Monthly Archives: January 2006

Recreational Mathematics

I like like the section title recreational mathematics from MathWorld, it sounds almost like recreational drugs, as if some people get high by doing mathematics. Which I guess some people do…

Ahem, back to the link that I meant to post: animated GIFs is a collection of interactive entries in this section. It includes some well-known things like the cardioid, the cycloid, the epicycloid, and the Möbius strip, as well as my favourite geometry, the Poincaré hyperbolic disk, and also some lesser-known ones like the Steiner chain, or Langton’s ant, or the coin paradox (which I incidentally used at school this very morning).

Link via Ralf by e-mail.

Curry-Suppe

Zutaten für vier Personen:

  • Speiseöl
  • 450 g Schweinefilet
  • 4 Zwiebeln
  • 2 Äpfel
  • 1,2 l Gemüsebrühe
  • 4 Esslöffel Schmand (Sauerrahm)
  • 4 Esslöffel Rosinen
  • Paprika edelsüß, Currypulver, Garam Masala, Kreuzkümmel gemahlen
  • 2 Bananen
  • 2 Teelöffel gehackte Petersilie

Zubereitung:
Schweinefilet, Zwiebeln und Äpfel würfeln und mit etwas Öl anbraten, dann die Brühe dazugießen und etwa 15 Minuten kochen lassen. Dann den Schmand und die Rosinen einrühren, mit Paprika edelsüß, Currypulver, Garam Masala und gemahlenem Kreuzkümmel abschmecken. Am Schluss die Bananen in Scheiben geschnitten unterrühren und kurz mitgaren, mit Petersilie bestreuen und servieren. Dazu passt Baguettebrot.

Variationen:
Statt Schweinefilet kann man auch Hähnchenbrustfilet verwenden. Die Gewürze lassen sich variieren; mein Garam Masala enthält Koriander, Kümmel, Ingwer, Zimt, Piment, schwarzen Pfeffer, Kardamom, Nelken, Lorbeer und Muskat. Auch ganze Fenchelsamen passen gut, wenn man sie mag.

Tipps:
Die Suppe lässt sich problemlos auch für viele Esser zubereiten. Kürzlich haben wir die vierfache Menge für 16 Personen gekocht. Man kann sie gut am Tag zuvor machen, dann zieht alles gut durch; die Bananen sollte man allerdings zunächst weglassen und sie erst am nächsten Tag beim Erhitzen der Suppe zugeben, sonst werden sie zu matschig. Den Rest der Suppe kann man auch gut einfrieren und schnell in der Mikrowelle erhitzen.

Six years and six days ago…

… I started my weblog at andrea.editthispage.com. Back then, hardly anyone (in Germany, at least) knew what a weblog was, and even fewer people had one. Back then I was a student with lots of time for surfing the web and finding interesting things to post, or even for writing long stories about my travels etc..

(This reminds me that I never got around to posting a journal for our second trip to the US back in 2002, and that I kept a journal on the computer on the third trip in 2005 so posting something about it on the web would be easier and less time-consuming. With a digital diary and digital photos you’d think that I’ll eventually get around to put something up in the near future – we’ll see if it works out.)

My weblog helped me make new friends (whom I mangaged to meet in real life), keep in touch with far-away friends and even find old friends again. (For those not in the know: Ralf and I went to school together!)

Since I started teaching I haven’t had as much time for this hobby, but I still enjoy posting interesting links or the odd photo and communicating with you. I still get e-mails from “strangers” from time to time talking about something that I posted on my weblog or asking a question, or just saing, hi, I read your weblog, so if you’re a long-time reader but have been lurking all this time, why don’t you post a comment or drop me an e-mail at my first name at this domain? I’d love to hear from you!

Ach Kinners, vielen Dank für die lieben Glückwünsche, Jörg und Ralf.

Jörg: Es war aber nicht am Sonnabend, sondern schon ein paar Tage eher, und ich hatte nach dem letzten Posting flüchtig daran gedacht, dass ich da wohl ein Jubiläum verpasst hatte, war aber noch nicht dazu gekommen, hier wieder zu posten. Danke für die Erinnerung!

Tagged – four things

Four jobs I’ve had:

  1. Tutor for mathematics, English, Latin, and physics.
  2. Typist at the Federal President’s office, transferring the information on persons who were decorated by the Federal President (is there a shorter way to say this in English?) from paper to computer.
  3. Secretary at the newspaper of the German Armed Forces Union.
  4. Teacher.

Four movies I can watch over and over:

  1. Blues Brothers.
  2. The Straight Story.
  3. The Big Lebowski, Fargo, and some others by the Coen brothers.
  4. Wallace and Gromit.

Four places I’ve lived:

  1. Hetzwege, Lower Saxony.
  2. Hannover, Capitol of Lower Saxony.
  3. Bonn, North-Rhine Westphalia, former Capital of Germany.
  4. Andernach, Rhineland-Palatinate.

Four TV shows I love:

  1. Friends.

I’ll have to pass on the other ones since we don’t own a TV. My sister got me hooked on Friends by lending me the DVDs, though.

Four places I’ve vacationed:

  1. Florence and Tuscany, Italy.
  2. Kenya and Tanzania, East Africa.
  3. Devon, Cornwall and Kent, England (two different trips)
  4. Western United States (CA, NV, AZ, UT, NM, CO, WY)

Four of my favorite dishes:

  1. Tandoori Chicken with aromatic yellow rice and spicy green beans.
  2. Murg Jalfraizee (chicken with bell peppers).
  3. Curry soup, a favourite at the moment.
  4. Tiramisu, homemade by André.

Four sites I visit daily:

  1. Too many weblogs, but i usually read their feeds.
  2. National Geographic photo of the day.
  3. Astronomy picture of the day.
  4. Weather forecast for Andernach.

Four places I would rather be right now:

  1. New Zealand.
  2. Southwest of the USA, somewhere in the desert.
  3. Outside in the snow and sun, instead of at my desk.
  4. Glen Canyon, before the dam was built.

Four bloggers to tag with this:

  1. Daniel.
  2. Ralf.
  3. Hmm, almost everyone else has already been tagged…
  4. … you!

Lots of applets to play with

MetaFilter: “Ripple Tank Simulation is a delightful, mesmeric java applet simulation of a ripple tank. It demonstrates two dimensional wave phenomena such as interference, diffraction, refraction, resonance, phased arrays, and the Doppler effect (do try the 3D view). From Paul Falstad’s fantastic collection of Math, Physics and Engineering Applets.”

Excellent, I’m adding the ripple tank – and the other applets – to my collection of useful sites for physics lessons.