Since late Sunday night, I’m at DESY in Hamburg for a series of meetings, first on the CALICE Analog HCAL, then on plans for a new EU Project, and finally for the ILD workshop. Lots of things to discuss, ranging from test beam plans, financial matters, detector engineering to physics simulations and general physics issues at linear colliders. But topics connected to marine life are coming up surprisingly frequently. The most pressing one: Could Paul be right? I surely hope not, but we’ll know in a few hours. Meanwhile, will they be serving octopus at our meeting dinner tonight? I’ll go find out right now.
Baby seal on the beach in Hamburg right at the Strandperle bar. Searching for its mother, but maybe there is also a secret interest in calorimetry...
On Monday, we had our traditional CALICE outing, due to unstable weather we first went to a Bistro, and only later to the beach for beers. Same place as last year, but with a significantly reduced crowd, and no intentions of detector building. There we were greeted by a very unusual sight: A baby seal was lying on the beach, right at the bar. Apparently the poor guy had lost its mother, swam up all the way to Hamburg, and then crawled exhausted onto the beach. The baby was rescued and brought to a seal nursing station, and I hope it is on the way to growing big and strong to move back to the ocean in a while.
