After a weeklong trip in the North

Purpose: to recap the last week
Hypothesis: it can be done but either I'll a) never leave or b) do a quick job
Materials: computer, internet connection, keyboard, journal, memory, camera
Procedure: recall events of the past week
Data:

Wednesday, June 28
--
We listened to the presentations of the 10 grad students for whom the 30 of us will be working this summer. I ranked my choices and cam out with my first; David Eisenberg (see previous about about his former job, teaching chem on EIE) is working to make nanorods line up in a predicted way in order to create miniscule circuits from the "bottom-up" instead of from the "top down". He wasn't here today [the present today, July 6] so we were doing some more background research.

On this day [time is confusing--I mean the 28th now] we played around with liquid nitrogen and made instant ice cream out of chocolate-flavored cream. We also did some lab playing-around, consisting of melting long pipets and blowing glass into fun little bubbly shapes. I'll keep the real things until they break in transit, but I do have photos.

Off to the Kennedy memorial thing here, which precipitated my not-so-unexpected, "[deleted], there are so many dead Kennedys!" As to the question of why there is a Kennedy memorial in Israel? Well, obviously: after the Mossad killed him, they brought him back here to be buried. We then did a nice BBQ to which I invited Rafi, who couldn't come because he was busy beating Tel Aviv in the championship game. Food overlooking seven nearly-collinear mosques in...some part of Israel near Jerusalem. Then a quick campfire and a story told by Yigal about one of his army buddies. Yigal, by the way, is Yigal Zamir--יגאל זמיר. Change that first syllable a little bit...but he says no one ever really joked with him about his name.

Thursday, June 29
--
Some intro physics labs including a really pointless (it seems) but fun-to-watch experiment. Imagine a meter-long flute with small holes every centimeter or so. The tube is attached to a gas tank so there are a hundred little flames when the gas is turned on and the match struck. Now imagine a speaker placed at the opposite end of the tube. Sound = pressure wave, so pressure in the tube varies according to the pitch. More gas? More flame. Less? Less. Sinuous.

Glossing past the box of rugelach left in the middle of the hallway so that someone would eat the pastries and the continuance of ripe apricots and unripe plums, the rest of the day was spent packing for the trip up through the North. Between packing in the afternoon and packing at night, though, was Michael Oren's speech. Twice in two foreign cities, and from what I recall, the speech wasn't the same as the one he gave at Brandeis in April. This time he went for the "3000 years of Jewish history in 30 minutes" (he was 28 seconds under). Defines Zionism as "responsibility", stating that maybe when Jordan, Syria, (the Palestinians?) take responsibility for their actions they will turn into viable countries. As for Walt/Mearsheimer: "Only a nincompoop would publish something like that." If you need to get him a present by some chance, get him some Israeli rock music.