The meaning of weblogging

Hah! And once again my weblog has proven very useful! Well, at least for myself.

I was just trying to figure something out for my thesis and needed a graph of the Weierstrass pe-function. Normally, I would have looked at Eric Weisstein’s World of Mathematics, but as I learned a few days ago, it’s no longer online.

Luckily, I posted the graph on my weblog a while ago!

But I really do hope they are able to sort out the copyright problem and bring Mathworld back to life.

Electrinos?

I searched for more articles on the possible division of electrons:

• Physics News Update: Can electrons split up into smaller fragments?
• Brown University News Service: Brown physicist proposes that electron may be split in two
• HowStuffWorks.com: Physicist Proposes Way to Split Electron
• George Street Journal: A look into the lab: exploding electron bubbles
• Here is Humphrey Maris’s home page.

Physics

While people at CERN are desperately trying to find the Higgs particle (the last missing elementary particle of the standard model of physics), a physicist elsewhere might have discovered that the electron can be divided into several parts?! Read Double or quit in the New Scientist:

“‘Electron fragments behave to all intents and purposes like entirely separate particles,’ says Maris, who is based at Brown University in Rhode Island. ‘I call them electrinos.’

Pause a moment to consider what Maris is saying. The electron is the lightest subatomic particle and the one with the greatest claim to being absolutely fundamental. In fact, in the 103 years since its discovery, there has been no other evidence whatsoever that the electron is divisible. It is the modern incarnation of Democritus’s ‘uncuttable’ atom.

The claim that electrons are divisible is therefore nothing short of a bombshell dropped into the world of physics. ‘If Humphrey is correct, it means a Nobel Prize,’ says Gary Ihas of the University of Florida. Nobel prizewinner Philip Anderson of Princeton University thinks Maris must be wrong. ‘But it’s not obvious why,’ he admits.

Maris does not have definitive proof of his hypothesis. But earlier this year he published a paper that put it on a firm theoretical basis, and marshalled supporting evidence from past experiments. Now he is doing his own experiments, trying to break up the electron.

Whether Maris succeeds or not, he may have found a large crack in one of the foundation stones of modern physics. ‘Humphrey has succeeded in exposing a fundamental flaw in the framework of quantum theory,’ says Peter McClintock of the University of Lancaster.”

The article claims that electrons can be divided if they are put into liquid helium at 1.7 K – or at least, their wave function can be divided. Physicists are still arguing about whether that really means the electron is being divided or merely that one doesn’t know where the electron is.

If the propositions of Humphrey Maris are correct, quantum phsyics is dead.

Link via BookNotes.

Snow?

What?? I just went over to dangerous meta – to see photos with lots of snow in them! Whoa! I always thought New Mexico was still nice and warm at this time of the year.

But the snow didn’t stop Garret from voting.

Speaking of voting – I’m nervously waiting for the results. They said on the news that the first calculations are expected around 3 a.m.. I guess I’ll have to wait till tomorrow, then. Sigh.

Ganz schön alt…

Congratulations to Sheila and Brent – their weblogs turn one year old today! For a blog, that’s pretty old, I’d say.

Weise, weise

Der Schockwellenreiter beglückt uns heute mit folgender Weisheit:

“Es gibt Leute… […] …die wissen alles (besser??). Die wollen wohl Lehrer (leerer?) werden. […]

Der liebe Gott weiß alles, Lehrer wissen alles besser. “

Genau, darum studiere ich ja Lehramt. Aber weil ich es noch besser weiß, werde ich mich auch mal umschauen, ob ich mit meinem Studium nicht was besseres anfangen kann, als Lehrer zu werden.

Late flip

This afternoon, I’ve been busy giving math lessons to several middle school students. Normally, a friend of mines teaches them, but she is at Physics on Stage at the moment (Infos in deutsch), so she has asked me to do it for her.

Now I’m pretty exhausted…

Short story

Lotto, a short story by Douglas Coupland, author of “Microserfs” and “Generation X”.

Link via ronsens.

I just realized I didn’t put “Microserfs” into my Ten Books list. I should have. It’s great and really fun to read!

Election

Finally! Tomorrow is election day in the USA.

“Think about what you know and what you have heard, look inside yourself and make a decision, then please vote for who and what you believe best represents your view.”

Says Craig – and returns to regular blogging. I guess the fans of Bush are happy to hear that!

Craig had a link to the Museum of Soviet Calculators on the Web. Interesting site!

In Bonn, we have a whole museum dedicated to calculating machines, which also has some very interesting machines: the Arithmeum. Click here to view some of the exhibits.

Accomplishing time

Yesterday, Mollie Elizabeth mused about what she has accomplished in her life so far, and what could have been if…

At 22, she thinks she should not be studying anymore, maybe even have gotten married and had a kid. Whew! Since I’m 25 already, this got me thinking…

I’m three years older, and I’m still at the university. I’ve been studying for six years now, and it will be another year until I’m finished. If I go on to become a teacher, I’ll have to do two more years of training on the job before I’m able to get a “real” job as a teacher. I’ll be 28 by then.

The difference seems to have something to do with the different countries we live in. In Germany, few people get married before they’re 25, and for most people who go to university (after 13 years of school), it’s common not to marry before they’re 30. The average German woman is 29 years old when she gives birth for the first time (source).

Of course, I sometimes wish I had done something else instead of going to university that didn’t take as long as what I’m doing right now, and I’m thinking of not becoming a teacher and apply for a different job next year (after getting my first degree at the university) because I think I should start to make my own living, but I certainly don’t think I’ve wasted time in the past.

I started out studying physics and aimed for a diploma, and it took me almost three years until I realized that was not what I wanted to do with my life. I switched subjects and studied phyics and math for another three years in order to become a teacher, and I’m about to take the first sets of exams (which take a year), and I’m still not sure that I want to be a teacher for the rest of my life.

I don’t know whether that is of any help to you, Mollie, but I don’t think you wasted any time. As long as you like what you are studying, don’t consider it as a waste of time. Who knows, it might be useful some day! (This is what I keep telling myself when I start wondering if I could have done this university thing in less than the time it took me so far… ;-) And to me, what you are doing now sounds a lot better than a “convenient” marriage and kids.

Anybody out there?

What a quiet and uneventful day… André and I went for a walk this afternoon. It was sunny, but quite cold. You really can tell it’s fall now.

I’ve spent the rest of the day checking out web sites for children, for a computer course a fellow student and I are going to give next week. It’s a three-day introduction to Windows, Word and the internet for pupils in fifth grade who supposedly never used a computer before – what fun!

Since the course is for fifth-graders, who started to learn English only a few months ago, I only looked at German-speaking sites. (Falls es jemanden interessiert: In der aktuellen c’t gibt es dazu einen Artikel, aber nur auf Papier. Die Links daraus gibt’s auch hier.) There are a few good ones out there, but some horrible sites as well. Now let’s see if we can get the fifth-graders excited about some Harry Potter fan pages…

Die Wahlen in den USA

Etliche interessante Artikel gibt es bei der Zeit, die ab Mittwochmorgen (d.h. sobald der Ausgang der Wahl bekannt ist) Diskussionen, Meinungen, Interviews und anderes bringen wird.

Ein sehr erschütternder Bericht ist dieser: Zwei Millionen Verdammte – Amerika sperrt seine Kleinkriminellen weg – auf ewig. Der Artikel behandelt die Regelung “Three strikes and you are out ” – drei Verbrechen, und man wird zu 25 Jahren Haft bis lebenslänglich verurteilt! In einem der erwähnten Fälle brachte der Diebstahl einer Pizza einen Mann für mindestens 25 Jahre hinter Gittern.

Das ist schon ein krasser Gegensatz zu Deutschland, wo man gerade fieberhaft versucht, den zum sechsten (!) Mal entflohenen Straftäter Schmökel wieder einzufangen – der mehrere Vergewaltigungen und jetzt einen Mord begangen hat.

Want to be an astronaut?

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut, and I’m still interested in all things concerning space-flight. Here’s there Space Flight Questions and Answers of the NASA. They also have a page with an overview of all the FAQ pages.

Link via Netdyslexia.

LinkBack

Yay, the LinkBack program is back up! Thanks, Jeremy!

All the treasures gone…

Ack! What do I read on today’s Scripting News? They turned off Eric Weisstein’s World of Mathematics???

“It is with the deepest regret that we must inform you that because of a copyright lawsuit filed by CRC Press against Eric Weisstein and others, we have been forced to remove our MathWorld web site from public view as of October 23, 2000. We are very hopeful that at some point in the future it will be possible to restore this valuable web resource to full public view. […]

And we would like to apologize to the researchers and students who rely on this site for their work and learning…”

Oh no! This was the most valuable resource for mathematics on the web (as far as I know)! I used it very often. At least, his Treasure Troves (Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Music) are still available.

Details about Mathworld are here.

Shanghai Noon

Peter Rukavina was so kind to send me the URL to a review of the film at Steve.Rukavina.Net. Thanks!

Space Cowboys

Der Schockwellenreiter sagt, seine Frau und er wollen sich den Film übermorgen ansehen. Außerdem hat er Links zu Kritiken in der Telepolis (Man on the Moon) und im Spiegel (Eastwoods große Sause). Danke!

Außerdem hat er dezent darauf hingewiesen, daß es im Rollberg-Department Kino ganz, ganz viel über Kinofilme zu lesen gibt.

Going to the movies?

Has anyone seen Space Cowboys? I just read a review in Die Zeit (German weekly newspaper), which was very positive. I think I want to see the film. Can you recommend it?

Oh, and while we’re talking about films: What about Shang-High Noon? Should André and I watch it?

I wonder why this film is called ‘Shanghai Noon’ in the US, but ‘Shang-High Noon’ in Germany?

Where is the ISS?

The NASA has a Station Locator that tracks the ISS. Updated once per minute.

And in case you were wondering, the MIR has a home page, too.

Links via Die Zeit.

Auch Astronauten müssen putzen

Die Zeit: Keime im Weltall, von Ulf von Rauchhaupt.

“Raumschiffe, das wissen wir seit Enterprise, blitzen vor Sauberkeit. Bei Captain Kirk und Mister Spock sah es jedenfalls immer aus, als sei gerade erst die Putzfrau da gewesen. Kein Krümel fand sich auf den blinkenden Konsolen, selbst Scottys Maschinenraum spiegelte wie im Werbespot für Sanitärreiniger. Das Meister-Proper-Image kündete von der Verwirklichung eines alten Menschheitstraums: Im Weltraum, so schien es, entflieht der Mensch nicht nur der Schwerkraft, sondern auch all jenem Dreck und Staub, der in irdischen Wohngemeinschaften regelmäßig Streit hervorruft.”

Mehr Info über die ISS gibt es im Space-Forum, einem Projekt der Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt und der Rheinischen Post.

Strangers

The new referer page just sent me over to Midtownstation, where my weblog is listed in the “Get lost” section of the links list. – So is this a compliment or an insult? (At least there is also a “Get really lost” section, so I guess it’s not the worst I could have gotten…)

I wonder how he found my blog…

Languages

This is a useful site: Foreign languages for travelers. They have 74 languages, and you can learn the basic vocabulary you might need if you travel to foreign countries. And it has real audio files of the words/phrases so you know how to pronounce them.

Link via /usr/bin/girl.

Presidential Election in the USA

Finally, Craig reveals his best-kept secret: “Okay, I’m going public with what must be obvious. I am voting for Al Gore.”

Who would have guessed?!

Yesterday, Craig apologized to his international readers for posting so much election stuff. That’s fine with me! I think the outcome of the election is important for other countries as well as for the US themselves. They’re not some barely-known, unimportant little foreign country, after all.

Tad Williams

Diesmal sogar auf deutsch! Auf Schreibsalon.de gibt es einen Bericht über Tad Williams Lesung in Köln. Interessant finde ich, daß er dort scheinbar ganz andere Stories zum besten gegeben haben als hier in Bonn. Ich kann mich aber dem Schreiber anschließen: Eine ‘Lesung’ mit Tad Williams ist ein Erlebnis!

New Manila Feature

Now Manila sites have referer stats – or is is referrer stats? Whatever. Mine are here.