This particular image is kindof hard to make out in the black and white which it was modified into to make it look old. The original is a little easier to see the actual lava which is flowing from an eruption happening in the center to another pool of lava rock.

There are four different types of lava, which are based on the chemical composition of the lava itself, but that correlates with the temperature. It is of course, extremely hot, with the coolest form of lava being at least 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. A lot of the lava which is in the US is in Hawaii – it would be nifty to see some of it, but hopefully not the quick flowing kind. We’re heading there on our honeymoon later this year, so it’s a possibility. One of the things that has always fascinated me is Pillow lava, which is when lava is extruded under water and instantly cools and solidifies partially. It also looks really cool. I found out that it is also used as a way-up criterion because of the way it is formed with the ridges normally on the top.

This is a microscopic picture of Radiolaria. Again the image comes from Jupiter Images. They represent a species which has been around for a very long time, since the Cambrian period, so basically 500 MILLION years ago. Because they have been around for so long, but not forever, finding fossils of the Radiolaria are important for dating things.

Radiolaria were popular with amateur scientists in the victorian era thanks to some elaborate drawings that are now part of wikimedia commons. Some of these cellular organisms can become very complex and beautiful. They are still inspiring artists today, as seen on the art page at Radiolaria.org.

Wonderful.

The image in question comes from Jupiter Images stock photography, and is labelled as “Ascaris bivalent mitosis magnified 200x”. Ascaris is a roundworm, which can infect pigs or humans. It lives in the small intestines and produces lots of eggs. This reminds me of an episode of the Soup where they had some stupid reality show doctor clip about getting tapeworms because of bad sanitation, which is where you would get these. Ascaris lumbricoides is the most common worm infection, affecting more than a billion people.

Just one more reason for me to wash my hands.

This is the first in a (hopefully) long series of posts in which I am attempting to identify all of the pictures in the opening credits of The Big Bang Theory. I’ve done some minor searching on the web for something of this nature but haven’t found anything, and I’m always wondering what the heck all of those pictures flying by in the second half of the intro are actually. I’ve decided to start at the beginning, mostly because the pictures will be easier to identify.

Another nice thing about the TED talks is that they are all sitting on the same site – so they are all interlinked with similar topics and they also include the new videos which are being posted fairly often. Sometimes I don’t have time to watch more than one talk, but today I was blessed with a surfeit of time, so I clicked on another link which interested me. This talk was from Dan Gilbert and was coarsely about happiness, and more importantly synthetic happiness and how our brains work. It started with talk about the foundation of our evolved brains, of which the most important fact was considered the Impact Bias. Gilbert talked about the Impact bias as a primary result of the evolution of the mind from earlier man to modern man – it is the ability of our mind to predict the future without actually trying it. It is the reason why you have an aversion to a food that you haven’t even eaten or don’t think you will like a movie that isn’t even released, or the opposite. I believe that the impact bias is very important to the psychology of human beings – while it may not actually be very important to the state of the world that you eat a pastrami sandwich today instead of a salad, it must mean something to you, or your life will end up seeming meaningless and insignificant. Gilbert focuses on the impact bias in the dual – that choices that we are given to make ourselves will eventually have an effect on our overall happiness. The experiments explained in the video show that, if a choice has been made, the user is more likely to be happy with that choice later, especially if the choice is an irreversible decision. In the talk he talks about simulated happiness and actual happiness, and that the mind is incredible at simulating happiness when placed in a situation where it did not come out for the better – some famous examples include people who are in jail for long times feeling that they are better for their incarceration after being released (or even while incarcerated). One important part which I think wasn’t really touched upon by Gilbert was the fact that while the mind can produce synthetic happiness, in the long run the difference between synthetic and “real” happiness is actually rather small – over the long run all the happiness produced tends to even out, and the mind doesn’t distinguish about really being happy or not. For a third point, it is a very interesting conclusion (and probably a significant jump) that most people strive to be happy overall, and most people succeed. This means that even though there are people in many different levels of happiness from an outside perspective, it is worthless to look at someone who is rich and happy and someone who is poor and happy and say that one must be happier than the other because they have more of the “real” and less of the synthetic happiness. Happiness is not a zero-sum game – everyone can be happy all of the time, and noone loses out. This may be an interesting ideal to reach for and may seem impossible to achieve considering all of the hate and rage which exists in the world today, but I believe that it is even possible yet – especially considering this “Happiness Bias” which seems to exist within everyone.

1. For the first week, write 2,000 words each day.
2. For the second week, edit the words already written.

The first half of the schedule was easier than I thought it would be. In general, writing in my field doesn’t usually happen that fast, but the subject is something I’m pretty versed in, so it was not too hard to get 2,000 words out. I had a clear defined goal for each day that once I met, I could feel okay about not working on the project for the rest of the day. I also only had to write 6 days, and I was able to take the seventh day off. Both of these combined made it a lot easier to not feel guilty about being behind.

Editing is a bit more abstract and ongoing than the writing part, so it’s hard to tell how well it’s really going. There are some easy parts like fixing grammar and proofreading to make sure you don’t repeat yourself, but there are also a good portion of hard parts as well, like which sections to cut a bunch of words in, and which word choice should be made in a particular spot. I’m at the point where some things NEED to be cut because the document is too long, so I have to make some hard choices.

I also met with my advisor last week and we discussed my progress toward finishing my Ph. D. I had been thinking about this problem for a while now and was glad that it was also on his mind as well. We agreed that I would set the goal for having my orals done by the end of this year (christmas). I am thinking I will use a similar tactic to the chapter that I am writing, but on a much slower schedule, so next week I will start writing 500 words a day, and do that for a couple months. This will leave me with 30,000 words that I will then edit down by quite a bit, reducing it by almost half. Hopefully this will make the process easier as it has for the chapter.

If writing my thesis proposal works well this way, I hope I can use a chunk of it for the final thesis, which I want to finish one year after my orals, putting me on track for graduating at the end of 2009. I’m looking forward to that.

I’ve spent a total of 10 days outside of the United States now, the longest time since I have been alive, according to my knowledge. It has caused some interesting results. I realized that I am inextricably connected to the people who I am familiar with in my life, and being without them decreases my mood significantly, and without contact to them decreases my mood sharply.

I am not alone in this fact. There are many studies that show that people who have more social connections lead happier lives. I am lucky in that I am technologically ept and can connect to my near and dear in a number of ways, and be resourceful in finding other ways to contact them if necessary. I feel that I am lucky to live in a time which it is possible for me to spend so much time apart and still be in connection with people. I am also lucky that I was born in a geological area which enables me to be as such.

At the same time, I am sad to leave this place. It is a nice area, with good food and a very long history. As Nikos reminded me the other day, it is the birthplace of Democracy, which I hold to a fairly high regard. It is also the birthplace of modern medicine, and a significant portion of many early sciences. The wealth of the nation as a whole and as parts is clear to me, and I wish to return.

I’ve learned part of the language while I am here, and it has made me more cognizant of communication with other cultures. People in Athens seemed put off when I tried to talk in Greek, but in Kos they were at the worst amused at my attempts. The language may not be as romantic to learn as French or Italian, and may not be as useful in the long term as Latin, but it would be interesting to speak nonetheless. I am tempted to start working on some of the i18n Greek QA issues in Debian — It would help me learn the language more, and also keep me aware of the issues in software when you start working with other countries’ characters. I have been lucky to be using a MacBook this entire time with decent Greek support, allowing me to type at least some greek while I was here. It helped me understand even more of the language – I now know mostly the numbers 1-9 at least.

The trip has highlighted for me something which is highly lacking in airports: power. Every airport that I have been to has prominently displayed the signs of wireless access, and has people using their laptops in almost every direction you can look (I am one of those), but they are sorely without power points for people who are using those laptops. This may be a designed flaw in order to save energy, but I don’t really believe that 50 or even 5,000 laptops at 65-150W will put a significant dent in the power grid at somewhere as large as an airport, where LCD screens are running 24/7 with ads and bright lights illuminate every corner for all to be seen. I won’t even start talking about the airplanes themselves.

All in all, the trip has been a happy one, and I would very much repeat it. I will make different decisions on lodging at some places and probably plan a shorter trip. I however wholly endorse Greece as a vacation spot, and even would consider moving here if offered a position (that would depend highly on Diana as well, obviously). I find it entirely favorable. I hope that this small series on the site has caused you, the reader some pleasure at least, even if it was at my expense.

Now begins the long trip home, on three planes and with 14.5 hours in the airplane and 18 hours in total. It’ll be only 10 hours counting local time, unfortunately — the jet lag will, I’m sure, be horrible.

I finished the experiments and data gathering and the internet came back on just in time for me to download Gnumeric and get some of the stats working correctly. The final presentation didn’t change that much, only changing on one slide and adding one small table, but the added result was significant enough to justify all of the work that it entailed. Indeed, it proved that the entire premise of the paper and simulation was valid. That made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

The talk was at 3:30, the first in a session which was mostly unrelated papers. I don’t feel as bad because many of the other papers were kind of a hodge-podge as well, and we were probably all placed in the session because we didn’t really fit anywhere else. I met a nice researcher who was chairing the session because the actual chair was presenting in another session (something we had worked out with software in the ICRA2006 schedule, but apparently wasn’t taken into account here). The actual presentation went well, and Nikos lent me his laser pointer which added a little to the presentation I believe. Nikos said the talk was good, but I also got a comment that it was well-presented later in the day from a unrelated researcher. I was so-so about the presentation until I got the unsolicited comment.

After the talk I called up Diana on Skype and chatted for a while, but the network was too flaky at the conference, so she called my cell phone. Using Skype is one of the things that I have done more in this trip than I have done before ever. It is really a wonderful program and network for people who are far away from each other, and it actually has much more impact when you consider the costs of calling home with other methods. I estimate I saved about $200 in just three days of Skype calling instead of regular calling, even with calling to cell phones in the US every once in a while, and with Diana calling my Hellenic cell phone when my network was flaky as well. It is much more of a disruptive technology in the non-US world where every call isn’t already paid for.

The banquet was next. Usually I don’t like going to banquets, but this was set up different than the normal ones that accompany these conferences. Instead of a large service crew bringing out fancy food to a large set of tables, it was setup in a buffet with a large selection of Greek food so you could pick and choose your favorites and even go back for more food if you liked. I ended up trying a large variety of foods and discovering some new tastes that I hadn’t had before. It was throughly enjoyable especially when listening to the others at my table of which three or four were Greek.

Then it was back to the hotel by bus, and an early bedtime in order to stock up on sleep for the long hours in the next day. Today I plan on just relaxing, sleeping a bit when I get tired, and maybe trying out some local snacks. I’ve already arranged for a Taxi. The last installment will be written from the Athens airport tomorrow.

Unfortunately when I got to the conference I was unhappy to discover that the wireless problems I experienced on monday were not fixed by now, and it was completely not working. This is frustrating because a much smaller conference got it down just fine, and we also managed to get it right at ICRA06. Granted, this is a much more remote place, but they had many days to at least get the wireless access points working. One of the main reasons that the wireless wasn’t working was because every point was on channel 11, except for a few, that were on channel 10 and broadcasting the same ESSID. This causes insane interference because the channels are very close to each other.

Anyway I was pretty fed up with that, but it was time for some talks. Lots of the talks yesterday were on things that were covered a long time ago in robotics, but are now just being completely formalized by the control people. It’s not really my crowd of engineers. The different applications were interesting at least though.

I went to get lunch downtown and was reminded again of the “have to ask for your bill” thing when I well, had to ask for my bill. Carbonara for lunch was decent, but just blandish and not great. Back to the conference for some more talks, but the internet was partially working so I made a stop in order to check email. By the time I got up to the room, it was right to some papers that I was actually interested in. Unfortunately none of them were there. I decided to call the conference a day and go back to relax a bit.

I caught the bus to the hotel and then relaxed quite a bit, enough that I took a short nap. Also I chatted with Diana over Skype a bit, and that was pretty nice, but we got cut off again. I discovered that it’s just the link to the repeater that gets severed. I think if I wanted to make a career setting up wireless networks correctly in Europe it would be a definite moneymaking endeavor. None of them seem to be setup correctly, except for the ones in airports and actually the one at MED07 worked fine as well.

After some relaxing time, I went out to eat at the same restaurant as before. There was some interesting motorcycle racing, and the food was again superb. I am kind of sad that I won’t be able to go back there again this trip. The banquet is tonight and I will be there, and then I will have to go back to the airport in order to head home. The hotel isn’t sure if I can get a late checkout on Thursday so I don’t think I will come to the conference then, just stay in my room for a bit and possibly check out the town some more. Today, I give the talk in a session of unrelated talks. Hopefully I will do okay.

Kos is an insane tourist island, very filled with shops where you can buy anything you would need on a vacation to a beach – sunglasses, maps, ice cream, etc. There are also far too many restaurants and coffee shops. They are literally every block or so, and sometimes even more frequent. The restaurant I found last night is definitely not the exception, but they do make good food. After arriving in Kos town, I walked around for a while, and looked at the Hippocrates Tree that they have here (he was born here apparently), and then found a bus stop and waited for the Bus to come by. It was a good thing I did, because Psalidi and the hotel were still another 5-6km down the road easily.

Noone was at the conference center, being closed for registration, so I used the conference wired access shortly (wireless wasn’t working) and checked email and enjoyed the cooling power of the AC. After that I walked across the street and had lunch at a small taverna. I had a gyro pita but it wasn’t very good at all. Usually I have gyros without tomato and onion, but on this trip I decided that I should try one with everything. Not only didn’t I like the tomato and onion, but the meat was very dry and tough. I wish I hadn’t had the meal there.

I got a snack from the store next door, and then waited for the bus and went back to the Gaia Garden. I hooked up with Diana on Skype and we got to talk for a while after we worked out some issues with her mic. That was really great because I was able to use my MacBook’s camera and she could see me while we chatted. I could be called an early adopter, but skype and video have been together for a while. I still think we’re on the leading edge of the curve though. Video for long-distance chats is a big plus. It’s not as useful for ordinary conversations done every day on the phone, but I can see a major advantage when you can’t really physically see the person for a while.

One thing that I noticed about Greece (Ελλάζ) is that there are very different rules about restaurants. As far as I can tell, you walk in and sit down wherever you like, and then you get a menu and order. I was very not used to this at first, but I am now preferring it to the American style of being seated in a specific section. The meal then continues basically as normal until the end. When you are done with your meal, you have to ask for the check. This is different, but it bugs me somewhat. When I am done with my meal I want to leave the restaurant. From a restaurant perspective, it doesn’t cost them anything to have you sitting there for a bit longer, so there’s no real rush to get the check to you – unless they are full and people are waiting. The restaurant looks more busy, and you might just decide to order something else. However, after years of training that asking for the check is rude to the waiter/waitress, I can’t get used to asking for it every time. It’ just grates on me. It doesn’t help that I don’t know if I’m actually being rude or not. I assume I am not because I’ve sat for 15-20 minutes without getting the check before.

I went to the same restaurant yesterday that I went to two days ago, and at about the same time. It really does have good food, and it is not busy when I want to eat which is around 10pm, and they also have some interesting sport on the monitors (volleyball tournament, track and field). The server was surprised when I ordered the dishes in Greek (ΦΙΛΑ ΚΑΡΙ and ΠΟΡΤΑΚΟΛΑΔΑ, in this case) and asked me where I was from, and whether I had been to Greece before. Also where I was staying. I was happy that he was surprised and at least seemed pleased. He asked if I wanted coffee or ouzo after I finished, and I apparently got some coffee free – the coffee was excellent too. I think I’ll go back again today.

Today, the actual conference. Hopefully they will have the wireless worked out by then.