home & away, and home again

Ok - this is it. No more travelling for a couple of months. I’m fed up with it. Am on a train back from Geneva, having only a couple of days previously got back from Chicago. I’d gone over to Geneva to talk to a bunch of graduate students from three different universities about academic publishing, and how understanding the job of the editor and reviewers can increase the chances of getting a paper accepted. I really enjoyed putting together the talk, as it allowed me to describe my job as editor - the talks I usually give are all about my research, and yet the biggest drain on my life-work balance is the journal, so it was actually nice to be able to talk about that. They gave me a fantastically impressive bottle of wine as a ‘thank you’. Sadly, I couldn’t bring it home in my hand baggage (I always travel light). So whoever cleaned my hotel room last night will hopefully enjoy it on my behalf...

Chicago was good. Slightly traumatic as I have a problem recognizing faces and recalling names, and for some reason, I was particularly debilitated this time around. It had nothing to do with the 4 large glasses of wine, 5 huge martinis, 2 equally huge Margaritas, 6 regular beers, 1 medium Sake, and whatever else I can’t remember drinking over the course of 4 nights. And I’m glad to report that it wasn’t me who fell off his chair (his Jack Spade was undamaged, I believe - unlike his reputation...). There were several highlights: eating at Boka, having coffee on the 96th floor of the Hancock Building (which is cheaper than paying to take the elevator to the observation platform, which is only 4 floors above the café), meeting up with old friends. Oh... the science wasn’t bad either!

And to end this post on a sad note. The last time I went to Geneva, back in April, the hard drive on my MacBook Air failed. This time, the MBA worked flawlessly. More flawed, however, was my iPhone; the mute switch detached itself in my hand within moments of arriving. It must be something about all that alpine air...

TVs in lifts... whatever next?

Evidently the pace of life in Chicago is such that even the short ride in the lift (“elevator”) to the foyer (“lobby”) would be incomplete without all the latest news updates streamed to a small TV embedded into the wall. Or maybe folk get stuck in the lift so often that the TV is there to provide entertainment while a rescue team is put together. If it were me, and I were stuck in a lift, I think I’d swap the TV for a W.C...

Obama couldn't have done it without me.

That’s a complete lie. I’m just curious to see whether the number of hits to my page go up because I put the term ‘Obama’ in there. According to today’s Google statistics, there are 216 million web pages with ‘Obama’ compared to 230 million with ‘Bush’. Given that the word “bush” can mean countless other things, it’s not surprising that Bush outranks Obama on Google. But seeing as George Bush has been US president for 8 years, and Obama’s only been in the public eye for a year or so, it’s pretty telling. And to put this in further perspective: “Barack Obama” - 105 million pages vs. “George Bush” - 22.7 million pages. I’m not making a political statement here - I simply wonder why the US electorate felt compelled to go through all that effort, and all those dollars, when they could have just googled the candidates and gotten the same outcome...

Next week I get to experience the delights of transatlantic travel once again - traveling to Chicago for a big conference. And three days after I get back, I’m off to Switzerland. I do worry that the journal may suffer - I can make editorial decisions when I travel, but it’s impossible to send papers to review, so inevitable delays build up. I’ve been looking at this year’s statistics: This year alone I’ve sent over 300 papers to review, and have made over 500 editorial decisions. Collectively (myself and the Associate Editors), we reject between 25% and 30% of submitted manuscripts without sending them out to review, and we only accept for publication around 10% of submitted manuscripts. So fewer than 15% of manuscripts which are sent to review are accepted. It exhausts me just thinking about all this. I need a break. Or a medal. Or just a little more time in each day.

Not much else to report - the leaves fall as fast as I can rake them up and the fish are slowly becoming more and more immobile as the water temperature drops and the days become darker. I fear I am myself becoming more fish-like each day...

bruised, battered, and relaxed...

Am just back from a week’s intensive karate training interrupted only by fine food, remarkably decent beer, and a bomb scare.

The training was inspiring, although I ended up with bruises on parts of my body that I don’t recall ever being hit. Other attendees included a computer vision scientist, a toxicologist, an airline pilot, a brain surgeon, a software developer, a builder, a PhD student, various children, and others whose professions I never managed to establish because I was too busy trying to hit them...

So now that I’ve been re-invigorated by all that adrenalin (and probably testosterone too), I’m ready once again to do battle with the forces of evil journal.