His TED talk is amazing, his energy for learning is so infectious. I just meant to post the link here but had to watch the whole thing again!
https://www.ted.com/talks/clifford_stoll_the_call_to_learn?l...
https://www.ted.com/talks/clifford_stoll_the_call_to_learn?l...
I'd prepared a 1 hour talk. When I was about to go on stage, they told me that I had only 15 minutes. So, well, I remembered one of the few things I learned in grad school: talk fast and don't give 'em a standing target.
Covered my points and finished in, yep, 18 minutes.
I still have the hat. I no longer have the bottle as I moved to the other side of the world a number of years ago, and after inquiring with some mathematician friends it turned out that four-dimensional glass bottles are not compatible with three-dimensional backpacks :-/
When I got the package it was covered in hand-written notes; gosh, I don't remember what it said exactly, but it was hilarious; somehow you even managed to put some joke in Dutch on it. I wanted to email something back but I was shy and didn't know what to say. So, about a decade too late, thanks! Not only was I very happy with the bottle, the packaging absolutely made my day all those years ago.
Thank you for what you do.