accept that the big bang really happened.

Found via a post at Cosmic Variance, which emphasizes the work of Father Georges-Henri Lemaître, and concludes

Lemaître passed away in 1966, a year after Penzias and Wilson detected the microwave radiation leftover from the Primeval Atom.

I.e, Lemaître lived long enough to see his work confirmed by observation.

Fighting words!

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Found on the OldTools Mailing List.

Apparently a few years ago, the Louisville Baseball Bat Museum had a billboard up outside of town advertising that they had “More Old Bats Than A Knitting Convention.” The local knitters’ group had quite a tizzy over it.

Somebody else promptly commented

And If your SWMBO is a major-league knitter, then you’ll understand why

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Since my SWMBO* is also a “major-league knitter”, I understand quite well.

*If necessary, you can look it up at the OldTools faq :-)>