Sunset the other way round

Looking east at 5:15 p.m.

Odds and ends

Thanks for the comment on my photo, Susan! These words from an excellent photographer like yourself… I’m honored.

Und Gerd (7. Februar 2001), gern geschehen. Ich wollte Dir damit aber nicht den Spaß an der Mühe verderben.

(Öhm, gibt’s beim BookLog eigentlich keine Permalinks? Oder finde ich sie nur nicht?)

Oh ja, und bei Gerd fand ich auch einen Link zu Software für das eigene Weblog. Ganz brauchbarer Artikel.

Ouch!

Bob went ice-skating with Alex. Gute Besserung!

Somehow, this reminds me of another weblogger who went ice-skating with his son…

A different way to search the net

map.net: “The entire Internet is now on a map of Antarctica.” You can click on any of the categories and get to a new page which shows undercategories and sites that fit in the general category. Cool!

Music

Featured today: The Proclaimers!

Do you remember I’m gonna be (500 Miles)?

“But I would walk 500 miles

And I would walk 500 more

Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles

To fall down at your door”

It was in the soundtrack of Benny & Joon in 1993 and was a hit five years after the Proclaimers released it on their second album, “Sunshine on Leith”, in 1988.

I rediscovered their third album, “Hit the Highway” (1994), this morning when I heard “I’m gonna be” on the radio, and I found I still like it a great deal. The Proclaimers’ music is described as folk pop, or Scottish pop. I think what I like about their music is that the voices of Charlie and Craig Reid, who are twin brothers, blend together so well, and their Scottish accent! There are a few slow songs on the album, but I prefer the louder, more “proclaiming” ones, like “Follow the money”, “Don’t turn out like your mother” or “Shout Shout” – and of course “I’m gonna be”.

Here are two interviews with the Proclaimers: Rambles – The Proclaimers: Walking 1,000 miles and The Celebrity Cafe – Craig Reid of the Proclaimers.

They are about to release their next (fourth) album, and you can download “No particular Place To Go” as mp3 from their site.

Reading

Tales of the City, for all those fans of Armistead Maupin’s book series out there. Also, check out Maupin’s new book, The Night Listener. You can read the first chapter online.

Spring clean

Today, I did some spring cleaning on this site. I went through my hierarchy and re-organized some folders. A few links to book-related pages changed: the list of books I’m reading (and have read in the past) are now in /books/reading, and my Ten Books List is in /books/tenbooks. The new addresses can also be found on my Site Index / Inhaltsverzeichnis.

As you can guess from my enthusiastic reorganization, it was an uneventful day. In the morning, I went to the university to see a mathematician to ask a few questions concerning my thesis. Some problems I had were solved, others eliminated altogether. Has anyone ever understood the proof for the Jordan curve theorem? Me neither, but luckily I don’t have to.

So all is well with my thesis so far, and in the afternoon I went grocery shopping. It is safe to say we are not going to starve, at least not this week. Tonight I’ve been reading and working on the site structure. I even found some pages I didn’t remeber creating!

Erinnert sich noch irgendwer an meine Hausarbeit zum Thema Warum gehört die Mathematik zur Bildung? Ich frage mich, ob den außer mir jemals jemand ganz gelesen hat…

And now it’s time for bed… Gute Nacht!

Maurits Cornelis Escher

Lots of great Escher links on EGM today! I hope it’s okay if I steal them all… and add a few myself. (Some of these appeared here before.)

World of Escher

MCEscher.com, the ‘official’ Escher site. Not really overwhelming, sorry.

Escher’s World has several Java applets of tesselations that you can change by clicking and dragging with your mouse.

World of Escher – The Site for Everything Escher “are proud to be here to tell you stories, discuss M.C. Escher’s works, provide insight, and offer our high quality products promoting the intriguing work of Escher. […] Along with discussions on Escher we have also included ideas and readings regarding Professor Roger Penrose and his mathematically based puzzles.”

The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher, part of the Platonic Realms, has a great introduction to Escher’s works and explains tesselations, polyhedra, the shape and logic of space.

M.C. Escher Centennial Celebration Page. “M.C. Escher has fascinated young and old with his unique interpretation of the world around us in his drawings and prints. From impossible worlds to repeating pattern tessellations, Escher shows us the unique harmony and beauty that are in simple things in our surroundings. This site is a celebration of the Centennial of M.C. Escher and contains information about exhibitions, educational resources, and links to other Escher sites.”

Galleries

Escher Gallery at the National Gallery of Canada

Escher Gallery (page 1 of 8) at the National Gallery in Washington, USA.

Escher Art Collection which also includes a few works after Escher.

Kyle’s Personal Asylum. A collection of Escher’s work.

Escher Wallpapers, a collection of desktop pictures.

Math and Teaching

Teaching Escher: Using Escher in Classrooms. “This page is a resource for those who are interested in teaching about Escher and integrating his artwork into a school curriculum. Escher’s art captivates young and old and is a fun and educational way of learning about art, mathematics, and sciences.” (Part of the Escher Centennial Celebration page, see above.)

Example: Model Unit (Grade 7): M.C.Escher: The Poet of the Impossible.. “In this unit, we see integration of two subjects (mathematics and visual arts) with the concrete (the art of M.C. Escher).”

For reading about M.C. Escher and his artwork, I recommend Bruno Ernst: Magic Mirror of M.C. Escher, ISBN: 1886155003. (Oder auf deutsch: Bruno Ernst: Der Zaberspiegel des Maurits Cornelis Escher. ISBN 3822889474.)

Danke für die vielen schönen Links, Ernst (und Jörg)!

Andrea’s Weblog proudly presents…

Ich habe die Ehre, die Website einer sehr lieben Freundin von mir vorzustellen, die ich noch aus der Schule kenne: Imkes www.martsfeld.de. Neben kulinarischen und graphischen und knuddeligen Kreativitäten gibt es dort auch einen schönen Bericht von ihrem letzten Urlaub auf Sri Lanka und den Malediven.

Imke spielte übrigens eine nicht unbedeutende Rolle in dieser Geschichte…

Nochmal zum Wetter…

Mein neues liebstes Spielzeug ist das Regenradar des Meteorologischen Instituts der Uni Bonn, zu sehen beim General-Anzeiger Bonn. Neben einem Bild mit der aktuellen Situation kann man sich auch Animationen der letzten Stunde oder des letzten Tages (24 Stunden) ansehen. Man sieht immer gleich, ob Bonn (oder das Rheinland) demnächst wieder naß wird…

Noch mehr Wetter gibt’s hier.

Women

It’s ‘Women’s day’ over at BookNotes. Many good links. I especially like The Field Museum’s Women in Science, Biographies of Women Mathematicians and, of course, Women of NASA. I wanna be an astronaut!

The Anti-Bloggies

Nope, André and I didn’t win the cutest couple category of the anti-bloggies. And I don’t know the couple who won. At least, many of the anti-bloggie awards didn’t go to people everyone knows anyway! But still, I don’t understand some of the result. Why does Zeldman get an award for use of his own orange? And why is Jezebel‘s design considered a ripoff of Harrumph‘s? They’re by the same person! If I had another site, the design would probably similar to this one, too.

dangerousmeta didn’t win either. Does anyone know in what category Garret was nominated? Most updated blog, perhaps?

Snow!

We didn’t get any snow in Bonn. In fact, it’s quite sunny today, with only a few clouds in the sky, but it’s stormy! Anyway, I’m going to ride my bike to the library today.

But Scott reports that it snowed in Northern Germany last night. The news were talking about a snow chaos: autobahns are closed, flights have been canceled, and some schools are closed as well. I called my parents to find out what it’s like in Hetzwege: They have about 10 cm of snow and ice, but it’s already thawing.

Weblogs

Auch wenn es schon bei Netdyslexia und beim Schockwellenreiter stand, muß ich doch auf diesen Artikel über Weblogs hinweisen, beim ORF: Schöne neue Tagebuchwelt. Hört sich so an, als hätte der Autor noch nicht so viele Weblogs gelesen. Am peinlichsten ist der Link zu Weblogs.com/pagereads als “Einstiegspunkt in die Welt der Graswurzel-Medien”. Offenbar hat der Autor nicht bemerkt, daß dies nicht die Liste der meistgelesenen Weblogs ist, die bei Weblogs.com registriert sind, sondern der Manilasites, die auf Weblogs.com gehostet werden. Naja, wenigstens ist BookNotes auf der Liste ziemlich weit oben. Sonst habe ich allerdings nicht viele ‘gute alte Bekannte’ entdecken können…

Ach ja, was ich schon immer wissen wollte: Heißt es nun eigentlich ‘der Weblog’ oder ‘das Weblog’? Ich bin ja für letzteres, aber ich lese woanders immer ‘der Weblog’. Der Log?

Update: Der Schockwellenreiter sagt, daß sein Duden sagt, es heiße das Log.

Wonderful day!

Congratulations, Auntie Susan!

Ah, Susan has wonderful, wonderful photos from Joshua Tree National Park. It is one of the places on earth I like best. I’ve been there once in 1992, when it was still a National Monument, and again in September 1999, with André. Seeing Susan’s photos reminds me of the place and its beauty and silence.

Strange coincidence: Just a few minutes before I saw the photos, I remembered how I felt each morning on our trip: The sun was up, the sky was blue, the air was clear, and we had a wonderful day of exploration and adventure before us. Sigh… I wish I could be there again. Well, some day…

Manners and Courts

New York Times: In Lieu of Manners. “As respect for authority in all its forms erodes, Americans turn to the courts to tell them how to live their lives. What happens when we no longer respect the courts?”

Link via Garret, who commented: “friends in europe will enjoy this”.

Well, I am worried because it seems that, like many other things, this problem is about to make its way from the USA to Europe.

An excerpt:

“Television makes public officials seem more familiar and less mysterious, decreasing their authority while increasing their celebrity. To exercise power in a televised democracy, elected officials have to act like Oprah, confessing their intimate secrets […] to convey the impression of being authentic and accessible. But this confessional accessibility creates the risk of overexposure.”

More Community News

Hey, take a look at the new and improved NetDyslexia! They changed the whole look and feel. Und sie werden in Zukunft auch mal was auf Deutsch schreiben.

However, they’re still Dogma 2000 compliant. Isn’t it Dogma 2001 now?

Community

Duncan‘s Transmeta Crusoe weblog Friday turns one year old today! Maybe it will get reactivated some day?!

Al: “Andrea posts message #1000! Have to think of an appropriate prize…”

Heck, I didn’t even realize it was # 1000.

Software

Yesterday, Jörg had good news: Opera for the Mac will be availabe soon! I used to use Opera for Win 3.11 on my old PC (which I traded in for a Mac Quadra 800 about a year ago), and I loved it. I will surely download Opera for the Mac once it is available.

From their page: “Opera for Linux and Macintosh will offer two options for keeping the browser. The user has the choice to download a free, ad-supported version with all features and functionality enabled, or registering the browser at a charge of $39 that removes the ads, with various discounts applying.”

If I remember correctly, students get a discount of 50%.