Monthly Archives: June 2001

Thursday, June 28 2001

Community

Damage report. Boy, what a day! I hope not every day is like this…

Duncan and Al mention/comment on Seth Bokelman’s iBook review, which is an interesting read because he describes his experience as a PC user who bought a Mac for the first time.

By the way, I encountered the same difficulties when installing more RAM. In fact, I didn’t get it in because I feared I might break it. Both the inside of the laptop and the RAM seem fragile, but obviously they’re not. Finally I asked André to install it. I don’t have an Airport card, though. Of course it would be cool to have one, but I don’t really need it.

Reading

Bibliomania. The name says it all: Bibliomania has “free online literature with more than 2000 classic texts, literature book notes, author biographies, book summaries and reference books, classic fiction, drama, poetry, short stories, contemporary articles and interviews, study guides to the most read books and help for teachers, reference books, dictionaries, quotations”, et cetera, et cetera.

The Media Borg

Must-read article on Salon: Assimilating the Web. “Like ‘Star Trek’s’ all-powerful Borg, AOL and Microsoft are determined to crush the spirit of online independence. Is resistance futile? First in a series on the consolidation of power and ownership in the media landscape.”

Schule

Die Zeit: Lerninitiativen: Energie = Masse x Spaßquadrat.

“Bildungsexperten warnen vor einem dramatischen Nachwuchsmangel in Naturwissenschaft und Technik. Wie lässt sich das ändern? Eine Vielzahl privater Initiativen will bei Schülern mehr Begeisterung wecken.”

Eine der Initiativen ist TheoPrax – ein neues Ausbildungsmodell.

Lerninitiativen ist ein Schwerpunktthema in der Zeit.

Wednesday, June 27 2001

Reading

“Book reviews of literary and mainstream fiction, fantasy, science fiction and nonfiction are here at Curled Up With a Good Book. It’s literary criticism that helps real readers find good books!”

Link via Sheila.

Krokodil: Wild animals in Germany

Salon: Police search Rhine for crocodile. Yesterday, I heard on the radio that the crocodile was last seen near Eltville, about 100 km upstream from Bonn. Reptiles don’t produce their own body heat, so they are dependent on the weather. An expert said that the crocodile will likely freeze to death in the cool water of the Rhine if it is not found and rescued soon. It is probably lying on the shore as much as possible to catch some sun and stay warm. Poor thing!

The photo shows a crocodile lying on the shore of the Samburu River in Kenya. The open mouth helps it to cool off.

Reisauflauf (Baked Rice Pudding)

This is a great dessert as well as a sweet main course in hot summer weather.

For four as a main course or eight as a dessert:

3/4 l milk

200 g rice for rice pudding

a bit of salt

Heat the milk, put the rice in and let it cook on low heat until the rice pudding is done.

65 g butter

1 package vanilla sugar

80 g sugar

2 or 3 big spoons of Quark cheese (100 to 250 g)

2 or 3 eggs

a few drops of lemon juice

Mix these ingredients and then put them and the rice pudding in a suitable bowl. Mix thoroughly. Bake one hour at 190°C. Serve with fruit, e. g. fresh strawberries or compote.

Guten Appetit!

Note: Vanilla sugar is available in Germany in little paper bags. I don’t know if it exists elsewhere. You can substitute it with vanilla and add a little more sugar.

star:

Und nochmal auf deutsch: Reisauflauf

Für vier Personen als Hauptgericht oder acht Personen als Nachtisch:

3/4 l Milch, 200 g Milchreis und eine Prise Salz kochen, bis der Milchreis ausgequollen ist.

65 g Butter, ein Päckchen Vanillezucker, 80 g Zucker, 2 bis 3 Eßlöffel Quark, zwei bis drei Eier und einen Spritzer Zitronensaft verrühren, dann unter den fertigen Milchreis mischen. Ca. eine Stunde bei 190°C (Heißluftofen: 160°C) backen. Mit frischem Obst oder Kompott servieren.

Schmeckt auch kalt am nächsten Tag noch gut!

Tuesday, June 26 2001

“Es gibt Reis, Baby!“

We’ve recently had complaints about not offering enough German recipes on this site , so I posted a new one today: Reisauflauf!

This means baked rice pudding, and please let me know if there is a real and more elegant name for the dish in English. Isn’t there a dictionary for English cooking terms on the web?

Auf deutsch gibt’s das Rezept hier.

Guten Appetit!

Physics is cool

PhysicsWeb: Liquid marbles roll out. (Link via Blackholebrain.)

“The dynamics of water droplets has fascinated physicists for well over a century. Yet several aspects of droplet motion have remained untested because moving drops tend to leave traces of liquid on surfaces. Now a team of French physicists has developed a way of moving a liquid drop across a surface without wetting it.”

Nature: The water marbles: “Powder coated drops of water float on water and roll on glass.”

Monday, June 25 2001

Community

Congratulations to your new domain, Susan!

Google

Dave has an explanation for the strange behaviour of Google last night. Aha!

Summer!

It is going to be hot day today. I’d guess we have more than 25°C (77°F) now, and it’s only ten in the morning. The forecast says temperatures might rise to 28°C (82°F). And it looks like it is going to stay that way for the next couple of days. I’m invited to a garden party and barbeque on Tuesday, which should be fun!