6/13 Tuesday.
I signed up 2 conferences at Glasgow University today, both at the same ARC building, at about the same time.
The walk there through Kelvingrove Park is very pleasant. ~1.3 miles.
All modern buildings here, quite ugly from the outside, but really nice inside. In fact, I took a tour of one of these new buildings later.
Coffee & pastry at 9am.
9:30 starts this conference on microbiome.
I wasn't aware that this concept has been around for over 100 years.
Here're a few mentioned by one of the presenters.
Bifidobacteria was first isolated from a breast-fed infant by Henry Tissier (1899) at the Pasteur Institute.
Therapeutic use of bacteria in gut by Élie Methcnikoff (1907).
Charles Bouchard on auto-intoxication (1866)
~10 participants, among whom 4 are speakers. Me and one walkin are not affiliated with the school.
Other speakers talked about anti-aging, current awareness, commercial adoption, end of life / total pain.
Lunch of 6. One other random walkin. We sat around the same small table and chatted with each other.
At 2pm, I moved acrossed the hall for the last half of a 2 day post-graduate annual conference in college of art.
About non human objects. Not as interesting.
They were all interested in seeing my reaction to the Scottish cola Irn Bru. I didn't like it.
The last talk is at Hunterian Museum Lecture Theatre.
It turns out that the lecture hall is not in the museum, but in Hunterian Art Gallery. I got lost looking for it.
Mainly because I kept on taking photos, and got too far behind of the people who were ahead of me.
University of Glasgow is absolutely beautiful.
4-5pm, Mitchell Lecture 2023, statistics role in security and economic.
Today's title is "Semiparametric approaches for studying extreme conditional quantiles".
I got lost quickly. Too many assumptions in distribution. But the idea is interesting, which I never thought about.
Afterwards, we were invited to the maths department for a "reception".
It's in their department office. Almost no food, just some snacks and a few bottles of wine.
In the evening, I went to watch a documentary movie A Turning Tide in the Life of Man at a local film center. Free.
It's about an Irish man uniting coastal/island fishing villages to change some EU fishing laws.
Educational for me.
Afterwards, walked around looking for a sunset spot. Took this photo next to the Tenement House.
6/14 Wednesday.
Walked to the Botanic Garden, north of University of Glasgow.
Too bad that the Kibble Palace (the huge greenhouse) was closed for renovation/repair.
Lots of construction materials lying about.
I very much enjoyed the garden, and tagged one guided group for awhile.
Headed to downtown. On the way, checked out Mitchell Library for a few minutes.
Nice neoclassical building, inside 100% modern and boring except for these chairs.
East of hear to Buchanan station are 6-7 blocks of 60s buildings, rectangular and ugly.
I went to an event at Everyman Glasgow in Princess Square. A nice shopping complex with a movie theatre (event space) below. Took me awhile to locate the theatre.
I didn't stay long, because I wanted to take the tour of Glasgow City Chambers.
I was ~5 minutes too late for the 10:30am tour, but was not allowed to catch up with the group, even though I could see them :(
A beautiful building in marbles.
Got to chat with a guy standing there, turns out he was a Jehowah Witness, and was stationed in China for some time.
It's next to George Square, the city center, very lively and pretty.
Headed the long way back to University of Glasgow.
Hunterian Museum in a beautiful old building, on the top floor.
Free. A lot of Roman stuff from the Antonine Wall.
Well worth the visit.
On the way to the celebration of the annual Commenmoration Day, visited the university chapel.
Beautiful classic building.
Nice stainglass windows.
The meeting is by invitation only. (I tried to get into the Bute Hall, failed).
Afterwards, a procession led by the chancellor to the Quadrangles, accompanied by a bagpiper dressed in the nines.
A lot of spectators like me.
A drink reception of sparkling wine for everyone.
No food.
They will have a luncheon right after, and I continued to Hunterian.
Hunterian Art Galley is also well worth a visit.
It is in a newer building, maybe built for the exhibition.
Plenty paintings of all eras, especially 19th century - my favorite time period.
A sculpture garden, a Mackintosh House has a separate entrance ticket.
Its introductory gallery is open for all, and well done.
Took a tour of James McCune Smith Learning Hub, one of those modern buildings of the university.
This is led by a student volunteer.
Mechanical looking outside, very nice inside. Free wifi for all.
Hi-tech auditoriums.
Lockers, cafes, AC, airy and bright.
Quirky arts.
Back at ARC building. There was an exhibition of ArtLab and a "workshop" on Art/Scent, both at 2pm. The presenter arrived late, so I walked around the ArtLab exhibition and had some snacks. The first thing she did is brewing coffee. She mentioned the research by Sissel Tolaas (but I've forgotten what she talked about). She also brought a dozen viles of scent for us to smell. The ones that I made a note of are: Vanilla, Geosmin (earthy), Ethyl martol (fake sugar), Iso e super (very nice).
Kelvingrove Art Gallery + Museum.
Another beautiful building with quite a bit to see. Natural history, paintings by Rambrandt, airplanes... Well worth a visit.
Crossed the street to the south for a Kevin Hall building tour.
The old hall looks beautiful, but we were to tour the new building adjacent.
A sports complex (many young people in different courts).
A movie archive (you can watch anything there). Historical documents.
The interesting space is the store: new and old collections that didn't or haven't made to the museums.
Goofy furnitures, prehistorical stone carvings...
It's very large, and somewhat interesting.
Walked to University Glasgow student union for a reflection on the 25 years of Good Friday Agreement with
distinguished guests Mark Durkan (former deputy first minister of North Ireland) and Mike Nesbitt (former leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and 2 others.
Organized by John Smith Center.
I was almost half an hour late, but was let in. Too bad, I no longer remember what was said.
A nice old building.
As the sun was setting (9pm), I finally made it to Glasgow Cathedral, on the east end of downtown.
Beautiful. Too late to get in.
Nearby is City College of Glasgow, all modern buildings, quite ugly, but nice grounds.
A long walk back home. Too much walking today.
