Brno - best poster spot ever

It's 10pm and I'm writing this during a talk on modelling water. In case you didn't know water is about as far from a simple liquid as you can get. It's very interesting, although from the baffling number of water models you'd think it's been solved by now, but they do keep going. And going...

Anyway, I'll talk more about the science later, in general I had a couple of thoughts today. First, and most certainly without naming names, there is a huge gulf in standard between the good talks and the bad talks. Experience seems to be a factor, the two best talks by a long way were the invited speakers. The best talk introduced a new subject to me, which is on coarse graining, and I felt like I had a good idea how it all worked when he finished. The worst talks I lost attention within a minute.

It surprised me that people can do this for years and still be no good at it, I guess they don't care. But it's so so important that you can tell people what you're doing! Not to be negative though, the good ones were good and they really make it worth being here.

Second thought is that this poster fiasco is heading to the ridiculous. I was lucky enough to get the board at the back of the room, facing a wall two feet away! Not exactly a prime spot as you can see from the photos. At A0 I doubt they'll be able to focus on it from that distance! C'est la vie.

I'll let you know how many punters I get.