Physics

Finding the speed of light with Marshmallows – a take-home lab.

Link via Royal TS.

Around the World

The Grand Canyon, up close and personal.

Link via MetaFilter.

Webloggermeeting

Heute abend war Ralf bei uns zu Besuch. Schon witzig, fast acht Jahre nach dem Abi einen ehemaligen Mitschüler wiederzusehen… Ohne das Internet hätte ich nicht mal gewußt, daß er in Köln wohnt und sogar hier in Bonn arbeitet, aber dank des WWW ist die Welt jetzt ja ein Dorf.

Es war jedenfalls ein schöner Abend, den wir bei Gelegenheit wiederholen sollten. Ralf, ich hoffe, Du bist gut nach Hause gekommen!

Lebenszeichen

Still alive. This week’s been pretty busy, and I caught some kind of virus at school; fortunately, I feel better already. There’s no school for me tomorrow, so I’ll finally have time to catch up on lots of things that need to be done. Plus, we’re going to have an interesting guest for dinner tomorrow…

Kultur

Damit ich’s nicht vergesse: am 12. Mai (Sonntag in einer Woche) ist Museumstag.

Picture taken on April 21st, 2002, near Bonn.

More news about the shooting at a German school

Update Saturday, April 27, 1 pm GMT +2.

There are some good news: According to the latest news, only 17 people were killed, not 18. I also read that a teacher stopped the amok running student by removing his mask. At this point, the student said he didn’t want to continue, and the teacher managed to lock him in a room. He had ammunition left for 500 more shots.

Also, it was said that the student belonged to a shooting club and acquired the weapons he used legally.

• BBC News: School slaughter stuns Germany.
• Spiegel Online: Lehrer beendete Amoklauf.

Shooting at German school

Update, 6:39 pm GMT +2.

DW-World: 18 Killed in High School Shootout in Germany.

At least 18 people died in a school shootout in the German city of Erfurt on Friday. A former student stormed into the building and opened fire. The assailant is among the dead. […]

According to police and eye-witness reports, the shooting began at 11 a.m. A former student, who had recently been expelled from the school, stormed into the building and randomly opened fire.

Latest reports say that 18 people are dead, at least four are injured. Police said two girls and 15 adults were killed. The 19-year-old gunman reportedly committed suicide after the shooting.

• Deutsche Welle: 18 Tote nach Amoklauf in Erfurt.
• BBC News: 18 die in German school massacre.
• NY Times (registration required): 18 Dead in Shooting at High School in Eastern Germany.
• CNN: 18 die in German school massacre, eyewitness accounts.
• Spiegel: Schüler erschießt 17 Menschen und sich selbst.
• Die Website der Schule: GutenbergGymnasium Erfurt.

Some links via Garret and this MetaFilter thread: Worse than Littleton.

Update, 3:50 pm GMT +2: The media now say that eighteen people have died in a shooting at a school in Erfurt, Germany.

Spiegel: Erfurt: 18 Tote bei Schießerei im Gymnasium.

Grammar School Shootout in Germany

This is the top headline of the English part of Deutsche Welle News. There has been shooting in a Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany, this morning. The situation does not seem clear as of now (3 pm GMT +2)… but the radio said two teachers and a policeman were shot. Read about it:

• BBC News: Three shot dead at German school.
• Deutsche Welle News: Grammar School Shootout in Germany. Pictures are here.
• Deutsche Welle: Tote bei Schießerei in Erfurter Gymnasium.
• Spiegel: Schießerei in Erfurter Gymnasium. Amoklauf beim Abitur – einer der Täter ist tot.
• Spiegel: Chronik: Gewalttaten an Schulen in Deutschland.
• Tagesschau.de: Vier Tote bei Amoklauf in Erfurter Schule.

Scary. This is not the first time there has been shooting in at school in Germany, but I think it’s the first time that it’s being called an amok run.

Update: The radio just reported that there were two former students running amok, one of whom is now dead. Two teachers and a policeman died, and six more people were injured.

Fünf Freunde

Vor langer Zeit habe ich mal einige Links zu Enid Blytons Fünf Freunden gepostet, bekannt auch als Famous Five. Der Betreiber einer Fansite hat mir jetzt eine Email zukommen lassen, daß ihre Site umgezogen ist. Also: eine sehr umfangreiche Fanpage zu den Fünf-Freunde-Büchern, -Filmen, -Kassetten etc. findet man jetzt hier.

Community

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum zweiten Weblog-Geburtstag, Schockwellenreiter!

And happy second weblog birthday to LaLaGirl, too!

Papa Scott reports that Christopher has got the chicken pox. Gute Besserung, Christopher!

Jumping cursor

A couple of days ago I discovered that the cursor of my iBook sometimes makes little jumps without the mouse or trackpad being touched. I found out about it while watching a DVD because the control panel didn’t disappear after a few seconds of mouse inactivity as usual, but appeared again after a while.

This happens with the trackpad as well as when I connect an external mouse to the iBook. I tried changing the settings for the mouse and trackpad, but that didn’t help either.

The cursor doesn’t move around all the time, but jumps a pixel or two to the left or right at intervals of 10 to 30 seconds. Curiously it only jumps in horizontal direction, not vertical. Does anyone know what causes these jumps and what I can do to stop them? Thanks for any tips!

Zittriger Mauszeiger

Vor einigen Tagen fiel mir beim Anschauen einer DVD auf, daß der Mauszeiger meines iBooks manchmal zittert. Normalerweise wird nämlich das Bedienelement des DVD-Players ausgeblendet, wenn die Maus einige Sekunden nicht bewegt wurde. Diesmal aber tauchte das Bedienelement in kurzen Abständen “von selbst” wieder auf – eben weil der Mauszeiger zitterte. Ich habe eine externe Maus angeschlossen, aber dasselbe passiert auch, wenn sie nicht angeschlossen ist. Ich habe die Zeigegeschwindigkeit sowohl bei der Maus als auch beim Trackpad verstellt, aber das Zittern hat sich nicht verringert.

Natürlich zittert der Mauszeiger nicht ständig, sondern hüpft nur alle 10 bis 30 Sekunden ein bis zwei Pixel nach links oder rechts und dann wieder zurück. So weit ich das sehen kann, zittert er nur horizontal, nicht vertikal. Hat jemand einen Tip, woran das liegen könnte und was man dagegen tun kann?