Hey there!

I just found the Bumblebee Weblog in my referrer logs. For the second time. The author is Helena from Toronto, Canada. I wonder how she stumbled across my blog… but it’s nice to get to know a new regular (?) reader. Oh, and I just read that she likes sunsets, too.

Hello Helena! Nice to meet you!

Coke Discussion

Discussion is still continouing. Terry Henert found a web page with lots of numbers comparing the US to other rich nations: A comparison of the U.S. to other rich nations. The numbers are from 1992, but they’re still interesting although I’m not sure they’re all correct. For example, I believe the government debt per person is higher in Germany than the page says.

Update: Scott says he thinks the numbers for Germany are all pre-reunification, and for the Western part of Germany only. That makes sense. Thanks, Scott.

By the way, this discussion shows how useful the new topic view for the discussion group is. Now you can see all the messages of a topic at once, without switching browser windows or clicking back and forth.

Fall in Bonn

André and I went to Bad Godesberg by bike today. We bought tickets for the cinema, but had almost an hour left before the film started, so we went to the Rhine. Look at that beautiful weather!

Then we watched Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?. It was not quite as funny as The Big Lebowski, but still very good. We enjoyed it. I guess we have to watch Fargo next….

David Singer in Germany

I just read David‘s home page. He flew to Stuttgart today and had a very typical German lunch: Döner Kebab.

Judging from his photos, the weather in Stuttgart was as good as in Bonn today.

Ah, sunshine

It’s a beautiful beautiful day here in Bonn today. Clear blue sky, not a cloud in sight, sunshine, almost 20°C (almost 70°F). Lovely!

I think we will go out now – either for a walk or a little bike tour. Who knows when the weather will be this great again? Might well be in half a year or so…

Updates later…

This is not Billy Joel

I like this song. (You can even download the MP3 file.

We didn’t start the weblogs

They were always thinking

Of good sites for linking

We didn’t start the weblogs

No, we didn’t incite ’em

But we’re trying to write ’em

Hmmm… I just saw Dave linked to it as well on Scripting.Com. Now it looks like I found the link there, but I found it myself, honest!

Hiatus break

Hal posted a little update today. He writes about his thesis:

“The thesis continues on the logrithmatic scale, half the distance remains, half the distance remains. Work, work, work, half the distance remains.”

Somehow, this sounds familiar… I went to see my professor on Wednesday because I felt like I was getting nowhere with my work. Now we’ve worked out a plan for the next two or three weeks, and since then I’m feeling way more motivated and productive. I’ve actually been getting some real work done.

Everyone’s ill

Scott reports that his whole family is ill. Poor Christopher has pneumonia and has to be in hospital for the next ten days.

Once again, all the best for your whole family! I especially hope Christopher gets better soon! Poor little boy…

Coke and other evils

Terry Henert brought up the topic yesterday, and Garret, Brent and Sean have contributed so far.

Physik

Teilchenphysik in der Schule: “Diese Seite soll Informationen über Teilchenphysik für interessierte Lehrer und Schüler verfügbar machen und als Anregung für das Einbringen von Themen der Teilchenphysik in die Schule dienen.”

Mit vielen hilfreichen Links.

Science and religion

André pointed out this Metafilter thread about science and religion, a propos of Snake Oil and Holy Water by Richard Dawkins. “Are science and religion converging?”

Interesting article, interesting discussion.

Math

I’m working my way through elliptic functions now… Here are graphs of the Weierstrass Elliptic Function and its derivative.

Some links:

• Elliptic Functions in Mathematica
• Eric Weisstein’s World of Mathematics:
  • Elliptic Functions
  • Weierstrass pe-Function
  • Jacobi Elliptic Functions
• Eric Weisstein’s Treasure Troves of science: Literature on elliptic functions

Coke discussion

There are some postings about Coca Cola in the discussion group, both in German and English. The latter is not just about Coke, but also about the upcoming presidential elections in the US:

“After reading the comments about Coke in the schools made in July and September it reminds me, again!, of how incredibly conservative and brainwashed we Americans are. Regarding Coke and Pepsi in the schools, it clearly makes good sense to try to protect ourselves and our kids from destructive habits and influences. However, here in the US most have lost the perspective of how much the corporations control our lives (and thoughts).

[…]

It shows a fundamental difference, I think, between the US, the knowledge and viewpoint, and the rest of the Western World. Most Americans have no idea how conservative they really are.

Comments please!

Thanks for your comment, Garret!

Get well soon!

Frauke, Scott and Christopher are back from their trip to the US, but it seems they all caught bronchitis and stomach flu.

And Garret is still ill…

Get well, all of you!

Did Adam and Eve have navels?

Garret links to a Salon review of the book “Did Adam and Eve have Navels?” by Martin Gardner. Sounds like a book I’d like to read!

Ground zero

I forgot to link yesterday… Susan has a great story, Light Unspeakable, and interesting photos, Ground Zero. Go and read and look!

Spare the homework, educate the child

Craig says his kids have too much homework. His daughter Leigh Ann, 11 years old an in 6th grade, has an hour and a half or two a day. Whoa!

I remember I used to have that much homework, but that was in 10th grade and above! Plus, school in Germany ends at around 1 pm, so there’s more time to do them.

Um acht Uhr in die Uni? – Warmduscher!

Sean, falls es dich tröstet: Mir ist gestern sowas ähnliches passiert. Die Vorlesung war zwar erst um zehn, fiel aber wegen der Eröffnung des akademischen Jahres aus, hätte ich mir also denken können. Das tollste ist noch, daß ich besagte Vorlesung vor zwei Jahren schon mal gehört habe und jetzt nur nochmal hingehen will, um mein Gedächtnis aufzufrischen – und das des Profs, denn bei ihm schreibe ich eine Examensklausur…

Aber wo ich schon mal in der Uni war, habe ich wenigstens noch was getan – mehrere Profs in der Sprechstunde besucht und – wie immer – die Mathe-Bibliothek besucht.

No flip today?

Almost… but today has still 78 minutes left.

Why does a day only have 24 hours?

Today I sure wish for more…

I spent too much of the morning at the Prüfungsamt (office for the teacher exams I’m taking), trying to straighten out some things concerning my Examen. I have the impression that nobody really knows how the exams are supposed to work. There are old rules, new rules, rules deciding which set of rules apply when to whom – and nobody seems to really know them all. Last time I was there, I was told that if I want the new rules for my exams, I have to apply for them. Which I did today. But today I’m told I didn’t have to apply for them because they would apply to me anyway!

So it seems I wasted a couple of hours yesterday and today…

Sigh. I spent the rest of the day at the math library, once more studying a book that I’m not able to borrow and take home. At least it’s more fun than last time because the book was written in the 1950s and I’m able to understand it much better and more easily than the one from 1890.

You are asking whether I have anything interesting to tell you? Sorry, not today. Other than that it seems there are no more obstacles that could prevent me from taking my exams, nothing interesting happened today.

Am I hot or not?

Since this seems to be the latest hit on some weblogs, I’m going to contribute my share of links as well… Am I hot or not? is a site where people submit photos of themselves and others rate them. Yes, it’s that interesting.

Yesterday I heard on the radio that two DJs of our favorite radio station submitted photos of themselves to be rated. They are Volker Janitz and Michael Haas. Since then, they’ve been boasting about their ratings – one got 2.4, the other 1.9 out of 10. Yeah. I think this one‘s pretty cool.

Wo Du wolle?

Und falls sich irgendjemand dafür interessiert, der beliebte SWR3-Radio-Comic Taxi Sharia hat natürlich auch eine eigene Homepage – aber auf der heißt es “No Flash – no Gags”, und mit der Anmerkung “Der Macromedia Flash-Player ist seit Jahren Standard für aufwendige grafische Animationen im Internet.” wird man dazu aufgefordert, das Plugin herunterzuladen. Seit Jahren Standard, soso…

Hey, dafür kann man sich da einen Gag der aktuellen Woche anhören. Die Tonqualität ist zwar nicht so gut wie im Radio, aber besser als nix, wenn ich Taxi Sharia wieder mal im Radio verpaßt habe…

Coca Cola-Rezept geknackt

Das meldet heute der Schockwellenreiter. Hat er bei Spiegel online gelesen. Ach was, das war doch nie geheim. Auf SWR3 habe ich heute gehört, daß das Rezept gar nicht geheim sein kann, weil ja überall auf der Welt Coca Cola hergestellt wird. Und es wurde sogar im Radio vorgelesen. Nur konnte ich es leider auf der SWR3-Site nicht finden.

Archimedes

Modern technology is used to make an overwritten text by Archimedes visible: Gazing Upon an Erased Treasure. (New York Times, free subscription required.) The book has been lost since the 1920, re-appeared in 1998 and was put up for auction by Christie’s: Ancient Archimedes Text Turns Up, and It’s for Sale.

The book is about 1,000 years old and is the oldest known copy of a book by Archimedes, who wrote it 2,300 years ago. Around 200 years after it had been written, it was erased and overwritten by a monk because parchment was so expensive then.

Link via Garret.

Friday the 13th

Last friday I said the 13th is more often a Friday than any other weekday, but I couldn’t find it on the web. The Schockwellenreiter found it for me (see the German quote below):

The weekdays repeat every 400 years because the leap years are the same every 400 years. If you count the weekdays of each 13th of a month, you find that 688 13th are a Friday, while the other weekdays appear only 684 to 687 times.

Guten Morgen…

Owei, ich glaube, ich brauche eine Brille. Schon heute, nur drei Tage zu spät, entdeckte ich beim Schockwellenreiter einen Link, den er am Sonntag für mich gepostet hat…

Und dabei ist das ein cooler Link: Freitag, der 13. aus Sicht der Mathematik. Da steht genau das drin, wonach ich gesucht hatte:

“Nach unserem Kalender folgt auf drei gewöhnliche Jahre von 365 Tagen Länge fast immer ein Schaltjahr mit 366 Tagen. Alle 400 Jahre wiederholt sich die gleiche Anfolge von gewöhnlichen Jahren und Schaltjahren. Hemme zählte deshalb für einen Zeitraum von 400 Jahren nach, wie oft der 13. ein Freitag ist. Dabei ergab sich, dass der 13. insgesamt 688-mal auf einen Freitag fällt, aber nur 684- bis 687-mal auf jeden der anderen Wochentage.”

Vielleicht kann ich den Link am nächsten Freitag, dem 13., recyceln…

Danke, Jörg!