Category Archives: Archive

Imported from andrea.editthispage.com, a Manila site, on Sep 20th, 2005.

March 28 2000

Mathematics, philosophy and all the rest

I’ve decided to finish my essay today! And in fact I think it’s possible.

I found two quotes from Einstein that expresses what he thinks about mathematics:

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought independent of experience, is so admirably adapted to the objects of reality?

And another one on teaching:

Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.

And, by the way, here is an online Einstein Exhibition and the Einstein Papers Project.

Okay, back to work…

Einstein:

Mathematik, Philosophie und der ganze Rest

Ich habe beschlossen, heute mit meiner Hausarbeit fertig zu werden! Und es sieht tatsächlich so aus, als läge das im Bereich des Möglichen.

Ich habe einige Zitate von Einstein gefunden, die sein Verhältnis zur Mathematik zum Ausdruck bringen:

Die reine Mathematik ist auf ihre Art die Poesie logischer Gedanken.

Wie ist es nur möglich, daß die Mathematik, die ja ein Produkt der menschlichen Gedanken und unabhängig vom Experiment ist, so bewundernswert mit der Realität übereinstimmt?

Und eins über das Lehren:

Es sollte so gelehrt werden, daß das, was geboten wird, als wertvolles Geschenk und nicht als harte Pflicht empfunden wird.

[Meine Übersetzungen aus dem Englischen]

So, zurück an die Arbeit…

March 27 2000

Monday Monday

Nothing is happening here today. How boring!

I’ve cancelled my math lessons in order to work on my essay all day long because I want to finish it as soon as possible. It’s due on Friday.

Yesterday I added my weblog to NetDyslexia‘s Euroblogs. It’s here:

http://netdyslexia.editthispage.com/euroblogs/germany/andrea

But of course, if you read my weblog regularly, there’s nothing there that you don’t know already…

But you might want to check out the other Euroblogs!

Manila Palooza

Duncan tells the story of his frequent crashings, Jake has photos, and
Jeff, too!

Oh, and hi Sheila! I hope I’ll be there next time so we can meet, too!

star:

Monday Monday

Heute ist hier nichts los. Wie langweilig!

Ich habe meine Nachhilfestunden abgesagt, damit ich den ganzen Tag an meiner Hausarbeit schreiben kann. Ich will sie endlich fertighaben! Freitag ist Abgabetermin.

Gestern habe ich mein Weblog bei NetDyslexias Euroblogs eingetragen. Hier ist es:

http://netdyslexia.editthispage.com/euroblogs/germany/andrea

Aber natürlich gibt’s da für regelmäßige Besucher nichts Neues…

Aber NetDyslexia hat eine Liste mit Weblogs aus Deutschland, der Schweiz und Österreich. Manche sind sogar auf deutsch geschrieben!

March 26 2000

The Manila Meeting

… is over. I watched it on the web from about 2 to 5:30 p.m., but at the same time, I tried to hear what was being said on the chat, and that was difficult! The chat application turned my keyboard into an American, but not quite – ä, ö, ü were still there – , so I didn’t find anything. After half an hour I discovered the ? by accident, but I couldn’t find :-) these at all…

Some people there thought I was from NetDyslexia, but I don’t know why. Duncan said it was probably because we Germans all sound alike… Oh well.

Poor Duncan’s computer crashed several times, but he kept coming back!

What happened to me? Update: Seems like the guys from NetDyslexia noticed the above. They say:

hey andrea, congratulations! what a compliment to you

If nothing else, it made Starhacker2000 look at my site.

For some pictures of the meeting, go visit 2020 Hindsight. Susan has great pictures, as always! And I guess there are more to come… yup, they are right there on Manilapalooza!

Susan even has a pic of the well-dressed European geek with the funny accent! :-P

Kate mentioned only six of the 75 or so participants were women. I wonder why! What a pity I wasn’t able to come…

Okay, when the meeting ended at 5.30 p.m., it was 3.30 a.m in Germany because we switched to daylight savings time last night. I was sooo tired! That means I slept (too) long today and now I have to catch up with my work.

Bye for now!

March 25 2000

Spring is back!

After it rained all day yesterday, today the sun is back! It’s just lovely outside, and all the birds are singing. I went jogging this morning (first time since I-don’t-remeber-when), and it felt really good.

Also, I’m now motivated to work on my essay (I know, I can’t hear it anymore, too!) all day – but of course I’ll have a break sometimes and check for email and find out what’s going on at the Manila Meeting.

I really wish I could be there. But I guess I couldn’t make it in time, anyway, since it would take me more than twelve hours to get to California…

So, have fun everybody, I hope to see some photos on your weblogs!

Mathematics on the web

While searching information about Fermat’s last theorem, I found these two websites, both maintained by Eric Weisstein:

Eric Weisstein’s World of Mathematics (Fermat’s Last theorem)

Eric’s Treasure Troves has lots and lots of information, for example biographies of mathematicians and other scientists.

I found another site with a vast amount of information right here at the University of Bonn:

Peter Brosche’s History of Astronomy, which also contains the history of science.

Iguanapalooza?!?

Once again, Susan has great pictures of her trip to the Manilapalooza on her log today.

I guess if Raster would be going to the meeting, he would be the most extraordinary participant! But he doesn’t have a Manila site, anyway…

star:

Der Frühling ist zurück!

Nachdem es gestern den ganzen Tag geregnet hat, scheint heute wieder die Sonne! Draußen ist es richtig schön, und die Vögel singen. Zum ersten Mal seit Ewigkeiten war ich heute morgen mal wieder joggen, was richtig gutgetan hat.

Und jetzt bin ich richtig motiviert, den ganzen Tag an meiner Hausarbeit zu schreiben. (Ja, ich weiß – ich kann’s auch schon nicht mehr hören!) Zwischendurch muß ich dann aber doch mal Pause machen, um nach Emails zu gucken und auf dem laufenden zu bleiben, was beim Manila-Meeting (in Englisch) so los ist.

Ich wäre wirklich gerne dabei, aber jetzt könnte ich wohl nicht mal mehr pünktlich da sein, denn ich brauche länger als zwölf Stunden bis nach Kalifornien…

Also hoffe ich, daß andere ihren Spaß dort haben – und ein paar Fotos auf ihren Weblogs posten!

March 24 2000

Oldest operating McDonalds

Susan had pictures of the oldest operating McDonald’s restaurant yesterday, and I wondered whether their food was better back then.

John Marden answered:

The hamburgers were still only 15 cents, and, yes, Andrea, the food was better then. It was before Big Macs and all that new-fangled stuff.

Tangible benefit to weblogging, part two

Scott Hanson:

John says Thanks Andrea and Andre for a delivery of German chocolate. Reminds of of the Care packages of coffee and chocolate we used to get from Frauke’s folks when we were in the States.

I can’t think of any American goodies that I crave. Guess I’ve been gone too long!

Sometimes I wish there were “Denny’s” in Germany… And I miss those huge chocolate chip cookies and blueberry muffins, too!

John read this and wondered,

Beats me why Americans never figured out how to make good chocolate. The Germans and the Dutch have it down pat.

I think some Germans would prefer Swiss Chocolate or Swedish Chocolate to some German brands.