okay, so camera phones can be occasionally useful...

...such as when you decide your friends need to get a sneak preview of the interior of the new science building. Let us off on a virtual tour of some of the oddities and wonders I came across when we decided it was time to get out of the pouring rain and have some fun.

But first! When we were locking down Thompson, we came across a rather shocking sight. Bossman Prime opened a door to our largest two-story lecture hall, pauses, and goes "Oh my fucking God." (only slightly less amusing than when Partnerman shrieked "CHRIST ON A CRUTCH!" when all five lines of our phone were ringing at him.)

I amble over. "Did they tear shit up?"
"That is a bit of an understatement."

So I enter the room. Behold.


Let's get a replay of that for the fans, shall we?

It was like the construction crew got royally pissed and started flinging the chairs at the lab bench in a rage. (Clearly I have missed my calling.) That pile is as tall as I am, dearies.

Next Bossman Prime figured out why it has been taking so long to get things moved. Apparently the crew is working with a dolly that was formed piecemeal from a seventeenth-century HANDPLOW.


Coincidence? I THINK NOT.


Nice corn pipe, by the way.

Moving on. Next I discovered why some of the biology students chose the major they did:

I honestly believe that the person responsible for that little gem would be escorted out at gunpoint if he ever stepped foot into a Humanities course.

Then we moved on into the new science building, and I started peeking around in all the labs. It's incredible. There's enough lab space in there to have a dedicated and customized lab room for each course. Even the more obscure ones, like Geochemistry. The Animal Phys lab has overhead lamps on tracks that can be moved and directed to provide ultrabright light wherever you need it on the lab bench, which I'm sure will make dissection less difficult on the eyes. Here's a shot of a basic chem lab:

It's got lovely new benches, and look at all that floorspace. We have room to move now! The ringstand poles are built-in, and the new hoods (see back) are LOVELY. I can fit in them. >> There's a ton of shelving for storage, and I believe a dedicated area for everyone to toss their backpacks.

In the human anatomy lab, we came across a lot of hanging models. There's a pun here, but I shall refrain (OR DID I?).

That's Partnerman and Bossman Extreme, by the way.

Here is the spiral staircase that resides in the main entrance of Harned hall. It's, erm...a suspension staircase, and it gives me terrible vertigo.

That disc at the bottom is where the three-story pendulum will be centered. It's so large it takes 16 seconds to do a full "tick."

Hanging in the atrium from the roof is our whale skeleton. My chem lab partner actually hung that himself. How, I wonder to this day, but there it is. You can see the cables for the staircase, too.


In closing, I should like to leave you with two pictures that cause me to question the sanity of every member of the Biology Department.

The label says "200 Proof EtOh- For gun." And it's sitting next to a scanning electron microscope image of a spider's anus and spinnarets.


Those doors are made of wood. Behind it is a two-gallon jug of every common alcohol used in Organic Chemistry.

And there we have it.