Come speak with representatives from groups within the IT department and the library this week at the IT + Library Fair. Students will have the opportunity to purchase Windows and Microsoft Office, as well as enter to win an iPod shuffle. (Wed., 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Campus Center.)
Save 500 pounds of coal (and 1,200 pounds of emitted greenhouse gases) a year by using high-efficiency, compact fluorescent light bulbs! As part of its continuing commitment to conservation, the Physical Plant will be swapping students' energy-hungry incandescent light bulbs for high-efficiency ones. The dormitory with the highest percentage of participants in the light bulb swap will get pizzas in recognition. (Thurs., 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., Campus Center. Bring your light bulbs.)
The Mead Art Museum will present "The Empress Josephine: Art and Royal Identity," an international loan show focusing on Napoleon's consort, "the incomparable Josephine." The exhibit will explore the ways in which Josephine, like Napoleon, made use of art and patronage in the fashioning of her identity. It will open with a public reception and lecture on "Josephine and Malmaison" by Bernard Chevallier, the director of the Musée de Malmaison. (Lecture: Thurs., 4:30 p.m., Stirn Auditorium. Exhibition: Opens Thurs., Sept. 22. No admission charge.)
Take some time off work to gaze into the heavens. Join Dr. Judith Young, professor of astronomy at UMass, to watch the sun rise and set over the tall standing stones in the UMass Sunwheel for the Autumnal Equinox. For those interested in learning about the sky, there will be a presentation that will include the cause of the seasons, the sun's path in the sky, the phases of the moon and the story of the building of the Sunwheel. (Thurs., and Fri., 6:45 a.m. and 6 p.m., UMass Sunwheel. $3 donation requested.)
Editors' DVD Pick of the Week
It took 20 years to put the movie together, and now just four months after its theatrical release, every one of you humanoids can own a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" DVD! Occasionally funny British humor, a chronically depressive robot, weird bureaucratic alien lifeforms-nowhere else will you find a combination as original, wild and simply out-of-this-world (excruciating pun, we know). Perfect for a slow Friday night, there's no pressure on anyone to think deeply or pretend to like it. Nevertheless, you definitely will, regardless of whether you've read the classic novel that was the inspiration for the film.
-A&L Staff