I feel like the Eiffel Tower

At IEA meetings, more than any others, I feel like the Eiffel Tower: everybody wants to be photographed standing next to me. At coffee breaks I'm sometimes so dazzled by flashlights my eyes have permanent after-images. It's all good for my ego of course, but I wonder what I've done to deserve all this adulation. As so often, I'm very sad that Wendy isn't here to bask in reflected glory. Today is the second-last day of the Congress, which surely has been a resounding success. Typically for Edinburgh,there's a mix of sunny,windy days and very wet days, today being one of the latter. South of here in London and several provincial English cities there have been terrible riots, looting, burning, mob violence sparked it seems by social unrest arising from resentment among the "have-nots" at the material wealth of the well off majority among whom they are admixed in crowded cities where not even the well to do have very much breathing space.. Meantime in our ivory tower we debate philosophical arcana. As so often when I think about the human condition, these wide -- and widening -- gaps trouble me. I would not want a society of absolute uniformity, but I do find the absence of talk about this dramatic evidence of social inequality quite alarming. I hope today's drenching rain, which affects the entire British Isles, will help to cool the rage of the hot-heads. Selfishly, I also hope it doesn't disrupt my travel plans -- which, I discovered today, have been badly mismanaged by the incompetent travel agent at CAA.