Taking off - Nos vamos!

This blog is like a geranium, one should feed it from time to time.

In preparation for the end of the year, two quotations and two books:

Quotation 1 - For optimists:
An affable idiot asks a beautiful woman the chances of "a girl like you and a guy like me" ending up together.
- "Not good"
-"not good like one in a hundred?", he asks.
- "more like one out of a million", she replies.
The idiot pauses for a moment, then shoots back:
-"so, you're telling me there's a chance?"
From "Dumb and Dunber"

Quotation 2 - For those in conflict:
"Heat does not always produce light
and noise does not always produce locomotion"
Julian Barnes

And now, my two books of 2007:

L'Elégance du hérisson de Muriel Barbery
La foret des renard pendus de Arto Paasilinna

If I do not write anymore this year...happy 2008

Alpage de Lovegno

Hoy saque los esquis por primera vez este invierno.

Nieve nueva para subir al alpe de Lovegno - 2100m.

En camino, un SMS de David y Mireia que coronan el Kilimanjaro (hay antenas alli??)

Yo tambine hago cumbre en Lovegno, ni un alma - cafe del termo y el cosquilleo de un descenso excepcional. Y el placer de llegar hasta casa esquiando.

Animal intelligence

The previous post reflected on artificial intelligence. Now check these two examples of natural performance:

Suboptimal:
http://download.current-biology.com/supplementarydata/curbio/17/23/r1004/DC1/mmc6.mpg

Optimal
http://download.current-biology.com/supplementarydata/curbio/17/23/r1004/DC1/mmc3.mpg

Many reunions

I am a reunologist. I organize, or participate to dozens of reunions. I value them on the basis of simple tools: do they offer coffee?, do they last more than 2 hours?, do I meet friends, so that I can giggle in the back?, is there wifi, so that I can surf and avoid listening?

The other day I did have a good reunion: 5 people from different backgrounds and not fully aligned languages (technical, I mean). A true challenge....