Monthly Archives: November 2012

November 19, 2012
9:38 pm
by: thedarkhorse

THANXMAS

For a couple of years now I have been jokingly referring to this time of the year – specifically the time between the end of Halloween to roughly December, or instead lets just go with Christmas day – as Thanxmas. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in p, PFP12F

November 19, 2012
1:48 pm
by: weirdingwords

On Trusting Politicians

A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting/meet-and-greet in the Graduate Life Center with the Swiss Ambassador to the US, Manuel Sager. In the meeting, the ambassador discussed the frequent elections held in Switzerland—four per year!—to decide on a number … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in PFP12F

November 15, 2012
7:04 pm
by: katevance

wasting time

I think that it’s really interesting how people really look for so much purpose in everything that they participate in. I understand, our time is valuable, we’re grad students, the university (and our advisors) kind of owns us until we … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in PFP12F

November 13, 2012
5:30 pm
by: Dan VB

Big Dig Video Link

For anyone interested, here is a link where the recording of the Big Dig talk from my latest blog can be downloaded.  It will download as an executable file to watch.  Of particular interest to our discussion of the interaction … Continue reading → Continue reading →

November 12, 2012
10:10 pm
by: thedarkhorse

Millennial Me

According to the following survey at: http://pewresearch.org/millennials/quiz/ I scored a 90, making me a de facto millennial (I’m so excited!) Not that this is surprising. Frankly, I have always been fascinated by the notion of the millennials, the generation that, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in PFP12F

November 10, 2012
3:01 am
by: anamitrapal

How comfortable are you with your own voice??!

The genesis for this blog post comes from an interesting experience that I had last week. One of my professors had asked me and a colleague of mine to prepare videos on the usage of two power system software simulators … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in PFP12F

November 10, 2012
1:47 am
by: anamitrapal

Power of Expression

Whether it is in my home country (India) or in the US, one thought that has often occurred to me when it comes to teaching has been the “power of expression” of the teacher. It plays such an important role … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in PFP12F

November 9, 2012
3:35 pm
by: Dan VB

Engineers in Politics

Mark’s latest post Spock for President 2016 got me thinking about engineers in politics.  Commenting on his post, I ran across a blog entitled, The Little Blue Engineer by John Bachner, the executive director of the American Society of Foundation Engineers … Continue reading → Continue reading →

November 9, 2012
1:26 am
by: Dan VB

Street Science at the Big Dig

A couple of weeks ago, the geotechnical program was privileged to have Dr. John Christian speak at Virginia Tech on the subject of Boston’s infamous “Big Dig” project.  Dr. Christian is a geotechnical consultant and former MIT professor who has spent … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Big Dig, street science

November 8, 2012
10:11 pm
by: sreyoshi

Deepawali- A hokie’s take on the Indian festival of lights

Diwali or more correctly Deepawali literally means ‘row of lamps’  and one has to witness it to understand that the most lingering image of diwali is the magnificent array of  lights that lines up the streets. Each and every Hindu household cleans their respective premises and decorate it with flowers and colorful ‘Rangolis’ during the days and […] Continue reading →

Posted in Musings