Fun With Physics or: The Racist Post

Today was my first day of work at the NOvA project. For those of you who don't know what that is, the short story is that it's a particle physics research project (my buddy Dan gives a brief explanation to the Daily). As a student worker, my job is basically to help manufacture neutrino detector modules. As far as first days on jobs goes it was pretty good. It kicked off with our eccentric yet no-bullshit boss talking to the day's group for 45 minutes. I spent the rest of my shift learning how to string and thread fiber optics through plastic cells. I think I'm going to like this work experience. I get to set my own hours, and though great care and quality control must be maintained, it probably won't ever really be that hard. The students I will be working with seem to be a pretty good cross-section of engineering and physics students at the U (that is, a bunch of geeky white dudes with a token chick and an Asian or two) and everyone seems nice enough so far.

If you've ever talked to me about classes this semester, you probably know that I have a physics prof. who I describe as being almost too Asian. Don't get me wrong, his knowledge of physics is probably off the charts and his written English grammar is usually almost perfect, but his accent is heavier than my Buick and culturally he is all Asian. So in today's lecture, in a flash of cultural misunderstanding, in order to emphasize a point, he somehow ended up flipping the whole class the bird for about 15 seconds. Other brilliant moments this man is responsible for include an unaware "double rainbow" reference and the quote "the right hand can be very handy."

Keeping the racism flowing, here's a sketch from Dutch West Comedy that will leave a guilty grin on your face.

Also, there will be a "Magic Negro" (David Ehrenstein's words, not mine) sighting this weekend at the U as our president comes to rally support for Mark Dayton's gubernatorial bid which I might as well check out.

Today I learned exactly why the sky is blue and stoplights are red.

It's the little things that get you through the day.