I spent last weekend in Philadelphia attending a conference entitled The Science of Information, 1870-1945: The Universalization of Knowledge in a Utopian Age (February 23-25, 2017).

Of course, fascination with the content of the conference is a bit unusual and acquired taste ;-)

Here’s a snap of the lovely conference poster at the entrance.

The conference was sponsored by the Penn Libraries, The Beckman Center at the Chemical Heritage Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, and the opening session on the first night was held at the Beckman Center at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in the Old City District while the rest of the sessions were held in Penn’s beautiful Fisher Fine Arts Building.

The Fisher Fine Arts Building was distractingly beautiful and even had a “Hogwarts” like reading room.

The conference sessions were generally interesting, and the content from them will definitely come in very handy as I explicate the theory and design of Cosma over the next few years. However, Philadelphia is also a fascinating and beautiful city, and it was experiencing a February heat wave, so detours did happen.

For example, walking back to Penn from Old City, I came upon this view of City Hall.

That view and my quick glances around during my fast walk through it inspired me to return the next day, and I just couldn’t help taking some cliche “tourist-type” photos.

There was even a skating rink set up to one side of the City Hall plaza, and it was quite entertaining to see the skaters enjoying it on a 70-degree day.

On the way back from playing hooky from the conference, I came upon this sign in front of a bookstore.

Well said!

Overall, it was a great trip that renewed my fondness for Philadelphia. If you haven’t been, it’s a great place to visit, and I highly recommend it — the more you learn about the history of it, the more fascinating it becomes!