brains and trees

Today at CapoCaccia 2025 we had some discussion sessions on "Life with and without a cortex".  We learned that you can take the cortex out of a mouse and it makes hardly any difference: although the mouse cannot learn new behaviours, the majority of behaviours it uses are in fact innate.  One speaker said that looking at mice doesn't help to understand our brains: we need to look at more nearby species, eg monkeys, and even so, that only gets you so far.  And there was the fun idea that each of the seven deadly sins is associated with a particular hormone.

More conversations, then I went exploring a bit further afield that yesterday.  Unfortunately my phone's 4G isn't working, and there's no wifi outside.  So I downloaded a map of the vicinity, and took great care to remember where I had come from.  I found some good trails through the local pine forest.  Again, stunning.

view from a hotel window : CapoCaccia 2025

I arrived in northern Sardinia last night, for the two week Capo Caccia workshop on Neuromorphic Intelligence.  This morning I saw the view from my window: this is on the "non seaview" side of the hotel, which means the room is a little cheaper.  It's still a lovely view.

The restaurant looks over the sea, and the view is indeed stunning.

In the morning were some great "discussions" (more informal than lectures) on evolution of neural circuits, and emotions in fish.  I then had some excellent conversations with participants in the afternoon.  Then off for a stroll to photograph the sea view.

It promises to be a fantastic time: great talks, great conversations, great food, great venue, great weather!

ying yang eggs

I've seen broken yolks before, but never like this.

 

the hills have vanished

There were definitely hills on Friday

for the title alone

Near the registration desk was a table piled with a load of free second hand books.  We looked through them, but had most of the ones we might want (and, anyway, flying back puts a crimp on book acquisition).  However, there was one I couldn't resist, for the title alone.

Okay, so it turns out this is two separate stories, but even so...

view from a hotel window

It was dark by the time we arrived at the convention hotel last night, so no view from the window.  It was a bit gloomy and grey this morning, but enough to see the view, including the dome of the convention centre, and hills in the distance.

Off now to breakfast, and then to registration, and then to the start of the con proper.

417 Expectation Failed

We flew in to Belfast this evening, ready for the Eastercon starting tomorrow.

We laughed in nerd as we walked along the hotel corridor to our room.

First of all, a room Not Found.

Then our room, URI Too Long.

And the last room on the corridor, Expectation Failed.

Unfortunately, no more rooms, so no teapots.  

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CL

The latest batch:

 

The company who I have been with for over 40 years for insuring house contents is no longer insuring house contents.  So we are looking for a new insurer.  

We have a lot of books (no!)  This causes issues: everyone who is quoting wants to insure them as "antiques", in danger of being stolen.  No, there are a lot of individually not very valuable books (some are indeed old, but not that old, and not rare).  No-one is going to steal these: it would take forever, and they have very little resale value.  We can't be the only ones in this situation, surely?

breaking the trend

We had a lovely start to March: nine sunny days before the weather turned.  

April has been even more amazing.  Fourteen sunny days:

before the weather turned today:

Well, we needed the rain!

moonlighting

While I was up in Scotland enjoying the spring sunshine, my other half was enjoying the clear night, using the 8" telescope and a Raspberry-Pi camera to photograph the nearly-full moon.

Definitely better pictures than using my phone camera.

views from two hotel windows

I travelled up to Glasgow yesterday, via Edinburgh, for a project team meeting the day before a workshop we ran today, in Edinburgh.  So yesterday evening I travelled back from Glasgow to Edinburgh, to overnight here before the workshop.

A nice sunny morning in Edinburgh. 
Some reflection of the double glazing, which was a foot deep and not openable.

We held the workshop -- about 20 people discussing quantum optics and photonic computing -- and then the team travelled back to Glasgow, ready for a project debrief tomorrow (to be followed by me travelling home in the afternoon, via Edinburgh).

A nice sunny evening in Glasgow.

I could care more

I was reading an article the other day that branched off into a discussion about the expressions I couldn't care less (obviously correct) and I could care less (obviously bizarre).  A comment pointed me to the Merriam-Webster discussion.  This is all quite fair-minded, but I definitely rofl'd at the last sentence:

if you can’t get past some people continuing to use could care less, and the fact that there’s nothing you can do about it, you may console yourself with the notion that at least they are not saying “I could care fewer.”

 

asymmetry

I bought some new walking boots today, having worn my previous ones down, had them resoled, and then worn them down again.

The guy in the shop measured my feet on a nifty computerised device.  He wasn't surprised that my left foot is 1mm longer than my right foot.  But he seemed completely gobsmacked that my right foot is 4.5mm wider than my left foot.

not to scale