Apologies

No, I'm sorry to say I didn't complete your website update, your tri-fold brochure, the finishing work for that model that needs to go in the mail ASAP, my taxes, or any of the other 18 deliverables on my punch list.

I did, however build a desktop laser interferometer today with a bunch of high school kids.  Pretty cool - it totally worked, although you can't actually see the dark lines in the diffraction pattern on the paper in the photo.  We also built some bridges from straws and tape - about as fun as it  can get without lasers.

Lenses and mirrors and lasers, oh my!

"Nobody said the span needed to be >1 inch."

The bridge session kids didn't realize it until the end of the session that the whole purpose of the exercise was to follow rules but look for loopholes and ask for information that they needed.  Their first task was to line up along one wall in order of sequential birth month and date without anybody speaking. A lot of mad hand gesturing happened before they realized they weren't prohibited from writing on the whiteboard behind them.

And thus concludes another STEM-con. (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math!) Back to my regularly scheduled to-do list.