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The first full week of my trip was in Ireland, mostly in Dublin for the GECCO conference. Many of the presentations were very interesting, but photos of them probably wouldn't be. So instead, here are a bunch of pictures of food, people, and very green Irish grass.
The robot demo was a hit, probably because I was the only one with videos and toys.
Live Irish music at the Temple Bar, which we frequented
Ok, so maybe one more picture of the conference is in order. This was the Gecco Evolutionary Art Competition, where Jeff Clune and I showed off EndlessForms.com. In the back we showed 3D printed versions of some of shapes that users have evolved, as well as the website using the tiny projector on the right.
Visit to the Guinness Storehouse, with an honorary seat and third Guinness for our friend, Matt
...but we figured looking at a map of 1/4 of the world would help us narrow our search. We eventually decided to go to Norway (see next pics).
Shari and I rented a car and took a day trip with Mike Schmidt and Leticia to the west coast of Ireland.
A gravestone which, for some reason, has the last letter of the line written above the line. We figured they might have run out of room.
Taxi drivers in Ireland line up for customers at popular locations and then sit for hours before getting a fare. The resulting hourly rate must be dismal.
Driving on the wrong side of the road was hard enough, but the road from Dublin to Galway was even more fun because (1) each lane was as narrow as a parking space in the US and (2) it still had a speed limit of 100 km/h.
We finally made it to the Cliffs of Moher (of Princess Bride fame), and it was so windy that the shops and ticket office were closed and only a handful of tourists were around.
Back at the hostel, we made some cheap Polish soup to offset all the money we'd been spending on Guinness and $8/gallon gasoline.
We were confused about this one, but luckily an Irishman explained: one yellow line at the side of the road means “You can't park there at all,” and two yellow lines means “You can't park there at all at all.”
St. Luke and a somewhat cross-eyed ox in a manuscript from the Church of Ethiopia. The text is written in Ge'ez.