Clogged, itchy, cold, slugs, and lab

==> Someone must have left the seat up. The International Space Station occupants are in trouble now. Their toilet isn’t working! Feel free to leave the obligatory potty jokes in the comments … you know you want to.

==> It started near the science lab. Students at East Lee County High School were feeling itchy and red eyed, but the cause is unknown. Even though the kids in the science lab and nearby classroom were the first to feel weird, searches for the source turned up empty. There is speculation that a prankster squirted pepper spray in the ventilation. If so, there are plenty of students who weren’t laughing.

As a precautionary measure both days, the students were taken to private areas of the schools and stripped and washed down to decontaminate any type of substance on their bodies. Then they were given Hazmat suits to wear on buses that took them to Cape Coral where doctors checked them over and released them to their parents. Their clothes were put in sealed plastic bags.

==> Here do you buy a parka in Florida? It must be hard preparing for a trip to the Arctic when you’re a science teacher in the Sunshine State. Elizabeth Eubanks will be working with research scientists studying climate change for a month starting in June. Look for regular updates from Eubanks here next month.

==> Pssssst … hey, buddy: You in the market for sea slugs? I know where I can get you all you need.

==> Budget slicing and dicing seems to be hurting everyone. But it’s stories like this that can really bring the issue home in a way that detailing various dollar figures and stats can’t.

The university [USF] is short on lab space, and the labs it has are aging.

Biology and chemistry labs, which enroll smaller classes, have long run at capacity from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. five days a week. That often delays students from getting all the courses they need for graduation, and many say they need to be flexible with their scheduling — or creative.

Every semester, geology major Boris Radosavljevic tries talking his way into at least one science class or lab that is full on the first day of school. Entry is possible only by monitoring who stays or who drops out.

“It’s really not up to us,” he said.

To graduate this summer, Radosavljevic, 26, had to enroll in a biology lab last spring at Hillsborough Community College. His only option at USF was full.

“I didn’t think I’d have to do that,” he said. “But there’s so many students going into life sciences.”

==> Now, take all the words in my post heading and create a sensationalized headline out of them. Such as: “Cold slugs itchy for lab work clogged sinks.” I’m sure you can do better, though. Leave your submissions in the comments.

==> MaryB left a great comment in the Paging Rep. Hays thread:

I think this Fall we should plan to email Rep Hays (and his staff who actually might read the stuff) “A Transitional Fossil a Day”. That could go on for quite a while!

Anyone want to start doing the homework on this? We can make it an official Florida Citizens for Science letter/e-mail/ phone call campaign at the appropriate time.