climate catastrophe, turbidity and academic angst on campus
Did I mention it is the deadline for Hubble cycle 17 observing proposals today.
On these days, the ghost of Major Murphy haunts astronomy departments everywhere.
So.. recently the northeast region of the USA has seen a chain of storms rolling from the Pacific, dipping south to pick up some Gulf moisture, and then dump it somewhere between Michigan and Maine (and allegedly in some strange other country called Canada).
Earlier this week, the precipitation took the form of rain, copious sustained rain, with localised flooding.
The Penn State campus water well(s) flooded on wednesday, and thursday morning all faucets and fountains were closed due to "turbidity".
I gather they will flush the pipes over spring break.
As we quickly discovered, no water means NO COFFEE! Anywhere on campus.
No problem, an enterprising admin got some bottled water, and we made our own.
This morning, friday, the bottled water ran out.
Still no coffee on campus. And I'm telling you, chocolate milk is Not The Same when you are writing proposals.
This is a crisis, and it is slowly getting worse. I expect vomit in the corridors by late afternoon (ok, that's the viral infection sweeping the department, but you gots to come in to write your proposals anywho).
You might argue we could walk into town, where they do have coffee, but there is a Proposal Deadline! Hm, maybe we can send out junior grad students as runners...
We are safe for now, a grad student braved the faucet and reasoned that coffee is almost sort of boiled, so it ought to be safe - (boiled coffee? he's doing it wrong) - so we gulped down coffee.
It tasted really weird.
Really, really weird.
That turned out to be because it was chocolate raspberry flavoured coffee (Jason, we GOT to talk!). But, it clearly has caffeine, and the dose should last through one more proposal.
I hear rumours some faculty are hoarding Sierra Spring bottles in their offices, we will find out by 4 pm. We know what to do with hoarders around here.
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Nonono! You got it all backwards. Coffee must be prepared with very hot steam, in a Bialetti: wikipedia
:)
> rain, copious sustained rain
You know, there's this theory that rain causes water.
Capture with sheet plastic
And science labs have millipore filters
And vacuum distillation
And UV sources
Oh, I'm forgetting -- nobody's capable of making coffee without a kickstart. You must've left the pot completely empty overnight and nobody's thought of a visit to the Chem or Bio departments where they have this advanced technology.
Best of luck. A run to the drugstore for caffeine tablets used to work for me, when I was in academia. Do they still sell that drug over the counter?
Hey
I'm a THEORIST!
Coffee is like data, it is something made by other people.
Maybe Apple will come up with an iCoffee this autumn.
Actually I am inordinately fond of Dutch Cold Dripped Coffee,
but that can not be found in the barrenness that is Central PA
I bet they're not having this problem on the left coast...
If you are really good, the research you do requires the production of scores of cups of espresso in the first place...
http://digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com/2008/02/singularity-cant-come-soo…
I am inordinately fond of Dutch Cold Dripped Coffee
Steinn, I've been making cold-water coffee at home in recycled 2-liter bottles. Thoroughly rinse an empty 2-liter soda bottle. Add about 2 cups of cold, filtered water. Add 11-12 oz. of ground coffee, and fill the rest of the way with water. Agitate it until you get a nice suspension, and let it sit overnight at least 12 hours. The next day, replace the bottle cap with a square of cheesecloth held on with a rubber band or a twist tie. Invert the whole thing over a carafe or large jar, and poke a hole in the bottom of the bottle to facilitate draining.
You'll wind up with about 5 cups of cold-water coffee extract, which is enough to make at least a gallon of coffee, depending on how strong you like it.
What,your chemistry and geology labs don't have lots of backup containers of deionized water scattered about? Given that coffee is required before any sense can be made of lab data, the priority should be obvious. So maybe it doesn't make the best coffee -- this is an emergency!