Howdy from Berlin

I'm writing from the STACS conference, one of my favorite European conferences. Next week I'll be in Holland visiting CWI and talking at the NVTI Theory Day.

Far less Americans than usual this year. While European travel is definitely down (my plane was quite empty), scientists are usually not deterred by political events. More likely is the drop in grant money forcing researchers to be more picky in their choice of conferences. This year the Complexity Conference is in Europe as well.

Also far less French than usual, STACS being a joint French-German conference. I have no explanation for this.

This is not a science item but interesting nevertheless: I had to rebook my flight back; the US government needed the plane to "fight terrorism", most likely to ferry troops to the Gulf.

There have been some interesting talks at the conference. I'll try to mention some of them when I get a chance.