Pasta
Eben in meinen Referrern gefunden: Pastaweb hat eine sehr umfangreiche Sammlung an Rezepten rund um Pasta. Da kriegt man gleich Hunger!
Und dazu gibt’s auch noch das pasta::log. Iris, die Autorin, lebt in Rheinbach, also gleich hier um die Ecke.
Bats
Remember the bats in my parents’ house? It seems bats bats visit other people as well, and they even know how to get them back out (Please note that the trick with the open window does not work if there are more bats outside!). And before releasing them, other people even take the time and snap some pictures of the bat in order to post them on their website.
Link via LalaBlog.
Kommunikation
Letzte Woche in der Zeit: Bitte melde dich!, ein interessanter Artikel über die neun häufigstgenutzten Kommunikationskanäle: persönliche Begegnung, Brief, Telegramm, SMS, Postkarte, Telefon, Handy, Email, Fax.
Dazu gibt’s auch weitere Infos: Neun Kanäle und eine Umfrage.
Bei mir siegt eindeutig die Email als liebstes Kommunikationsmittel. Schnell, preiswert, immer mehr Leute erreichbar. Wenn nicht gerade der Mailserver spinnt…
Physics
There are several links to interesting sites in this MeFi thread:
Playing with these applets is, of course, much safer than trying to fix the hairdryer if you are a physicist. 
Don’t try this at home, kids! – Part II
Update to yesterday’s hairdryer story.
Garret commented on my story:
careful there, andrea. you’ve got direct current over there in europe, as i understand. that can give a nasty shock and burn. whenever a plug-in device goes bad, chances are the wires the insulation have parted wherever the wire bends … usually just inside the plastic handle. you have to be able to disassemble the entire device, just to be safe. i’m impressed, however … our resident mathematician’s resourceful. we should all chip in and send her a set of torx drivers …
No, we have alternating current in Europe. The difference between Germany and the USA, however, is the voltage: We have 230 V while the US is using 120 V (I believe). But of course 230 V AC is still something you don’t want to make direct contact with.
Garret is right about the fact that the insulation suffers if you bend the cable too hard or too often. Below is a picture of the cable where it comes out of the hairdryer. Looks pretty scary because I enlarged it.
And what are torx drivers? I didn’t find it in my dictionary. Anyway, I took a photo of the screw as well. Does anyone have a screwdriver that fits?
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Email
Yay, the email server is working again. You can reach me via andrea@spicynoodles.com again!
230 volts! wow. thanks for clearing up the european a.c. vs. d.c. misconception. i had a colleague back in manhattan who told me all kinds of horror stories about d.c. current in europe, so i naturally assumed. then again, he was originally from algeria … maybe that explains it.
america’s 120 volts, but we use 220 volts for heavy-duty appliances (such as clothes dryers, electric furnaces, and so forth). they have a non-standard plug that’s about three inches across, and you turn to lock it in (so your average individual won’t electrocute themselves).
i was assuming that the hairdryer might have used torx drivers, but i don’t recognize the pattern you’ve posted. hopefully someone else can come up with the type …
america’s 120 volts, but we use 220 volts for heavy-duty appliances (such as clothes dryers, electric furnaces, and so forth). they have a non-standard plug that’s about three inches across, and you turn to lock it in (so your average individual won’t electrocute themselves).
We use a three-phase current of 380 V for electric stoves and other heavy-duty machines. They have different plugs as well, with five pins instead of two, but I’m not even sure if every household has sockets for those.
About the type of screws: I’ve seen this kind on appliances like hairdryers only, and I think it might be a special type of screw that is used only on things you don’t want your average individual to be able to open for safety and warranty reasons. Naturally, you can’t buy drivers for screws like those.
ah, but *somebody* must have them in stock.
a torx driver has a six-pointed star shape (looking straight down the screwdriver), with a very thick center. sort of like a thick asterisk. it’s used a great deal on u.s. computers.
i think you’re correct … don’t want your average person being able to take apart devices. they might be able to fix them, and then what would happen to corporate profits?
(grin)