Lost in translation…
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Whim of the Week – 10
The meaning of politics…
Read moreWhim of the Week – 09
Impressive (and sometimes whimsical) architecture in Rotterdam…
Read moreWhim of the Week – 08
The dangers of doing a simple keyword search…
Read moreA Recent Increase in Earth Activity? The Data Provides Little Support.
The internet is buzzing with claims that there has been a significant recent increase in seismic, volcanic, and atmospheric activity on our planet, and there seems to be a specific emphasis on the years 2012 and beyond. Suggested[…]
Read moreWhim of the Week – 07
Wish you were beer…
Read moreWhim of the Week – 06
What Einstein would have looked like had he kept his job at the patent office…
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 moreWhim of the Week – 05
From Europe to South-America. Not only a jet-lag, but also a season-lag…
Read moreWhim of the Week – 04
When you gotta go, you gotta go, no matter who you are…
Read moreWhim of the Week – 03
A “Blair Witch” moment, but with bicycles instead of sticks and twigs…
Read moreWhim of the Week – 02
An announcement seen in a local café in Lausanne, Switzerland. As a vegetarian, I can certainly appreciate the message!
Read moreWhim of the Week – 01
My landlady bought a new clock from a mail order company. Something must have gone wrong during the shipping though…
Read moreUsing a Raspberry Pi w/o Monitor & Keyboard
I recently decided to (finally) buy a Raspberry Pi. I’d been curious about it for a while, and thought it might be a useful addition to my laptop for running some compute intensive simulations. So I went ahead[…]
Read moreRunning Google Earth on Linux
For many years now, dedicated Linux users (including myself) have been complaining that Google Earth does not run properly on Linux. In fact, it crashes almost immediately after the program is started. Searching the web on this topic,[…]
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[…]
Read moreIncredible Croatia
I just spent six weeks (6 May – 16 June) traveling and hiking around in Croatia, and also a little bit in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. An absolutely amazing trip! Stunning scenery, wonderful weather, and friendly folks. Below is[…]
Read moreThe Living Set
Life is a self-sustaining network of chemical reactions. A living system produces its own components from basic food sources in such a way that these components maintain and regulate the very chemical network that produced them. Based on this[…]
Read moreSuspicious Preparedness?
Being prepared for disasters, whether natural or man-made, is of course a good thing. But it seems that the global efforts for preparedness are suddenly getting to an extreme this year. From terror attacks to asteroid impacts and,[…]
Read moreA Tale of Täufer and Thönen
In 1711, a man by the name of Hans Thönen left the small village of Frutigen in Switzerland, and traveled by boat along the Rhine river to The Netherlands, where he settled in the town of Kampen. He[…]
Read moreMysterious Dolmens
Holland is a very flat country without any mountains or rocky areas. Yet in the northern part of this little land you will find megalithic structures with big boulders, some weighing more than 20 tons, stacked on top[…]
Read moreIs the Mind Algorithmic? Confusing Science Speak with Layman Language
“Evolution is just a theory.” This claim, often made by creationists, is clearly based on a confusion of the scientific meaning of the word “theory” with its meaning in common language. We can forgive confused creationists, though, as[…]
Read moreJurassic Joy
The Jura Mountains, in the north of Switzerland and extending into France, are a relatively small but very pretty mountain range. With a highest elevation around 1700m, at first sight they do not seem as impressive as the[…]
Read moreModern times…
Just thought this was a nice picture: my current computing set-up at home. New laptop (left; with external keyboard & mouse) for regular work, old laptop (right) to connect with the computer cluster at the university, and meanwhile[…]
Read moreThe Endless River
I just listened to the new Pink Floyd album The Endless River. I’ve always considered Pink Floyd as one of the most interesting, innovative, and creative bands of all time, especially their stuff from the 70s. But alas,[…]
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