New Nook

Sue's new gig seems like it'll be a great opportunity for her to learn some new things and pursue her own research themes. She's got her own desk, and a bit oddly, it's got a Mac on it for her to use. Macs are not designed with statistics in mind, though I suppose they can handle data sets.

Yesterday the head of my department announced his upcoming retirement. Since we finished the campaign (for $1.4B) more than a year early, it's an appropriate time for him to move on, but also, he said he's the longest serving development chief at any of his counterparts. I think he worked at Northwestern before Brown. Sounds like the university will be putting together a search committee.

In other news, the top health official in Rhode Island predicts that 30-50% of the state will contract swine flu over the next 4-6 months. Eek.

I'm gearing up mentally to do some more work in the basement this weekend. It's a madhouse down there. The first things that need to be done are rerouting our PVC radon system and framing out the new walls which will expand the floor space down there. The PVC is going to fit tightly underneath the front edge of a new desk that will be built in the new nook. So first I have to figure out how tall to make the desk.

PS
Sometimes graffiti is goofy. Sometimes it's poorly executed. But sometimes, and more often in a place with so many artists, graffiti is just splendid. This isn't the best picture, since this "vandalism" is at a fenced construction site, but hopefully you can see it and agree that it's pleasantly appealing. (Click to expand.)


I think this rises to the level of street art even though the construction guys seem to be slowly ripping it down.