That sounds interesting (minus the typos, of course—i had to say that, it’s my ace education at work). Is the idea just to learn how to apply these concepts to the bay to force students to think and learn, or do you think there might be some beneficial applications to the science folks if this works? Both are great reasons, I’m just curious.

In other news…

It must be a family thing. Grant pulled up today while we were all in the front room playing toys. He was able to stand up for a while (with Will helping him keep his balance by lightly touching his back). Later this evening while I was giving the boys a bath, he pooped in the tub. Will, the skunk, had just left the bathroom to “go clean up the dishes.” Uh-huh. Pull out the boys, toys, washclothes, etc. Pick up the poop. Clean the tub and toys. Put the boys back in for bath number two. At least, I figured, Grant wasn’t loaded any more. Nice end to the evening. At least everyone thought it was funny—especially Will who I swear cleaned the whole kitchen to avoid facing the bathroom.

Have Mom and Dad arrived safely? Did they bring Scarlet? It’s a shame they didn’t bring the truck—Scarlet would have looked nice sitting in the back. I guess her sitting in the back seat would have also been good.

Tomorrow Will and I get to go with Grant’s class to the zoo. Seeing as how Grant always licks his lips when the cats walk by, this should be interesting. If you recall on Austin’s first trip to the zoo in Jill’s class, he kept kissing the sheep.

Then that evening Will and I “get” to go to a faculty party, complete with slide show. Who comes up with this stuff? Collette has asked for work and family photos to put in a slide show. This should be interesting. At least I am reasonably sure that there will be plenty of beer around. His department does very little in a group setting that doesn’t involve beer.

At the moment I am completely befuddled over two of the students in my class. They are supposed to do a fundraiser for a non-profit in town. The plan is that they come up with some event to do as a fundraiser and then pitch the idea to the class in a formal speech on Monday. We will then vote and pick 3 or 4 of these projects to do. I have crammed all the textbook stuff into the first half of the semester and then they, working in groups, have all of November and a few weeks in December to do the project. For some reason two of these kids just really don’t get it. One first wanted to do a gala dinner (catered, of course) with a band, silent auction, and “other stuff.” I tried to explain to her that, like most non-profits, she would not have a budget to work with. She had to have everything donated. She said, “Oh,…so what bands are popular in town?” Her side kick wants to do a dog wash where people bring their dogs to a park and have them washed for donations. When I pointed out that it would be November at the earliest when the event would take place, she asked if there were any hotels that she could rent to do it in. A little while ago I got an email from the gala woman who has decided that a gala dinner might be too much work, so could she sell Krispy Kreme donuts in the student center instead? So, where do you go from there?

In regard to Lisa’s problem with the student, the student’s change from a gala event to selling donuts is known technically as an oscillation. Given sufficient damping, it will subside to some midpoint equilibrium position, the stronger the damping, the more quickly equilibrium will be attained. Chad mentioned that the flows he wants to study act as a damping force. The solution seems clear – throw her in the bay.

More directly to Chad’s proposal. I remember from the time that I had to learn something about weather modeling that there are a number of models available for calculating atmospheric flows – they are used, for example, to predict where the output of smoke stacks (or more sinister sources) will go. There are also rather complex models that have been developed to calculate fluid (liquid) flows as well. Many of them require very fast computers to get results in one’s lifetime, but I suspect that simpler, more crude models exist as well. The point is that rather than trying to model the effects in the bay from scratch, a comprehensive search for existing models would probably be worthwhile. Many are government owned and would possibly be available to an educational institution. Of course, many are also proprietary and some smoozing would be required to obtain them. All in all, the project seems to be an excellent choice. As mentioned, almost any level of complexity could be attempted. In fact, I suspect that very useful results could be obtained from very simple models. Plenty of opportunities for undergraduates to do something that would be intellectually challenging and useful – might be a good idea for them to learn that the two are not necessarily exclusive. If these studies have not already been made, they should have been. Even if they have been, there are bound to be lingering questions that could be investigated. By the way, one benefit of a project of this kind is for the student to learn how to build on work already done by other people. It is not always easy to pick up where someone else left off especially since many of the dead ends they pursued are not reported. It has long seemed to me that reporting what doesn’t work can be almost as useful as what does. At any rate, I hope the proposal is funded and that you (Chad) would have the option of participating in it.