Suicide Prevention

Suicide Fences
Originally uploaded by aimeedars
As a result of the Cornell suicides, these fences were put up along the Stewart Avenue bridge. They are ugly, and as George pointed out, it would be very easy to walk around them and get to the bars to jump. It seems more like public relations than safety, though I suppose the argument could be made that if someone had to take the time to walk around the barricade, it would give them time to reflect instead of jump impulsively into the gorge.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. ~Kahlil Gibran

Blooming Tree

Spring!
Originally uploaded by aimeedars
Campus is beautiful, and some classes are even meeting outside. I often have students ask if we can go outside, and I always say no. There are lots of good, legitimate reasons - the distractions, the loss of powerpoint and the chalkboard, the difficulty with writing space. But, the most pressing reason is that I don't like it when classes meet outside. Even when I was in college, I dreaded if people asked if we could go outside, and I hated it if the professor agreed. I didn't like the wet grass or the wind or the bugs.

Welcome!

Hamsters
Originally uploaded by aimeedars

We doubled the size of our rodent population today. A faculty member who does behavior research with dwarf hamsters was adopting out the adults, so George and I brought two home. (Otherwise, it was curtains for them.)

They are females and very active, and so far, pretty skittish. One is about a year old; the other was born in September 2009. They are hilarious! So far, the other hamster and the gerbil are completely unaware of their presence. (All of the rodents are in their own cages--we don't want any carnage here!)

Caught

I spent most of the night reading Caught by Harlan Coben. Graduate school impaired by mental abilities, and I seem to only be able to read fast-paced mysteries. I am very picky, though, and Harlan Coben is one of the few mystery writers I consistently enjoy (though he really needs to lose Win's catch phrase). The primary characters in Caught, set in the familiar terrain of New Jersey, rotated around some of the stalwarts from Coben's other novels. I have to admit I was a little skeptical: in the prologue a seemingly good guy is snared by a television news program as a predator trolling online chat rooms for young children. A larger theme is the conflict between intuition and data, especially in the internet age. I found this quite interesting especially since the plot of one of Coben's other recent books, Hold Tight, also relied on cell phones and the internet. The use - or more appropriately, misuse - of the information online also drove the plot of Michael Connelly's The Scarecrow. It is interesting to me how these books reflect our collective unease with access to our information online, yet reveal our reliance on it as well. Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, said privacy was no longer a social norm. Of course, he has a vested interest in debunking the norm of privacy, but we are complicit. After all, for example, I'm writing this on a public blog. These books seem to struggle with what happens when that norm is shattered.

IC Bombers Baseball

A number of my current and former students are on the baseball team, so George, Joe, and I took in a game on a lovely, sunny Saturday afternoon.











IC Bomber's Baseball