would you like to see the place i come from? on one side of the room were maybe ten very smart people i work with. on the other side of the table was a group of very smart people whom i just met for the first time. (they were scientists and experts and just plain good people, doing good things. and i am not kidding.) on the phone was a woman who could not come into the city because the storm already hit her part of the state. a large screen under a camera on the other side of the room showed a conference table somewhere in washington dc, where a man was spinning his blackberry, while looking roughly into our direction. and i began by showing a picture of the town where i was born. i then proceded to that photograph of me with my mother, looking at my neighbor alina, tuning in a station on a transistor radio. it was a bit of an odd moment perhaps. but it had to happen. and it will probably never happen like this again. it is beginning to snow. it will very soon snow a lot more. then a bit more. more still later. quite a good tuesday, i must say. quite a good tuesday.