Academic bredth

On Monday we have phunch. Physical lunch. And lunch tends to be physical, but in this context the adjective is used in the sense of "pertaining to physical geography". So we have lunch while enjoying a presentation on a topic that's close to home; the last time we were informed on the sea level evolution and archaeology of the Scilly Isles. The school I work in contains both physical and human geography, resulting in the dichotomy between the "physicals" and "humans". I am not one of the latter, evidently.

I get a taste of human existence on Wednesday; then we have geography seminars of either persuasion. That's already a view into an unknown world. The latest one dealt with "sustainability transitions". It looked very woolly on the announcement but it turned out to be quite concrete. These transitions, that's from consumerism to sustainability, with the talk focussing on the establishment of small communities living a low-impact life, if I may summarise it such. The speaker was the founder of charming initiatives such as Lammas. It's good to stay updated on such goings-on.

But this is a university, and then there's a much wider spectrum on offer. For instance; this Monday there was a talk by Julian Richards, a name some may know from the BBC series "meet the ancestors". He spoke of bringing archeology to a wider audience. And doing that evidently is one of his talents!

On Wednesday there was a talk by Simon, one of our own historians, on "Taxi Driver". I have to admit that I never had seen the film. But now I want to! Simon kindly offered me his copy of the film to watch, and I intend to take that offer.
Today I managed to not attend either of the lectures on offer. No ocean acidification from a marine molecular biological point of view, and no green economics.

Two weeks from now there'll be two inaugural lectures. One will be on fairly familiar ground for me, as it concerns marine biology. The other one I may miss, as I will go underground. Its title is " Curtains for the Albertian Window ~ Digital Alchemy for the Scale Electric". It doesn't get much more elusive than that if you ask me. I'll try and sneak that one in before buggering off to a muddy place. It is bound to give me a view on things I never thought about! And that was only a selection. Academia is good!