Office Furtniture

When I first arrived in my new office in the Cahill Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics at Caltech I received a nice little pot of money to furnish and decorate. Among other things, I got some Humanscale office chairs and a Biomorph sit/stand desk, which are great.

This all comes to mind because I recently gave some ergonomics advice to a friend of mine. I also get a lot of comments about my stand-up desk. Admittedly I only stand about 20% of the time, but the kids, they love the stand-up configuration and motorized action. However, looking back, perhaps I should have instead opted for one of these:

Then again, it probably wouldn't be optimal for working after a big lunch at the Ath.

For maximum comfort/excitement while writing code or working on proposals, this option is the only way to go:

Then again, this setup might not work after a heavy lunch either, but for different reasons...

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A view from your shut down

The Daily Dish has been posting reader emails reporting on their " view from the shutdown ." If you think this doesn't affect you, or if you know all too well how bad this is, take a look at the growing collection of poignant stories. No one is in this alone except for the nutjobs in the House. I decided to email Andrew with my own view. I plan to send a similar letter to my congressperson. Dear Andrew, I am a professor of astronomy at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). The CfA houses one of the largest, if not the largest collection of PhD astronomers in the United States, with over 300 professional astronomers and roughly 100 doctoral and predoctoral students on a small campus a few blocks west of Harvard Yard. Under the umbrella of the CfA are about 20 Harvard astronomy professors, and 50 tenure-track Smithsonian researchers. A large fraction of the latter are civil servants currently on furlough and unable to come to work. In total, 147 FTEs

The Long Con

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back-talk begins

me: "owen, come here. it's time to get a new diaper" him, sprinting down the hall with no pants on: "forget about it!" he's quoting benny the rabbit, a short-lived sesame street character who happens to be in his favorite "count with me" video. i'm turning my head, trying not to let him see me laugh, because his use and tone with the phrase are so spot-on.

Mahalo.ne.Trash

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