Two broken arms at the same time

Yesterday, André managed to trip over something and to fall in such a way that he broke both his arms. Yes, you read that right. He got up after the fall and thought he was fine, but fainted a few minutes later and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. The x-rayed his arms and discovered a crack in the right forearm bone (I don’t know which of the two) and that a piece of the left forearm bone had snapped off. He got casts on both arms right up to the shoulders, and he also got a bed in the hospital. This morning, the left arm was operated on. The doctors screwed the bone back together, and everything went alright. He will have to stay at the hospital until at least Monday, but at least he’ll lose the cast on his left arm in about a week because the screw will hold the bone together. The other arm will probably have to stay in the cast for two weeks.

I spent yesterday evening and much of this afternoon in the hospital. His surgery was around 8 am and went fine, and André was in good spirits when I arrived at the hospital at 2 pm. I think the biggest problem is that he can’t use his arms, so someone needs to help him with everything, or almost everything. It’s going to be fun when he gets to come home next week…

And by the way, I sort of know what he is going through at the moment – because I managed to break both my arms at the same time as well. It happened at school, when I was 13, and it was not funny. I had casts from my hands to just under the elbows for four weeks, and it took me about a week to learn how to eat and dress myself. But I was lucky because my casts left my elbows free so I was able to move my arms quite well. I guess that when André tries to eat something, he’s going to miss his mouth because he can’t bend the arm at the elbow.

But even if I have to feed him, it will be good to have him back home.

P.S.: If you want to reach him, please send email to my address. He won’t be able to check his accounts anytime soon.

Names

Where Have All the Lisas Gone? is a New York Times article from a couple of days ago. It’s interesting to read how names get popular and how, after a while, they’re “worn out” and replaced by new popular names. Some of the trends which were described in the article are also noticeable in Germany, but not all of them. For example, you can’t name children for places or things (the article predicts that colour names are going to become popular) because there are rules for first names in Germany. Names have to be in the International Handbook of First Names in order to be accepted in Germany. And if you choose a name that works for both girls and boys, you have to choose a middle name that determines the sex of the person. While this may seem like a huge restriction to Americans, it really isn’t so bad, I think. And it does have the advantage that people cannot accidentally name their children like some kind of virus or bacteria (I’ve read some weird stories about first names…).

Mathematics

When do you learn how to factor or solve quadratic equations in highschool outside of Germany? Here, at least two methods are taught in 9th grade, and one of them is Vieta‘s theorem.

I’m baffled by the story posted in this MetaFilter thread. A highschool student supposedly discovered a “new” way to factor a quadratic equation, the teacher is astonished, tries it out on several equations and decides to teach it from now on. The funny thing is, the Lizzie method is equivalent to Vieta’s theorem, which you can easily verify in five minutes.

To me, it sounds like the teacher didn’t even try to prove the solution before deciding to teach it to other students. And doesn’t she now about Vieta’s theorem? The guy lived in the 16th century, so the theorem is not exactly brand new!

And another question: Does the author of the article even know what a quadratic equation is?

“The quadratic equation has befuddled high school students for decades. An intimidating problem fraught with square roots and X-variables, the methods for its solution involve countless steps that are difficult to remember, tedious to implement, and often leave students empty-handed. The quadratic equation is also something of a threshold; students who don’t master it generally find themselves near the terminus of their math education.”

Sounds like the author did in fact not master it…

Teilchenphysik

Ein ganz nettes Lernprogramm zur Teilchenphysik bietet die Physikdidaktik der Uni Erlangen an.

Tesselations

I’ve posted several links to tessellations before (and if you can’t find them here via the search box it’s probably because I misspelled it tesselation in the past), but I don’t think I ever saw animated ones: Take a look at Tesselating Animation – it has 23 animated tessellations. I found the link on this MetaFilter thread, which in turn linked to an older thread about an animation of a drawing by M. C. Escher. The original drawing has a blank space in the middle, and Hendrik Lenstra calculated what belongs there (New York Times link).

(And for reference, I’ve added this link to my collection of Escher links.)

Photography

American Families Beyond the White Picket Fence is”a photographic documentation exploring the daily lives of ten American families whose diverse forms reflect our country’s changing family landscape.” The project by photographer Courteney Coolidge is not new (the site was apparently built in 1999) but it’s still interesting. There also are a few links to similar projects here.

Behind the scenes of The Lord of the Rings

The Science Museum in London is going to host an exhibition with “Props, costumes and artefacts from the films – including samples of the models, armoury, animatronics and miniatures […] alongside interactive computer and mechanical demonstrations of the cutting-edge technology”. There’s a BBC article about the exhibition, which is going to run from 16 September 2003 to 11 January 2004: Museum to reveal Rings secrets. Fancy a trip to London in autumn or winter, André?

Link to the BBC article via Garret.

Nuclear physics

I’ve been looking around for sites on nuclear physics for school. Among other sites, I found this table of nuclides at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Eine Site in deutscher Sprache ist Was ist Kernfusion? Die Site wurde von einem Leistungskurs Physik der Jahrgangsstufe 13 des Gymnasiums Zitadelle Jülich in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Forschungszentrum Jülich erstellt.

Lots of books

I got six books for my birthday, five of them in English: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which I read in less than two days, The War of the Flowers by one of my favourite authors, Tad Williams, Family Matters by another favourite author, Rohinton Mistry (here’s another article about his new book, an excerpt of which you can read here), The Fool’s Progress by Edward Abbey and My Brain is Open, a biography of the mathematician Paul Erdös, which I’ve also finished already. I’m currently reading The War of the Flowers. It’s quite good, but I already am sad that it is a single-volume book. I just love reading Williams‘s longer series (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and Otherland); you can get lost in them for days or even weeks.

Diese Woche in der Zeit

Trainingseffekt: Wenn der Postmann dreimal schreit. “Die Post schult ihre Briefträger im Umgang mit Hunden – erfolgreich. Trainer Stefan Begier verrät, wie Boten bissige Arbeitsunfälle vermeiden und woran es liegt, dass sich Hund und Mensch nicht riechen können.”

Sommer-ABC: So schmeckt der Sommer. “Nirgendwo sonst ist der Mensch so glücklich wie am Strand. Hier verschwinden alle Sorgen hinterm Horizont. Hier erholt er sich von A bis Z.”

Und aus der Online-Ausgabe: Drogenmissbrauch: Hannover kokst. “Nirgendwo in Deutschland kleben mehr Drogen am Geld als in Niedersachsens Hauptstadt.” Von Frank Schubert für Zeit.de.

Around the World

Scott A. Yost traveled to Nepal between October 23 and December 6, 1994. I only have time now for a brief glance, but I think his travel journal and the photos are worth a closer look.

Link via MetaFilter.

Schule

Spiegel online: Selbstmord in Coburger Schule: Die letzten Minuten des ruhigen Florian K..

Umfrage

Vorhin klingelte das Telefon: “Guten Tag, hier ist Forsa. Dürfen wir Ihnen ein paar Fragen stellen?” – Hm, na gut, ich warte sowieso gerade darauf, dass die Pizza fertig wird. Also ein paar Fragen zur Nutzung verschiedener Medien:

“Wann haben Sie die folgenden Medien zuletzt benutzt? Radio?” – “Heute.”

“Zeitung?” – “Diese Woche.”

“Zeitschrift?” – “Weiß nicht, diesen Monat?”

“Fernsehen?” – “Länger als ein Jahr her.”

Der Umfrager, hörbar irritiert: “Fernsehen!” – “Ja, länger als ein Jahr her.”

“Länger als ein Jahr?” – “Ja, wir haben keinen Fernseher.”

Das musste der Umfrager erstmal verdauen. Dann ging’s mit etlichen Fragen weiter, und ziemlich zum Schluss kam die Frage: “Wann haben Sie zuletzt die folgenden Fernsehsender geschaut?” Darauf ich: “Sie können gleich überall schreiben, länger als ein Jahr her.” Der Umfrager, nach kurzer Pause: “Ach so, ja, das hatten wir ja eben schon…” Und mit einem letzten bisschen Hoffnung: “Aber vielleicht haben Sie bei Bekannten ferngesehen?”

Ich liebe es, die Statistik durcheinander zu bringen…

Diese Woche in der Zeit

Logistik: Hallo? Niemand zu Hause. “Bestellen im Internet ist bequem. Oft aber sind die Kunden nicht da, wenn die Ware kommt. Die Firmen suchen neue Lösungen.” Von Nadine Oberhuber.

Medizin: Fangschuss aus der Gegenwelt. “Kann Krebs mit Antimaterie behandelt werden? Eine Forscherallianz beginnt jetzt erste Tests am Genfer Kernforschungszentrum Cern. Die exotischen Gegenteilchen sollen das Tumorgewebe präziser vernichten als herkömmliche Strahlen.” Von Ulrich Bahnsen.

Kinder- und Jugendbuch: In den Klauen der Pubertät. “Potter, Band 5: Alles gerät ins Rutschen, das Böse versteckt sich im Guten, die Freundschaft zwischen Harry, Ron und Hermine kommt in gefährliche Schwingungen. Und dann wird es richtig spannend.” Von Susanne Mayer.

Harry, der Verlegertraum. “Joanne K. Rowling verändert den Markt für Kinderbücher.” Von Konrad Heidkamp.

Alterswohnsitz: Ein Platz an der Sonne. “Eine überalterte Gesellschaft: In Sun City in der Wüste Arizonas leben und arbeiten nur Menschen über 55. Sie versuchen, Spaß zu haben – und schaffen sich ihre eigene Realität.” Von Emil Bloch.

Lernen: ‘Wissen schlägt Intelligenz’. “Der Geist kann nicht an beliebigen Themen trainiert werden. Ein Gespräch mit der Lernforscherin Elsbeth Stern.”