Greece Travelogue, Part 3
Jun. 30th, 2010 10:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
michiexileAs the second day of the conference rolled around, so did Every Single Interesting Talk. Including my own. I had two collisions - my talk coincided with a digital topology talk, and two of the other interesting talks collided with each other.
However, the first talk turned out to be from someone who took 'topology' to mean anything that shares that name, and gave a talk ostensibly about network topologies in 4G phone networks, but that turned out to be all about how bandwidth is OMG important for cellphones. Sole interesting thing: he said 'a, n, b' for 'α, ν, β' throughout.
The second talk was a no-show.
The third talk was my own. It went reasonably well - but I've been realizing as this conference progresses that I should have submitted the title "Topological Data Analysis" and the abstract "I will describe some of the current ongoing research into using algebraic topological methods for the analysis of large datasets, with applications to medicine, sensor network planning and elsewhere." instead of the WAY too specialized title/abstract I did give.
It wasn't a catastrophe - I had well over 10 attendees in the audience. Most of them seemed rather bored though. The big payout was the two students who came up to me afterwards, raving about how interesting it was, and asking for more sources for later.
The fourth talk was a technical talk on digital topology, and the fifth a no-show, at which point I got fed-up, and went to go swimming with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amerikabrev instead.
That afternoon was the conference excursion - buses to Olympia, and guided tours there. We thought we could do better than that, and instead took the car (OMG! Alfa Romeo! Also: OMG! Greek drivers!) to Olympia, got in at the student rate, and joined the guided tour anyway.
We saw the (once glorious) temple to Zeus.
and the Phillipeon - started by King Phillip, and finished by his son, Alexander the Great
We walked through the entrance arch out onto the olympic Stadion
which is a rather humbling experience: this arch has been in use for over 1100 years, and another millenium or two later, the thing still stands, solid as ever.
We saw Phideas workshop, which was built in order for Phideas to be able to build the very modular Zeus statue in ivory and gold on a wooden skeleton that greeted the visitors to the Zeus temple - it was converted to a church, and thus still mostly stands.
just like some other - surprisingly well-kept structures
After walking through the archeological site, we went to the museum, and saw Nike, and Hermes of Praxiteles, who the guide promised all the women, with a suggestive waggling of her eyebrows, was a particular hunk.
Of course, I won't go places without trying for at least one more artistic photograph. These leaves and seed pods with the sunlight coming through became particularly nice
Then, the day after, it was time for the conference dinner. We were to convene at 8pm for transport to an undisclosed location. This turned out to be a tavern with an amphitheater a little bit outside Rio, where we first were treated to (almost 1.5h of) traditional greek dances from an amateur dance troupe, and then (once we realized the dancing simply wouldn't stop, and the food had already begun) some really nice greek buffet food.
By the time we got to the food, we were ravenous, and by the time we were done with the food, and the DJ started up the disco with a massive 60s medley (averaging about 8 bars from each song), we were exhausted and really only about going home and sleeping. Some judicious nudging from some of the conference goers later, a bus gradually filled up and went back to Nafpaktos with the more boring conference goers.
Today: two lectures, conference closing ceremony and then Delphi, where we'll meet up with one of Susanne's study friends from Ypsilanti and go tour Peloponnesos with her.
However, the first talk turned out to be from someone who took 'topology' to mean anything that shares that name, and gave a talk ostensibly about network topologies in 4G phone networks, but that turned out to be all about how bandwidth is OMG important for cellphones. Sole interesting thing: he said 'a, n, b' for 'α, ν, β' throughout.
The second talk was a no-show.
The third talk was my own. It went reasonably well - but I've been realizing as this conference progresses that I should have submitted the title "Topological Data Analysis" and the abstract "I will describe some of the current ongoing research into using algebraic topological methods for the analysis of large datasets, with applications to medicine, sensor network planning and elsewhere." instead of the WAY too specialized title/abstract I did give.
It wasn't a catastrophe - I had well over 10 attendees in the audience. Most of them seemed rather bored though. The big payout was the two students who came up to me afterwards, raving about how interesting it was, and asking for more sources for later.
The fourth talk was a technical talk on digital topology, and the fifth a no-show, at which point I got fed-up, and went to go swimming with
amerikabrev instead.That afternoon was the conference excursion - buses to Olympia, and guided tours there. We thought we could do better than that, and instead took the car (OMG! Alfa Romeo! Also: OMG! Greek drivers!) to Olympia, got in at the student rate, and joined the guided tour anyway.
We saw the (once glorious) temple to Zeus.
and the Phillipeon - started by King Phillip, and finished by his son, Alexander the Great
We walked through the entrance arch out onto the olympic Stadion
which is a rather humbling experience: this arch has been in use for over 1100 years, and another millenium or two later, the thing still stands, solid as ever.
We saw Phideas workshop, which was built in order for Phideas to be able to build the very modular Zeus statue in ivory and gold on a wooden skeleton that greeted the visitors to the Zeus temple - it was converted to a church, and thus still mostly stands.
just like some other - surprisingly well-kept structures
After walking through the archeological site, we went to the museum, and saw Nike, and Hermes of Praxiteles, who the guide promised all the women, with a suggestive waggling of her eyebrows, was a particular hunk.
Of course, I won't go places without trying for at least one more artistic photograph. These leaves and seed pods with the sunlight coming through became particularly nice
Then, the day after, it was time for the conference dinner. We were to convene at 8pm for transport to an undisclosed location. This turned out to be a tavern with an amphitheater a little bit outside Rio, where we first were treated to (almost 1.5h of) traditional greek dances from an amateur dance troupe, and then (once we realized the dancing simply wouldn't stop, and the food had already begun) some really nice greek buffet food.
By the time we got to the food, we were ravenous, and by the time we were done with the food, and the DJ started up the disco with a massive 60s medley (averaging about 8 bars from each song), we were exhausted and really only about going home and sleeping. Some judicious nudging from some of the conference goers later, a bus gradually filled up and went back to Nafpaktos with the more boring conference goers.
Today: two lectures, conference closing ceremony and then Delphi, where we'll meet up with one of Susanne's study friends from Ypsilanti and go tour Peloponnesos with her.
