This is fourth week of the spring 2015 semester.
ALERTS:
· The Tornado Forecasting Series with Rich Thompson begins this Tuesday, February 3rd, at 7:30 PM, in the National Weather Center, Room 1313. Check out the attached flyer for all the details.
· The first Association of Geography Graduate Students (AGGS) meeting of the semester will be held at 5:30 PM this Wednesday, February 4th in Sarkeys Energy Center, Room 442. All Geography and Environmental Sustainability graduate students are welcome.
· You can now view (but not yet enroll in )Fall 2015 courses on Ozone, so you can start to fill your course shopping cart.
· We came across this article on creating new problem solving techniques we thought you might find interesting: http://lifehacker.com/mental-models-solve-problems-by-approaching-them-from-1682835620
· There will be no Walk-In Hours today (2/2).
· The Countdown Continues: Just 83 days until the gala opening of the 2015 NWC Biennale.
Volunteers needed for Majors Minors Fair
The College of A&GS is seeking student volunteers to help with the annual Majors-Minors Fair, which takes place next Wednesday, February 11th, in the Oklahoma Memorial Ballroom from 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM. You wouldn’t need to stay the entire time; even 30 minutes of enthusiastic assistance would be greatly appreciated. This event targets OU students who have not yet decided on a major, and also students searching for a minor. The theme this year is “Find Your Leading Role,” so we’re going with a movie theme we hope will attract many students to our booth to find out the wonders of A&GS. If you’re interested in joining the merriment, please contact events planner Mona Springfield at .
Also – please note that the presentation “Finding a job with Any Major” takes place on Monday, February 9th from 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM in Meacham Auditorium.
GIS Majors, take note:
For the first time ever, the Price College of Business is offering a study abroad trip to Rome, Italy. The trip is geared toward students majoring in Management Information Systems (MIS), but will also be of interest to GIS majors.
Students can enroll in any of the following courses:
• ENT 4323 International Entrepreneurship
• MIS/ACCT 3353 Databases/Acct. Info. Systems
• MIS 3013 Computer Programming (carries major credit for GIS)
From May 18th to May 22nd, students meet in Norman; from May 26th to June 12th the class meets in Rome. The cost of the trip is $3200, but there are scholarships available. The deadline to apply is Friday, February 27th. You can apply online at price.ou.edu or at studyabroad.ou.edu.
Dr. Anne Kelly Knowles
Presidential Dream Course Speaker this Thursday
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Anne Kelly Knowles for her talk as part of the “Adventures in Digital Humanities” Presidential Dream course. Dr. Knowles will give a talk entitled “Mapping the Holocaust” this Thursday, February 5th, 2015, in the Bizzell Library, Lower Level 118, in the Helmerich Collaborative Learning Center. Please see the attached flyer for all the details.
Anne Kelly Knowles has been at the forefront for nearly two decades in exploring how historical geography’s use of tools such as GIS expands interdisciplinary research in the spatial humanities. Her most recent work, as a lead researcher in an international team is Geographies of the Holocaust. She is the recipient of a Smithsonian Ingenuity Award for her pioneering application of cutting-edge technology to geography, changing our perspective on historic events from Gettysburg to the Holocaust, and the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize from the Association of American Geographers for her book Mastering Iron: The Struggle to Modernize an American Industry, 1800-1868.
This week’s seminar:
Burkely Twiest, doctoral degree candidate in the School of Meteorology will present Using the NSSL-WRF Ensemble to Provide Hazard Guidance On Friday, February 6th at 2:00 PM in the National Weather Center, Room 5600.
Dr. Cameron Homeyer
Research in Action
Dr. Cameron Homeyer, Assistant Professor in the School of Meteorology, was second author of a ground-breaking study in Geophysical Research Letters that showed large thunderstorms over the Great Plains transport significant amounts of ozone from the stratosphere to the troposphere, the lowest part of the atmosphere. The work was featured recently in UCAR’s AtmosNews as an important paper: http://www2.ucar.edu/atmosnews/just-published/13693/not-just-rain-thunderstorms-also-pour-down-ozone. The finding is significant as ozone is an important greenhouse gas as well as a pollutant that affects human health and the environment, yet climate models typically do not include transport associated with these thunderstorms.
Severe Storms and Doppler Radar Conference
The Central Iowa National Weather Association invites you to attend the 19th Annual Severe Storms and Doppler Radar Conference on March 26-28th, 2015. The conference takes place at the same location as last year, the Courtyard by Marriott in Ankeny, Iowa, which is about a 30-minute drive northward from the Des Moines International Airport.
If you wish to submit a talk/paper, the abstract submission deadline is Friday, February 20th. Please submit your abstract to Dr. William Gallus at .
If you are bringing your own laptop to participate in the Radar Warning Workshop, please go to http://www.iowa-nwa.com/conference/radar_wkshop.php for the Warngen installation instructions. Additional presentations will discuss the severe weather events of 2014. Back again are the Student Career Panel, Broadcaster Tape Swap, and the Interactive Radar Warning Workshop where you get to be the Warning Meteorologist. To register or find more information, go to www.iowa-nwa.com/registration.
NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER
BLOOD DRIVE
Wednesday, February 4th, 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM in the National Weather Center Atrium. For an appointment, contact Mona Springfield at
Happy Birthday, John Jeffries!
John Jeffries (1745-1819), is credited with being among America's first weather observers. He began taking daily weather measurements in 1774 in Boston, as well as taking weather observations in a balloon over London in 1784. National Weatherperson's Day is celebrated in his honor on February 5th, his birthday. Blue Bell Creameries, L.P. will be on hand to help us celebrate this Thursday, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM in the National Weather Center Atrium. Stop by for a tasty frozen treat and to wish John a happy 270th!
OCS adds a THIRD position
The Oklahoma Climatological Survey invites applications for the positions of:
· Student Assistant with the Climate and Data Services Group. This position is a part-time, 12-month appointment, subject to excellent completion of tasks by the student and availability of funds. For more info, visit jobs.ou.edu (requisition #21411) OR https://jobs.ou.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/position/JobDetails_css.jsp?postingId=324258
· Student Assistant with the Outreach Group. This position is a part-time, 12-month appointment, subject to excellent completion of tasks by the student and availability of funds. For more info, visit jobs.ou.edu(requisition #21319).
·
NEW Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP) student assistant. This is a part-time position. (requisition #21488)
ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR MM?
If you have any announcement you would like posted in Monday Memo (e.g., meetings, seminars, jobs, internships or just some great news) please send it to Asst. Dean Hempe () by Friday at noon to appear in the next week’s edition.
On this Day in History:
Edwin Land (1909-1991) was inspired
to invent the Polaroid camera when his
3-year-old daughter asked him why their
camera couldn’t also produce pictures.
In 1046, the weather turned especially cold throughout Europe. Monks noted in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that "no man alive...could remember so severe a winter." It is the first known record of the beginning of the 200-year period of exceptional cold, known as the "Little Ice Age."
In 1536, the Argentine capital city of Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain. In 1848, the Mexican-American War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, where the U.S. appears to have gotten the better end of the deal. Mexico had to turn over a whopping 525,000 square miles of land to the U.S., including California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming; they also gave up all claims to Texas. The U.S. paid Mexico only $15 million dollars for all that real estate (about $360 million today), plus agreed to settle all claims of U.S. citizens against Mexico.
In 1892, William Painter patented the bottle cap with a cork seal. This replaced the time-consuming cork and wire bale way of sealing bottles, and represented a major saving for bottlers. Painter’s cap was used until the 1970s, when cork in soft drink and beer bottle caps was considered unhealthy (but was still apparently all right to use for corks in wine bottles). To avoid the cork-lined caps, manufacturers switched to cans and plastic bottles.
In 1893, The Edison Studio in West Orange, New Jersey, made history when they filmed the first motion picture close-up. The studio was owned and operated by Thomas Edison. The film showed comedian Fred Ott sneezing.
In 1940, 24-year-old Frank Sinatra made his professional singing debut with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, in Indianapolis.
In 1947, Edwin H. Land gave the first demonstration of his invention of instant photography with his Polaroid ‘Land’ Camera at a meeting of the Optical Society of America. A sepia-colored photo took about one minute to produce. The exciting new camera went on sale at a Boston Department store the following year for $89.75 (about $882 today).
In 1954, snow fell in Gibraltar, a very rare occurrence in this Mediterranean territory where it seldom even rains.
In 1964, the toy company Hasbro introduced the first G.I. Joe and also the term “Action Figure,” to describe it (company execs correctly reasoned that boys would never play with something called a doll, hence the new term). G.I. Joe was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2003.
In 2008, Hilo, Hawaii, was deluged by 10.82” of rain over 24 hours, annihilating the previous 3.5” 24-hour record set in 1969.
And your parting shot:
We’ve been neglecting Human Geography, so we wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to the magnificent Ida Pieracci, who still enjoys a good game of golf at the age of 102! By the way, the divine Miss Ida holds the record for most holes in one (11) at the San Jose Country Club (her favorite course). Catch Ida in action (and find out her secret to a long life) here: http://twistedsifter.com/videos/meet-ida-pieracci-the-102-year-old-golfer/