Spain
Thanks to funding from various parts of the university and the advisor's grant, I went to the Fourth International Trilobite Conference in Toledo, Spain. And I basically forgot to take pictures. Damn. Anyway, here's some representative ones.
View from the train back to Madrid. The general countryside looks more or less like that, but without the power lines. It's pretty arid-Mediterranean near Toledo. Lots of olive plantations and scorched grass. I forgot to take my camera on the field trip, so no photos of the real live countryside.
I also didn't really have time to do tourist things. No cathedral tours, no El Greco, no Prado in Madrid. This is the sculpture above an entrance to the cathedral in Toledo, which is so massive and distinctive that it's just called Catedral de Toledo. This is at about 7PM, when it closed so I couldn't go inside.
I did manage to see some art, since the talks were held at the Museo de Victorio Macho. I really liked his sculpture. There's a strong classical styling, but the works are more dynamic, and the figures are mostly everyday people. These are titled "Hero", I think.
The view from the museum's terrace was terrific. That's the Tajo River, which surrounds three sides of the old city. The cliffs in the photo were teeming with pigeons, and the cliffs below the museum were colonized by crows.
Old Toledo is a lovely city. Lots of tiny, crooked streets with cars and motorbikes traveling on them regardless. Ancient brick buildings and stone churches. Lots of small shops. Cervecerias. I'd like to go back, and take my time to see the art, and see Madrid as well.
The conference itself was great. I was kind of surprised at how few of the talks involved cladistics, and how many were more or less "here are some poorly preserved Cambrian trilobites from Christ knows where", and how many were just stupid Chicago-school paleobiology and parsimony hatred.
Some of the talks were amazing, though. The advisor had a fantastic session on the Trilobite Database, and a proposed new order. The other standout talk in my mind was Siveter et al. with arthropods from a Lagerstätte that couldn't be prepared by traditional means (crackout or dissolution) due to preservation. They ground them into thin sections and reassembled them as three-dimensional computer images. Wow. My talk went well (much better than in Paleontology Seminar, ugh) and people giggled at the namesake photos of my species. The Great Man was sitting in the front row, and I heard him whisper something to the effect of "Who is that ghastly creature?" when Robert Smith flashed up. Fantastic.
People were kind of a mixed bag, more or less correlated with talk quality. B.H. (who presented stupid research) has the most annoying voice in the world, and I would like to hit her whenever she opens her mouth. Overheard at lunch from her: "Professor X (I can't remember) turned me down for a Ph. D. He said I wasn't talented enough". Um, sorry, but he was right, whoever he was.
Due to lack of women, geologists generally not being attractive folks, and the median age of the conference-goers being probably somewhere in the 40s, I was the default hot girl at the conference. It was kind of a drag. B.P. in particular became a running joke amongst myself, advisor, advisor's wife, and the Australian contingent. Within five minutes of meeting him, he complimented me on my necklace, and said he'd like to get one for a "lady friend", but the problem was that he'd already given one to his other "lady friend" and was afraid they'd meet each other. Christ on a stick, I do not want to be your third "lady friend", 50 year old dude.
I really liked the Australian/Australian-connected contingent, though. All of them were really congenial, and (at least the younger ones) presented interesting research. I also really liked A. N., who provided my favorite drinking quote from the trip. "You are sitting between me and my beer. It makes me nervous, like a brown bear with her cubs."
The fifth conference should be in Summer 2012 or 2013 (depending on other global geoscience event scheduling) in Prague. I'm excited already!
View from the train back to Madrid. The general countryside looks more or less like that, but without the power lines. It's pretty arid-Mediterranean near Toledo. Lots of olive plantations and scorched grass. I forgot to take my camera on the field trip, so no photos of the real live countryside.
I also didn't really have time to do tourist things. No cathedral tours, no El Greco, no Prado in Madrid. This is the sculpture above an entrance to the cathedral in Toledo, which is so massive and distinctive that it's just called Catedral de Toledo. This is at about 7PM, when it closed so I couldn't go inside.
I did manage to see some art, since the talks were held at the Museo de Victorio Macho. I really liked his sculpture. There's a strong classical styling, but the works are more dynamic, and the figures are mostly everyday people. These are titled "Hero", I think.
The view from the museum's terrace was terrific. That's the Tajo River, which surrounds three sides of the old city. The cliffs in the photo were teeming with pigeons, and the cliffs below the museum were colonized by crows.
Old Toledo is a lovely city. Lots of tiny, crooked streets with cars and motorbikes traveling on them regardless. Ancient brick buildings and stone churches. Lots of small shops. Cervecerias. I'd like to go back, and take my time to see the art, and see Madrid as well.
The conference itself was great. I was kind of surprised at how few of the talks involved cladistics, and how many were more or less "here are some poorly preserved Cambrian trilobites from Christ knows where", and how many were just stupid Chicago-school paleobiology and parsimony hatred.
Some of the talks were amazing, though. The advisor had a fantastic session on the Trilobite Database, and a proposed new order. The other standout talk in my mind was Siveter et al. with arthropods from a Lagerstätte that couldn't be prepared by traditional means (crackout or dissolution) due to preservation. They ground them into thin sections and reassembled them as three-dimensional computer images. Wow. My talk went well (much better than in Paleontology Seminar, ugh) and people giggled at the namesake photos of my species. The Great Man was sitting in the front row, and I heard him whisper something to the effect of "Who is that ghastly creature?" when Robert Smith flashed up. Fantastic.
People were kind of a mixed bag, more or less correlated with talk quality. B.H. (who presented stupid research) has the most annoying voice in the world, and I would like to hit her whenever she opens her mouth. Overheard at lunch from her: "Professor X (I can't remember) turned me down for a Ph. D. He said I wasn't talented enough". Um, sorry, but he was right, whoever he was.
Due to lack of women, geologists generally not being attractive folks, and the median age of the conference-goers being probably somewhere in the 40s, I was the default hot girl at the conference. It was kind of a drag. B.P. in particular became a running joke amongst myself, advisor, advisor's wife, and the Australian contingent. Within five minutes of meeting him, he complimented me on my necklace, and said he'd like to get one for a "lady friend", but the problem was that he'd already given one to his other "lady friend" and was afraid they'd meet each other. Christ on a stick, I do not want to be your third "lady friend", 50 year old dude.
I really liked the Australian/Australian-connected contingent, though. All of them were really congenial, and (at least the younger ones) presented interesting research. I also really liked A. N., who provided my favorite drinking quote from the trip. "You are sitting between me and my beer. It makes me nervous, like a brown bear with her cubs."
The fifth conference should be in Summer 2012 or 2013 (depending on other global geoscience event scheduling) in Prague. I'm excited already!