Spain, now in pixel vision!

We landed in Barcelona and traveled two hours to Sant Feliu on Costa Brava the next day for the conference. Here is a typical view of Sant Feliu's 'downtown':



Sometimes I needed to be reminded of where we were. Fortunately, the name of this street is 'Mediterra'. But where are the elves?



Probably the best thing about Spain was the food, including the hot chocolate, which should have been called chocolate mousse.



Europe is SO different; wine with lunch, euros instead of dollars, A4 instead of letter. I also discovered that the A4 dimensions influenced other ratios in real life, such as pillowcases



and toilet paper



Say, those ain't no squares!

There was a lot of rain, but the two days of sunshine in Sant Feliu were terrific.


There is a limit to the amount of outdoor frolicking one can do, even on a sunny day. Here's the view from our hotel room. (Musically talented boyfriend costs extra.)


The conference organized an expedition to Girona, a large, old city in Catalonia. It was like walking around in a medieval castle (it probably WAS a medieval castle), except with cafes on every other block.







I wasn't really thinking about my dream wedding dress, but it was taunting me even in Girona:


For a highly sophisticated society, there was a surprising amount of crap to deal with.


The helpful note says: PELIGRO est es una mierda (DANGER this is a poop.)

Mike noted that the message is held up by a drinking straw.

I also visited Madrid, which was a huge city filled by a hodgepodge of classical and modern buildings. On many of these old buildings, I enjoyed the tiny architectural details that they seem to take for granted (when I commented on a lovely system of window latches, Mike's friend exclaimed, 'what, that's so old-fashioned!'). Although I don't have a picture of the latches, here is a detail from my hotel. I have no idea what its function is - maybe preventing the window shutters from hitting the wall?- but isn't it pretty?



P.S. Mike says it holds the shutter open.

Well, Spain was fun, but it's good to be back!

Text only

I'm in Madrid right now, having just read Malcolm Gladwell's book 'Outliers' (recommended by a particularly shy blogger - you know who you are!). I hope many, many people read this book. Gladwell's main point is that success depends largely on apparently irrelevant circumstances, such as what month you were born in, and that a small bit of early success gets amplified into stardom for a few lucky people. One of the most compelling cases concerns star athletes, who are culled from a young age from successively more selective little leagues. Since young children are grouped by age, those who are born just after the cutoff (e.g., Dec. 31) have a big advantage because they are bigger and stronger than their peers. They do better at the sport, get picked for intense training, get better as a result, with the result that most pro hockey players in Canada were born in the first quarter of the year.

Gladwell also talks about how cultural norms play a huge role in determining success of upper class children vs. lower class children (which we already knew), and that it's really the summertime activities that let the upper class children get ahead (judging from standardized test scores). He was less successful at convincing me that Asian kids are better at math because their ancestors had a rice paddy work ethic (seems to me that this would translate into a nonspecific advantage). A particularly chilling example of the importance of cultural norms is discussed with regard to airline accidents, where the degree of assertiveness of the crew was important (e.g. the willingness of the first officer to contradict the captain), although I would have liked to see more statistics.

Another interesting point he makes is that above a certain threshold, IQ is largely irrelevant to success, since other types of intelligence (like practical intelligence and creativity) are also important (and, based on personal experience, probably not correlated with IQ. :) )

Why am I reading my Kindle when I could be touring Madrid, visiting the Prado museum, or getting a Mediterranean suntan? Well, I did walk around a bit, saw old and new buildings, and ate some Spanish tapas, but ultimately what I really wanted to do was read. I know I should be taking better advantage of the location, but actually I can't wait to get back home to do some wedding planning oops! I mean labwork. :)

Anyway, this book made me think about lab culture, and how to encourage a culture of assertiveness and self-reliance in an atmosphere of hierarchy (such as at Harvard). I'll probably start having mini-lab meetings soon; maybe I'll try to start a tradition of recounting mistakes, so we can all benefit from each other's experiences and so people will be less intimidated by others. That'll be a good exercise in self-examination, anyway!

Whew, I just got back from dinner which lasted for 4 hours (no kidding!). First were drinks, then a leisurely meal of fried baby squid, cured pork (a Spanish specialty), sardines, angler fish (all with white wine) and sorbet with cava (the Spanish equivalent of champagne).

Markovnikov's rule

Remember the salary cap on executives of failing companies that are being bailed out by the government? Well, it looks like it's not going to bother them too much, given how much they are about to receive in contractually required bonuses. AIG execs are going to get $165 million. It's a lot like addition reactions across a C=C; the rich get richer. For a little frustration release, I'd recommend watching Jon Stewart's smackdown with CNBC's talking head from the world of financial scum, Jim Cramer.

A couple days ago I gave a talk at the University of Southern Maine. It was in the planetarium!


Not only was my slideshow projected onto a dome, but the room was illuminated by Christmas lights. Whee!

Poo!

Now I know why I'm writing these entries: it makes me feel socially connected and therefore happier, according to a recent pyschology study. Gosh, I hope someone's reading this...

Check out this fantastic paper from Creative Papers in Tasmania: it's made from kangaroo poop (giggle)!

Now for some eye candy:

Photo from Devoto wedding via The Offbeat Bride blog

Surprising edible fish

I don't know why so many of my blog entries reflect a fascination with Valentine's Day merchandise, but I just couldn't let this one go without comment.



Yes, that's a chocolate trout. With little crispies inside. I know because I've tasted it. No, I did not buy it. Yes, that is Mike's hand.

I've seen a lot of amusing valentine's gifts, but I could always imagine how some poor fellow would be desperately looking for a silly/sweet gift for his gal, and would pick up the bag of marshmallow hearts or the stuffed cow plastered with pink hearts (see previous posting of 1/28/09). But I just couldn't understand the fish, until Mike pointed out that it must be intended as a gift for guys. I guess I missed that because it was surrounded by chocolate roses and teddy bears, but in isolation I suppose it could look reasonably masculine...

The chocolate fish reminded me of one of my favorite T-shirt designs:


Photo: http://www.engrish.com/2001/11/i-hate-myself-and-i-want-to-die/


OMG, OMG, that reminds me, I found the perfect wedding dress!


Photo: from this website here, apparently originally from etsy

Hey, at least it has character! Or rather, characters.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm a day late with this one. Actually, we were originally supposed to go to Boskone on Valentine's day (my gift to Mike was paying for his admission; his gift to me was actually accompanying me there. It did take some pleading. :) He says he enjoyed it, so I'll take that at face value.) Instead, on pink hearts day we ended up doing various work (me) and home improvement (Mike) tasks, but we did go out for dinner to a new Thai/Vietnamese restaurant down the road on the Somerville/Cambridge line. Yes, that is a heart made out of hot sauce.

Although the food was mediocre, they did wind up the meal with some appropriate chocolate mint treats. Sorry about the bite marks. :)

Spec fic edition

In case you have been living without a TV (like me), you may have missed the hype leading to the new series Dollhouse, created by Joss Whedon and starring Eliza Dushku (Faith from Buffy!). I did hear a great interview of Joss on Fresh Air (NPR). Unlike most directors, he is genuinely interesting, and mentioned, among others things, that he had consulted informally with a feminist group while creating Dollhouse. By the way, Joss is a fan of Battlestar Galactica (also available online) whose early seasons are definitely on par with the best of Buffy. In fact, hearing the creator's commentary on Battlestar Galactica only served to remind me how much I enjoyed Joss' commentary on Buffy (the BSG commentaries are not that insightful).

The premise of Dollhouse is an illegal operation that recruits volunteers, wipes their memories and personalities, implants new ones according to customer specs, and rents out the dolls for usage. I saw the first episode, available online; although I wasn't completely sold on the show, I am definitely willing to watch more to see where they go with it.

The Fresh Air interview reminded me Joss' other recent project, Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog. Apparently the DVD version has a sing-along commentary with the directors, etc, singing their commentary! Clearly these are people who like their job; Dr. Horrible was actually made during the writer's strike. (If they stopped paying you, how hard would you work?) By the way, the actor (if he looks familiar to you) is Neil Patrick Harris, who also played Doogie Howser.


Today Mike and I went to Boskone, the New England Sci Fi Assoc's annual convention in Boston. It was really fun! The best part was seeing so many speculative fiction fans (who on average are and look like nerds) being totally un-self-conscious of wearing a warrior's cape, chain mail, or a zillion scarves, and just having fun in a supportive, positive atmosphere. We saw Geoffrey Landis, who is actually also a real scientist, read some of his poems and a short story. We were two of six people in that room! The most entertaining poem was 'Gulliver's Boots', about a pair of Exponential Boots that always takes its wearer twice as far as the previous step. We also heard some filk, browsed a lot of books and artwork (see left for a tie containing the Tardis), and sniffed a lot of spice concoctions. If you visit me, look for the print 'Cave Cooking with Chef Dragone'. Any takers for next year? :)

Mike recently introduced me to some sci fi that made me doubt my love for the genre (Dr. Who: Logopolis). However, now I must say that it was not all in vain, for I readily recognized the blue phone booth on the Tardis tie. It's true that the idea of the Logopolians is cool (they are human calculators who compute the form of the universe, which is too difficult a calculation for computers), but the production, the writing, the soundtrack, the acting... ack!

Here are two of my current favorite authors: Lois McMaster Bujold, who writes space odyssey and epic fantasy (awesome storytelling); and George RR Martin, who writes truly creepy under-your-fingernails short stories ('The Pear-shaped Man' and 'Sandkings') and apparently also writes great fantasy, although I haven't read those books yet.