Day of *facepalm*.

This afternoon, I picked up half of my order of chemicals for a class project. Half, because the other half had been returned to sender by someone in Lab Recieving. Still waiting on an explanation of how that happened. UPS either can't or won't divert packages in transit. The supplier tells me that they'll ship it back out promptly when it arrives, this time c/o'd to the purchasing manager so that it will hopefully stay here. It will most likely get back to me in two weeks.

This evening, I attended a discussion panel about "Faith and Science". The panelists were a Lutheran minister, a Catholic priest, an imam, and one Hillel staffer + a student who also teaches Jewish Sunday school (filling in for the rabbi, who's in the hospital after an accident involving a barbecue grill; he'll be fine but needs time to heal). Not one scientist. All of the religious leaders in attendance emphasized that their faiths are pro-science, within the bounds of what they consider ethical. (They all knew where they stood on issues like stem cell research and abortion. But animal testing threw them for a loop. Go figure.) I tried to add as much of a scientific perspective as I could from my position in the audience, and was only needed to make a religious point near the end, when the Jewish panelists couldn't give a solid answer to the animal testing question. (I've looked into the matter already because it might become relevant in my career.) On the whole the panel discussion turned out okay. There was the potential to be more than okay, but I'll take what I can get.