![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.mmb.usyd.edu.au\/about_the_school\/images\/school_building-300x235.jpg\")
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\nLast year sometime, the University of Sydney (the SU<\/span>“stainable Campus”:http:\/\/www.facilities.usyd.edu.au\/projects\/environ\/about.shtml ) in its asymptotic wisdom started a project to completely destroy the not unpleasant (and positively Elysian compared with the building itself, above) grounds outside my lab. This is, we are told, a necessary prerequisite to the completion of Sydney’s new $65 million0<\/a><\/sup> Space Centre<\/a> .<\/p>\n \nThese things take some time, I’ll give you, but for the last six months the view from my tiny office window (if I could actually see through the grime) has been not unlike this:<\/p>\n \n \nMy regular readers (both of you) might remember on Monday \nOn Tuesday they were working, if you happened to use them between about 10:37 and 11:03, but today they were out of order again. This prompted one of our workshop staff to write to the departmental email list,<\/p>\n \nThe University sees fit to spend millions1<\/a><\/sup> on unnecessary landscaping right in front of our building, but seems unwilling to pay for reliable lifts. That is, probably, new ones.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nWhy do we have to put up with this misguided priority?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nI wondered for a moment if someone would propose a strike (what would be the point<\/a> ?), but a prof upstairs chimed in with<\/p>\n \nWhat’s wrong with you man! Keeping up appearances to attract all those juicy full-fee paying International students is a very high priority. Always look on the bright side…they pay our salaries, besides, walking up and down seven floors each day keeps us all fit!\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nDon’t you just love optimists? That was followed up by a comment from an AP (on one of the lower floors) saying<\/p>\n \nAs I sit here revising my manuscript (_The effects of age, birth cohort and survey period on leisure time physical activity by Australian adults: 1990-2005_2<\/a><\/sup> ) I thought you would like to know you can expend 250kJ (that is per day if you go up and down them 3 times) – that lets you have a wine at the end of the day guilt free.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n(I never feel guilty about drinking wine, by the way: at least, not if you’re offering. Thanks very much. In fact, my dad was told to drink more wine to help him lose weight. Seriously).<\/p>\n \nAn hour later, we got an email saying that the lifts were working, followed within minutes by another saying that number two had stopped. Precisely sixteen minutes after that another email informed us that lift number one had gone out in sympathy.<\/p>\n \nThe Assistant Head subsequently issued a decree,<\/p>\n \nFor your own safety (especially after hours) do NOT use the lifts. They are not WORKING just moving up and down occasionally.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \nIt all got a bit silly after that, with the currently hypothesis being that zombies are nesting in Level One (the floors are number 2<\/strong> through 8<\/strong>, with 2<\/strong> being the ground floor. Yes. I don’t like to think about it either) and trapping unsuspecting \u00b5students so that they (the zombies) can feast on their (the students’) living brains (step away<\/em> from the keyboard, Gee. And you, O’Hara).<\/p>\n \nAll in all, I’m rather glad I was sat at home analysing microarray data. It might not be as exciting, but it suddenly seems a whole lot safer<\/em>.<\/p>\n 0<\/sup> PDF<\/a> (6.4 MB)<\/p>\n 1<\/sup> I seem to recall that it was about $8 million. I wouldn’t worry about converting to \u00a3sd; once you start talking ‘millions’ the actual currency is almost irrelevant (except for Lira or Yen, I suppose). <\/p>\n 2<\/sup> A catchy little tune, that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stalag Luft III Last year sometime, the University of Sydney (the SU“stainable Campus”:http:\/\/www.facilities.usyd.edu.au\/projects\/environ\/about.shtml ) in its asymptotic wisdom started a project to completely destroy the not unpleasant (and positively Elysian compared with the building itself, above) grounds outside my lab. … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/nature\/journal\/v442\/n7098\/images\/442018a-i1.0.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNevada nuclear test site<\/h5>\n
it was my birthday<\/del> I wrote that the two lifts in our building had broken<\/a> . Again. <\/p>\n