Hello relatives and friends:

This is the continuing saga of Norman (and Yokelin) Foo reporting from 
England.  It is me, Norman, who is writing this report, so all blame for 
offending remarks, if any, are entirely mine. 

Three weeks ago we were in Berlin for a week where I attended the European 
AI Conference.  As a rule I shall not say anything about the conferences as
the arcane details are only of interest to me.  But do ask, if you are 
curious, and I will e-mail you separately.

Berlin (and Germany) were re-united only about 10 years ago.  The scars
still show.  We stayed in a hotel in the old East Berlin, and the main
road that lead to it is Karl Marx Allee.  There is much decay in the
East that is yet to be fixed.  The conference was held in Humboldt
University, a uni at which the great Einstein was a professor.  I
looked at the potraits on the walls, and it was a record of their Nobel
laureates in physics, chemistry and medicine.  Listen to some of those
in the first two fields that I recalled -- Einstein, Haber (of the
Haber process for Ammonia), von Lauer, Nernst (I had awful troubles
with his equations, so he was lucky his potrait did not get graffitied
by me!), Born.  Humboldt was in the Eastern part of Berlin.  Its drop
from world class to mediocrity -- from which it has not yet recovered --
was in three stages.  The first was when the Nazis in the mid 30's
purged it of "Jewish" science.  Even non-Jewish professors quit in
protest.  Olivia Newton-John's grandfather Max Born took refuge in
England, as did Erwin Schrodinger (who was not at Humboldt), and of
course it is well-known that Einstein left for Princeton.  Then after
the war, the communists purged it of "bourgeois" science.  And the
latest after re-unification, it got purged of "socialists".  Hmmm, I
would have thought that one of the prime lessons in science is that it
is universal, and can be practised effectively by all who are
empiricists at heart.  In fact, it is possible for a good scientist 
to have benighted political or social beliefs: the classic cases I know are
Teichmuller, an outstanding mathematician who was also a dedicated Nazi, 
and Pontryagin, a genius control theorist but also an anti-Semite. 

One thing you notice in Berlin is that the stations are clean and the people
orderly.  This is not always a good thing.  It seems to me that active,
participatory democracies go with a certain amount of disorder, irreverance,
and cynicism.  For this reason, it was much easier for Nazism to triumph in
Germany than for Facism to be a real force in Italy.  The Italians are 
basically ungovernable, which also makes them loveable rougues.  
One late night, we were at a pedestrian crossing and there was not a car in 
sight.  Of course we ignored the red light and crossed -- but not the 
Germans around us!

Of German food, this I will say.  The pastries are second-to-none, and 
sauerkraut is a marvellous invention.  And if anyone can make sausages, 
the Germans can and do;  I'd even say better than "lap-cheong".  

If efficiency was the only arbiter of victory, then Britain could never
have hoped to resist the Germans in the 2nd WW.  German trains run like 
clockwork.  Their traffic system is smooth.  Their subways are rationally
designed.  But efficiency does not equal wisdom.  The British Spitfire
was inferior in engineering to the German Messersschmitt (spelling?) but
it flew well even when things weren't optimal.  So, the British blunder 
along.  That may prove to be a quite OK strategy in an uncertain world.

About the subway system, during the partition there were stations in the
West that were only connected via stations in the East.  Well, an accord
was reached to allow the Western trains (the Eastern ones were taken out
of service) to run thru the Eastern stations, but they were not allowed 
to stop there, and in fact Eastern border guards lined these stations.
Some West Berliners purposely took such trains to have a fake thrill of
danger when they whizzed past the stern-looking guards carrying sub-machine
guns.

We were in Edinburgh for the Diagrammatic Reasoning conference last week.
The city has to be one of the most beautiful in the world.  It is not large,
in fact it is so compact that you can soak in all the major touristy stuff 
on foot, well, give or take a few sore heels.  The major street, Princes
Street, parallels one of the most breath-taking views in the world.  From
it, you can see across a gardened valley a vista flanked by two castles,
between which are tall stone buildigs clearly dating from a few hundred 
years ago.  This vista spans 2 or more kilometers.  I have not seen anything
like it, not even the Acropolis or Knossos can match it in visual impact.

Edinburgh Uni is very, very old.  It has spread its buildings all over 
the old town, and Computer Science is above two pubs!  This particular
building is 8 floors deep.  I said deep, not high, for a good reason.  The old
part of the city is actually two orthogonal cites, one above the other, 
crossing at various points.  The CS Building from on perspective seems to 
be only 4 floors high, but the lower 4 floors are in the orthogonal city!

Here's something funny.  Everybody tries to build copies of
the Parthenon, and the Scots are no exception.  However, they are very
stingy, and try to do it cheap.  So, you see some very funny copies.
They have a Parthenon-like front for a building, but just one or two
columns deep, then the rest of it is the real building.  Up one hill you
can see from the city is an even funnier one, a Parthenon with only an
outside shell like the ruins in of the real one in Athens, except that
this one is not old, maybe just 100 years old, and the reason they did not
finish it is because people stopped giving money!    

Edinburgh is the city of David Hume, the greatest empirical philosopher
who ever lived, and also of John Napier who invented logarithms.  I took 
a picture of me standing next to Hume's statue.  Sadly, Hume was hated by
the Church, so unlike another native son Adam Smith, he was denied 
burial in any church that mattered.

Edinburgh Castle is one of the two flanking castles I mentioned above.  Like
all British castles, it has its history of triumph and misery, but this one
is very, very old.  The oldest standing building in it is St Margaret's
Chapel, which is still used for weddings of soldiers serving in the 
Scottish regiments that supply the castle guards.  "It seats only 20, which
pleases the bride's parents enormously", said our guide.  This chapel dates
back to the time of the Norman conquest, and Margaret was a Saxon princess
who fled north with her family to escape from the Normans.  She married 
Prince Malcolm (later King) who, it is said, fell for her like a ton of 
bricks the moment he laid eyes on her.  This set me wondering.  Presumably,
he spoke Gaelic, and she Old English.  How did they communicate?  (Those of
you who are Black Adder fans might recall the Spanish Infanta episode, and
you will know why I laughed to myself as I asked myself this question.)
Latin?  Or does Love Transcend All?  Anywhow, she was pious, compassionate
and much loved by her husband, children, and her adopted people.  So much 
that Pope Innocent canonised her soon after her death.

When we arrived there by bus from Birmingham, I asked the two guides at
the bus station where is the cab rank from which we could catch the cab
to the guest house.  When they saw the address, they kept saying "Nay, ye
catch the bus, it's only 80p, the cab is too expensive".  They were most
reluctant to tell me where was the cab rank!  It's true what they say about
the Scots and money.

OK, this will do, so you won't get bored.  Next report in a few weeks from
now.

Love to all.

Norman