Duke has a program for P-Frosh (potential freshmen). They come to Duke, tour the campus, sit in on classes, and stay in a dorm room for the night. A Day In The Life sort of an affair. That explains the guy sitting in our room watching South Park (Kenny: "Mmrf grbl? Hmf schl krk xidjhrtl!") and incessantly SMSing his friends. We were planning to go out, but the roads iced over (weather again) and it's not terribly safe to drive anywhere. Stuck inside we are.

Topic of the day: do things have intrinsic, objective value, or do they possess value solely because of the fact that we are appraising them? Does a work of art, for example, have an innate quantity of "goodness" (or "badness" as the case may be)? Are we, therefore, connected to and an influence on the world through our reason and emotion, or simply independent beings who have no effect on the value or meaning of the existence we are in? Other pressing questions: why can't Americans make scrambled eggs? Why does Rob Lowe want to leave a show about politicians for a show about vampire slayers? Will Nate get on the bus? Does anyone care?

Department of fiction, fabrication and half-truth:
The ginger cat that lives outside of the Physics building was seen hunting squirrels. It actually caught one. They tussled briefly, and then the squirrel made this weird, high-pitched "eek" sound and died. The cat had broken its neck. It was seen carefully carrying the squirrel's limp body off into the bushes before methodically peeling strips of squirrel meat off for its (three) kittens. As far as I know, neither the cat, nor its kittens, have yet been given names. None of the other on-campus felines has been observed displaying this behavior.