If it's January, this must be Atlanta
Jan. 17th, 2010 06:39 pmAnother month, another hotel room -- this one small and rather oddly-shaped, apparently because it's in a narrow round tower. No Union Square view here, just more hotel towers.
The weather is gray and chilly, but not snowy or likely to be in the next few days. We spent ten minutes waiting on a street corner for a seven-minute bus ride from the hotel to the conference center, and walked it back in thirteen minutes.
The conference center, right next door to CNN Center, has interesting architecture; the entrance is on the fourth floor, with the meeting rooms on the lower levels, accessed by escalator, and a ballroom above approached by a pink spiral staircase that makes an interesting architectural twiddle when seen from below. It almost made me wish I'd brought my camera, but the light wouldn't have been good enough.
It's odd to be at a conference with so many recognizable scientist-types none of whom I actually know by sight. This is the American Meteorological Society's annual meeting, where a colleague and I are making a brief appearance for the Space Weather symposium. Just for variety, the hotel we're in has a (new, not used) car dealers' convention going on in its own subterranean conference center. I was waiting to meet my colleague for dinner earlier, and the spacious lobby was crowded with men in natty suits. And I do mean men -- I spotted one woman in the whole gathering. Even astronomy manages a better ratio than that these days. The scientists are a much more casual bunch, not to say scruffy.
The weather is gray and chilly, but not snowy or likely to be in the next few days. We spent ten minutes waiting on a street corner for a seven-minute bus ride from the hotel to the conference center, and walked it back in thirteen minutes.
The conference center, right next door to CNN Center, has interesting architecture; the entrance is on the fourth floor, with the meeting rooms on the lower levels, accessed by escalator, and a ballroom above approached by a pink spiral staircase that makes an interesting architectural twiddle when seen from below. It almost made me wish I'd brought my camera, but the light wouldn't have been good enough.
It's odd to be at a conference with so many recognizable scientist-types none of whom I actually know by sight. This is the American Meteorological Society's annual meeting, where a colleague and I are making a brief appearance for the Space Weather symposium. Just for variety, the hotel we're in has a (new, not used) car dealers' convention going on in its own subterranean conference center. I was waiting to meet my colleague for dinner earlier, and the spacious lobby was crowded with men in natty suits. And I do mean men -- I spotted one woman in the whole gathering. Even astronomy manages a better ratio than that these days. The scientists are a much more casual bunch, not to say scruffy.