There are many tools for communicating new ideas, including candy. Boxes upon boxes of candy intended for consumption in other countries, apparently.
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Tag: curiosity
Desk Toys
Ah, physics. Where we have an eclectic assortment of desk toys and mostly-useless gimmicky trinkets because their very nature, the quirks of physics they embody, are helpful explainers of scientific principles.
And while their appeal is typically short-lived – how many times before the levitating magnet loses its novelty? – that ooh! factor only needs to work the first time.
FAILED
Look, it’s old, doesn’t work, and isn’t worth the cost and effort to repair. We’re assuming, of course, unsure who deposited it in the loading dock, and curious where it – or its constituent parts – is headed next.
At least it’s amusing?
Keys
Another coffee can, this one half-filled with old keys, most unlabeled, almost certainly all of them to locks long gone. Not like “bucket of keys” is a prime organizational strategy, so one supposes these can be used for some exciting new arts and crafts project?
Apparently, at some indeterminate point in time, the second floor held cabinets with a breathing apparatus inside. Respirators? SCBA systems like firefighters use? SCUBA systems like divers use? Pretty confident that those’re long gone.
This one has become disconnected from its key, so your guess is as good as ours. What useful information could that possibly offer? Like, even if we knew which key it identified?
Can of Screws
It’s an old coffee can full of tiny screws. The ones on top appear to be #3-56 (fine thread) in stainless steel, though the variety beneath is diverse. All in all, weighing in at approximately 3,063g. Individual screws weigh in – from a coarse sample – between 0.11g and 0.67g each.
Not going to throw them out, but just as unlikely to know when they might ever be put to use. Or how, precisely, we’d expect to find the necessary screws buried in such a mass.
Just, please, don’t drop it on the floor.
Welcome Back!
Everyone’s coming back to campus, and isn’t that exciting?
Clock
Sometimes you find oddities whose initial and continued existence boggles the mind. This clock was gathering dust atop the bookcases in the student lounge, battery-free and long-forgotten.
Where did it come from? What life did it live before it came to Olin? Who thought enough of it to acquire, but not enough to take with them?
What should we do with it now?
Cicadas
While exploring a potential site for measurement equipment, it’s important to keep an eye on the local wildlife. After a long time underground, those big red eyes are just taking it all in.
Not pictured: all of the other cicadas all over the place. Because where there’s one, there are bound to be many, many more. Brood XIV, maybe?
Note (Yellow)
Oh, right. Some days, you might forget that we share one of our storage spaces with the Theater & Dance department.
Alligator Clip
Sometimes you stumble across a delightful artifact. One with an unknown, perhaps unknowable history. Clearly, at one point, it was necessary to hold an object in a particular place, and none of the available clips, clamps, or clasps were up to the task.
A steel rod, an alligator clip, and some electrical tape to the rescue!
What’s fascinating about this isn’t the specifics of the object, but the way that these temporary, stopgap solutions can linger. After enough time and use, they become ordinary and unremarkable. Familiar.
Until, some indefinite period of years later, a fresh set of eyes spots them in an old drawer. Look at what’s in here!