Will you be helping to coordinate crash space for the nights around the weekend again? It was very much appreciated last time, and would like to stay a bit longer in Berlin if possible...

I don't know how much of the reading I'll have done as I'm attempting to stay rational(ish) while moving, but I'll be there...

This is very interesting. When I was dieting I noticed that a taste of food (but not diet coke which I drink tons of) was often enough to give me more physical and mental energy, but that it also made me feel more hungry, possibly because it set off the stomach acids ready for digestion. I wondered at the time if it could be explained by glycogen. Glycogen as I understand it is how the body stores readily available sugars that are not in the blood but where they're a lot more easily broken down than in fat. (It's also heavier than fat per calorie so it explains a lot of high early weight loss effects). I thought that maybe tasting food prompted the body to release some glycogen into blood sugar so it had the energy for digestion.

Of course this doesn't mean that distractibility isn't a Thing too. Will power is almost certainly one of those things that's 'a bit more complicated than that'...

I'm coming from Edinburgh

Any idea why not?

When I was reading the sequences in reruns I felt like a first student in a class in a glass box with ALL the graduates looking on and free to shoot down my ideas :-) Plus I am not a naturally prolific commenter...

I don't think it's unfair at all, but your comment made me rethink something that may be relevant. Quirrel set a surprise exam, and it was surprisingly easy and everyone (except Hermione) passed. I think probably the worst thing that you can do in the face of a surprise exam is not attempt to answer, and maybe that's part of the lesson EY is trying to convey here :-)

I also note that Quirrel failed Hermione in the knowledge that he would be resurrecting her, and this is either very mean, or a very good lesson for resurrected Hermione, or both.

I'll the there

I made it to this one and I'm Edinburgh based. If there's enough interest I'd be up for alternating Glasgow/Edinburgh

Thanks, there's most likely to be some kind of concession price if I can make the numbers add up.

I totally agree about timing! The reason for August is that there's a good deal on the venue, but if that's not viable I'm happy to go later. And if it is viable and successful I will likely be doing a similar event again.