Antarctica

Diary Antarctica is the journal of Xinzhao Chu, who seems to be working somewhere in Antarctica. Quite a few nice photos on her weblog, too!

While it may not be as adventorous as The Bancroft Arnesen Expedition, it’s still interesting. I mean, how many people do you know who work at the South Pole?

No sunset today

At 4:30 pm, a little while before the sun set, it started to rain quite heavily. Instead of sticking my camera out of a window towards the west, I took these photos from our living room windows – away from the sun!

These were, as you can easily see, four photos. Here’s another shot of one end of the rainbow. You can sort of see the second rainbow outside the first one. (It was clearly visible outsinde, but the photo is not as good, sorry.) Note that the colors on the outer rainbow are inverted.

And here’s a shot at the sun. Yes, the sky was really that yellowish-coloured. Nature always impresses me – sometimes even in the middle of civilisation…

Okay, I admit it all looked much more impressive in reality… sigh. At least you should get the idea from the photos.

New house

Did I hear someone yeee-hawing in New Mexico?

Must’ve been Sandra and Garret – the house is theirs! Congratulations!

“You’ll have at least five jobs after you graduate, four of which haven’t been invented yet.” – Michael Cox, Chief Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Found here via Duncan.

Tired?

Al has a photo of him edithing View From The Heart after a night shift. Megan and Janelle seem to me much more awake than their dad! Cute picture!

What happened to people who post search requests?

For a day or two now, people have been complaining that Google seems not to link to their sites any more. I’ve only submitted a search request there once, but Google still finds it. My page is not in the top ten results any more, but I don’t really care.

As for whether people still find my site via Google or Yahoo – well, take a look at my referrers!

Benjamin Blümchen

Helena looked at my compilation of websites for kids (in German) and wondered why Benjamin Blümchen wasn’t included. For those who don’t know: Benjamin Blümchen is a talking elephant, and he is the main character of a popular radio play (is that the English word for Hörspiel?) series for children in Germany.
Um, well… I forgot about him. But I guess the Benjamin Blümchen series (and website) are for kids in elementary school, and fifth-graders might consider themselves way too old to be interested in Benjamin Blümchen any more…

The Famous Five

I used to listen to Benjamin Blümchen cassettes when I was in elementary school. Then I discovered the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton (in Deutschland besser bekannt als ‘Fünf Freunde’) and collected all 21 cassettes that were available back then. I also watched the series on TV. Today, I did Google searches on Enid Blyton, the Famous Five etc. and discovered some interesting sites.

Gary Russell played ‘Dick’ in the Famous Five TV series that were produced in the seventies. He tells the story of how he became Dick and how the series were shot. I don’t know about you, but if you watched the series on TV and liked them, you will probably enjoy reading this! Be sure to take a look at the photos as well!

Some sites about Enid Blyton in general are Enid Blyton online, including the Enid Blyton Society and a list of links, and the somewhat commercial Enid Blyton Ltd..

I also found this Enid Blyton Webring, but haven’t checked out all the sites.

In case you were wondering – yes, I admit I also read the St. Clare’s (‘Hanni und Nanni’) and the Malory Towers (‘Dolly’) series by Blyton when I was about 10 or 12.

Um, I’m just wondering… are Enid Blyton’s books known in the US as well? Has anyone read her books, too? Tell me!

Fünf Freunde

Auf deutsch gibt es auch einige Sites, z.B. Kirrin Island (auch über andere Hörspielserien) oder die Fünf Freunde Fanpage. Insbesondere dürfte für Fans hier Allgemeines und Hintergründe zur Serie ‘Fünf Freunde’ interessant sein. (Von hier habe ich auch die Bilder aus dem Vorspann zur Fernsehserie geklaut.)

Moving soon

For several days now, Garret wrote on his blog that his wife and he are packing and preparing for moving into their new house. I hope you find enough helping hands! André and I would love to come and help out, but unfortunately New Mexico is too far away, and I can’t afford to take some days off from my thesis…

Not quite Behind the curtain, but almost

After his little desaster with the BTC project, Craig has a new idea:

Every year my family gets together with a small and very close group of friends for Thanksgiving. We eat unbelievably good food, drink expensive wine, talk, laugh and have a wonderful time together. […]

I called Cassandra, at who’s home we will meet for the feast, and suggested that we document our Thanksgiving day together, real time, on BookNotes. She thought it was a good idea. So barring any unanticipated technical glitches, the annual James, Bierner, Prewett, Hutchinson, Jensen Thanksgiving Feast will be available to feast your eyes on.

Yay! That should be especially interesting for non-Americans and other people who are not familiar with Thanksgiving (like me)!

Astronomy

The Munich Astro Archive has maps, papers, astronomical catalogs, FAQs, links and other stuff about astronomy.

Gibt’s auch auf deutsch: Das Münchner Astro-Archiv hat Karten des Nachthimmels, Literatur, astronomische Kataloge, FAQs und anderes. Einen Blick wert!

Mathematics

The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive has more than 1300 biographies of mathematicians, 30 articles on the history of various topics in mathematics, more than 60 curves with their history and properties, and it features mathematicians of the day.

A Day Without Weblogs

The day before yesterday, I wrote that I am going to participate in the Day without Weblogs project. Al says he has mixed feelings about the project; to him it feels like doing as little as possible and not really helping anyone.

I understand his point and admit that there are many ways to do more – but this is at least something. I don’t think the intention of the project is to get people to stop blogging for a day, but rather to post AIDS related links. I posted my thoughts about DWW over in Al’s discussion group.

I think that the project probably has a wrong name. I don’t know much about the Day without Art project, but maybe the difference between the projects would be clearer if DWW would be named Blogging against AIDS instead?!

At least that’s what I think DWW is about.

Antarctica, again

Yesterday, I posted a link to the Bancroft Arnesen expedition across Antarctica.

They have their own weblog with daily (?) updates from the ice, and older entries can be found here (30 Oct – 5 Nov) and here (6 Nov – 12 Nov).

I have to admit that it’s nice reading about the expedition while sitting inside, cozy and warm, and having a nice cup of tea…

Der Spiegel hat auch einen Artikel: Zwei Frauen auf dem Weg durch das ewige Eis:

“Im Kampf gegen Kälte, Wind und Trockenheit wollen sie sich ihren Traum erfüllen: Die Durchquerung der Antarktis auf Skiern. Ann Bancroft und Liv Arnesen wären die ersten Frauen, denen das gelänge. […]

1994 schaffte es Liv Arnesen als erste Frau ohne fremde Hilfe, den Südpol per Ski zu erreichen. Sie brauchte dafür 50 Tage. Ann Bancroft erreichte sowohl den Nord- als auch den Südpol mit Skiern. Sie war die erste Frau, der das gelang. Die Durchquerung der Antarktis schaffte bisher nur eine Handvoll Männer. “