We went back to the Austrian Alps and it was the same as it was last time, ending our hike on an old chair lift, coming down the valley with the sound of cowbells and accordion music drifting up, back… Read More ›
Austrian Alps
Teaching machines to learn cause and effect
The twitch in my eye is the result of an outdated prescription, or from reading too much online at work, I’ve decided. The reading has been on artificial intelligence, training machine models to learn unsupervised through clusters of computers tied… Read More ›
Suicide in the Alps (father figure theme) | Field notes from the Pacific coast
This is a series of posts I started in late May and plan to continue for 40 days, with a goal of hitting 50,000 words by July 5 (at 30K!). It’s inspired by a three-day solo trek on the Washington… Read More ›
Peeing on Switzerland
Ralf pokes the scat with the tip of his trekking pole and says in English it’s fresh, from earlier today. And the wind changes direction, it’s coming from Switzerland now, and I don’t know if that’s good or bad but… Read More ›
How the rock bands formed the Alps
If there’s such a thing as a German version of Robert De Niro it’s Eberhard with his constant wince, his diamond studded earring and pony tail coming undone, the wraparound sunglasses, the AC/DC ringtone. The wince could be from too… Read More ›
No Wi-Fi in the Alps
Ventured out for our first family getaway to Rothenburg ob der Tober. Took the 81 toward Untergruppenbach, then the 6 toward München, the 7 to Ülm. Espoused our strategy for spending money in the middle of a cobblestone street when… Read More ›
Heat Returns to Paris and Berlin
Eberhard and I drove to the Hexenplatz, by the windmill, where you can dump yard waste and pick up compost, for free. Not sure why it’s called Hexenplatz, because Hexen means witchcraft, or miracle-making. The weekly Gemüse delivery came too,… Read More ›
Bill Pearse 