I've been a Grumpy Blogger this week, what with one thing and another (some of my general malaise has finally resolved into a cold, which I suspect explains a lot). I'm headed to Boskone for the weekend, though, so let's end the week on a positive note. I'm declaring this a Happy News Open Thread: if you've got something positive to report, leave it in the comments.
some happy thoughts to get things started:
- Two of Union's librarians (one of whom is a regular in our lunchtime basketball games) have won an award from the American Library Association. Congratulations, Bruce and Gail!
- One of our former students, Jason Slaunwhite '04, has defended his Ph.D. in experimental particle physics (Search for the Higgs boson produced in association with a W boson at CDF Run II), and is off to CERN for a post-doc. Congratulations, Jason!
- At least one person I know who is on the academic job market has received at least one offer from at least one good school. (That ought to keep the Rumor Mill occupied...).
Has something positive happened to you or somebody you know? Leave a note in the comments.
(Pointless grousing in the comments will be summarily deleted. This is a Happy News Open Thread-- bitch about your life somewhere else.)
More like this
It's gradually becoming clear to me that this blogging thing is old hat. It's a Web 4.0 world now, and we're all just Tmblng through it. So, I need to get with modernity, and start posting the listicles that are the bread and butter of the new social media order.
This guest post was written by Brookhaven Lab physicist Kostas Nikolopoulos.
Yesterday the large hadron collider started up successfully, and the world did not end.
"This is evidently a discovery of a new particle. If anybody claims otherwise you can tell them they have lost connection with reality." -Tommaso Dorigo
My Rugby half back daughter graduates in June with a BS in Chem E , and just accepted a job offer in her field.
I got a great compliment from a former student. My honors earth/space science course is taken by 10th grader honors students and 9th grade IB students who may not be mathematically prepared for IB chemistry. I had a couple of my favorite students from last year in the group of 10th graders for whom I had to proctor one of our innumerable FCAT/NCLB/blahblahblah tests. One of them (unsolicited) told me that I had helped her do well in chemistry this year. I asked, "How so? I didn't teach you any chemistry last year." She replied, "No, but you taught me to think."
In 20 years of teaching high school science, no compliment has ever made me feel so good.
Hey, I like this HNOT idea. Too much of what I post at all the various places I post is argument at best and negative grousing at worst.
Really minor, I know, but it made my day. I live on the northern edge of Eastern Bluebird's year-round range. I see them in my yard, maybe a few times per year. One showed-up today, just as I started recording for the Great Backyard Bird Count.
A dear friend of mine may have a book deal; and my dramatic teenage daughter is well enough from the flu to explain to me in great detail how she is dyyyyyyyinggggggg (when she's really sick, she's too tired to dramatize anything)
I started physical therapy this week for hip and back pain and I feel better already! Thanks for giving me the opportunity to say so.
Where does "I'm back on skis and awesome snow after 13 months off, much of it unable to walk" fit in?
My supervisor just won two separate awards in recognition of our project, which triggered me getting my own personal stimulus package. And I should also be getting a lunch out of it as well.
I got into my top grad school! I also got laid off, but I almost don't care since I got into my favorite grad program.
I got a shout-out on the coolest blog on the internet! Hooray!
I'll chip in. My wife, who wasn't enjoying her previous job, has a new job lined up and worked her last day on Friday. She now has a few weeks off to relax and recover!
Your posts are no longer blocked by my work's stupid net-nanny when I click on them from Reader. (The proxy site bit was worrying Untangle.)