seminars

I spent the weekend at a conference "The Meaning of 1914", organised by the New York Review of Books to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War, but held at St Antony's College here in Oxford. more

On Friday I made my first visit to the Mathematical Institute's shiny new Andrew Wiles building (on the old Radcliffe Infirmary site). The occasion was a talk by Thomas Stocker, co-chair of the IPCC AR5 Working Group 1, presenting an overview of their recently published report (that's the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's The Physical Science Basis). more

On Friday Camilla and I went to see the "Oxford Greek Play" Clytemnestra (actually Aeschylus' The Libation-bearers, or Choephoroi). more

I went along last Wednesday to an Oxford Skeptics in the Pub meeting, held in the COPA bar on George St. John Bradshaw gave a talk "A sheep in wolf's clothing?", which basically summarised his book In Defense of Dogs (published in the US as Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You A Better Friend to Your Pet). more

Following a decision to take more advantage of living in a university town, in May I went to thirty odd lectures and seminars. more

Today's talks were by James Hegarty - "Telling the World: Exploring the Cultural and Intellectual Agenda of the Sanskrit Mahabharata " (blurb) - and Benny Morris - "Israel and Palestine - Is it too late for the Two States Solution?". more

I went to two talks today, one a small Earth Sciences seminar and the other a big "annual special lecture" of the Faculty of History. more

On Saturday Camilla and I went a series of five lectures on "Neanderthals and Modern Humans". This was hosted by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit and after the lectures we were given a tour of their lab and got to see the accelerator. more

Between Oxford University, the museums, and an assortment of other research institutions, there's an excellent range of talks, lectures and seminars on in Oxford. more

On Tuesday I went to two seminars. The first was on microsimulation of traffic flows, in the e-Research centre. This was interesting, but pretty superficial - it felt more like a sales pitch than any kind of academic presentation. more

My friend Cosma came to Oxford to give a talk, so I spent Sunday afternoon showing him around town. more

I went to two very different but fascinating events today. more