Madama Butterfly - Vienna State Opera House

Last night I went the Vienna Opera to see Madama Butterfly, the final performance of the season. The Opera House is truly awe-inspiring, with the most decadent furnishings and space. My camera really couldn't quite capture the ambience created.
















I bought a standing ticket (Stehplatz) for 4 euros, for which I had a direct view of the stage but had to stand through the three acts. There are roughly 550 standing tickets sold every performance. You have to start queueing at roughly 5.30pm for an 8pm performance to get a ticket but it is well worth the effort (the only other tickets left were 210 euros).

The singer playing Pickington wasn't as strong as Madame Butterfly which was distracting but overall the performance was beautiful. I'm hoping to catch the last ballet performance next week for the same price, who said culture had to be expensive.

Eisenstadt

Eisenstadt ("Iron City") is well worth a visit for a few hours. Its about an hour away from Vienna and boasts a rather high density of churches and Haydn-named objects. Eisenstadt is a capital of a region in Austria called Burgenland. Markus, Aapo and I took on the 34C heat to wonder the city.

The Schloss Esterhazy is a rather impressive palace for the size of the city. Haydn was neither born nor died in Eisenstadt but his presence is felt everywhere. Joseph Haydn was under the patronage of the Esterhazy family and lived in Eisenstadt while composing. Hadyn's mausoleum is attached to the Bergkirche, a rather eclectic church (note the roof configuration) that looks like they just kept adding the building without a true plan.

The Schlosspark however steals the show entirely. There is a mini-lake (its bigger than a pond) surrounded by soaring trees, a Winter garden/Orangery and a beautiful Leopoldinentempel overlooking a pond. This tranquil setting would make an awesome picnic spot.


The highlight of our day came when we stepped into the church exhibition for which you are meant to pay 3 euros. We had no clue what was on offer in the museum and hence asked the attendant. On realising we weren't religious history fans let us in for free because he felt the exhibit would be of no interest to us...Only the Austrians would charge the interested. We did have to sign the guestbook with our countries though.

Eins...Zwei...Drei...

I'm learning German very slowly. I have opted not to do the formal classes which are an hour each for 10 hours total. Markus (German YSSP) has kindly offered to instruct some of us in German. Yesterday we started with counting. I can now count up to 20 and in theory everything past that too. My pronunciation needs a lot of work. We also covered how to ask for a table in a restaurant and how to order a meal and ask for the bill. I got to try some of this on the barman last night while ordering.

Most important phrase of the day: Entschuldigen Sie bitte! - Excuse me please

The picture attached is a sign from a hotel around the corner from the Naschmarkt. Its a black cat and the story goes that these signs were displayed over shop doors to advertise the trade or services available and the name. They are made from wrought iron and can still be seen in a few places around Vienna. The Wien Museum has an example of a hedgehog and the lantern that gave Schonlanterngasse its name. I'll post more as I see them, I think these signs are wonderful.

Blooming and Booming

Today was a mish mash of various events with a lot of soccer thrown in. The day started with a visit to the Museum of Applied Art (MAK) which is Vienna's answer to the V&A in London. The collection itself if not nearly as impressive but the building itself is a work of art. Marble pillars, painted ceilings, fountains embedded in the walls. The building is worth a visit just to gawk at (and its free on Saturdays). The Design Shop off the atrium is a showcase of how art and functionality can be combined to create quirky yet beautiful practical pieces.

The MAK borders the Stadtpark (City Park) and everything in the park seem to be blooming. The clock above is a perfect example (I wasn't tall enough to get a full picture).

On the way to lunch at Naschmarkt I got horribly disorientated and landed up at the wrong exit at Karlsplatz, not a tragedy because I stumbled across the Opera Toilet. It sings whenever anyone enters the toilet, a highly amusing spectacle. My other discovery was a beautiful fountain in the gardens around the U-Bahn exit.

Naschmarkt is a vibrant market with a mix of fresh produce, flea market junk, foreign cuisine supply stores and pavement restaurants. A group organised to Toko Ri, the Japanese restaurant within the market. Ordering sushi in German with Japanese names is amusing.

What followed was lots of World Cup match viewing...

The final bit of excitement for the day was a thunderstorm that materialised within minutes over the Danube Island (we were having a BBQ with the Forestry group). Stunning lightning and thunderclaps heralded the rain and so ended the day of sunshine and badminton and bbqing.

Austrian Bar, French Soccer

I managed to miss the whole game between South Africa and Mexico while stuck in the office (which turned out to be the better match) but I did manage to watch the Uruguay vs France later in the Austrian pub next to our apartments. The YSSpers commandeered a good deal of the space to watch the game on the projector screen. Terrible game all round I have to say. The YSSPers do however want a vuvuzela to try play. Anyone coming to Vienna with some spare luggage space?

The clocks strikes 12

The Austrian's seem to be just as pedantic about time as the Germans. Imagine being late...travesty! The picture on the right is the clock from the inner courtyard of the Schloss Laxenburg.

The church facing the Schloss chimes on the hour and at midday this is a sign for downing tools and heading to lunch. The Schloss Restaurant has seating in the garden (for the now sunny days) and lunch is a great opportunity to talk to fellow YSSPers about the worlds problems (and of course our party plans). So far I have learnt about public and private goods, cattle ranching, sustainable buildings, India's suicide problem in connection with farming, policy design for early warnings for extreme hydro events, air transportation vs train transportation, the list goes on. Hopefully when I have a clearer view on what people are doing I can broadcast their innovative research and world views.

Schloss Laxenburg

Laxenburg lay on the Roman road from Vienna to Soporn, Hungary. The Germanic people settled there sometime in the 11th century. Laxenburg has been connected with the rulers of Austria since 1306 via some Duke.

The Old Castle (Altes Schloss) is the oldest known building in Laxenburg, located in the Schloss Park (250 hectares). The park boasts a waterfall, a lake that one can take a paddle boat on and a gorgeous bridge guarded by some very proper knights in armour. Its an ideal place to go running or to take a stroll during lunch.

Laxenburg was originally favoured by Habsburgs (royal family) for hunting. The Schloss Laxenburg was acquired as the summer residence of the Habsburgs under Maria Theresia's reign. During the World Wars the buildings were used for the War Victim's Fund and a German tank regiment. After the wars the palace fell into disrepair and was only restored starting in 1962.

That was the abbreviated history, its actually a lot more complicated and involves prisoners and parties and politics.

Walking through the Schloss you can find the most amazing arches, stairways, art but the coolest thing is the Swarovski crystal chandeliers (they're sparkly) in some of the offices.

The other amazing feature is the Belvedere, the children's playroom that is reached after three spiral staircases. There are frescos on all the walls and the view from the highest point in the Schloss is beautiful (people actually get to use it as an office).

There are many other beautiful things about the Schloss like the courtyards and meeting rooms but I'll save that for another post.

Beer Party

What to do on a sunny afternoon in Laxenburg...throw a staff party in the Paradise Garden/Kaisergang. IIASA staff and YSSPers took a break to sit in the sun, drink some beer and eat some pretzels. Its a tough job but someone's got to do it :)

Palace Sommernachtskonzert

Tuesday night was the Vienna Philharmonic Sommernachtskonzert Schönbunn, a free concert given in the palace grounds. As the sun set over Vienna crowds flocked to the impressive gardens of the Palace. Normally you cannot walk on the grass, but for this special occasion any space is hoarded. Its not that clear from the photo but the stage is down the hill. We were inundated with mosquitos and we couldn't hear the music that well but it was definitely worth seeing the palace lit up at night.

The program was a mix of the old and the new. Star Wars at a Palace anyone?

Program
Williams: "Star Wars Main Title" aus "Star Wars" (5:10)
Joseph Strauß: Shpärenklänge. Walzer, op. 235 (8:00)
Liszt: Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 in A-Dur (21:40)
Williams: "Princess Leia's Theme" aus "Star Wars" (4:20)
Williams: "Imperial March" aus "Star Wars" (3:00)
Lanner: Abendsterne. Walzer, op. 180 (7:30)
Nicolai: Mondchor aus "Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor" (4:30)
Holst: "Mars" aus "Die Planeten" (8:00)
Johann Strauß: Wiener Blut. Walzer, op. 354 (9:00)
Josef Strauß: Auf Ferienreise. Polka schnell, op. 133 (2:10)

Decision Analysis: How certain are you?

Its amazing when one wonders through the library at IIASA. Its like stepping back in time to an age of paper journals and stacks. You even have to fill out paper loan forms. The librarian is so helpful and put together a unique reading list to deal with my topics and methodologies. It is the kind of personal service that makes you want to go back time and again. Imagine UCT library with a personalised service.

My current reading list is full of Decision Analysis and Robust Solutions. The founders of decision analysis were all affiliated to IIASA in some form, Ronald Howard being one of them. Its quite scary to grasp just how far their network of influence goes.

Decision Analysis has been around since the 60's, so why am I reading about it now? Bayesian networks, influence diagrams, decision networks are all founded on this concise technique that captures the most incredible amount of data, both subjective and objective. My pile of papers is growing...

The elevator pitch: Your life in 3 minutes

The elevator pitch, a summary of your research for the general population. I'm sure everyone has done an elevator pitch at some stage in their life. That dreaded question "So what do you do/study?". Today is the YSSP Introductory Workshop and each research group has 5 minutes to introduce their research interests and then each student attached to the research group has 3 minutes to give their elevator pitch.

The general idea:
1 minute: Who you are, where you are from and your technical background
2 minutes: Your research question you wish to explore during the YSSP period including your scientific interests for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Marek Makowski (my supervisor) shared a few recommendations that other groups seem to have missed.

1. 2 slides
2. No more than 7 words per line, 7 lines per slide
3. No full sentences that people can read and not focus on you.

Wien Museum - Karlsplatz

The Wien Museum is free on Sundays (which is a nice discount from the normal 6 euros). It was really interesting to see the changes of Vienna from the Roman occupation to the Hungarian Empire and then the modern day occupation. It has city maps, old plans and statues rescued from renovated buildings.

There is a special exhibition currently hosted at the museum showcasing Vienna in film. Its quite interesting to see the depiction of Vienna after seeing the city.
The Karlsplatz Kirche is currently under construction but beautiful nonetheless. The pillars framing the church entrance are carved with complex scenes. There is rumoured (we of limited funds did not pay the massive entrance fee) to be a massive fresco on the ceiling covering roughly 13500 feet.

Prater

The Giant Ferris Wheel of Vienna has been a key landmark since 1897. Its a costly ride at 8.50 euros but well worth the view of the whole city. It has seen many a fire and world war and has been rebuilt a few times. It has been the venue of numerous movies including "The Third Man" and "The Living Daylights".

The Prater itself is an amusement park that opened in 1766. A few YSSPers spent the afternoon and evening trying out the various rides and having a quiet drink in the Beer Garden. The perfect way to end the mammoth sight-seeing tour/walk that covered the whole of Vienna's 1st district.

Structured Modeling Technology

"Structured Modeling Technology (SMT) is based on the paradigm of separating the model specification from its data. Model specification contains the semantic descriptions of the model entities (variables or parameters) and the relationships between them. Based on the model specification it is possible to generate the data structures in the data-warehouse (DW) to store the model data".

SMT was designed to support model-based analysis of complex decision problems. There are many advantages to divide, conquer and integrate (see computer science theory) such as one data repository, reuse of specifications etc.

The Integrated Modeling Environment (IME) group at IIASA developed SMT in 2004. I am hoping to learn how to use the same fundamental modeling techniques (divide, conquer, integrate, document) while developing my thesis methodology.

We could rival the UN

I was asked what percentage of each nationality makes up YSSP 2010. A few numbers for those interested:
Total number of participants: 50
Total number of countries represented: 18
USA: 11,
China: 6,
Austria: 5,
Sweden: 4,
Canada: 3,
Finland: 3,
Russia: 3,
Ukraine: 3,
Hungary: 2,
India: 2,
South Africa: 2,
Brazil: 1,
Germany: 1,
Israel: 1,
Korea: 1,
Malawi: 1,
Pakistan: 1,
Senegal: 1

2% Solution

Today we had a talk by Crawford Stanley (Buzz) Holling. Holling is an ex-director of IIASA and works in Ecological and Evolutionary Sciences and works with the Resilience Alliance. His talk was officially labeled "Broken Society, Broken Ecosystems, and Broken Planet". His talk though was primarily on the 2% solution. 98% of the time, the linear solution works. The data makes sense, but what about the 2%? Who cares? Well apparently all Systems Analysts should, this 2% falls within the realm of the exciting, the challenging and the place that allows us design new methodologies to tackle non-linear problems.

Another interesting quote came from a fellow YSSPer, "All models are bad, some are just more useful than others". Good words to live by at the moment.

There is old and then there is very old

A group of intrepid explorers (namely 7 YSSPers) took to the streets of Schwedenplatz (the Jewish district) for a lively day of sightseeing. Vienna is old and pretty. Apparently Franz Joseph, the emporer, liked pretty things and made sure that all roads leading out of Vienna looked pretty for when he drive by. (The fountain is a memorial for the Black Plague)


Starting at Stephensplatz we managed to catch the Corpus Christi celebrations at noon outside St Stephen's Cathedral (We circled back later). We're not quite sure what the celebration is about but the parade was huge and filled with various religious figures.

Moving on we wandered the streets until we happened upon a truly bizarre clock set between 2 buildings. I can't seem to find anything on it in the guidebooks but I'm going to carry on looking, there is sure to be a story.

We also found a Greek Orthodox Church sandwiched between a pub and a government building. The inside of the church is truly breathtaking with scenes painted on all the walls and ceilings. There was also this grand chandelier (seems like a theme in Vienna), very sparkly. It reminds me of the church hidden in the suburbs in Istanbul with the gold leaf mosaic ceilings. Unfortunately my photos are terrible because I wasn't allowed to use the flash.

There is a famous local painter/environmentalist Friedensreich Hundertwasser in Vienna and his work is part of the cityscape. He designed the power plant and an apartment complex that are bizarre. I can't think of a better description. He felt that "straight lines are godless" and you can quite clearly see it in his designs. He also believed in tree inhabitants as well as human. I've posted 2 pictures, one of the front and one of the side. There are no straight lines, lots of foliage and the ground in uneven to "stimulate the brain". After the decidedly avant-garde we went back to the norm, the St Stephen's Cathedral.

The cathedral is huge with a 450 foot south tower (the ran out of money to finish the north tower). The roof is 200 feet high and sharply pitched. It is covered in ceramic tiles into patterns. The one has the 2 eagles, one looking west, the other east, to Hungary and (I think Germany). This is supposedly the national emblem for Austria (Not confirmed). The interior has soaring pillars with intricate detailing (including frogs and mice and dogs).

We never had time but there is a tour of the catacombs and a walk up the south tower (all 343 steps) when the weather clears.

Day 1: Official Opening

The first day of YSSP 2010 has arrived. The entire group was introduced to the team that has been helping us for the last few months as well as the director of IIASA. We were shepherded through miles of corridors but it was worth it in the end, chocolate pastries...yum.

The official opening consisted of the usual hellos, random logistics, stand up and say where you are from etc. The Head of the Library Aviott John walked us through the weirdest library numbering system I have ever seen. Its all based on shelf number, publication type and year. The library itself is wonderful though and its self-service 24/7.

It seems that most of the staff at IIASA are Windows users (with a UNIX server system) and Apple is only recently gaining in popularity amongst staff and students (My supervisor has a MacBook).

Our day ended with a traditional Austrian Heuriger (wine tavern) meal. The meal starts with breads and spreads, moves on to salads (almost all coated in vinegar) and then meat (schnitzel). Dessert was apple strudel.

International Melting Pot

I'm now installed in my new apartment for the next 3 months: Simmeringer Hauptstrasse 141-143. Its a 2 bedroom apartment on the first floor that opens out onto a patio of sorts. I'm sharing with a fellow female PhD student from India.

I visited IIASA today and found my office in the main building. I'm sharing with Stefan (Canada) and Shou Lio. The place is a maze of corridors and little rooms. The building used to be a castle, and from the gorgeous chandeliers and marble corridors its quite easy to see a forgotten era.

Laxenburg

I have spent the last 3 days in Laxenburg (Lower Vienna), the tiny suburb (I think its classified as a suburb) where IIASA is situated. The place has this very quaint feeling. The shops close by lunch on a saturday (including the only grocery store). People ride around on bicycles and life seems to go at a very slow pace (though this could just be the weekend).

I went exploring to find my office for the next few months, imagine my surprise when the building is a. huge and b. stunning. Its like those pictures you see of old European monuments. There is a park attached that it is rumoured contains a castle, pictures coming soon.

From the room I'm temporarily in I can hear the church bells at every hour and for celebrations (seems there were a few weddings this weekend). The church is directly opposite the entrance to IIASA in the Schlossplatz.

I have also added a new world to my German vocab:
Eissalon. I'm not sure what is actually translates to but I'm going with Ice Cream Parlour. The shop happens to be on the walk from the IIASA to the cafeteria, I see many an ice-cream lunch treat in my future.

Arrival in Vienna

I have arrived safely at my temp housing in Vienna after what seems like a very convoluted transport list. 2 trains, 2 buses and a walk and some lost keys later.

The housing grounds I am on also house the IIASA cafeteria which is where I'll probably be having lunch each day. I'm off exploring Laxenburg today, where I am actually staying for the weekend and going to be working. Its seems like a very sleepy town with minimal shops (think groceries, pharmacy, restaurant and hairdresser - that is all that is listed in the directory). Apparently there is a huge park and a castle to find.

Planning to go into Vienna proper tomorrow once I figure out the German bus schedule, I almost ended up going to the wrong town because they have multiple buses going different routes with the same number.

The adventure resumes

Today is the first day of my travels to Vienna for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP). With 52 postgraduate students from around the world, this program aims to equip young scientists with modeling, data analysis and policy-making skills needed in organisations around the world.

The program officially starts on Tuesday. I am currently sitting in Dubai International Airport having watched the sun rise earlier. Its sweltering outside (well in comparison to the cold front I left last night).

Visiting SAWS

Simon Mason from IRI is visiting South Africa for a project with the South Africa Weather Bureau (SAWS). I had the opportunity to go to Pretoria to ask a few questions to the expert himself. Below I have listed a few things I learnt on my trip:

There are 3 attributes that one must consider in verification of forecasts:
• Resolution: Conditioning on the forecast. If you forecast something, does it happen? A forecast is useful if you have some resolution. Difficult to measure (need lots of data). Good for regions not grid boxes.
• Discrimination: Conditioning on outcomes. If it rains, did we forecast it. Needs less data. Can get map
• Reliability: Measures confidence and bias. Not useful on its own. Need to use (Resolution ∪ Discrimination) ∩ Reliability

Defining a region of study:
It is worth starting at 20 degrees latitude and longitude on each side of area interested and then narrow down by looking at diagnostic maps from GCM to downscaled. Easy to do with CCA. If looking at geo-potential height as an indicator, then the region may need to be bigger to include larger scale synoptic conditions.

Some extra literature for my spare time:
[1] R. Hagedorn and L. A. Smith. Communicating the value of probabilistic forecasts with weather roulette. Meteorological Applications, 2008.
[2] S. J. Mason. Recommended procedures for the verification of operational seasonal climate forecasts. 2010.
[3] A. H. Murphy and D. S. Wilks. A case study of the use of statistical models in forecast veri- fication: Precipitation probability forecasts. Weather and Forecasting, 13:795–810, September 1998.
[4] M. S. Roulston and L. A. Smith. Evaluating probabilistic forecasts using information theory. Monthly Weather Review, 130:1653–1660, June 2002.
[5] M. K. Tippett and A. G. Barnston. Skill of multimodel enso probability forecasts. Monthly Weather Review, 136:3933–3946, 2008.

Oweek: The undergrads are back

Oweek on Campus is always crazy with everyone signing up for courses, tutorials and societies. I've been splitting my tine between teaching Python to the EGS Honours students for CSAG and helping out at the ballroom stand.

Sewing by hacking

I have realised that sewing is much easier with a pattern, without one I sort of hack away until it fits. Not ideal but it does the job well enough. I have been learning to sew and bought myself a gathering foot. The foot removes the PT of gathering by hand though it does decrease the possibility of changing the concentration of gathers post sewing. Overall though the outfit fitted. One down, many to go.

Ballroom AGM

The UCT Ballroom AGM this year started with a recap of the events from the last year and the successes and failures and avenues to improve. The biggest area of improvement seems to be retaining beginners by exam time. Intervarsity will be hosted by Rhodes next year, "Roadtrip to Rhodes". The date has been pushed back later in the year, til the end of August, which will change the timetable for ballroom events in general. There will be an overall change in calendar next year as a result of the Soccer World Cup. Let us hope the disruption does not negatively impact on ballroom and university in general.

The 2010 committee is:
CHAIR: Hayley McIntosh
VICE CHAIR: Lara Milne
TREASURER: Gershwin Scheepers
SOCIALS: Clair van Eyssen
MEDALS: Adrienne Daniels
FORMAL: Claire Hanley
IT: Richard Parry
O-WEEK & IV: Rudi Botha

SASAS Conference

South African Society for Atmospheric Scientists (SASAS) host an annual conference to bring together the Atmospheric Scientists and interested parties (agriculture, atmospheric chemists, hydrologists, oceanographers) a chance to meet and present their current research.

This year Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG) were tasked with running the conference. SASAS was held at Waterval in Tulbagh, a team building and conference venue just outside the picturesque wine producing town. There was snow on the mountains and fog in the mornings..nice and chilly.

The theme this year was BEYOND THE BOX. Trying to slowly shuffle atmospheric scientists from the traditional methods to the innovative. The conference structure changed to include 2 new sections; Grill the Climatologist and Beyond the Box.

Grill the Climatologist consisted of thought provoking questions put before a panel of three scientists. The questions were anonymously submitted to the chairman of the session. They included geoengineering, why we bother running more simulations when we can't cope with what we have already and carbon trading.

Beyond the Box was split into 2 sections, a short introduction by four scientists on what they think is the future of atmospheric science. These presentations highlighted the current failures and their visions of hope. The second section expanded on these ideas and included a few extra presentations on innovative approaches to climate science.

A few take home messages from this conference are that carbon trading is a disastrous idea, geoengineering is not a solution and that we need to stop looking to new and better models and tell a story with the data we already have.

UCT Ballroom Formal

The UCT Ballroom Formal this year was held at Kelvin Grove. The Emperor's Palace was formal with a touch of Asian. Kelvin has redone their floor since I was last there and it is superb to dance on.

I was adventurous and made my first ever ballgown for the event. I never realised what a mission it is to adjust/fit a dress that is actually on you. You are looking down and from an angle and so the seams that you think are straight, turn out to be rather skew. In the end it turned out vaguely correct.

Cossack's in CT

The Cossack dancers were in Cape Town and delivered a lively performance that required both stamina and strength. The guys were phenomenal with their spinning and the height to which they jumped. Definitely worth going to see.

Intervarsity Feedback

Intervarsity is a crazy chaotic event that UCT hosted this year. With 300 dancers it is a logistical nightmare.

The numbers or couples per section are as follows:
Open Sokkie (62 couples)
Open Boogie (94 couples)
Open Viennese Waltz (41 couples)
Open Mambo (96 couples)
Open Paso Doble (29 couples)
Beginner Ballroom (54 couples)
Intermediate Ballroom (32 couples)
Advanced Ballroom (19 couples)
Pre Bronze Ballroom (6 couples)
Bronze Trophy Ballroom (5 couples)
Gold Trophy Ballroom (3 couples)
Novice Ballroom (4 couples)
Beginner Latin (49 couples)
Intermediate Latin (34 couples)
Advanced Latin (18 couples)
Pre Bronze Latin (5 couples)
Bronze Trophy (5 couples)
Gold Trophy (5 couples)
Novice Latin(5 couples)

Overall points standing:

UCT 198
MATIES 156
NMMU 92
TUKS 3
UKZN 3
Rhodes 2
WITS 0

Team Dance results:
1. NMMU
2. UCT
3. MATIES
4. Rhodes
5. TUKS

Formation results:
1. NMMU
2. UCT
3. MATIES
4. TUKS
5. Rhodes
6. WITS

The countdown begins

With 10 days to go until Ballroom Intervarsity, things are starting to heat up. The medals have arrived, the entries are steadily coming in and formation practice has kicked into high gear. For those in Cape Town, Intervarsity is in Jameson Hall, 8.3am on Sunday 9 August. Come support UCT!

SHAWCO Centre Visit

SHAWCO is a student run organisation at UCT that does outstanding work in underprivileged communities throughout Cape Town. Today the SSA students were given the opportunity to visit one of their centres in Kensington, the place SHAWCO started 66 years ago. The visit reminded students that being at UCT is really like being in a bubble, it really is not indicative of the greater Cape Town society and poverty. I think this visit convinced a few more international students to volunteer for a program during their semester stay and to appreciate their opportunities in life.

Ocean View Comunity

I have never visited Ocean View prior to this weekend. Ocean View has a very sad history stemming from the Apartheid era. Blacks and coloureds were removed from Simonstown, Kommetjie and Noordhoek and placed in the area called Ocean View. This segregation led to a lot of anger that is still felt today from the marginalised community. The lunch in Ocean View provided an opportunity for International students to be introduced to marginalised communities in a formal setting and open their eyes to the stories behind each community. The performance by the members of the community were through their arts project that encourages dancing and singing as a means of expression and a way to channel energy positively.

IAPO experience

I am currently working as an Orientation Leader for the second semester study abroad program (SSA) for IAPO. The last week has been a whirlwind of activity, notably fetching students and answering all their random questions.

Orientation started last wednesday with a planning meeting for the Orientation Leaders to meet and set up a timetable amongst ourselves. 30 seconds proved to be a successful icebreaker and proved that girls rule!

Thursday started a lot earlier than most of us ever wished. 8 am pick ups of our first international students from the airport. IAPO tried a new system this year of moving students into Tugwell Hall as they arrived and then into their houses on the same day to minimise the moving chaos. The students arrived in drips and drabs all day with various horror stories of missed planes, missing visas, missing luggage and long flights.

Matt and James played tour guides around Rondebosch and campus and Claremont. It is safe to say none of us will ever be actual tour guides. For our sins we volunteered to take students to Tiger Tiger on Thursday night. Now normally this isn't so bad, but you need to take into account the crowd. American exchange students are not allowed to drink at home before 21, but are allowed from 18 in SA. And the alcohol is cheaper, much cheaper. Let the good times roll.

I was on early airport pickup the next day and the remainder of our 150 students arrived. Saturday was true chaos as buses did not arrive on time to collect the students to go to their houses. We eventually all arrived safely for "House Meetings" and signing of leases etc. I have 4 Germans and an American in one house and 3 Norweigens, 1 Dutch and 1 American in the other.

Sunday was the first day of the official orientation plan. By this stage all 400 SSA students have arrived through their various programs and were picked up for the Peninsula tour. The tour went around the City Bowl, through the V&A Waterfront, along the Seapoint promenade (Beach Road) and into Camps Bay. The tour continued to Hout Bay and then through Constantia. We finally arrived at Boulders Beach.

Boulders Beach is now a conservation project that is closed off and you have to buy a ticket to view. R30 for adults, R10 for children. A rip off as far as I'm concerned. Definitely not on my list of things to do again. Next we took a trip to Ocean View Community and had lunch and an informal show by members of the community. The tour concluded with a walk at Cape Point (R60 for adults).

All the OLs are exhausted and need a mini-holiday but alas we have another week to go.

Imperial Russian Ballet

The Imperial Russian Ballet visited Cape Town last week after much hype of their new piece Carmina Burana. I honestly did not like the piece, the ballet dancers are too classically trained to truly move freely as the choreography required. The piece was too contemporary I think. When they move back to the classical pas de deux and solos you could clearly see their strengths and confidence. I actually quite disappointed with the overall performance.

Tango Nights

I have been a ballet lover for years and have now seen Tango Nights twice. I am not sure I could see it a third time though. The dance music has an interesting mix of Tango and Argentine Tango but the music isn't blended together nicely, the changes sometimes come as a big surprise. The choreography is very modern and athletic but the females look unsure when doing various lifts, you can see the split second hesitation going into each lift. This makes me slightly nervous while watching the show. That said, if you enjoy modern ballet that isn't all tutus and tights, Tango Nights is well worth the time.

Star Trek 11

I loved Star Trek 11. After the bad reviews from some friends I had very low expectations but was pleasantly surprised by the movie. The movie stays true to the original series and I laughed from beginning to end. I am sure you are not supposed to laugh but I did. The special effects are wonderful but the music score was awful.

Live long and prosper!

How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

I have been looking through the various online resources available for Python and found Green Tea Press which includes How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python and Python for Software Design. I find the book informative for people who can already program but need to understand the idiosyncrasies of a new language.

Danscape 2009

Jazzart produce some exceptional dancers every year and this year is no different. I attended Danscape 2009, a student exhibition from the first year trainees and school outreach programs. The program was varied and displayed some interesting blends of African, Spanish and Asian influences. It is well worth the effort to see this performance every year and at R20 (for a block booking of 20 or more ticket are reduced from R50) its cheaper than a movie!

UCT Symphony Concert

The UCT Symphony Orchestra performed tonight in the Baxter Concert Hall. I love the Baxter with its bizarre ceilings and the acoustics in the Concert Hall are phenomenal. The pieces performed included:
L van Beethoven : Fidelio Overture Op. 72
Hendrik Hofmeyr Concerto for Flute
A Dvorák : Symphony No. 9 in E Minor Op. 95 "From the New World"

Attending tonight's concert with an out-of-towner reminded me just how lucky we are to live in Cape Town and are able to attend so many cultural activities. I wish more people supported arts and music events.

IPL ends with a bang

I have had a fantastic 6 weeks while the IPL has played out in South Africa. I loved the final and the nail biting ending that could have gone either way to the last ball. The Deccan Chargers won and it is very interesting to note that they were at the bottom of the log in 2008. Hats off to Adam Gilchrist (even if he is Australian) for captaining the winning side.

The closing ceremony was an amazing fireworks display and getting Eddie Grant and Akon to perform topped the night off nicely. This tournament shows the rest of the world that South Africa can pull off a major sports tournament with little notice and without any apparent hitches (forget the guy driving into the spotlights). I look forward to the Soccer World Cup and Confederation Cup now. And the Franch Open which started yesterday.

JPlag

I find it fascinating the number of cases of plagiarism the university sees very semester in computer science. JPlag is a tool to compare students code for similarity and reported 45 cases for the first tutorial alone. Its rather worrying that these are meant to be the "creme" of society that make it into university.

This brings me to my next point, practical tests. I despair at the new students and their attempt to make their lives more difficult. When you have a limited amount of time to complete a test and have access to your notes and past assignments, surely one would think of reusing old code or copying the basics straight the notes instead of trying to remember the basic syntax and wading through compile errors. Surely it is a logical option?

Medal Test woes

As many have discovered in the past, UCT Venue bookings are very disorganised, so much so that they triple booked halls on campus today. We worked so hard to clean the floor last night and prepare for the medal tests this morning only to arrive to another group in the hall and a completed ruined floor. So much for preparation. It seems the various administrations do not communicate, surprise, surprise!

My medal test went well, though I forgot how much energy it takes to be "on" all the time on the floor. Its frankly exhausting. Everyone seemed to have a good time overall and I hope they transfer that enthusiasm to Intervarsity.

IT Challenge Final

This last week has been rather stressful. The IT challenge at the head offices of Standard Bank in Johannesburg on Thursday was a six hour adrenaline rush as each team of 4 had 7 problems to complete and a curve ball to deal with.

Last year the curve ball was an extra problem with increased time penalties, this year was a half an hour computer shutdown for "emergency maintenance". When you only have one computer, this eats into your time and productivity quite substantially.

UCT came second overall and as prizes we received Dell 22inch flatscreens. Nice consoaltion prize :)

Ballroom is hotting up

For those who watch the UCT Ballroom calendar Medal Tests are just around the corner. Extra lessons start on Sunday and we are set to have a truly awesome time this year. We're going Greek! The committee are also gearing up for Intervarsity and all it entails (the bane of my existence at the moment).

My thesis is slowly progressing with a multitude of stops and starts as problems arise. I am currently investigating the SMILE library for Bayesian Inference. I am not completely sold on the library and the API yet and am wondering if I should have stuck it out with PNL. I seem to have more problems than solutions currently. The nightmare continues.

Python for Nonprogrammers

The EGS Honours class at UCT has requested a course on programming and the research they are attached to (CSAG) has decided Python is the best introductory language for them. I have never taught Python to people who have never programmed before and especially ones who have already done an entire degree. How quickly can you move through the basic programming concepts? Do you assign it as homework before your first lecture? Any suggestions?

I have read through a Byte of Python but I am not convinced it covers the topics in enough depth. I as a programmer can breeze through the whole book without a qualm but I do not remember a time when I didn't know what a variable is or what an IO stream is.

We will see how well things go next week. I might be designing the lecture material yet again. Sigh. If nothing else, it is a challenge to see how well I can still teach the basics.

IPL is here

I am super excited to attend the Indian Pro20 League games happening at Newlands next week. Due to election violence in India the entire tournament has been moved to South Africa. Something South Africans are ecstatic about. The games are sold out, space is going to be at a premium. Bring on the boundaries!

Chocolate trails in Montague

The Easter weekend was chocolate filled and not in the normal way. Ever been rock climbing for your Easter eggs? No? I can officially cross that off my I Never list. It is the most bizarre experience. The first climber leads the climb with Easter eggs and hides them on the way down. The next finds his/her eggs on the way up and eats them and hides new eggs on the way down.

This weekend was the first time I have ever climbed, be it on a climbing wall or crag. I came away with more bruises that I would have liked and a healthier knowledge of the sport in general. I'm not sure it is quite my thing, I think it might be one of those things that could grow on me.

While away I bumped into a fair number of my research group, which begs the question, are most environmental scientists outdoor freaks or just this lot? Another weird fact, ask a climber if they dance, you will be surprised at the number that say yes. It seems there is a correlation between social ballroom/salsa and climbing. Both are social, both have a grading system of sorts. Ballroom however has smaller startup costs.

In a Goldfish bowl

I had the privilege of attending the last Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Concert of the season. Goldfish played to a sell-out crowd while the sun set over the mountains. I managed to miss all previous concerts in CT due to other commitments or still being in Michigan. While I enjoy their albums, I loved their live performance. They manage to get the crowd going and keep up the energy for the entire performance. I will definitely go to another of their concerts on their return to CT later in the year (They are playing in Ibiza for a month). This experience taught me not to write off a band just because their album sounds offay.

You're only as old as you feel

Table Mountain is a truly beautiful venue to hold a champagne breakfast. I love going up the cable car every year on my birthday (for free) for either breakfast or sundowners. This year friends hiked up India Venster to meet me at the top. The view from above never gets hold, no matter how many years I have lived in Cape Town. I think we managed to freak out the tourists up there though. If you ever find yourself on top of Table Mountain near the compass, look for the manhole covers and jump on them. The compass is directly above the water drum. The hollow sound it makes when you jump on them is awesome.

My day continued with lunch with my grandparents and then drinks at Fat Cactus with friends. Frozen Margaritas are wonderful, as are cheesy nachos to soak up the alcohol afterwards. We finished the night with a UCT Ballroom social themed Grease. Big skirts with poodles, bows and slicked back hair was the order of the evening.

Celebrations continued the next day when I hosted my first ever dinner party. I think it was a great success (No one is allowed to comment otherwise). The menu included:

• Butternut Soup with french bread
• Deboned stuffed chicken with mixed vegetables and potato bake
• Dark Orange Chocolate Mousse or Meringues with Ice Cream
• Coffee and Biscotti

There weren't many leftovers...

Sushi anyone?

Any sushi lover in Cape Town has to try Minato's off Long Street. This sushi restaurant tantalises the tastebuds and offers some of the most reasonably priced sushi around. The portion sizes are huge (I'm being serious when I say a dragon roll and a California roll will fill an adult male). The service however is quirky. You cannot arrive without a booking (Well you could try, you might be lucky), you may only order once at the beginning of the meal (One chef who closes the kitchen when he feels like it) and do not even suggest paying on separate cards. Once you have navigated the trials and tribulations of the ordering rules on the menu, page to the special rolls, they are out of this world (I have a friend who refers to them as sushigasms).

UCT RAG Floats 09

UCT RAG Floats Parade 2009 was themed "Where in the world". The general idea behind the floats parade is to collect change for SHAWCO but also allows residences to work in teams to create the floats with varying degrees of success. Some floats were slightly unstable but the EBESC float had a alien spacecraft with flashing lights which was quite impressive.

UCT Ballroom participates annually by dancing in the procession between the floats doing Samba line dance, a travelling version of Samba that is done individually. We ended up dancing behind the EBESC float this year as the float we were meant to dance for had generator issues.

The stop start nature of the parade made for some interesting reworks of the line dance but overall I think it was rather fun. My legs and feet were killing me later though. An hour of Samba on tar in takkies is not the best way to treat your feet. The impact alone is killer on the knees.

Ada Lovelace Day 09

Ada Lovelace Day is an opportunity to write about women in technology. I decided I would write about one of my old lecturers who is using her computer background to help advance the field of visualisation of molecules.

Michelle Kuttel obtained her degreee in Computer Science and went on to study computational chemistry for her PhD. Her PhD thesis focused on Simulations of Carbohydrate Conformational Dynamics and Thermodynamics. While working towards her doctorate Michelle was the sysadmin for the chemistry group at UCT.

Following her doctorate Michelle has been lecturing students in Computer Science at UCT while working on visualising algorithms for carbohydrates and the simulation of carbohydrates. She also supervises students who are testing new docking techniques for molecules, visualisation of carbohydrates and high performance algorithms for computational chemistry.

Michelle is well-known in South African circles for high performance computing and was one of the original team to push for the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) that is now operational in Cape Town.

For me, Michelle and other female researchers at UCT were proof that females could survive the world of computing and still do the work they love.

A Dash of culture

Mixit was an interesting experience. Put together to literally show a mix of dances, the pieces didn't gel or flow into a seamless show. I was intrigued by the music choices and how the dancers expressed what was essentially electronic music with a slight melody. Definitely not my favourite show.

Standard Bank IT Challenge

The Standard Bank IT Challenge is a four hour programming competition where each university enters four teams to compete for one place per university for the final. The teams are supplied with 1 PC and allowed to program in C++, Java and Pascal. In past years there has been support for Python but not this year. The problems this year varied from a string manipulation to a brute force solution for tiling a grid. The final ranking put Stellenbosch in first place solving all five problems with [censored] from UCT, in second place solving four of the five problems. The finals will take place in May in Johannesburg. I have never competed in the final before and it will be an interesting experience. Finals report to come in May :)