Official first day of spring

Today is the first day of spring, says the calendar. The weather was a little early this year. The weather is great again, it’s 15°C at the moment, but I think it will get a little warmer still. The weather is perfect for a walk at the Rhine – and I think that’s exactly what my parents (who are due to arrive for a visit any minute now) and I are going to do this afternoon.

Weblogger Meeting

Yesterday André and I went to Bonn to meet and have brunch with Oliver Breidenbach, who was one of the early adopters here at EditThisPage.com. Being the geeks and webloggers that we are, we mostly talked about computers, weblogs and computers in education, since Oliver’s company makes iStopMotion, a software for stop motion animation and time lapse recording. I knew about the software, but was not aware of its uses in education (see also here at Apple.co.uk), so I’ll have a closer look now.

First day of spring

Ah, today was the first day that felt like spring. We last had snow on Friday (quite a bit, but nothing like this, Garret!), but today it was sunny and up to 14°C! A great day to go to the zoo (Zoo Neuwied, German), which coincidentally I did today with my fifth-graders. They are all looking forward to spring, and I’m especially looking forward to two weeks of easter break, starting on Saturday.

Am I crazy?

This afternoon, it being all sunny and almost warm, I had to try the new inline skates I bought last weekend. I’ve been skating for the past nine years or so, but my old skates were a bit too small and not up to date any more. The new ones have bigger wheels and are more comfortable all around.

I went down to the Rhine because it’s too hilly around where we live, but in order to get onto the bike/walk/inline path next to the river, I had to skate up a small incline with a sharp bend. Unfortunately I didn’t take into consideration that I had to come back down somehown… I tried to brake, but ended up on my behind. Ouch! But it’s a good thing I also purchased protective gear for wrists, elbows and knees, so at least I didn’t scrape my hands in the process.

It was the first time I ever fell down while inline-skating, too, so I guess my ego is hurt even more than my derrière.

I guess I’ll have to look around for a good area to inline-skate some more. Bonn is much less hilly than the area we now live in, but there have to be some good paved paths around here somewhere, probably near the Rhine. And meanwhile, I’m going to start jogging again, as it is much less dangerous and can also be done around here.

My goal? I’m going to participate in the Mittelrhein-Marathon (available in English and German) this year as an inline-skater, on the day after my 30th birthday. I mulled over posting about it here, but figured that I could well use all the encouragement I can get. (Here’s my registration info, in case you’re interested.)

The marathon is being held here in the upper middle Rhine valley for the first time, and I think it’s a wonderful idea to have a marathon in a beautiful landscape like this. The start is near the Loreley, and the finish line is at the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz. The Mittelrheintal is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, by the way (siehe auch Mittelrheintal, deutschsprachig, Flash).

Mathematik

Mal wieder auf Suche nach Themen für Facharbeiten o. ä., habe mich dabei an die hyperbolische Geometrie und andere schöne Dinge erinnert. Beim Rückert-Gymnasium Düsseldorf (bzw. auf deren alter Site) findet man eine wunderschöne Arbeit zum Thema Von der Perspektive in der Kunst zur Relativitätstheorie, u. a. mit Ausführungen zur projektiven und zur hyperbolischen Geometrie. (Und letztere ist mir aus meiner ersten Staatsexamensarbeit noch in guter Erinnerung…)

Ergänzend gibt es hier noch eine schöne Seite zu hyperbolischen Pflasterungen.

Außerdem hatte der Schockwellenreiter mal wieder ein paar schöne Mathematiklinks, die ich mir nicht entgehen lassen konnte.

Cooking

Well, not cooking exactly, but this Ask MeFi thread contains lots of yummy-sounding recipes for dips. Now I’m hungry!

Around the World

While searching for countries that are difficult to visit (for a school project) I looked for info on Tannu Tuva (see Friends of Tuva). I discovered an interesting site called Ethnopoetics which has sections on soundings, visuals, poems and discourses. The first one contains samples of Tuvan throat singing (ram or mp3), but also Celtic mouth music, Inuit throat music and much more.

I thought I had posted about Tuva and throat singing before, but I can’t find anything on my site. Well, here goes:

Tannu Tuva and Throat Singing

Reading Tuva or Bust – Richard Feynman’S Last Journey by Ralph Leighton inspired me to read more about throat singing, which is also called harmonic or overtone singing because you amplify harmonic overtones in a way that makes it sound like you sing two different notes at the same time. It’s hard to explain in words, but the resulting sound is quite amazing.

A good source of links is the Music of Tuva section of Friends of Tuva.

Check out Khoomei.com, Steve Sklar‘s site about overtone singing. Sklar is an American who is capable of several different styles of overtone singing. He offers lots of free videos on his site (Quicktime required) and also has an overview of the types of throat singing with more sound and video examples. (Sklar also offers Tuvan throat singing lessons online, but you have to pay for them.) If you want to listen to differnt types of singing, I recommend Kombu (mp3): “Kaigal-ool of Huun-Huur-Tu (accompanying himself on doshpuluur) demonstrates perfectly the characteristic sound of the Xorekteer voice, with its hard, bright tone, and he uses it as a launching pad to sing khoomei, sygyt, and kargyraa.

Surprisingly, overtone singing was also “invented” independently by an American cowboy in the 1920ies: (Quote from khoomei.com/types.)

“The legendary and obscure Arthur Miles was an American cowboy singer who, apparently, also independently developed his own overtone singing style. He also sang in normal voice, yodeled, and played guitar. Almost nothing is know of him or his influences, but the dates of his recordings, believed to be about 1928-29, make him one of the earliest overtone singers ever recorded! Lonely Cowboy Part 1, Lonely Cowboy Part 2.”

And last but not least the Scientific American had an article on throat singing a couple of years ago: The Throat Singers of Tuva. “Testing the limits of vocal ingenuity, throat-singers can create sounds unlike anything in ordinary speech and song – carrying two musical lines simultaneously, say, or harmonizing with a waterfall.” By Theodore C. Levin and Michael E. Edgerton.

Cooking and Baking

This Tarte au citron looks and sounds yummy. I’ll have to try it some time.

Exploratorium: The Science of Cooking has sections about eggs, picles, candy, bread, seasoning and meat.

Link via MetaFilter.

Are they moving?

You can see plants in motion in these (Quicktime) movies, some of which are time-lapse films. The movies are sorted by categories such as tropisms, nastic movements etc.

Link via MetaFilter.

Lesen

Die Arno-Schmidt-Referenzbibliothek enthält 121 Titel als PDF-Dokumente, u. a. Werke von Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe.

Link via Schockwellenreiter.

Names

The Baby name wizard‘s Name Voyager is a cool Java applet that visualizes the commonness of names during the last 100 years in the USA. Looks like my name was popular there as well as here during the seventies, when I was born.

Link via rushme.

School

I can’t seem to get around to posting here more often. School has kept me very busy during the past weeks, the main reason being the Abitur. I taught a physics course in grade thirteen, and four of my students chose to take an oral exam in physics, which I had to direct. Now that the exams are over, I’m looking very forward to two weeks of easter break, which starts in two weeks. Let’s hope the weather gets a little warmer until then – we’ve had lots of snow and temperatures below zero (degrees Celsius) for long enough now. I’m looking forward to spring!

Fünf Fragen – fünf Antworten

Ralf hat mir ein Stöckchen zugeworfen, da muss ich wohl mal antworten.

1. Wieviele gigantische Bytes an Musik sind auf deinem Computer gespeichert?
Das weiß ich nicht aus dem Kopf und musste es erstmal nachgucken: Angeblich ist mein iTunes-Ordner 9,5 GB groß – hätte ich gar nicht gedacht. Da sind aber viele Hörspiele und einige Hörbücher dabei, also nicht nur Musik.

2. Die letzte CD, die du gekauft hast?
Oh, das ist schon ewig her. “This Was” von Jethro Tull, für André als Geschenk. Für mich? Keine ganze CD, sondern einen einzelnen Song im iTunes Music Store: “Jump (For My Love)” von The Pointer Sisters

3. Welches Lied hast du gerade gehört, als dich der Ruf ereilte?
Gar keins. Zuletzt habe ich gestern abend Musik gehört, nämlich The Very Best of Cat Stevens von Cat Stevens, heute bekannt unter dem Namen Yusuf Islam.

4. Fünf Lieder, die dir viel bedeuten oder die du oft hörst?

• “Sweetest Thing” vom U2 – weil es mir einfach gut gefällt
• “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love” von den Blues Brothers – gute Musik aus einem Kultfilm
• “Feelin’ Alright” von Joe Cocker – erinnert mich an die Zeit um das Abitur (jaja, damals, als wir noch jung waren… ;-)
• “It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me” von Billy Joel, weil ich Billy Joel mag und wir das Stück mal in der Schul-Bigband gespielt haben
• “Rückenwind” von Thomas D. (einer der Fantastischen Vier – ich sage nur Fernweh!

Repräsentativ ist das jetzt aber nicht…

5. Wem wirfst du dieses Stöckchen zu und warum?
Hm, die meisten deutschen Weblogger, die ich lese, hatten das Stöckchen schon…

Ich werfe es Ingi, Scott und Jörg zu, natürlich weil mich interessiert, was für Musik sie hören. Fragt sich nur, ob sie Lust haben, diesen Blödsinn mitzumachen…

Traveling

During our last trip to the US we didn’t make it to Chaco Culture National Historic Park, but maybe aonther time? Here’s their site at NPS.gov.

First link via MetaFilter.

Kochen

Speziell für André: Pepperworld – das Schärfste aus der Welt der Chili Peppers. Unter anderem gibt’s da auch Informationen zu Koriander – und im Hot Shop bekommt man u. a. Saat zum Selbstziehen von Chilis und Koriander.

Türkische Küche ist eine Site mit Rezepten, sortiert in die Kategorien Vegetarisch, Vorspeisen, Suppen, Fleischgerichte, Fischgerichte, Beilagen, Desserts usw. Afiyet Olsun!

Origami

Origamic Architecture has famous and not-so-famous buldings made of paper. The art is pretty impressive, but the site seems to be exclusively in Japanese, so I didn’t understand much. (I thought I linked to this before, but I can’t seem to find the link.)

Traveling – Reisen

“Bernard Cloutier
has been just about everywhere. He has travelogues of several of his journeys, from last year all the way back to 1955 (my favorite is his around the world trip through China). Make sure to check out his perception of the universe, especially "Life is a Statement" and "My Toy Village".”

Source: MetaFilter: Wanderlust.

“Quicktime virtual reality panoramas of thousands of picturesque places in the Western United States and Canada. Feast your eyes on The Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite, Mossbrae Falls, Monument Valley, a Ghost Town, the Cascades, Palm Canyon, Joshua Tree, Las Vegas, Redwood Forests, poppy fields, palm groves, and Bumpass Hell.”

Source: MetaFilter: Almost there.

Und hier ist noch ein schöner Reisebericht über eine “klassische” Rundreise durch den Westen der USA per Wohnmobil: holligay: usa 2003. Sowas lese ich immer gern, auch weil ich mich dann an viele schöne Erlebnisse unserer eigenen USA-Reisen (1999 und 2002) erinnere.

Physics and Mathematics – Physik und Mathematik

Quantum Diaries – “follow physicists from around the world as they experience the World Year of Physics 2005”.

Link via MetaFilter.

Wundersames – ein Sammel & Surium vorwiegend physikalischer Spielereien.

Unmöglichkeitsbeweise. “Ob wir morgen Besuch von Außerirdischen bekommen? Äußerst unwahrscheinlich, aber denkbar. Ob es eine gerade Primzahl ungleich 2 gibt? Ausgeschlossen – mit absoluter Sicherheit.” Von Ian Stewart, Spektrum der Wissenschaft, September 2000.

Jagd auf Zahlen und Figuren. “Kann Mathematik auch Spaß machen? Das hängt doch von den Aufgaben ab - wir laden euch ein! Informiert euch selbst!”

Some parts are available in English as well.

Eigentlich sind es ja nur Erläuterungen zu einer Briefmarke des Monats, aber trotzdem gibt dieser kleiner Artikel einen netten Überblick über die drei klassischen Grundprobleme des Altertums: Kann man die folgenden drei Probleme nur mit Zirkel und (unmarkiertem) Lineal lösen?

Inzwischen weiß man, dass alle drei Probleme unlösbar sind, es sei denn für Spezialfälle. Darüber gestolpert bin ich, weil einer meiner Schüler behauptete, er könne Winkel dritteln. Konnte er auch, wie sich herausstellte – aber nur rechte!

Cooking

How to cut illustrates proper knife techniques for a variety of vegetables.

Link via MetaFilter.

Wikipes is a wiki for sharing recipes. It’s fairly new, but is probably going to turn out to be very useful and usable.

Link via MetaFilter.