Anything could happen!

So, economy and global disasters aside...

Today, I got pinged by my liaison at NASA, who had not heard yet about how the grant turned out! This meant that I got to spend about an hour composing an email brag about all of the marvelous things that happened because of this $1 million earmark to the 'foolishness' of a planetarium (thanks so much, McC, for proving that you are anti-science AND anti-education in one simple sentence!). What fun! Not only did we create all the modules, and a survey of core standards, and all the other things we said we'd do, but we also started Science in the Parks, served approximately 34,000 people over two years, reached the at-risk, disadvantaged community, ran a conference, published papers, etc., etc. Not bad for $1 million.

Let's run a couple of numbers. $1 million divided by 34,000 is $29 per person. And that doesn't count the people who are being affected by the shows being shown in other planetaria! So far, we have shows currently being shown in seven other planetaria across the country, each of which conservatively sees about 4,000 people per year. So that's another 28,000 people. And that's just this year, and doesn't include last year, but never mind. So we're looking at something like $15 per person. It's even less, if you think of how people have benefited from our publications and so on, but those are really hard to count, so let's just keep it at $15. It's a nice, round, three latte number.

Out in the world, we have $700 billion to bail out investment banks. I'm not saying that's not a good idea, or even that it won't help more people in the end. I'm just saying that it's going to cost a lot more than $15/person. Even if it helped every single person on the planet, it would cost $108/person! But we always knew I was better than W. ; ) I know. I said economy aside. But I'm only human.

Also today, I got to write a letter of recommendation for a favorite student. I LOVE doing that. It always makes me feel like I'm actually a useful person, working for a wonderful, magical future, in which all my favorite students rule the world. Sigh. It's so pretty then. In the magical future. Ahhh...

And, I got to spend some time figuring out what to do for next year's Miller Education Project class, verified my housing arrangements for Socorro, put a 'roof' on the chicken coop, found that Xmas decorations are already up at Lowe's, complained to Lowe's management about it, picked up copies of the latest eco-mags with enviro-physics articles, listened to Science Friday, learned about the recent decrease in the solar wind pressure and the low sunspot numbers, and also the new companies starting up that do complete turnkey solar installations, got some more money for the planetarium, delegated several decisions that need to be made, and walked the dog. It's only 2 pm. I wonder what will happen next!