Home Again, Then Out Again

The New Orleans trip was fun. I did indeed shove a couple of beignets in my face.

But I'm already heading back over there tomorrow. We're flying out of New Orleans, heading for Washington DC and the Cognitive Science Society Annual Meeting. I really enjoyed the conference last year. True to the spirit of cognitive science, there really is a wide range of theoretical and experimental work displayed relating to cognition. The problem is, as with most conferences, you can't see everything you want to.

But I'll blog about the stuff I am able to see and take decent notes on.

Live From Atlanta

I made it to Atlanta in one piece. I'm here for the GECCO (Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference). The drive was about 10 hours. Fun. There was some congestion in Baton Rouge, but other than that it was just a long-ass, boring drive. I had Isaacson's biography of Einstein on audiobook to keep me company, and I'll probably finish it on the ride home on Wednesday.

I stopped by the Pharyngula gathering on the way in. I didn't stay long. I was exhausted from the drive. But I did get to meet PZ in person and talked to a few interesting people, including the guy who runs this site: What's the Harm? It's a site that tries to catalog accounts of people who have suffered financial ruin, bodily harm, or death at the hands of pseudoscience and religion. I haven't really had a chance to look at it much, so I can't really comment on it.

I'm staying in student housing at Georgia Tech, which is a big step up from the hostel I stayed in when I attended GECCO in 2006 in Seattle. I at least have a private room here.

I've only had a chance to attend part of a workshop session this morning, so not much to comment on yet. GECCO is the first conference I ever attended, but my research interests and focus have moved relatively far from the focus of this conference, so this will probably be the last one I attend. Still, we'll see how it goes.