26.6.07

The Summer of Statis and PopGen

I'm taking a great statistics course right now. Great mostly because it's available, we get into more juicy stuff in the weeks to come (It's going veeeeerrrrrrry slow, and today only myself and two others showed up for it). I came across a great web application to do analysis until I get SPSS installed on my system. It was not hard to find but nice nonetheless, and I like the attention-grabbing headline:

Web pages that perform statistical calculations!


Another resource I will be checking out is the new popgen toolbox for MatLab.

12.6.07

The Summer of Art

So, as I return from an extended haitus, and hopefully back to discussing my favourite science topics. I begin again with some exciting art fairs that are happening in Europe.



The obvious big draw (and the most expensive) is the Venice Biennale, incorporating art, dance, theatre and music. Actually I would love to go, depends on how cheap I can get tickets for Venice.

One artist presenting her work is London's Tracey Emin (above) whose work will focus on abortion and sexual abuse of children. I saw a great exhibit of hers in Amsterdam a few years ago and I really enjoyed it. She is able to mix in a great deal of personal matter into her work and be very upfront about it. She is the focus what she is showing as much as the message.

Two other very exciting event are happening very close-by. One is the 12th Documenta in Kassel. This is pretty exciting and I've heard about it for a while, it's so close that it is definatly doable.

The last one is the Skulptur Projekte Münster a giant outdoor sculpture festival that happens every 10 years and is even close than Kassel. Perhaps it is not even worth to just spend the time at the local exhibits than having to go abroad.