DART needs to be sued

http://www.kcci.com/news/20298174/detail.html

It is difficult to believe that this type of thing still happens in this day and age. How can people get offended at the message of this ad? "Don't believe in God? You're not alone." I can understand why some people would believe the people who put up the ad were mistaken about the existence of God. But why would people get offended at the message that some people are atheists, or that the specific group of atheists that sponsored this ad are telling other people of like mind that they can join their group? Evidently in large enough numbers complained to get the ad pulled. Even better is this:

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2009/08/06/gov-culver-atheist-bus-ad-is-offensive/

The Governor of the state weighs in to say he is offended by the ad. In a country where freedom of religion is a core value, a governor using his position to say he is offended is extremely distasteful, although not illegal.

http://www.supplychaindigital.com/Des-Moines-Area-Regional-Transit-Authority--Forward-Motion-_26525.aspx

The important line of that article is "DART’s $22 million annual operating budget is funded by a blend of federal and state government funds, fares, transit advertising revenue and local property tax." As it receives government funding, their discrimination is illegal unless they do not allow ads by religious groups. I would find the latter to be highly unlikely.

I got a job!

Or, at least a job that doesn't involve teaching. I am a research assistant now, and will be writing code for a project at Fermilab that will involve smashing protons into hydrogen, deuterium, and heavy nuclear targets to make precise measurements on the anti-quark sea. This will be much more satisfying than teaching I think.

Lots of homework has kept me from doing anything really interesting. My Quantum 2 professor is awesome, but the homework is really hard. The homework in Particle Physics is getting a bit difficult as well, as the last batch of homework included a problem than no one in the entire class was capable of solving. It is stuff I need to know for the field I'm going into though, so it isn't that bad. And after this semester, I will be mostly done with classes. I need two more, which I will probably take at a rate of one per semester while working on research.

When the summer hits, I should have a little more free time. I'll be working full time, which will mean I'll have most weekends free. I will take advantage of this to visit my friends who I haven't seen in a while.

Update

I haven't posted in awhile, but I'm back now. Christmas break was fun, it was good to relax, but it was just too long. It is good to be back doing work stuff again. Unfortunately, my teaching load has been increased from 3 to 4 classes, giving me 100 students this semester. This probably won't seem like a lot to some people I know though. I teach from 8am to noon on Thursdays and Fridays. I don't like the 8am labs. Not only do I have to get up really early to be coherent by 8am, but my students in the 8am labs work more slowly than students at other times, and sometimes they don't complete the lab. I also got some student who asked me "do I have to show up for lab?" Lazy bum. I'm also tired of seeing my student's buttcracks. They really need to learn about belts.

I'm taking Quantum Mechanics 2 and Particle Physics 1. The latter I'm taking even though I'm missing a prerequisite. It's going to be a bit of work, but I really enjoy the topic so far. I think I'm going to try to get a research job in High Energy Physics.