I slipped on some steps outside the KLI trying to catch a train Thursday night. Fortunately I already planned to spend this month writing papers, not code, so I thought I'd only lose a few hours going to the hospital & then going to buy some new dictation software (the last time I dictated was 2001 for my PhD.) But it turns out you can't get the only well-rated mac program in Vienna (or by download) so I have to wait until I'm in Nottingham. I guess speech recognition still sucks if you have even a slight accent -- I remember being shocked in 1998 that IBM's didn't work for the Danes at LEGO but worked for me -- they spoke flawless & very American English.
Otherwise it was quite a good week as I'm getting very into writing my papers & reading & thinking. I founds some *great* articles on cultural evolution & altruism -- one great thing about the KLI is their Library -- these were in a collection. Normally I only read journal articles & conference proceedings, but books tend to have better summaries & more risky / edgy thinking since they are less properly reviewed.
We also had a great talk by Tetsu Sato about the cichlids in Africa. They have explosive speciation the way humans have explosive culture. I'm not sure if it's for some similar e.g. representational reason, or if large new niches often get that kind of thing going on then eventually the species get strong enough to out-compete their predators & start competing with each other so that it settles down to fewer types & a more normal ecosystem. Ha, "I'm not sure" -- I'm sure lots of people aren't sure & would love to know!
I had dinner with my officemate for the first time yesterday & met his family. He asked what I would do not being able to type & then pointed out I can probably still type faster than him. Yeah, but it might not be good for me! As I said, from next week I can dictate, but this week I guess I'll read a lot & maybe spend more time than usual trying to learn German! Today though I stopped by the Leopold museum -- if Les comes back he should really go there -- Life & Death is way cooler in person than The Kiss. In fact, I just love the Leopold; it is with the Modern Art Gallery of Scotland my favorite art gallery.
The doctors say I have to wear a splint for 4 weeks then 2 weeks of physiotherapy! They gave me lots of drugs but it doesn't hurt so I will save them for the next accident. Of course, to keep it not hurting I was walking around town with my hand elevated, which made me feel like Schiele (who was always painting himself holding his hands funny), thus the Leopold...
PS He died when he was 28!!! Good thing I didn't or I'd have nothing to show for myself except 30 copies of a cassette tape with 4 songs on it & some trading software.
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