Frantic time in San Fran.
San Francisco is both mind-blowing & bogging. A tweet (click here to see) won me a 2-day pass ($880) from Mango Solutions to attend EARL 2017 Conference held in San Fran last Mon-Wed. As Mango Solutions gave me very little time on deciding which plane and which place to book I went for "the most spatially and economically accessible". I found a relatively cheap flight and a cheap room only 10 min. walk away from the conference venue. The room was nice and tidy but it turned out to be located in the middle of the Tenderloin. Aha, if you are a local you know that Tenderloin is a centre for crime and homeless people. As you step away from Powell Train Station you are hit by thick smell of urine and cohorts of beggars. Your chances to see someone urinating, defecating or even masturbating are very high in these parts of the city. Apparently homelessness is quite a problem in San Fran and many ponder on how to solve this issue. I tried to take a photo of them but it felt very awkward and instead I wandered off to Golden Gate Park to get some fresh air: You can see quite a different range of creatures there because the park is home to California Academy of Science too.
The academy forbids flesh but offers a range of nice photos of flesh-sensitive animals here.
So, as you see San Fran is a place of contrast where poor meets rich & instincts meet reason. At the conference itself I met yet another range of creatures. All participants were switched-on and friendly scientists. There were guys who watched:
There were also guys who asked a lot of questions:
There were mammals that tended to stick together:
I tried to learn and mingle as much as I could as most of the folks were representing top data scientists, programmers and statisticians. I came back to New Orleans inspired to start the first R-User Group in Louisiana and you can vote and share the idea via this tweet here.
San Fran turned out to be also an agglomeration of friends I made back in OZ and I was so happy to see them again. Thank You Fran, Dora and James for such a good time together!!! Good to bitch about USA and reminiscence utopian OZ.
San Fran - So long. Nothing of these would have happened without support from my Golden Christina of course!!!
PS
You can see the highlights from the conference here.
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| Albino Alligator mississippiensis [© California Academy of Sciences] |
The academy forbids flesh but offers a range of nice photos of flesh-sensitive animals here.
So, as you see San Fran is a place of contrast where poor meets rich & instincts meet reason. At the conference itself I met yet another range of creatures. All participants were switched-on and friendly scientists. There were guys who watched:
 |
Chamaeleo jacksonii [© California Academy of Sciences]
|
There were also guys who asked a lot of questions:
 |
| Furcifer pardalis [© California Academy of Sciences] |
 |
| Cynopterus brachyotis [© California Academy of Sciences] |
I tried to learn and mingle as much as I could as most of the folks were representing top data scientists, programmers and statisticians. I came back to New Orleans inspired to start the first R-User Group in Louisiana and you can vote and share the idea via this tweet here.
San Fran turned out to be also an agglomeration of friends I made back in OZ and I was so happy to see them again. Thank You Fran, Dora and James for such a good time together!!! Good to bitch about USA and reminiscence utopian OZ.
San Fran - So long. Nothing of these would have happened without support from my Golden Christina of course!!!
PS
You can see the highlights from the conference here.
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