I'm visiting Bonn again this summer for about 10 days. I'm flying Boston to Frankfurt (Lufthansa flight 421) and then Frankfurt to Bonn (Lufthansa flight 6814). This second flight is a 40-minute regional flight operated by an unusual carrier using an unusual airplane (Siemens Velaro) with a poky max speed of 300 km/h. Why am I subjecting myself to ( Read more... )

Providence, like most governments, has a substantial deficit these days. Rhode Island has had even more difficulty with unemployment than most places. The Providence mayor has decided that the the budget shortfall is caused by the non-profits such as universities and hospitals that are exempt from property tax by state law. He has therefore pushed ( Read more... )

Recently an off-duty NYPD cop was shot and killed by two on-duty cops.  The off-duty cop found a man breaking into his car as he came off duty and chased after him with his gun drawn. The on-duty cops got scared seeing a man (the off-duty cop) wielding a gun and perhaps turning towards them and one of them opened fire. I don't know details of the ( Read more... )

According to the RI Department of Health (http://www.health.ri.gov/pandemicflu/swineflu/swineflu.php) the swine flu has entered Rhode Island:
Rhode Island Update (05/02/2009, 2:30 PM)

• North Kingstown: Negative from CDC
• Westerly: Confirmed positive from CDC
• Smithfield: Pending results from CDC
• J&W #1: Pending results from CDC
• J&W #2: ( Read more... )

The Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science, where I spent two years of high school, is apparently in serious danger of losing its funding. See www.savetheacademy.org/ for more.

For a few days in mid-June I was in Munich, Germany at a conference. Since then I've been visiting a professor at the University of Bonn. In a bit over a week I'll depart for Helsinki, Finland for another conference. I have a German cellphone, but I left the piece of paper with my number in my office so I can't tell you the number right now. I just ( Read more... )

My paper calendar is frequently somewhere other than where I am when I need it, so I am considering switching to a web-based calendar service. Do you have any suggestions on web-based calendar services such as Google Calendar? Suggestions of other types of computerized or paper-based organization tools are welcome as well ( Read more... )

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20569/page1/

I will be visiting Munich and Helsinki this summer for conferences, as well as stopping by Paris on the way to give a less formal talk at a university my advisor used to work at. Do you have any suggestions for places to visit in those cities or nearby?

Here's a fun project I saw someone speak about today. He downloaded hundreds of amateur photos of famous landmarks and automatically used those to build a 3D model of the object in question. See http://phototour.cs.washington.edu/PhotoTourismFull.wmv

I bet that in about 15 years these techniques will have advanced enough to allow you to walk around ( Read more... )