The Travel Thread

[Deleted User 89]

the climate wasn’t ideal, but the black sand volcanic beaches in Japan were pretty sweet

[Shirley]

I have to say - the beach in Marco Island, Florida is as good as any I've been to in Hawaii, Mexico or Jamaica.

yeah, but how’s the fishing?

I've been inshore fishing around Marco Island on a number of occasions, and it was a lot of fun. Being with a local was of great benefit, no doubt.

And Fish is right, the beaches on Marco are beautiful.

[Deleted User 89]

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/b ... oom-report

another death in the DR

[Shirley]

To Save The Science Poster, Researchers Want To Kill It And Start Over

[pdub]

If you get all posters to look the same, if you were a designer, the next conference you'd break the rules and get more people to look at your poster than all the other posters.

[pdub]

But Morrison is correct that people these days are impatient and want less information up front.
The average users attention span has dropped to below six seconds.
The scan code is smart - i'd push for a website that was easy to remember as well - and hand out cards with just the scan code and site on them as well.

[ousdahl]

Remember the Amanda Knox thread?

She’s back in Italy

[noosh]

Anyone spent much time in Costa Rica? Headed for a week over 4th of July, not sure where to go yet. Fly into San Jose or Liberia? Any good resort recs?

[Deleted User 89]

i flew into Liberia ~6 years ago, and then toured the western side (much drier than the eastern side)

Monte Verde is awesome; Palo Verde is great if you want to see wildlife (primates, iguanas, crocs)...it really depends on what you want to do/see. for instance, if you're looking for sloths and sea turtles you really gotta be on the eastern side...

[noosh]

Thanks, brosef. Basically want a little adventure and a little relaxation without the annoyances of Mexico. Thought Costa would be good to take a flyer on. Appreciate the perspective.

[Deleted User 89]

the wife and i did a package deal that included river tubing, horseback riding, and zip-line...it was a blast

[Deleted User 89]

DO NOT leave valuables visible in your rental car, especially if you fly into San Jose

[Deleted User 62]

Thanks, brosef. Basically want a little adventure and a little relaxation without the annoyances of Mexico. Thought Costa would be good to take a flyer on. Appreciate the perspective.

You aren't doing Mexico correctly

[DrPepper]

Regarding the poster conferences: just make your title (you know, the big bold sentence people look at first) state the takeaway conclusion
Posters fixed

[PhDhawk]

To Save The Science Poster, Researchers Want To Kill It And Start Over

So...his solution is that you put a big title of what your research is, with a scannable barcode that will allow the person to bring up the data on his/her phone?

But, then you're just putting your poster on a phone, instead of on a poster. The point of the poster is that the presenter and the interested person can talk about the poster at the poster. You can't talk with the presenter if you're just looking at your phone.

Also, a lot of meetings have all kinds of rules about not taking photos and stuff...this seems like it's just making it easier for someone to scoop your work, or have intellectual property stolen.

Finally, the main thing you need to remember on a poster is minimize text as much as possible...the poster shown at the top of the article is entirely text based...not images, graphs, data, etc. anywhere.

If the take home message is, bigger, sexier title and less text, then I agree, but that's nothing new, if the big thing is scanning a barcode to read a poster on your phone, that's an enormous step backwards.

[Deleted User 89]

need to do away with posters (and conferences in general) altogether

we've got the technology to do this shit remotely, so why not? so people can pretend to network, while actually just using the conference as an excuse to travel, drink, and be promiscuous?

[ousdahl]

think you just answered your own question

[zsn]

need to do away with posters (and conferences in general) altogether

we've got the technology to do this shit remotely, so why not? so people can pretend to network, while actually just using the conference as an excuse to travel, drink, and be promiscuous?

I disagree, except for the travel/drink/eat part (the promiscuous part has never happened to me - yeah, I'm a bit boring that way, and somehow 'scruples' ruin it in the end!)

Anyway, the best part of a poster session is when a bunch of people congregate at a poster at the same time, and someone else's question(s) triggers someone else and there is a net multiplication effect. Oral presentations at most major conferences do seem like a waste of time because the material ends up being those already published. Symposia on the other hand provide a retrospective from some top researchers not necessarily in your immediate field and do have much value (at least for me).

This is the reason I like Gordon Conferences as there is a lot of time for personal interaction with fellow scientists

[jhawks99]

I'm headed to Minneapolis over the 4th to see my daughter, SIL AND my grand daughter for the 1st time.

I'm leaving directly from work about noon on Wed and won't make it all the way there in one day. I did the blind priceline thing for one night. $66 for a 3.5 star downtown. Came up Sheraton. Looks like a nice place. I've had good luck and bad when booking this way. Looks like it worked out this time.

Sooo, what's going on in DT Madison?

[jhawks99]

Scratch that, not downtown. Out by the basketball arena. Doesn't look like there's much else out there.