Had a cloudy afternoon to spare in Como, Italy. As it turns out, this is the home town of Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), the famous Italian scientist who invented the electric battery, and after whom the unit of electric[…]
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Category: Travel
Kurt Gödel: A postcard from Vienna
Kurt Gödel was one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century. He made many important contributions to mathematical logic and philosophy, but is best known for his incompleteness theorems. Loosely speaking, the theorem states that the dream[…]
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Sunset in Millstatt
A beautiful sunset (and moonrise) in Millstatt, Carinthia, Austria.
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Sunset
I’m staying in a little village called Lackenberg, to do some hiking in the area. After arriving, I walked around a bit in and around the village, and then watched a beautiful sunset from the balcony of my[…]
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A Partial Lunar Eclipse
On Tuesday 16 July, 2019, there was a partial lunar eclipse visible from most of Europe. I decided to spend the night in a hut halfway up a mountain near Vienna to watch this eclipse, and invited some[…]
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Beating the Avatar Blues
When the movie Avatar was released in late 2009, a strange thing happened with many people who saw it. They got depressed, even suicidal. It wasn’t because they disliked the movie, but because they liked it so much,[…]
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The February 2019 Supermoon
A “supermoon” happens when a full moon occurs around the same time that the moon is at its closest point to the earth (perigee) in its elliptical orbit around our planet. This means that the full moon will[…]
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The Chat Noir Cabaret
My good friend Charles Tichenor has been playing the piano since he was a little kid. And he’s still going at it tirelessly at his weekly Chat Noir Cabaret show at the Los Magueyes Mexican restaurant on Burro[…]
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Santa Fe Sunset
Another spectacular sunset viewed from the Fort Marcy Park in Santa Fe. Click each pick for a full size view!!
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A Home for Complex Systems Science
In complex systems science, the notion of complexity is often summarized with the phrase “the whole is more than the sum of its parts“. This expression can be traced all the way back to the early Greek philosopher[…]
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Full Moon Above Thessaloniki
An (almost) full moon (98% illuminated) rising above Thessaloniki, Greece, as viewed from the balcony of my hotel room. A rather hazy evening, so no exceptional shots, but very beautiful to watch anyway! (Click each pic for a[…]
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La Cathedrale de Strasbourg
I spent a morning strolling around the old town of Strasbourg, France, with as main goal a visit to its impressive cathedral. Unfortunately it was a completely overcast day, so the sky was white instead of blue. But[…]
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A Chalk Walk
Among scientists, a “chalk talk” means a lecture without a laptop and beamer to display fancy graphics, but simply using a blackboard and a piece of chalk to draw diagrams and formulas while you speak. It’s sort of[…]
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Lunar Eclipse over Amsterdam
Last night there was a (complete) lunar eclipse which was visible from Amsterdam. Many thanks to Jo & Piet for sharing their 9th-floor apartment balcony with me, from where the views were just wonderful! Here are some impressions.[…]
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Impressions of Amsterdam
I’ll admit it straight away: it’s not my city, and it never will be. But on one of those rare blue-sky days it’s actually not so bad (if you can manage to dodge the hordes of tourists, that[…]
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Tracing the Roots of my Family Name
It’s quite fun when your family name originates from a specific place that still exists and can be visited. As had already been known for a long time, my family name comes from a street, the Hordijk, in[…]
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Geneva Attractions: From High Energy Physics to High Altitude Views
Geneva is a city of many faces. Located in the far-western corner of Switzerland, at the tip of its namesake lake, it is steeped in history, surrounded by mountains, and host to the world’s largest particle physics experiments[…]
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Marvellous Mallorca: Hiking the Ruta de Pedra en Sec
I just spent two weeks in Mallorca (Spain), with as main goal hiking the Ruta de Pedra en Sec (GR221), a long-distance trail that crosses the entire Serra de Tramuntana, Mallorca’s beautiful mountain range. Eight days on the[…]
Read moreA Perfect View from Mount Le Grammont
Le Grammont is a mountain in the Chablais Alps in Western Switzerland situated at the south-east end of Lake Geneva, close to the Swiss-French border where the Rhône River flows into the lake. With a height of 2,172[…]
Read moreVienna by Night
Last night I took advantage of a temporary break in the extreme cold weather we’re experiencing this month, and went for a walk along the Ringstrasse in Vienna to take some shots of the various beautiful buildings located[…]
Read moreCastles, Canyons, and Caves
The historic city of Graz, in south-eastern Austria, was designated a UNESCO world cultural heritage site in 1999 for having “the best preserved city center of Central Europe”. It combines renaissance, gothic, baroque, and also modern architecture, and[…]
Read moreGrande Dixence: The Tallest Gravity Dam in the World
With a height of 285m, the Barrage de la Grande Dixence in Switzerland is the tallest gravity dam in the world. Its lake, Lac des Dix, can hold up to 400 billion litres of water. And not only[…]
Read moreSummer Solstice Full Moon
Last night a rare event happened: the summer solstice and a full moon at the same time. So I went up Kahlenberg, a hill above the city of Vienna, to have a good view of this special full[…]
Read moreSunset in Santiago
I’m in Santiago, Chile, for two weeks to provide some computing support for a colleague. Unfortunately this city is often covered in a blanket of smog (especially during the summer). As a consequence the Andes mountains, which are[…]
Read moreWatching the Perseid Meteor Shower
On the night of 12-13 August, I took some friends up to the top of a small mountain to watch the annual Perseid meteor shower. This year was predicted to be particularly good, largely due to the peak[…]
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