The Dog Days of August

While some 75+ wildfires are roaring out West -- Sasquan, the 73rd WorldCon just concluded in Spokane WA, was heavy with smoke some days, even could be smelled inside the convention center -- our weather here in West Michigan is just a wee mite different.

Last full week of August and the highs have been 69°F, 66°F, 60°F and 68°F so far today. Overnights the last two nights have been in the fifties. Gray, overcast days and rain.

The last two mornings one could have, in theory, moved the heat pump over from cooling to heating. I've been wearing my heavy black sweatshirt all week.

Ah, weather. Unpredictable in its infinite variations on a theme.

For the record, the global average temperature for July 2015 was the warmest in the database.

Interesting side note -- I saw a map of the smoke plumes from the fires out West and they almost make it to Illinois. Don't worry about global warming heat waves and drought, we'll just let it all burn and then block out the sun and create untold -illions of nucleation sites for rain to form. (snort)

Also, the BP refinery in Indiana is back up again, so everyone burn all the gasoline you want for Labor Day!

And the selling frenzy on Wall Street has cooled off a bit, too. The Dow closed at 16,285.51, up 619.07 (3.95%) today. Doesn't negate all of the slide from last week, but even so. Stay the course, good buddies...

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

This Happens Every Semester

Been updating my class websites the last two days, including the exciting new webpage on the FREE online Physics textbook we're adopting for PHYS-1070 from PHYS-1130/1150. It's not secret. Hell, I've included the URL in case any of y'all want to take a look at or download a nice introductory Physics textbook. On the campus WiFi last week, I was able to download the High Res PDF (102MB) onto my work Kindle Fire HD is about six seconds. Nice when the WiFi is the limiting speed and not the Internet connection. (grin)

With more and more online use, I once again tried to input additional information into the Course Description system. There are boxes for Class Webpage, Syllabus, Required Materials, etc. Textbook is handled by the bookstore, though -- and it leaves a blank for the Online textbook. And the Class Webpage line? I've put in URLs before, but I'm damned if I know where it displays that. Of course, I'm not a student, so I'm not entirely sure what display they get.

So I put all the information into Required Materials field, which does display.

Naturally it doesn't handle line breaks, so it stuffs three lines of information into one long line. It's 2015 guys, can't you handle a few basic editing tasks?

As for why we got an online FREE textbook -- from Rice University, no less -- I checked out what the bookstore said for the textbook for the University Physics II course for scientists and engineers:


They should all have the textbook already, if they've bought it. But $300? Geesh.

Another task I did today, as we're closing in on First Class Day, was to download the current class rosters. They'll change by the time we get to Week 1, but they should be 80% or more correct now. And then I looked at the Requests to Join on the closed Dr. Phil's New Physics Class on Facebook. Results were just about what I expected. 1 of the 10 new requests was registered. The other nine? They're from wherever -- mainly people who join all sorts of groups. One belonged to 1697 groups. They're trolls and scammers. Of course, I wasn't expecting anyone just yet -- you have to have found the class webpage first. And since that doesn't display on the course information page...

I could open up the Dr. Phil's New Physics Class on Facebook. Mostly what gets posted is reposts of stuff, to keep the site active. But we DO discuss problems and exam questions and other stuff, and it allows Messages from students, so I really don't want to open it up to the Wild West.

Lots of little details. All of which make for a semester start. I guess.

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal