DC

DC was great! I got back last Thursday, and I had a wonderful time while I was there. I traveled with my office mate, Ulku, for an IS conference that was being held there. Jay flew up from Charleston and met me.

The first 3 days Ulku was busy attending a conference and Jay and I explored DC. Our hotel was about a 7 minute walk to Union Station, so we spent alot of our time there. The architecture in the builiding was really beautiful. In fact, all the builidings in DC were quite pretty.

Friday night, Jay and I checked out a Tapas bar called La Tascas in chinatown...yes we ate spanish food in china town. We tried a white sangria which was very good and caught up on the usual topics. Afterwords, we had a few drinks in the Hotel bar with Les, our bartender.

On Saturday, Jay and I set out to explore DC. We seemed to do alot of eating and drinking. We went to an awesome Turkish, Greek, Lebonese fusion restaraunt called Zatinya (and came back 2 more times). Then we took a fishy tour around DC. The guy picked us up on a corner in a van...it was kind of freaky at first, but then some more tourists joined us and we felt better. We saw the WW II memorial, Jefferson's Memorial, Washington Monument, and then Arlington Cemetery. The tour guy was 20 minutes past due, so Jay and I opted out of the rest of the tour and took a cab back to our Hotel. Again, we visit Les.

That night we headed out to Georgetown, which is an awesome part of DC. The streets are beautiful and the builidings very quaint. We went to a restaraunt called Manhattans ( I think). When we walked in everyone turned around and stared at us. It was really weird. Anyways, I got a chance to try the Maryland Jumbo-Lump Crab Cakes....FABULOUS! We had some wine and then went to a bar for a little night life. The guys in DC are all REALLY tall, I don't think I saw a guy in the bar that was less than 6'1". Plus, there are about 3 guys to each girl...maybe it is evolutionary better to be tall when the pickings are slim. I don't know, but we had a good time observing. We head back to the hotel and exchange our courtesies with Les, before retiring.

Sunday was Jay's last day in town. And honestly, we didn't do too much. We had brunch at a restaraunt at Union Station and returned to Zatinya's for a late lunch with Ulku before we headed back to the Hotel so Jay could get packed.

Monday-Thursday of DC....coming soon.

Deb " leaving you in suspense" Manica

Has Hell Frozen Over?

Hey Guys -
This provided a much needed laugh while I was finishing my final (due tomorrow).

Deb "profoundly amused" Manica

The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course,why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbsheat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas coolswhen it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need toknow the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they areleaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, itwill not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religionsthat exist in the world today. Most of these religions state if you are not amember of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one ofthese religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we canproject that all souls go to Hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls inHell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volumein Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature andpressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expandproportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over. So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you, and take into accountthe fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over.

The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct...leaving only Heaven thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A"