Monthly Archives: January 2019

Noch eine Nummer größer, bitte

Deutsche Welle: CERN: Beschleunigerring der Superlative geplant. “Der neue Teilchenbeschleuniger am CERN soll Future Circular Collider heißen und 100 Kilometer lang werden. Die Physiker wollen noch energiereichere Kollisionen als mit dem derzeitigen Large Hadron Collider erreichen.”

“Mit einer Länge von 100 Kilometern wäre der Future Circular Collider (FCC) mehr als dreimal so lang wie der 27 Kilometer lange LHC. In den Kreis des neuen Beschleunigerrings würde praktisch das gesamte Stadtgebiet Genfs passen und obendrauf noch ein Teil Frankreichs.

Das Konzept für den FCC haben die CERN-Physiker am 15. Januar veröffentlicht. Er wird in die “Europäische Strategie für Teilchenphysik” einfließen. Darin soll festgelegt werden, wohin die Reise geht, wenn der LHC voraussichtlich 2035 stillgelegt wird.
[…]
Als zweite Option für einen LHC-Nachfolger ist ein kompakter linearer Teilchenbeschleuniger (CLIC) im Gespräch. Doch was am Ende gebaut wird, müssen letztendlich die 22 Mitgliedsstaaten des CERN entscheiden.”

Mirjam Pressler

Deutsche Welle: Schriftstellerin und Übersetzerin Mirjam Pressler ist tot. “Als Übersetzerin war sie international bekannt. Am berühmtesten: ihre deutsche Fassung vom “Tagebuch der Anne Frank”. Nach langer Krankheit ist die Jugendbuchautorin Mirjam Pressler mit 78 Jahren gestorben.”

Die Zeit: Schriftstellerin Mirjam Pressler ist tot. “Sie war eine der erfolgreichsten deutschen Kinder- und Jugendbuchautorinnen. Zudem übersetzte sie mehr als 300 Titel. Mirjam Pressler starb im Alter von 78 Jahren.”

Just reading the headlines makes you sick to your stomach…

… and I’m not even a US citizen, just a concerned Eurpean who knows a thing or two about German history.

The Atlantic: Unthinkable – 50 Moments That Define an Improbable Presidency. Each line is the link to a corresponding article.

“Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in chief of The Atlantic:

In an October 2016 editorial, The Atlantic wrote of Donald Trump: “He is a demagogue, a xenophobe, a sexist, a know-nothing, and a liar.“ We argued that Trump “expresses admiration for authoritarian rulers, and evinces authoritarian tendencies himself.“ Trump, we also noted, “is easily goaded, a poor quality for someone seeking control of America’s nuclear arsenal. He is an enemy of fact-based discourse; he is ignorant of, and indifferent to, the Constitution; he appears not to read.“

In retrospect, we may be guilty of understatement.

There was a hope, in the bewildering days following the 2016 election, that the office would temper the man—that Trump, in short, would change.

He has not changed.

This week marks the midway point of Trump’s term. Like many Americans, we sometimes find the velocity of chaos unmanageable. We find it hard to believe, for example, that we are engaged in a serious debate about whether the president of the United States is a Russian-intelligence asset. So we decided to pause for a moment and analyze 50 of the most improbable, norm-bending, and destructive incidents of this presidency to date.”

Link via MetaFilter.

“Chocolate Chirp Cookies”

NPR The Salt: Should Hyping Edible Bugs Focus On The Experience Instead Of The Environment?

“Farming insects may be more sustainable than raising meat, but so far that hasn’t been quite enough to convince most Westerners to eat them.

Marketing them as delicious, exquisite delicacies, though? That might do the trick.
[…]
Current marketing tactics for eating insects tend to point out environmental and health benefits. But a new study published in Frontiers in Nutrition suggests it might be better to focus on taste and experience, such as highlighting how much dragonflies taste like soft-shelled crabs.”

Best food name ever: “Chocolate Chirp Cookies” for cookies baked with cricket flour.

“While visitors are enjoying the free access, they may be doing irrevocable damage to America’s national parks.”

The Guardian: Joshua Tree national park announces closure after trees destroyed amid shutdown.

“For 17 days, a host of volunteers and a skeleton staff kept the trash cans and toilets from overflowing at Joshua Tree national park.

But on Tuesday, 18 days after the federal government shutdown furloughed the vast majority of national park staff, officials announced that vandalism of the park’s distinctive namesake plants and other maintenance and sanitation problems will require closure starting Thursday.

“While the vast majority of those who visit Joshua Tree do so in a responsible manner, there have been incidents of new roads being created by motorists and the destruction of Joshua trees in recent days that have precipitated the closure,“ spokesman George Land said in a news release.”

Vox: Joshua Tree National Park has been trashed in the shutdown. Now visitors are cutting down trees. “Despite severe damage, the park will not shut down entirely.”

“A week ago, Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California was forced to shut down its campgrounds due to “health and safety concerns over near-capacity pit toilets,“ according to CNN.

But despite the partial closure, things continued to get worse.

According to National Parks Traveler, visitors are creating illegal roads and driving into some of the park’s most fragile areas. They are also chopping down trees, setting illegal fires, and graffitiing rocks. With Joshua Tree being roughly the size of Delaware, the eight on-duty law enforcement rangers had no way to stop all the prohibited activity.”

Links via MetaFilter.

I’ve been to Joshua Tree National Monument during a school exchange back in 1992, before it became a National Park, and again with André in 1999. It’s been on my list of places to re-visit more thoroughly, but now I’ll have to find out if it’s still worth it. It’s a shame that this is happening to Joshua Tree and many other National Parks because of a stubborn and incompetent president.