Seeing the earth from space

Earth Observatory Study: Bright Lights, Big City.

Look at that beautiful photo of the earth at night!

Idea

I think Kate has a great idea:

“Maybe I can do a “favorite quotes” page? On second thought, maybe someone else can do it. I feel the ball dropping as it touches my hands (it’s that organization thing)….but I still like the idea. Everyone could submit their favorite quotes and stories…”

This could become a “Best of Weblogs 2000”, non?

I like the idea, and I’m willing to participate. Anyone else?

Internal

As you may have noticed, I made a few little changes to this site’s design. Instead of the members box (which was way down in the left column), I have now placed the Login/Sign out links below the calendar.

And I added the new Behind the Curtain sticker to the left column.

Physik

Der Schockwellenreiter mischt sich ein. Er will auch über Quantentheorie reden – auch wenn die Webseiten noch nicht ganz fertig sind:

100 Jahre Quantentheorie.

Ein Besuch lohnt sich auch jetzt schon, da schon eine ganze Menge an Informationen vorhanden sind.

Holiday vacation

Craig is leaving today for a ski trip with his family. Have a nice vacation with good skiing weather and a wonderful holiday season, Craig!

Philosophy

BigFAQ: god answers the big philosophical questions. That’s god with a little “g”.

Link via Craig.

Christmas around the world

It’s Monday! A new week with lots of work for my thesis, plus I still have to buy some presents…

I found these Christmas links on the Bancroft Arnesen Expedition site:

Christmas around the world

Click on the world map to find out about Christmas in other countries and cultures.

If you want to know what Christmas is like in Germany, read about it here. However, I think many Germans celebrate in a different way. If you want to know how I celebrate Christmas, come back in a few days: I’m probably going to write about it.

Christmas – the global celebration.

In Japan: “And there’s no problem cooking that big dinner. Parents have been known to wait for hours lined up outside the local Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise to buy a bucket of chicken for their eager children. (At the root of this practice is the perceived similarity between Colonel Sanders and jolly old St. Nick.)”

Besser spät als nie…

Okay, ich bin sehr spät dran. Anfang November mußte Eric Weisstein seine MathWorld-Site aus dem Netz nehmen, wegen Copyright-Streitereien mit dem Verlag, der das davon abgeleitete Buch herausgegeben hat. Und schon einen Tag gab es dazu einen Artikel in der Telepolis: Fällt MathWorld dem Copyright zum Opfer?, von Peter Mühlbauer, 05.11.2000.

Den habe ich damals natürlich nicht gesehen…

Ich hoffe nach wie vor, daß Eric Weisstein den Rechtsstreit gewinnt und MathWorld wieder online gehen darf!

Santa Claus

Meet the real Santa Claus!

Sailor Jack used to dress up as Santa and surprise children for 16 years. His stories are very moving, to say the least. Read the stories of Paulie and Mary Jane.

Link via Al.

Community News

Sean ist krank. Bronchitis. Das hatte ich früher fast chronisch, also kann ich nachvollziehen, wie er leidet… Gute Besserung! Hoffentlich bist Du schnell wieder fit!

Good advice from the NetDyslectics: “Enjyou your Sw/oC and think about Xmas presents.”

Well, no Sw/oC for me, got to work on my thesis. But I should definitely think about those Christmas presents. Only one week left!

Kate‘s boyfriend Bob got a telescope! Wow, this is so cool! I only looked through a telescope once, here at our university. I saw – the moon. It was impressive, but I would love to see some planets and stars.

Jan-Willem went to see Rembrandt etchings at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. I think I saw some of them while in Amsterdam in May. While I was there, the museum celebrated its 200th anniversary with an exhibition called The Golden Age, featuring paintings and graphics from the 17th century.

Here are some etchings by Rembrandt (British Museum).

Links via Tsja.

Missed another day…

… but here I am again! I finally got some real work done yesterday, but I didn’t get around to flip the page.

Astronomy

CNN: Four new moons spotted around Saturn. That means Saturn now has 28 moons.

Link via Audrey.

Find your Star Wars Twin

Here’s an online test that determines your Star Wars twin. The cool thing about the test is that cou can take it for yourself and a friend at the same time.

Link via /usr/bin/girl.

Weblog Community

Happy 100th birthday to Susan’s grandfather!

Al’s weblog, ViewFromTheHeart, has now a shorter address: http://vfth.com.

Cool!

Diese Woche in der Zeit

Gesellschaft: Die neuen Lehrer, von Susanne Gaschke.

“Lerncomputer für die Kleinen, Tretroller für die Eltern: Statt zu spielen, sollen Kinder sich heute fit machen fürs Berufsleben. Die Erwachsenen werden derweil immer infantiler. Eine kleine Soziologie des Spielzeugmarktes.”

Schule: Zu lang zu starr, zu billig, von Martin Spiewak. “Mehr Flexibilität könnte den Lehrermangel lindern.”

Internet: Endymion antwortet nicht, von Kerstin Hoffmann. “Die deutschen Surfer haben das Chatten entdeckt – und quasseln und flirten bis zur Sucht.”

“Wenn man sich im 19. Jahrhundert beim Tanztee und im 20. Jahrhundert in der Disco kennen gelernt hat – warum sollte die angemessene Form im 21. Jahrhundert nicht die Kontaktanbahnung per elektronischem Medium sein?”

Und besonders empfehlenswert für alle, die noch Weihnachtsgeschenke suchen:

Diplomatische Präsente: Hier schenkt Deutschland, von Jürgen Rutenberg.

“Die richtigen Geschenke für Freunde und Verwandte zu finden ist oft ein ziemlicher Staatsakt. Der Protokollchef im Auswärtigen Amt praktiziert die Kunst des Schenkens auf höchstem Niveau”

Reading

“A new book by Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin: The Night Listener. ‘The first novel ever broadcast as a spoken-word serial in its entirety on the web prior to publication!’

Read and listen to Chapter 1 of The Night Listener.”

Thanks for the link, Sheila.

You can also download it as PDF. Oh, and here’s a biography of the author.

Fromme Wünsche

Ich auch. Allerdings hätte ich lieber ein blaues.

Stories

Al told great stories yesterday and today.

“Megan will now provide running commentary of the morning events along with interpretive dance movements; you may assume from this point on that she is closely following the morning action while bouncing randomly off the walls.”

20/20 vision

Look at my new and improved boyfriend, now with perfect vision again!

More snow

It seems everyone’s got snow. John reported plowing through snow drifts, Garret has 6″ of new snow, and now Susan has snow as well. I want some snow, too!

Oh, and look at Susan’s icicle photos from yesterday! Walking in a winter wonderland…

US election

Finally. The election is over, and it seems like George W. Bush is going to be the next president of the US.

Here are the transcripts of the statements of George Bush and Al Gore.

Oliver has some thoughts on the outcome of the elections.

To me, it seems like the whole vote counting business has been made more complicated by those voting machines – which are supposed to make counting easier!

In Germany, we vote by putting crosses next to a name or party on a sheet of paper. After the election is over, all the votes are being counted by hand, and we get the results an hour or two later. No half-punched ballots, no discussion what counts as a vote and what doesn’t, no recounts. It’s that simple.

I think the US should think about using this technique instead of their fancy machines.