Almost Home

4 hour layover in the Munich airport. So close, yet so long to wait. This has been a marathon trip back.
In all, it will be 6 flights and 42 hours. I kid you not.
The dive boat left us on Lizard Island.

(1)Lizard Island to Cairns: 45 minutes (but this was in a tiny plane flying low over the reef, so pretty cool)
3 hours in Cairns
(2)Cairns to Brisbane: 2 hours
3 hours in Brisbane
(3)Brisbane to Singapore: 7 hours
1 hour (stayed on plane) in Singapore
(4)Singapore to Dubai: 7 hours
3 hours in Dubai
(5)Dubai to Munich: 7 hours
5 hours in Munich.
(6)Munich to Dresden: 1 hour

And something's wrong with my ear. Having a cold + 4 days diving + 42 hours flying and maybe that's not so surprising.

Scars and stuff

Today I was killing time here waiting and looking through the few blogs/websites I have linked to here and the first two I clicked I came across these: (reproduced without permission)

What are people doing to themselves?

So I thought I would post my own gross-out picture I took a few weeks ago but didn't want to put up:

several hours of ultimate frisbee and not the best shoes.

Cairns

Well, I've left Melbourne. {sigh} Earlier than I would have liked, especially since I was basically sick the whole time. Yesterday the sun came out and I spent the afternoon in the impressive royal botanic gardens which was really relaxing. And now I have 7 hours in Cairns before I get on the boat. Still a bit sick. I had to sign a form saying I wasn't congested for the diving. But there's no way I was gonna let them kick me off that boat or something. I figure I managed the plane flight so I'm good to go. Anyway, I'll know when I'm in the water if I can equalize or not.
At least it's somewhat warm here. But currently overcast.
On the bus ride to town I talked to an Australian girl who spent a year at the University of Michigan, was at UVA for a bit as well, and was just in Melbourne with a friend who is in school in Dresden like across the street from me. small world.

Melbourne Rocks.

This is a cool city. I could totally live here. As I told Colby, my impression is of a bustling downtown like NYC, but smaller and fresher, then outside of that it's like eternal South Congress (Austin) or brooklyn or something, then to the south side toward the ocean reminds me of these little southern cal beach towns.
And it's really not that expensive at all.

Tomorrow flying all the way Cairns for diving. I'm still sick. But it's getting better. First dive should be about 36 hours from now, hopefully sinuses are cleared and happy by then.

Sunshine Coast

Well the conference is over, and now I begin my 'real' vacation. Unfortunately I seem to be getting sick. Bad sore throat. I have five days for this to clear up before the diving. Can't dive with a cold. I'm flying to Melbourne today. And then up to Cairns on the 25th/26th.

Gone Down Under

Heading off for Australia tonight. 4 days conference. 4 days whatever. 4 days diving way out there. Not super long, but the diving should be amazing. (4 night Fly Dive-Coral Sea)

Trailer Park Boys

I'm so addicted to this show. Jeff and Kate introduced me to this, then I borrowed the Season 1 and 2 DVD, and it is so damn funny. I just found out it's been around since 2001 and there's at least 5 seasons and a movie. woo hoo! It's a Canadian show about the daily happenings of a trailer park community, focusing on 2 guys that keep coming in and out of jail and are always plotting how they are going to turn their lives around. I would highly recommend checking this out.

Just the beginning

I'd say we're going to be hearing a lot more guys talking like this, as this war drags on, and already brainwashed kids go absolutely nuts on their 3rd and 4th tours.

Lopezromo, who was not part of the squad on its late-night mission, said he saw nothing wrong with what Thomas did.

"I don't see it as an execution, sir," he told the judge, according to the newspaper. "I see it as killing the enemy."

He said Marines consider all Iraqi men part of the insurgency.

The comparisons to vietnam will probably start growing too.....

Lopezromo said a procedure called "dead-checking" was routine. If Marines entered a house where a man was wounded, instead of checking to see whether he needed medical aid, they shot him to make sure he was dead, he testified.

"If somebody is worth shooting once, they're worth shooting twice," he said.

Summer picnic

Whenever Abi mentions something about "food" or "eating" or "snacks" or anything, you know it's going to be a treat. Not only to eat but to look at. Sometimes she documents her creations on her shared blog, but usually not. But it's always worthy. 100% of the time. A little while ago a bunch of Abi's physicist friends had a little picnic in Alaunpark near where we live. I shoulda known what to expect being invited by Abi, even if it was just a very casual last-minute suggestion. I brought some wine. See here a sampling of the food. Yes that is a duck there. Here is a picture of Abi and Chris. They kind of match the food they make. This is real picture, not from some J Crew catalog or something.

Alex's Balcony-Garden

Another post today - because I should be writing up my 2nd year fellowship report.

Strawberries, Tomatoes, Green Beans. None of which would have survived my trips abroad with out the help of Nate, who's been watering them when I'm away.

God, this is disturbing

Really unbelievable. I guess you have to accept a little bit of this sort of thing in Washington with any administration, but this is absolutely crazy.

Finland

I'm finally getting around to posting on my short trip to Finland. Well, except for the disturbing flights back. I was there to attend a conference in Naantali. Which is just a 30 min ride from Turku. Which is just a 30 min commuter flight from Helsinki. In other words, the middle of nowhere. Although apparently the spa we were at is rated as the best in Finland. This was a conference on "Chromosome Segregation and Aneuploidy" Or in other words how cells and their DNA divide. So right up my alley. And it was actually a very nice conference. Very small - less than 150 people there. But there were a lot of good people there that do good science, so it provided an opportunity to interact with people not always afforded by the larger conferences. I also gave a talk about my work - my first talk as a postdoc - and it went pretty well, I had many positive responses and interest afterwards.
I met some nice people and made some new friends. I spent a lot of my free time hanging out with the two beautiful women you see here - Megan and Kristin. Megan's from Sydney and Kristin is in Boulder, Colorado but originally from Fort Worth, Texas. So we had somethings to talk about. Oh, and she was an A&M grad. It was nice to see an A&M grad doing well, I think that school may be up and coming, but I wouldn't send my kids there. Anyway, Kristin was all but ready to talk shit about football when I told her I was from Austin and a UT fan.

I have never been that far north before. And this happened to be during the week of the longest days of summer. So it never actually got dark at night, although the sun did set. But it was strange. The first night after dinner we went for a stroll down to the harbor and got some ice cream. As I was sitting on a bench in the sun a man stumbled over to the bench next to me, sat down, and puked all over himself. Which was extremely strange until I remembered that is was past 10pm already and that the Fins aren't exactly known for NOT drinking. On the left is a picture I took from about the same time and place.


On the third or fourth night we took a boat trip to an island for a BBQ. As we were cruising along we started joking about this tiny island we saw as if they were going to take us there. Well, it turned out they did take us there. On this tiny little island we unloaded the crowd and sat down to a nice BBQ meal. (although I have to say the meat wasn't all that impressive. And by that time I think everybody was sick of salmon since it had been served for every meal. But it was some good-ass salmon.)

I think one of the things I will remember most about Finland is the awful awful licorice there. It is everywhere. And the Fins LOVE it. I found out why it is so foul. They add AMMONIUM CHLORIDE to their licorice. Yes, you heard me.
Here is a blurb from Wikipedia on what ammonium chloride is good for:

It is sold in blocks at hardware stores for use in cleaning the tip of a soldering iron and can also be included in solder as flux.

Other uses include a feed supplement for cattle, in hair shampoo, in textile printing, in the glue that bonds plywood, as an ingredient in nutritive media for yeast, in cleaning products, and as cough medicine. Its expectorant action is caused by irritative action on the bronchial mucosa. This causes the production of excess respiratory tract fluid which presumably is easier to cough up. It is the active ingredient in many antiperspirants, usually aerosols. It is also used in an oral acid loading test to diagnose distal renal tubular acidosis.

Why WOULDN'T you add this to your candy?!? Mmmmmm-mmmmmm. Nothing like a wretchedly spicy-salty sting to kick it up a notch. We were even conned into taking a shot of a vodka flavored with this stuff. worst. drink. EVAR. Like drinking sewage. But appraently the Fins love it so much it was actually banned for a while because kids were drinking it like candy! Unbelievable.

For Kat.




Wiggle like a worm.

Only in East Germany

Trabi Trabi Trabi Trabi Porsche Trabi

More beauty in science

I just really like this picture. The colors.
What it is is the inside of a centrifuge that was damaged due to a user failing to clean out extra liquid that leaked out during a run. 6000euros of damage apparently. This was posted on a big screen in the institute lobby as a scolding to the anonymous user.

Somehow I find pictures of old metals and rust fascinating. I need to explore that again.

On my trip to NYC

I guess I'm kind of behind on this. So I was in NYC for the weekend 3 weeks ago or so. Colby had a big opening for a show at a gallery that I mentioned before. This was a great trip. It was a little crazy. Well, alot crazy. But fun. And I survived. I think I actually never adjusted to the jet lag the whole time I was there due to the stimulation of all the people I was meeting and the long nights out on the town and naps and sleeping late or getting up early. And then this hellacious trip home so really it turned out I didn't have to re-adjust back to Germany time.

<- two masses of red hair collide

But this was a convergence of craziness of friends and family. Of course Colby. My Mom flew in from Texas. My Dad flew in from Cali. And then Eric flew in from Cali. And then Amy (from Brighton) just happens to be in NYC that weekend. And Sean is in NYC. And to top it all off, my Aunt, Uncle and a Cousin from Dallas make a surprise appearance at the last minute. These are ALL OLD and GOOD family and friends. Like the best of them. So it was a bit overwhelming to have everybody at once. And then 3 days to try to hang with them! But it was fun trying. I hadn't seen Eric in like 2 years.

Eric and Colby getting angry or something->

It was great to see the two shows Colby was in at the time, and his studio. Colby's seriously blowing up. Or having his 15 minutes of fame (I ain't trying to jinx it, ya know). But his name is getting out there.

It was kinda fun. More than a couple of times at his opening and later at the afterparty/etc, people would come up to me like "HEEEEYYY! GREAAAT show. good stuff. Hey. I'll see you later, right?! allright cool, Colby..."
I mean, actually I crashed at Colby's place one night unexpectedly, and I'm sitting in the kitchen in the morning eating some cereal and his roomate walks in and is like "Oh, you know I thought your brother was here or something last night."
"Umm....I'm not Colby."
"Oh. what? Oh, God. Wait, are you like twins or something?!"
"something like that"

At his studio Colby gave us a preview of a new piece of his going into a third show that hadn't opened yet. So he just assembled his piece in his studio for Dad and I...and turn on the light and BAM! there it is.

See this piece on the right here.
And see it HERE on the announcement card for this show.
Based on the stuff at show of his I was at I'm gonna guess this will be priced at about $6000.

Check out the piece on the wall back here in Colby's studio on the photo below.
Now check it out on the front page of the Village Voice website:
(Article HERE when the front page changes)
I remember this one was $2500 framed if anybody's interested.


















Update: here's a nice picture of Amy, Eric and I. The last time the three of us where in the same spot was probably in high school in Texas in the orchestra room or something in like 1992. Ha. Notice how clearly close and comfortable we are in each other's presence: no touching.
strange looking photo.

Funny Work E-mails, Part 4

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)


From: "xxxx xxxxx"
Date: June 26, 2007 4:17:28 PM GMT+02:00
To:
Subject: [mpi-cbg-staff] Electronics Service

I´m not here on Wednesday (Excursion) and Thursday (my child is sick). I´ll be back on Friday.

Greetings
xxxx

I'm sure there is an explanation here. But it seems like he's going to be out Wednesday for a trip to the lake, and then the next day he can't come in because his child will be sick that day.

What the bombs couldn't take away the selfish commuter will

okay,maybe that's a bit dramatic....however....

Dresden was destroyed more than once in its history. Long before the infamous bombing at the end of WWII, Dresden saw wars. It had been burned to the ground before. Buildings have come and gone. But one thing that has remained constant through Dresden's 800 years and before is the expanse of grass though the middle of the city on either side of the Elbe and the fantastic views that result. For hundreds and hundreds of years people have flocked to the Elbe. It's such a rarity for a flood plain through the middle of a city to be so preserved, so undeveloped, acres of grass extending miles. When I interviewed here I took a break and walked 100 meters north of the institute and came upon a vast field of grass and then a river with a view of several small castles on the other side. This is not far from the city center geographically.

And now the city has plans to build a bridge just about where I stood during my interview.
The citizens of Dresden voted for this bridge. With it comes the promise to alleviate traffic problems for those that live north of the river.

But there is no traffic in Dresden, let's be honest. There is a bad intersection at the end of the 'Blaues Wonder' - a historic bridge connecting the banks on the East side of town. But funneling the cars to the new place will just move the problem - there is no major thouroughfare coming in from this part of the city. The proposed main street dead ends into the 'Grosse Garten' - another large land area preserved. Perhaps the car-owning voters would like to simply move the Palace there and split the garden in two.
There was an article in the paper a while back about how people who have lived in DD their whole lives are FOR the bridge, while people who have moved here recently are AGAINST the bridge. Actually, they also broke it up and polled people who were born here, or came here BEFORE 1990, in other words, before the wall came down, and those that came after.


(I took this photo before I knew about the bridge - right about where it will go)

Twice as many people in the before group want the bridge as don't. While in the after group it's basically even.
The man-on-the-street comments they have with this article, though, they are sad.
Torsten, moved here, against the bridge (translated): "...it' s a beautiful,one-of-a-kind view the bridge will cut in half...

Mario, been here, for: "Ich bin für den Bau der Brücke, weil ich so schneller auf Arbeit komme." and "Touristen kommen auch ohne Welterbetitel nach Dresden". In English: "I am for the building of the bridge, so I can get to work that much faster." "Tourists will still come to Dresden without this world-title (the UNESCO world heritage site)."

And than about sums it up. If I can get to work 5 mintes faster, lets do it. And this whole thing with the tourists. Is anybody really arguing that tourism will die?? (really, I don't know) It seems like this argument was invented by those for the bridge in the first place so they could say it's a bad argument. who cares about tourists? It's about preserving a historical, one-of-a-kind beautiful precious piece of nature. You know, these things have worth other than tourism.

Stephanie, for:
"Es wurde schon so viel Geld in die Plannung gesteckt, dass die Brücke nun auch gebaut werden muss."
or, "There has been so much money already put into the planning, that the bridge must also now be built"

This seems to be another favorite of the pro-bridge camp. We've spent so much money already (even though construction hasn't even begun) that we MUST continue and BUILD IT!!!
Apparently, millions have already been spent in the planning and contracts for this bridge. Apparently construction crews are being paid NOW, to be on standby when the final green lights come through. Apparently, with the amount that has already been wasted, and considering what it will cost to finally build this bridge, if it goes to completion this bridge is already forecast to be the most expensive in all of Germany!! (source: my colleague Tim. sorry, no links. But Tim's good with the facts. Tim's a guy you go to when you're having a problem with the German system, he'll sort you (or them) out)

So the most expensive AND potentially the ugliest eyesore in Germany.

The bridge in the middle is the proposed bridge, the two on the ends existing.
Notice how it slices the large meadows nicely

But it's not a done deal. Because it's not as simple as Dresden voting for the bridge.
I think a lot of people who didn't vote on this issue are wishing they did - many that don't want the bridge. Who would've thought a majority of Dresden would be for it when it only affects a fraction?
But what's complicating things is this: This area of the Elbe is a UNESCO world heritage site, and UNESCO had threatened to remove the title if the bridge goes up. So why didn't the voters know about this? Well, it turns the original plans, when UNESCO was informed, said that the bridge was to be TWO KILOMETERS upstream of where it actually was to be. UNESCO had no problem with this, and none of the voters could have been aware of what would follow.


This will have implications for all of Germany actually. Namely, that Germany cannot be trusted with UNESCO sites. It's bad pub. And the people in Berlin are watching this closely - and can pull funds if they want to.

There's been a proposal for a TUNNEL - that will cost the same as the bridge. But this whole thing is political as well. Many of the politicians who want this bridge were in the government since before the wall came down - and they wanted the bridge then. And they are going to get their bridge. it's a matter of pride.

Here' s a website for the initiative to stop the bridge: In English and even with more info in German. Check it out if you live here. There's a ton of info there.

I don't anticipate still being in Dresden when the bridge would finally be completed. But it would be a crying shame to come back and see that monstrosity hulking over the very path I used to ride my bike to and from work over the grassy plains along the Elbe.

Illegal graffiti is bad4u

I picked this up last time I was in the local Dresden police station. I was there reporting my computer stolen. Which, it turns out was not a crime. Because I left it in a restaurant and was gone when I came back, I was informed it was not stolen, but I "lost" it and another person "found" it. Therefore not a crime. Doesn't matter that my passport was in there too. but that's another story.

Behold this strange mixture of German and English that is I guess supposed to be cool with the kids (click to enlarge):

"Be clever and look into your Geld-beutel, before you're beginning with such a Schwach-sinn, over?"
what the hell? "over?" Is that was cool people say at the end of sentences?

"Guck at this and think: I am doch not crazy!"

I like the goth girl stuck in there.

And here you have the difference between Australians and Brits.
Heh heh heh.
Unfortunately brought to you by the racist chickenhawk xenophobes at LGF.


Illustrated by family guy as well:

start at :30 seconds
hee hee hee those funny brits