Sunday, June 8, 2008

Back to Neutronworld

Sorry about the light posting lately - suffice it to say that life has gotten a bit exhausting. More on that later, but for example, the past three weekends have involved Rachel traveling to Atlanta for USAV nationals, Chad going to Portland for Railscon*, and then Rachel heading to Gaithersburg MD to shoot some neutrons and Chad heading to Boston.

At any rate, I'm back at NIST, and was informed when I arrived at the gate this morning that there is a bear on site.

A BEAR.

NIST is a totally fenced in, guarded, federal lab. Apparently one that is now inhabited by a bear. You know scientists, not satisfied with working in close proximity to a nuclear reactor, might like having a bear around for extra excitement.

I guess the story is that bear was in someone's back yard, and when animal control came after it it jumped the fence into NIST. Apparently the plan is to just wait for it to leave on its own accord. Which is fine with me (I don't think I'm in any bear danger as I walk the short distance from my car to the building), but funny. The gatehouse has a big "bear warning" sign up. Such silliness.

*Did you see the first picture on the railscon website? I guess there are places with a more narrow demographic than WPI. And I thought physics conferences were bad!