Boulder and the rest of the Earth

I've been having a really interesting week and have learned so many things I'd like to share with anyone reading this blog.

I watched Food, Inc at a meeting of the CU Going Local club and for my Nutrition, Health, and Performance class. I thought it was a really well-made documentary about the food industry and really has me thinking about the food I and others around me choose to consume. I recommend it if you haven't seen it.

I started reading David Halberstam's The Fifties, a really comprehensive book about the entire decade, for my Film of the 40s and 50s class. The book covers so much ground - in just the few chapters I read so far, I learned about Levittowns, GM, Eisenhower, McCarthyism, The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, and on and on.

And then today, in my Astronomy lab, I took measurements which allowed me to calculate the circumference of the Earth - all without traveling past Baseline (a road on the edge of campus). I learned that Baseline used to run directly along the 40th Parallel (Boulder's latitude), something I didn't know, even though I've lived in Boulder for so long. I say used to because it has since been reconstructed to curve a bit away from that line, but parts of it are still exact. It's confusing to get into all the details of our lab experiment, but if you Google Eratosthenes Challenge, you'll get a good sense of what we were doing.

Pretty cool! It still amazes me the kind of ground we cover in all my classes week by week. Having a class last only 15 or 16 weeks is so different from having full-year courses like in high school. And learning about things like astronomy, history, health, film - all at a college level? Well, that's why I'm here!

If you're a student (or even if you're not), what's something you learned about this week that really struck you as interesting? I'd love to hear in the comments!

It's almost Friday. The Boulder International Film Festival is happening here this weekend. I plan to at least go to one of the short film events, which I really enjoyed last year. I encourage you to check it out if you're at all interested in film, particularly the independent or international type.

Cheers! :)