Tomorrow (2/11), I'm off to Chicago. This will be my second year as the logistics head of the Schooner contingent. I've dotted every "i" and crossed every "t" I could find. We'll see what happens when we get there. It's usually madness, though in a contained sort of way.
In the world outside the hothouse of academic writing, it looks like we're in for an interesting struggle between nineteenth century technology and the twenty-first century. Certainly, we're having to consider coal v. alternatives, but I'm also thinking about "shovel ready" projects that simply patch up power grids, transportation infrastructure, and water systems that instead need to be overhauled. So while I'm very interested--thrilled and stunned, actually--in the green jobs and technology the new administration is putting in place, I'm concerned that the money might go to prop up the status quo for another generation instead of doing the difficult work that needs to be done.
Last random blog-jump: Since I've turned in the big drafts of the comps, I've been turning to research on place. Nebraska: It used to be an ocean. I learned yesterday, for example, that the watershed we're part of (Platte River and, more locally, Salt Creek) is shallow and complex. Something like eleven creeks drain 1000 square miles of land right around here. Lincoln, in the middle of this complex, has experienced one hundred floods in one hundred years, thirty-odd of them major. And, in fact, we have posted flood warnings today. We had some heavy downpours yesterday that washed ice into jams at bridges and culverts. So keep your galoshes handy.
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