ARVO

ARVO was pretty productive this year and very busy. I had planned on having a little time to perhaps make it down to the Dry Tortugas this year but scheduling prevented that and just about all photography opportunities. This year the schedule ended just a bit before the McDonalds Air/Sea show, but I did manage to get a few shots of the Navy’s Blue Angels practicing the day before the show was to start.

Our poster went very well with lots of traffic. The poster we did with our friends at Stanford was well received and my talk seemed to generate lots of interest as well. We also had the opportunity to meet with some of the folks that are applying for faculty positions here. One of the junior faculty applicants, Steve Stasheff was particularly impressive. Given his background as a pediatric neuro-ophthalmologist, I assumed a particular level of knowledge on basic science issues. Boy was I wrong. I had known of some of his work with retinal degeneration, but he really surprised me with his depth and extent of knowledge and interest in retinal circuitry. Very impressive and my hopes are that we can carve out a position for him here at the Moran Eye Center. Given that I am junior faculty myself, I only have so much say (read little to none), but here’s holding out hope. Jozef…… dude, where were you?

Dinners were as usual, most excellent. Eats were had at Johhny V’s with Michael Kalloniatis and Daniel Sun where the company was warm and most enjoyable and the food was delicious as always with an appropriate wine list to accompany the meal. We also had a wonderful dinner with Bruce Berkowitz at Chima where the selection of meats were exceptional and as seems to be tradition now, we also met with our friends from Stanford, and had the pleasure of also inviting my friend Pamela to join us at the Greek islands Taverna for dinner and Greek wine.

In an effort to see something outside of the convention center and the insides of restaurants, Robert and I went for a little walk over the 17th street drawbridge.

Starting out and looking over into the harbor, we saw the USS San Antonio, the first of a twelve-ship class designed to be the first amphibious transport dock for amphibious assault, special operations and expeditionary warfare.

A bit more sedate and luxurious water travel can be had in the Rasselas, a 171ft (62m) Feadship that I suspect would be rather pleasant lodging for next years ARVO at the bargain basement rate of $235,000/week. It would be lovely, but I suspect that rate is a wee bit above this scientists budget.

The final two images from ARVO are a rather friendly Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) that I have seen for the last three years over by Las Olas, and the label of an animal of a different kind, a Lamborghini which in South Florida is not at all unusual in that I seem to see several/week every year at ARVO, but back home am lucky to even see one/year.

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