To celebrate, I give you a link to a site that was all the rage back then – turn your speakers on!

(More elaborate posting to come, have got to run to work.)

• New York Times: Miep Gies, Protector of Anne Frank, Dies at 100
• Deutsche Welle: Woman who saved Anne Frank’s diary dies
• Zeit online: Helferin von Anne Frank gestorben. “Miep Gies rettete das Tagebuch der Anne Frank vor der Gestapo. Sie starb im Alter von 100 Jahren.”
• There are several pages on Miep Gies’ death on the Anne Frank museum’s website:
  • press information
  • Miep Gies – a biography
  • Miep Gies, symbol of resistance
  • background information
  • condolence register
• MetaFilter: Guardian of the Secret Annex passes away – this thread includes several other links.
• The Anne Frank YouTube Channel has a film that shows Miep Gies making jam for Otto Frank’s company.

I visited the Anne Frank huis in Amsterdam on May 17, 2000. The concentration camp in which Anne and Margot Frank died in March 1945, is quite close to André’s parents place; we visited Bergen-Belsen in December 2007 and passed it on our bike trip last summer. Today, none of the original buildings of the concentration camps remain, but the train station is still there, and a white line along the side of the road marks where the prisoners were forced to to walk from the train to the concentration camp.

“For years, the secrets to great teaching have seemed more like alchemy than science, a mix of motivational mumbo jumbo and misty-eyed tales of inspiration and dedication. But for more than a decade, one organization has been tracking hundreds of thousands of kids, and looking at why some teachers can move them three grade levels ahead in a year and others can’t. Now, as the Obama administration offers states more than $4 billion to identify and cultivate effective teachers, Teach for America is ready to release its data.”

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Frohe Weihnachten und alles Gute für 2010!

Andrea

I love the snow, especially when I don’t have to go out and drive in it, so it was good timing that it started on my last day of school before the Christmas holidays.

I’ve been busy sewing some presents, but if you’d rather spend your time baking cookies, I found Gourmet magazine’s favorite cookie recipes from 1941 to 2008 on MetaFilter. They all look yummy! Aside from these almost 70 recipes I’ve been intrigued by these crisp salted oatmeal white chocolate cookies from smitten kitchen, which I’ve been meaning to try for a while. They look and sound just delicious! Also from smitten kitchen: salted brown butter crispy treats, which are fancy rice krispies treats, I guess.

While we’re talking about cooking, there was a thread on French Toast recipes on Ask MeFi a while ago, and I’ve been eager to try to make some French Toast ever since I first tried it during our vacation in 2008. Heather Weber of Shintangle Spring Bed & Breakfast near Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, makes amazing French Toast with cinnamon – it’s to die for! We just may have to stay there again for the breakfast alone…

Different continent: Mr. Rau from Munich makes Gyoza, Japanese-style dumplings, following this this recipe from Steamy Kitchen, written by La Fuji Mama. I’ve got to try that as well.

For dessert, how about some Mr. Bean?

“Welcome to Trailblazing, an interactive timeline for everybody with an interest in science. Compiled by scientists, science communicators and historians – and co-ordinated by Professor Michael Thompson FRS – it celebrates three and a half centuries of scientific endeavour and has been launched to commemorate the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary in 2010.
Trailblazing is a user-friendly, ‘explore-at-your-own-pace’, virtual journey through science. It showcases sixty fascinating and inspiring articles selected from an archive of more than 60,000 published by the Royal Society between 1665 and 2010.”

Link via MetaFilter: Selected Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

More science links in this MetaFilter thread: Math education – how should math be taught?

Then it finally dawned on me: My pin code for the copy machine at school isn’t going to be accepted by the ATM no matter how much attention I pay while entering it… duh.

Do you think I need a holiday?! Only 18 days of school to go, not counting the weekends.