Cell Phone Camera Dump

...all taken with my phone...What kicked it off was that today there were two new flavors of yogurt at Konsum. All I can say is...WTF? no no no no no.



Sticker on the door of one of my regular cafes:


"Stop! Stupidity won't be served here! ...for a Nazi-free and non-violent Dresden Neustadt."
Always there, but a reminder that Feb13th is coming up and the annual Nazi convergence.


Here's two shots of my bike in it's natural habitat(s)(Neustadt and nostadt):





I get a healthy dose of "German" dishes in the institute canteen:

How else could I have possibly known that I actually like something called "Leberkäse" ("Liver-cheese")??? Look at that. With a fried egg, sauerkraut AND rotkohl. (Leberkäse is a type of meatloaf and tastes something like a hotdog.)


Old and New


And lastly....Hard evidence that that Trabi can push 100! (km/h)

Snowy Evenings in Dresden

Some shots I've got with my new "toy", a Nikon D300s
...and of course a big tripod and this fun little guy.

This is the intersection just north of where I live, looking East on Böhmischestr.
Haberland, Hebeda's, and Catapult all quality establishments that I'm fortunate to be so close to... (click to enlarge)


If you walk straight down the little alley in the photo above you come to this:
Martin-Luther-Kirche. My favorite platz in Dresden. It's just so.....European.


If I just walk a few blocks north towards the river from the institute where I work, you come upon this. I actually took this photo during an incubation time..... Schloss Albrechtsberg.


There's actually three castles right in a row there, lit up at night:

Little Green Footballs

This is an interesting blog. It's become the blog I probably currently read the most often, and for completely different reasons than I started reading it. I first came across Little Green Footballs (LGF) a few years ago. When I started reading it, it was to more or less to keep up with the thinking of the crazy right, politically. But it wasn't really the CRAZY right, as this blog was rated as one the most popular political blogs in the country sometime around 2007. Seemed like a good place to keep in touch with the thinking, and see where these folks were coming from. A single fellow is basically responsible for all of its content. Around this time (2007ish) the majority of posts on LGF seemed to be concerning the conflicts between Israel and Palestine and Lebanon/Hezbollah, and with an obvious and hard bias towards the Israel side. So much so that it would not be pushing it to say that Israel was characterized as being a horrible victim that could do no wrong and Palestine as only terrorists and heathens who were only trying to cheat and dupe the rest of the world, while too stupid to realize how they could solve the whole problem. If you had the time to read LGF through 2007 you would see this is only somewhat exaggerated. Much of the other posts dealt with a concern about the Muslims and Islam in the United States, concerned that they were somehow abusing political-correctness that had occurred post-9/11 and were up to some devious plots.

So it made for an interesting read at the time. I linked to it in a couple of posts about people taking things a little too far. The comments in this blog were also always interesting. They generally reflected the views of the blog poster. Although often with less style, harsher and poorly chosen words, and more slant to the right. But it was clear this blog had a big following.

As the presidential election heated up I continued reading as the country became polarized. And something happened at LGF, near the end of the election and Obama's inauguration. The substance of the posts changed. Then and afterwards, many of the postings turned to science, with a particular emphasis on evolution vs. creationism at first, and then global warming and climate change deniers. There are a number of good posts on this topic, including the most recent. And then after the election when the right wing and right-leaning bloggers and commentators began going completely nuts, the creator, Charles Johnson, began to seem to be having a change of heart. It was as if the ridiculousness, including the racism and anti-science sentiments, that was abound was just too much. This eventually culminated with a post "Why I Parted Ways with the Right". I believe he is still somewhat of a war-hawk, and still clearly very pro-Israel, but the posts rarely reflect this anymore. I now enjoy many of the science posts, there's some really good stuff. And now many posts concern pointing out the crazies on the right, like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, but also conservative bloggers and politicians. Now he has become a target of the far right as he has changed his views, being a high-profile blogger. It was almost as if the guy had a plan, to form the most popular blog on the right, get thousands of loyal followers, many of which seemed to idolize they guy and kiss his ass like bunch of yes-men, and then to slowly, slowly, turn this mass of people with his powers gradually away from the right. No doubt he has lost some followers, but I bet he has taken many with him.

Weihnachtsmärkte in Dresden

This year I stayed in Dresden for Christmas. I used the opportunity to get in as many Weihnachtsmarkt trips as possible. I also got a new camera very recently, just in time to take lots and lots of photos of these Chistmas markets. It even snowed the week before Christmas, to make the little markets even more fairytale-like....

Here's some photos of most of the ones in the region around Dresden

Striezelmarkt

Have to start with the Striezelmarkt because it's the largest in Dresden and oldest Christmas market in Germany. It started in 1434, which makes this year's market the 575th version (!!).

However, being large and old is about the most this market has going for it. It generally has the feel of an overpacked outdoor shopping mall, so if you're not in the right mood it can loose any charm real quick. I have to say, though, that every single year I've come to this market to buy a Stollen and a Räuchermann (smoking incense man) or two, because you get the best selection with the hundreds of stalls. I went down this year on Christmas eve and it was still completely packed right up until closing, lots of families were down there having Glühwein. I should also point out that there was actually a considerable effort by the city/organizers to change up this years market. The stalls were no longer arranged in rows, but more random, with occasional small platz areas, which gave it a less commercial feel and more room for people to hang out and enjoy their hot Glühwein. There was also a pretty cool display on baking Stollen, where they had some guys making it from scratch and baking it in a woodfire oven. You could then buy the dough or the Stollen right there if you chose. It was quite nicely done and the guys were very friendly and funny and full of history of the Stollen.

Stallhof Weihnachtsmarkt

In the past this has been my favorite Chrsitmas market. It has a medieval theme, and was always quite cozy and unique, even down to the mugs the Glühwein, or Met (mead), came in. And then two years ago, just after the results of a nation-wide survey labeling this the best Christmas market in Germany, there was a serious fire which damaged much of the market and the castle it was in. They got things back together for the next year, but the fire meant that they chnaged a lot, and it's just not the same. It's much less cozy with more open spaces. There is no longer a large fire to sit around. And this year there appears to be new management, because the food and drink offerings have even changed (including the beloved mugs), and the vibe just isn't the same. Nevertheless, a nice time.








Neumarkt Weihnachtsmarkt

While the Stallhof market was a bit of a let down, the new market just around the corner on the Neumarkt in front of the Frauenkirche was a fun surprise. It also has somewhat of a medieval theme, but nothing forced, so that it's just more like a nice market without any obnoxious stands selling horrible crap or with large flashing lights. And it makes sense that they should actually finally have a market on "Neumarkt", where you envision markets having stood hundreds of years ago.

Elbhangfest-Weihnachtsmarkt am Körnerplatz

I only discovered this market a couple of years ago. It's pretty small, but very cute, settled among some shop buildings with very nice traditional architecture.

Meissener Weihnachtsmarkt

I was really excited to check out the Weihnachtsmarkt in Meissen for the first time. The old town Meissen is such a beautiful little city with little alleys and old buildings - it seemed like a nice Christmas market location. Also, this photo from the webpage is really really nice and cozy:

In the end it was a bit of a disappointment, mostly just because I had already been to so many Christmas markets and without any theme or anything this one just kind of did not stand out. It was also very cold that evening. And it was rather small. On the other hand, I did try for the first time get to try Weißer Glühwein, made from the local Meissen wines.

Hauptstrasse Weihnachtsmarkt

This market, closest to my house, is nice as well, but also does not particularly stand out for any reason. They did have a giant Stollen on top of a Trabi, which was impressive:

Königstein Weihnachtsmarkt

Along with Meißen, I was excited to check out for the first time the market in Königstein. Festung Königstein is an old impressive fortress built a ways upstream from Dresden on the Elbe. It appears very cold, scary, and uninviting from the outside, particualry in a dark snowstorm.

I really enjoyed this market. It also had somewhat of a medieval theme, which fit. And maybe it was because we hiked up through the snow on unlit trails for 30 minutes to get there, but it was quite cozy inside with a hot Glühwein:

And of course the snowfall was a nice touch

Happy Jam Music

From the new Gomez - Airstream Driver

Trabi goes to Krakow

It's been about 6 months since Cliff and I took our journey to Krakow in the Trabi. After that adventure I managed to write a post about the car, but not about going to Krakow. Now that last weekend I took it up to Berlin for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, I figure it's a good time to talk about the Krakow trip. If you don't know about the Trabi, read the post linked above. One thing that was clear to Cliff and I after we got the Trabi was that it needed to be taken on a road trip. This idea was met with great bewilderment and skepticism by most. Their next comment was either "WHY would you want to take that thing on a long trip?" or "There's NO WAY that thing will make a trip like that." The answer to the first question is much the same as that to those that asked why we would even want to own/drive a Trabi at all: If you have to ask, it's not even worth trying to explain it to you.

Part of our motivation for the trip was just to silence all the haters. People seem to have forgotten that this was almost the only car that anybody owned here 25 years ago, and believe it or not, they did go on long vacations. And survived. And so it was that Cliff an I decided to take it for a weekend to Krakow, where neither of us had been before. It's about a 500km trip each way - doable in a day. bust just barely. You can't be in a rush with a Trabi. Gotta take it easy and enjoy the ride. Notice how we are passed as if standing still:

Aside from some bad traffic and construction, the trip there went pretty smoothly. We made it to Krakow before dark, which was about our goal. When you drive a Trabi around in Dresden, nobody really cares. There's a relative abundance of them here. Chances are if you drive around for 15 minutes in Dresden, you will see one. This is not the case elsewhere. like Poland. People were freaking out a bit when they would see us. Wherever we stopped, cameras came out. Cars would even pass us on the highway with their cameras snapping away. I guess it IS pretty rare to see one out on the highway or autobahn. After all, WHY would anybody take one of these things on a long trip?

When we got to the hostel we asked the guy there where would could park our car that would be relatively safe. He called up a pay lot around the corner and told them we were coming. He asked us what we were driving and when we replied "A beige Trabi" he got pretty excited in a very Eastern European accent exclaimed, "AHHHH!! A TRABANT!!" respect. By the way, this was maybe the best hostel I've ever stayed at, so check it out if you're in Krakow: Mundo Hostel very chill, very clean, very cheap, perfect location.

Krakow itself was also a pleasant surprise, even though we were only there for a couple of days. We cruised around and checked out the nightlife in the evening, took in the historic tourist sites during the day. The first night we were out we were looking for a late-night bite to eat, and came upon a small building where there were multiple lines of people buying some sort of take-away food. We thought it would be a pretty good bet to get in the longest line to get some authentic Polish grub. It turns out what we were waiting in line for was Zapiekanka. It looked like a french bread pizza from far away, but upon biting into it was a totally different flavor experience, hard to describe even. It was like some sort of cooked squash or mushroom, covered with some cheese, then topped off with a little salami, some pickles, and some sort of sweet tabasco/ketchup-like sauce (but not really spicy) Little did we know this is a pretty famous snack at a pretty famous spot (found out the next day on a tour). So that was a win. The next day we went for another Polish classic: Pierogi. We ate at a place recommended to us that basically only served Pierogi, and we got a sample platter with out 12 different kinds.... Mmmmm.

We also decided it would be appropriate, since we came in the Trabi, to make a voyage out to the socialist realist city, Nowa Huta. This was one of the few cities actually planned and designed from the ground up to fit to the socialist ideal. They actually have a popular tour you can take of Nowa Huta in a real life Trabi for 40 euros. Here we are with our own Trabi in front of the Steel Works just outside the city. There was actually a funny moment in the hostel the next morning. We were talking with some other guests, mostly Polish and German, a bit about communist architeture and society. They seemed to think there were better ways to spend our time than visiting Nowa Huta, we thought it seemed interesting. We explained we were from Dresden, where you also see a lot of it. Like most people, they were bewildered that we came from Dresden in a Trabi. In talking about Dresden, Cliff starting relaying his feelings on how East Germans seem in general more friendly than in the West, more casual, more family oriented, and maybe this was from being brought up in a socialist state. The others sort of anxiously disagreed, kind of taken aback that at the suggestion that anything good could have resulted. And then Cliff starts talking about how nice Nowa Huta was, with the large green areas, and that it was well designed and may have been a nice place to live, from a physical standpoint. And I could see these guys thinking "Americans, come over to live in the former East Germany for some reason, buy a Trabant, drive the damn thing all the way to Nowa Huta, and are here telling us how great socialism is???" I wanted to then be like "so what do you guys know about the modern communist party? maybe you would like to take some of these flyers here....." cause that's where it seemed like it was going.

The way back much more more eventful than coming. For starters, we stopped on the way and took a long tour of Auschwitz, which was basically beyond words to describe. Sort of mind- and body-numbing. I think anybody should really go there, but you will be a zombie for a day in disbelief and reflection and just walking on the same grounds, the same train tracks, the same buildings......

One of the quirks of the Trabi is that there is no gas gauge. Basically you have a reserve 'tank', that you kick over to when you run out of gas, and then go fill up. Once you hit the reserve, you have about 4-5 liters (just over a gallon) of gas left. Well, we were cruising our way back and hit the reserve, as we always do, and looked for the next gas station. And looked. and waited. and 30 miles later, still no sign. Finally we saw a sign for gas in a few kilometers, but knew it was gonna be a close one. Well, we didn't make it. We came to a stop in front of a sign signalling 1 km to gas. And so we had to walk to the station for gas.

And then to top off the adventure we kinda made a wrong turn coming back into Germany and added a couple extra hours onto our trip home. This also meant driving in the middle of the night, tired, and trying to navigate our way on country roads through little German towns. I guess it was inevitable that we were gonna get flashed. We managed to each pick up a ticket within about an hour, crusing through these little towns, where nobody is out, but they've changed the speed limit from 80 to 50 or whatever for half a kilometer and put a box there:

(click to enlarge)

good times.

Wordle!

I came across this web application on a random interweb walk. Wordle. Very very fun.
You just give it text (or a website) and it makes a word cloud, with the size of the word proportional to the frequency at which it occurs in the text. And there's tons of options for the layout. I played around and came up with the following clouds:

First is from the text of my last first-author publication (without bibliography):

I think the font and rigid borders, and B&W text conveys the feeling of a publication. Then I gave it a shot and pasted in my entire PhD dissertation, about 150 pages (also without bibliography):

Not to be completely science-fixed, I entered in the text from a dream that I had, which I had written down and later transcribed into the computer.

seems like a really cool way to display dreams. I was able to modify the colors and word-layout format to make it dreamy-like. And finally, the text from my "research plan" that describes my research goals for the next 4-5 years as I look to start my own lab:

Here the font and colors kind of represent creativity and brain-storming that goes into putting something like this together.