In a message dated 8/17/99 6:46:34 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> who is sort of curious about what a semester or two in Prairie View

On visiting Brookhaven Lab for an open house, right after they were compelled
to answer about reactor groundwater contamination, they demonstrated their
system of computer teleconferencing by placing us, the curious primitive
locals, in two rooms and telling us that we were to pretend one group was in
Austin, TX and the other on Long Island. The hard part, at Brookhaven where
*pure* science prevails, appears to be pretending you are on LI. The
scientist/engineers have very little idea how to carry on a lively public
relations campaign. They talked to each other from room to room, as if they
had been practicing for months, while the rest of us sat there and gawked at
our relatives that we all knew we had just left behind a few minutes
previous. Imagination seems to be an acquired trait on LI. Finally I asked if
the beer was cold in Austin. This did not go over with the scientists who
remonstrated that the technology be used for important work by quickly
staging a mock-discussion on genetics. Us local yokel visitors, more
interested in the biology of yeast, headed for the exits.

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