Thursday, February 13, 2014

Here's the post I decided to break my three-months' silence with:

Oh, Right. I have a blog.

So here's the e-mail I got from my chair this morning:

"I write to inquire if any of you have a need for a small grant (~ less than $400 or so) for either travel (must be complete by 5/15), equipment, or research requirements (ie, indexing, translation, student assistance)?"

I asked for an exorcist for my printer, which eats paper, but only when I'm rushing to print something out in the five minutes before class.

Two hours later, I receive the following e-mail from the College of Liberal Arts' research liason:

"The Chancellor’s Office has asked our University to complete a survey regarding the use of aircraft or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) by any of our research programs.  If you are using any type of aircraft or UAV in your research, please e-mail  B-- N--."

I'm pretty sure I need to put in another funding request with my chair. There has got to be a way I can incorporate an unmanned drone into my research, right?

6 comments:

Historiann said...

Perhaps for speedy document delivery? Or maybe you can deploy one with a digital camera to collect photographs of documents?

Welcome back!

And: yes, get your bid for the money in pronto.

Notorious Ph.D. said...

I also thought it would be handy for certain university-level committee meetings. I could just have it hover menacingly, slightly above and behind me. It would be triggered to fire a laser at anyone who tried to apply business school jargon to higher ed, or who read off a text-heavy powerpoint.

Also, to destroy my enemies.

The potential uses are manifold.


Comradde PhysioProffe said...

I had the same thought as Historiann: bring it to the archives and send it into the stacks to get shitte while you stay at your desk and keep transcribing.

Bardiac said...

Oh, I want one for meetings, too!

Belle said...

Meetings would be so much more fun; just lasers that would pinpoint the target and deliver a jolt. Destruction desirable but not vital. Destruction for the idiots on the road.

Susan said...

Welcome back! I'm sure you can find some use for $400, maybe to buy a plane ticket?

But the drones at meetings would be awesome.