Public Service Announcements

#1) Today gyades will be defending his doctoral dissertation -- the second to last step before he receives his Ph.D. He and I have been friends since just after he began grad school at Stony Brook, one year after me, so I am proud to have seen him all the way through what I know to be a long and challenging process! Since it was not feasible for me to fly back to the States, I will be attending remotely, via video conference link from Oxford.

#2) To anyone with an interest in coin collecting: The Royal Mint is producing a special crown coin this year, in honour of the Queen's 80th birthday. The crown was first introduced in 1526, by Henry VIII, and was worth five shillings, or 1/4 of a pound (60 pence back then, 25 pence today). The crown stayed at this value for over four hundred years, then vanished when the UK currency was decimalized on Feb 15 1971. However, a new crown was re-introduced in 1990. It was felt that 25p was too small a value for a coin with such a big name, so the new crowns now have a face value of £5. Although they are legal tender, they are not in common use and, as yet, I have not seen one. In any case, the Royal Mint is selling the new crown via mail order, with no hidden charges: Five pounds buys you a £5 coin. I am thinking of buying a few, then spending all but one for me and one for anybody else who wants one. I have at least one other request in so far. I am willing to pick up and hold a crown coin for anyone who wants one and is willing to pay me for it when I get back to the states. Comment or send e-mail if interested.

#3) As a bit of random trivia, according to The Global / World Cost of Living Survey for 2006, Tokyo has been displaced by Moscow as the city with the highest cost of living in the world. Number two is Seoul, followed by the previous leader, Tokyo, at number three. Hong Kong is the fourth most expensive city in the world to live in and London has dropped two places to number five. So far, I have visited three of the top five cities. Although New York City is the most expensive city to live in in North America, it ranks at only number ten on a global scale.

#5) What happened to number four???

#6) cheshcat and half of our kitties now have airline reservations for two weeks from today. Needless to say, I am quite excited about this, as I have felt the absence of both cheshcat and the cats here in England.

#7) Wrestling with another cooldown of the K-400 cryostat today, with just me and the youngest grad student here tackling it. As the two newest members of the group, it will be quite a feather in our cap if we can reach the base temperature of 5mK (0.005 degrees above absolute zero). Wish us luck!!!

Public Service Announcements

#1) Today gyades will be defending his doctoral dissertation -- the second to last step before he receives his Ph.D. He and I have been friends since just after he began grad school at Stony Brook, one year after me, so I am proud to have seen him all the way through what I know to be a long and challenging process! Since it was not feasible for me to fly back to the States, I will be attending remotely, via video conference link from Oxford.

#2) To anyone with an interest in coin collecting: The Royal Mint is producing a special crown coin this year, in honour of the Queen's 80th birthday. The crown was first introduced in 1526, by Henry VIII, and was worth five shillings, or 1/4 of a pound (60 pence back then, 25 pence today). The crown stayed at this value for over four hundred years, then vanished when the UK currency was decimalized on Feb 15 1971. However, a new crown was re-introduced in 1990. It was felt that 25p was too small a value for a coin with such a big name, so the new crowns now have a face value of £5. Although they are legal tender, they are not in common use and, as yet, I have not seen one. In any case, the Royal Mint is selling the new crown via mail order, with no hidden charges: Five pounds buys you a £5 coin. I am thinking of buying a few, then spending all but one for me and one for anybody else who wants one. I have at least one other request in so far. I am willing to pick up and hold a crown coin for anyone who wants one and is willing to pay me for it when I get back to the states. Comment or send e-mail if interested.

#3) As a bit of random trivia, according to The Global / World Cost of Living Survey for 2006, Tokyo has been displaced by Moscow as the city with the highest cost of living in the world. Number two is Seoul, followed by the previous leader, Tokyo, at number three. Hong Kong is the fourth most expensive city in the world to live in and London has dropped two places to number five. So far, I have visited three of the top five cities. Although New York City is the most expensive city to live in in North America, it ranks at only number ten on a global scale.

#5) What happened to number four???

#6) cheshcat and half of our kitties now have airline reservations for two weeks from today. Needless to say, I am quite excited about this, as I have felt the absence of both cheshcat and the cats here in England.

#7) Wrestling with another cooldown of the K-400 cryostat today, with just me and the youngest grad student here tackling it. As the two newest members of the group, it will be quite a feather in our cap if we can reach the base temperature of 5mK (0.005 degrees above absolute zero). Wish us luck!!!