Diese Woche in der Zeit

Nachruf: Marion Gräfin Dönhoff starb am 11. März 2002 im Alter von 92 Jahren.

Umwelt: Neubausiedlung am Meeresgrund. “Künstliche Riffe sollen zerstörte Unterwasserwelten beleben. Flora und Fauna nehmen sie dankbar an. Selbsternannte Umweltschützer kippen sogar Autos, Panzer und Ölplattformen in die Ozeane.” Von Gabriele Lebs.

Kindheitserinnerung: Runder Geburtstag. “Das Bobby Car ist mit mehr als zehn Millionen verkauften Exemplaren der Volkswagen der Kinderwelt. In diesem Jahr wird das rote Tretauto 30 Jahre alt. Ein Tusch! Und 30 Kerzen.” Von Burkhard Straßmann.

Ich hatte kein Bobby Car… aber immerhin ein Kettcar, als ich im Kindergarten- und Grundschulalter war.

Personal

Has it already been a whole year since I finished my thesis? Somehow, it seems like just a few weeks ago… but on the other hand, I spent months and months preparing for the exams, worked at the DBwV for a couple of weeks, and now it’s already been six weeks since I started teacher training. (One more week until the easter holidays, yay!) Time seems to go faster and faster every year…

Thanks for the reminder, Jeff.

Community

Happy 10th wedding anniversary, Tina and John! And what a cute photo of the kids and you, John…

Physics

It’s Einstein‘s birthday today. He was born 123 years ago. A few interesting Einstein links:

Fun with Mathematics

Is your date of birth in π? Okay, most people’s date of birth is, but it’s still fun to play around with the queries on the site.

Link via MetaFilter.

Reading

Booklend seems almost too god to be true: It’s sort of an online library. Booklend will send the books to your doorstep and even provide an envelope for free return. You can keep the books as long as you like. Cool idea, and people seem to actually return the books they borrow.

Link via MetaFilter.

Spring?

Can you believe it was snowing today? In Bonn it was just raining, but 30 km and a few dozen metres of height seem to make all the difference, as it was snowing heavily in the town where my school is. And here I was thinking that spring had arrived because all the cafés in the little town had put their tables and chairs on the sidewalks. This morning, chairs and tables and the little flowerpots on top of them were covered with a few centimetres of snow.

It’s a good thing that I go to school by train; I’d really be worrying about getting to school by car tomorrow because I just heard on the radio that it still is snowing heavily in the Eifel.

Fun

I baked chocolate banana muffins the day before yesterday, and they turned out much more harmless (less harmful?) than some of the muffins on this site: Muffin Films features some hilarious Flash animation films. “This page and the films within it were made by Amy Winfrey for her MFA thesis project at the UCLA Animation Workshop. All films are about muffins.” And from the FAQ:
“You got a Masters Degree at UCLA with this as your thesis? – Yes.”

“Does the fact that you can get a degree from a major university with this as your thesis signal the decline of our civilization? – Yep.”

The Museum of Hoaxes features hoaxes from all times, beginning as early as Pope Joan and ending with hoaxes from 2001, such as Kaycee Nicole Swenson.

Link via /usr/bin/girl.

Jeff linked to The World’s Most Easiest Quiz. This reminds me of a test I had to take for history in the seventh grade. One question required us to write down the years and names of events of a certain period in history. And I wrote: 1618-1648 – Fourty Years War. Can you believe I’m a math teacher now?

Spring

Today felt like the first real day of spring: sunny and even a bit warm. The sunrise this morning was just gorgeous; I wish I had had my camera with me. I have to admit that I although I normally don’t like getting up at 5:30 am and riding the train for one solid hour in order to get to work, I often enjoy my hour-long commute to school. The train runs through a rural area with few villages, beautiful little hills and nice views, and when the weather is fine, it’s interesting to watch the world waking up.

Mirrors and Books

I’ve been getting quite a few referrers from the Mirror Project because my photo is in the current gallery by Jessamyn West: Our Books. Well worth a look.

Multilingual

Spiacente, questo non è me,
Jörg.

This week’s Friday Five

1. What makes you homesick? I’m rarely homesick. I used to be as a kid, but it’s the other way round nowadays: I would be traveling all the time if I had time and could pay for it.

2. Where is “home” for you? Is it where you are living now, or somewhere else (ie: Mom & Dad’s house, particular state/city)? Home is where I’m living: in Bonn. I’ve been living here for about four and a half years now, and I feel even more at home here since moving in with André three years ago.

3. What makes it home for you? People? Things? André and other people, mostly, although a dear friend moved to another city a couple of months ago. But it’s also that I’m familiar with Bonn, its inner city, museums, shops, movie theaters, surrounding towns and public transportation.

4. Where is the furthest you’ve been from home, miles-wise? San Francisco, California, USA. It’s 9038 km or 5616 miles from Bonn, Germany. Not too bad, but it’s almost twice as far to New Zealand.

5. What are your plans for this weekend? Getting lots of work done. I need to prepare math lessons for two courses, do some reading on what I want to do with “my” physics class in a week or so, and read several school-related books. But I also want to spend some time with André, maybe go to the movies or something.

Diese Woche in der Zeit

Physik: Dompteuse des Lichts. “Die Physikerin Lene Vestergaard Hau forscht in der Quantenwelt und spielt dort mit Photonen.” Von Christoph Drösser.

Glosse: Wenn heiße Blasen platzen. “Fanden US-Physiker einen neuen Weg zur Kernfusion?” Von Hans Schuh.

Nachhilfe: Lehrer lernen Krieg. “In den Ausbildungslagern der Marines, den Elitesoldaten der US-Armee, sind regelmäßig Lehrer zu Gast. An ihren Schulen sollen sie Nachwuchs für die Truppe werben. Seit dem 11. September ist der Einsatz der Pädagogen besonders gefragt.” Von Kerstin Kullmann.

Leben: Der unheimliche Besucher. “In der Nähe von Bremen geht ein Kindermörder um. Porträt eines Landstrichs in Angst.” Von Jörg Burger.

Dieser Artikel hat mich verstört. Zum einen hatte ich den Eindruck, er sei reißerischer geschrieben als nötig (was aber vielleicht nur mir so vorkommt), aber andererseits wurde mir beim Lesen ganz flau, denn ich habe meine ersten 19 Lebensjahre in der Gegend verbracht. Das erwähnte Schullandheim Badenstedt liegt nur ein paar Kilometer von der Jugendherberge in Bademühlen entfernt, und die war zu meiner Schulzeit das alljährliche Ziel für die Chor- und Musikfahrten zur Vorbereitung des Schulkonzerts. Und aus dem Internat meiner Schule verschwand vor zehn Jahren der damals 13jährige Stefan Jahr, der später ermordet aufgefunden wurde. Natürlich hat dieser Fall unsere Schule sehr ins Aufruhr gebracht und uns Schüler verstört. Wenn man jetzt diese und die vielen anderen Fälle im Zusammenhang sieht, erscheint es einem fast unglaublich, daß dort nicht schon eher Zusammenhänge vermutet und untersucht wurden.

Weitere Informationen zu den im Artikel erwähnten Fällen gibt es beim ZDF-Länderspiegel vom 13. Oktober 2001 und in einer aktuellen Meldung auf Kleinewunder.de vom 22. November 2001.

Astronomy

Earth and moon viewer:

“You can view either a map of the Earth showing the day and night regions at this moment, or view the Earth from the Sun, the Moon, the night side of the Earth […]

In addition to the Earth, you can also view the Moon from the Earth, Sun, night side, above named formations on the lunar surfac. or as a map showing day and night.”

I could waste hours playing with the settings and exploring the possibilities offered on this site. Maybe I should re-think my choice of occupation and become an astronaut after all. (I watched Apollo 13 this week, thrice: First, with the normal soundtrack, then with comments from Jim and Marilyn Lovell, and again with a commentary by the director, Ron Howard.)

Link via Ralf.

Physics

American Institute of Physics‘ history section: Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity, based on the book by Naomi Pasachoff. The site includes her biography, research, recognition and other aspects.

Link via bleublog.

School

One more day and two more lessons before the weekend. I’m so ready for that. – Don’t get me wrong, I like my school, the colleagues and the pupils I’ve been teaching so far, but I’m not yet used to getting up so early.