glyn

Carry her in my arms

2012-02-01T07:01:00.001+01:00

Sometimes in my dreams, my mother is still ill.
Last night I dreamt that my parents had invited for a party, but nobody came, except my old nanny. I got annoyed and told off my parents, that they should have sent invites earlier, and not just the day before. Then my parents went walking, I don't know why, but I did not realise they were gone until after some time and I started to worry. A friend of mine was in the hall, he told me they went outside. I hurried out to find them, and sure enough, they were just round the corner. They were in good spirits, but then my mother fell. Was it my fault? I rushed to help her, crying I am sorry, and I picked her up to carry her home in my arms. But even though she was really skinny because of the treatment she had been through, she was heavy, or I was weak, and every step was a fight to keep standing. I was afraid I would stumble and fall.

The year of the blue jeans

2012-01-09T23:15:00.001+01:00

(This post has been one year in the making)

If you know me, knew me or spent any amount of time with me before 2011, you would know that I never wear jeans. I don't buy them, so naturally I don't wear them. It is a habit I built very consistently, since before I started buying my own clothes. I simply would not wear blue jeans. Once in a while I might try some on, but always ending up preferring corderoy, linen or any other type of soft trousers over the stiff uncomfortable fabric of blue jeans... All this was as true as it is written until christmas of 2010. That christmas, I went - as I have for habit - to visit a good friend of mine in Odense. Since my last visit, which took place approximately a year earlier, she had not only given birth to a lovely baby boy, but had also increased a couple of sizes around the waist. And as it happens, she is the type who will wear 95% blue jeans, only exception being the skirts she wears in the summer. She offered me as a very generous gift her whole collection of jeans in various sizes all too small for her. I was hesitant at first, but accepted to bring home with me the grand total of 25 pairs!

Soon I selected the six pairs that fit me the best and gave the rest away, some to equal-or-slightly-smaller-sized friends and the rest to charity. I quickly got used to wearing them too. They are not uncomfortable if they are the right size, and for the most they will suit me, make me believe I have a nice shape.

So if you have seen me or met me or spent any amount of time with me in 2011, you will have noticed that I wear blue jeans 95% of the time. This may change in 2012, especially if I continue my combination of muscle-building exercises plus chocolate every day...

Photo courtesy: bluejeans-shop.com

No time

2010-11-04T14:31:00.000+01:00

Suddenly everything is picking up speed: finishing my research projects, applying for a new job, planning my trip to Mexico and Cuba.
And suddenly I have more than enough things to do! New interesting research, more job opportunities, not to mention learning Spanish in my free time while dancing, playing badminton, hanging out with colleagues and weekend breaks to visit friends and family in Denmark. And soon I will have to make final decisions on where to work and where to live, and prepare to leave Holland behind. So much to do and so little time to do it!

Photo courtesy: The one-minute full body workout

Why?

2010-10-25T21:04:00.000+02:00

I am proud of my friends.
My friends respect me just as I respect them.
They have an interest in my well-being and will try to help me when they can. I try to help them too and enjoy being able to help. But if I am unable to help or if I am asked a favour and I say no, my friends will respect that too.
My friends respect my opinion. We may not always agree, but my friends accept our differences.
My friends respect my property, they will never steal from me and they will take good care of my things if I lend things out, and of course return my things at first opportunity.
My friends respect my time, they try their best to keep appointments and apologise if they made me wait.
My friends respect my home. They do not intrude on me, they ask my favour to be in my personal space. And my friends will leave my house when I ask them to.

Because my friends show me respect and care for me, I respect and care for them too.
You know this already if you are my friend. And that is why I am proud to be friends with you.

I dreamt of a refugee camp

2010-10-20T10:02:00.007+02:00

I dreamt I was in a refugee camp, or maybe it was a camp of revolutionaries, getting ready for the fight. I huddled in with the women. We were sitting with our back to a ruin of an outhouse. A sign said toilets and I went inside to have a look, it was dark in there, no electrical lights, only light enough to see the toilets were all blocked and there was no running water.
A sudden commotion made me rush outside, people were screaming, some in anger, some in excitement, pointing in the direction where I could see the bombs were falling. After a moment of chaos the bombing ceased, but a horde of driver-less vehicles that looked like harvesters were raiding the landscape, digging up and plowing everything until there was no sign of buildings or of the bombings that had taken place only a short while before.
I went to stand in line with everyone else at the official desk. When I handed the clerk my passport I noticed that it was not just a temporary passport, but that it looked fake, and I knew immediately that I had a passport like this because the embassy expected it to get stolen. Inside the passport were also some obviously fake money - it looked like monopoly money - and I had no clue what to use it for. The woman said some friendly phrases and gave me a bag full of kitchen utensils to get me started. I stared at the stuff, and another woman in line expressed her interest in what I was given.
I spent some time trying to get along. Wearing worn clothes, collecting stuff here and there, and hardly aware of what was going on with the other people in the camp, until someone shouted "it is his birthday! Cake! Cake! Cake!" and I saw some people crowding around a man and another guy running and shouting happily while balancing a fine-looking cake, which was obviously meant for the birthday guy.
When I tried to follow the man with the cake, the scenery changed, and I found myself in an enormous bakery and cake store. I remember saying to myself "oh, this is the place that I have visited before when I dreamt of the enormous chocolate shop". However I did not see lots of chocolate, but big exhibits of cake in all sorts and sizes. It was busy, I had to zigzag in between the customers in the store.
The store opened up to a scene or an arena, where there was a show coming on. I spent some time trying on a pair of khaki coloured dance shoes that someone else had brought with her. When they did not fit, her friend made a cut down the side of the leather so I could squeeze my foot in. I remember thinking that she was ruining the shoe. In the end I chose for another pair of shoes, a red/bordeaux pair that she had also brought with her.
The audience seats were filling up quickly. I told someone I would be right back, while I went to the nearby makeup department to have a look at what was on sale. There was a magnificent display of perfumes, and mascaras in different colours, and they were on sale, what luck I had. But when I asked for something in particular the woman behind the counter gave me directions to the other end, actually the complete opposite corner of the store. When I was about to leave I saw that on the other side of her stand she had the most wonderful gift-wrapped easter eggs and I thought of buying some for my sister.
I started walking, and passed by a number of different departments, and realised suddenly that I was no longer inside, but walking outside, and there was some kind of festival going on. I was controlling a big paper-like balloon which I was walking on the inside. The shadows falling on weird bicycles and men in high hats, were no longer recognisable, and took on new shapes and colours, and people gathered together to watch the spectacle. It was like a parade, and some people marched along with me. It was an eerie atmosphere like a Tim Burton movie...

Photo courtesy: Boiteaoutils

Places to go

2010-09-10T15:12:00.003+02:00

Not only am I busy planning my trip to Mexico and Cuba in January (it will be my first real vacation for a loooong time), I am also looking around for my next job - and it could be practically anywhere! Trying not to baffle myself with a myriad of options, I am looking within Europe, to make family visits easy and cheap, and I have a few places and job descriptions that are clear no-go for me, but for the rest... Oh... I could go anywhere!

Illustration courtesy: Dr. Seuss

Through an endless tunnel

2010-06-30T10:05:00.005+02:00

In my dream last night, in trying to escape from some unexplained capture in an empty building, I found a hole between two walls, and cautiously climbed in to explore. Inside, the walls of the tunnel were a light sandy colour, and though I climbed further and further, it did not grow dark. My exploration was stepwise; at every forking of the tunnel I chose either left or right, up or down, and the tunnel would bend and turn, made me dizzy, loosing my orientation, I had the feeling I was sometimes climbing the wall, sometimes the ceiling, and soon I lost track of how to retrace to the exit - and I panicked.

Illustration courtesy: Apple-pine.blogspot.com

Flowers for mothers day

2010-05-09T11:24:00.005+02:00

Dear Mother,

I wanted to send you flowers. a lovely bouquet, for Mothers Day. Unfortunately no flowers are allowed in the intensive care ward, so I have sent you a flowery postcard, and by this blogpost I send you a digital version too.
There are many advantages to virtual flowers like these. For instance, I can search google images for as long as I want for exactly the colour or the bouquet that will suit my needs. I even tried searching for a special flower arrangement that can bring down your fever, but then I heard that it had had effect even before I sent it. This success encouraged me to look for more magical flowers, like the flowers to increase the grow of your healthy leukocytes that were all knocked out by the chemo therapy. Actually, I am searching for flowers that will relieve you of all side effects of the treatment, as well as flowers that give you strength, flowers that make you feel happy, and flowers that give you pleasant dreams at night. Also, I would like to find flowers that gives me motivation to do my work, but it is far more important for me to find and send you the flowers that will bring you good health and let you know that I love you.

When The Tulip Bubbles Burst

2010-04-23T12:38:00.006+02:00

In 17th century Holland, tulips were gaining in popularity. Introduced to Holland in 1593, the tulip was the new and exotic flower from Turkey. Everybody wanted some to show they were hip with the hot trend. As markets go, the price followed the demand, and when new hybrid tulip species were grown, the rarest types and colours grew extraordinarily expensive. At the hight of the craze, one tulip bulb could cost as much as ten times a years salary for a skilled craftsman! Needless to say, the tulipmania came to a quick and dramatic end in 1637 when the prices stagnated and fell with a crash.

Today I was surprised to find that the story of the Tulip market crash, the tulipomani a or tulip bubble, is known more widely among my non-Dutch colleagues, than among the Dutch. Apparently, the Dutch school system does not favour examples from their own history when it comes to letting their pupils learn from the past. Maybe that is why the Dutch are still making history after history of economic bubbles, like the case of Worldonline or more recently the Fortis bank crash...

Read more: The tulip craze from investopedia
Read more: Bubbleology from Patrick.net

This blog has moved

2010-04-06T15:34:00.001+02:00

This blog is now located at http://glyndk.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://glyndk.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

The upset mind

2010-04-06T14:45:00.005+02:00

Sometimes life is just too much to handle, everything at once. When there seems to be no right answers, and nothing to hold on to, everything is uncertain, the knowledge that everything is temporary can be a relief.
When I get emotionally overwhelmed I calm myself by the mantra "It is just a feeling, it will pass" and I thank Philip for reminding me.

Image courtesy: Hold your head up, NYtimes

The race for the Oscars

2010-02-17T12:52:00.002+01:00

Inspired by this link from a friend, I decided to challenge myself for a race for the Oscars. I want to view all the Oscar nominated films before the Academy Awards on March 7. Even though the project is ambitious, I have chosen to limit it a bit so it wont be entirely impossible, so I will only count the films that are nominated in the categories: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress. With this limitation, I only have 13 films left to view before March 7. That should be possible... right?

Image courtesy: Oscar Ramblings

Myeloma

2010-01-07T11:55:00.005+01:00

Multiple myeloma or myelomatosis, both are different names for the same cancer illness, though sometimes defined as different stages of the cancer development.

My mother got a myeloma in her head - not in the brain, but in the cavity behind the nose, the so-called rhinopharynx (label 6 in the picture above). It is a rather peculiar place to have, and not to say to find, a tumor. My mother only discovered it when she went to an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist after being bothered by symptoms of a blocked nose for over a month. That was last spring. At first the specialists thought they could treat it effectively by an intense radiation therapy through the summer, but unfortunately the tumor was made of harder stuff. Now my mother has had surgery to remove most of the tumor and she is currently going through several rounds of tough chemotherapy to kill the remaining myeloma cells.

Illustration courtesy: www.info-radiologie.ch

First stop: Iceland

2009-12-01T18:13:00.001+01:00

I looked out to see the setting sun over the sea of clouds, and I discovered clouds of a texture that I did not recognise from anywhere. It was beautiful, and I thought to myself: this is what clouds look like when they are freezing.
The fact that the stewardess not just once, but twice addressed me in Icelandic proves to me that she was convinced of my Icelandic nationality. She looked rather surprised when I later asked for a cup of tea - in English. So I could not help trying myself to facespot the Icelanders at the airport. My clothes and the shape of my face could go for Icelandic, but I think my nose would have given away my non-Icelandic heritage if she would have had a closer look at my profile.
Imagine being Icelandic. Imagine having these amazing landscapes as your home. Would you cease to see the beauty of it and leave in search of greener pastures? Or would you be bound in your heart and soul to love the views of your homeland under the forces of nature. To me it looks magical, and I want to look closer. Iceland: I will be back!

Learning the Dhamma

2009-11-09T11:50:00.000+01:00

"Don't set up any desires, because the setting up of desire is a deficiency, a hunger. And hunger, no matter when or what the sort, is pain: Hunger for sleep is pain, hunger for food is pain, hunger for water is pain. When was it ever a good thing?"

In my breaks at work, I relax by reading online texts on mindfulness and meditation. I can highly recommend this kind of reading. One very good resource for these texts is AccessToInsight.com. The above quote is from the collection of Thirteen Talks on the Practice of Meditation.

Photo courtesy: RechargeYourMind.com

Mountainscapes

2009-11-02T17:27:00.001+01:00

Lately I have been dreaming a lot about driving and travelling. Always going somewhere with some friends or family, and the setting is always somewhere away from home; a small village, narrow mountain roads, a glacier, or an open field at high altitude - sometimes with snow.
A few days ago I had a particular beautiful memory from my dreams. I was (with friends/family?) in a sort of tram in the shadow of the mountain, and when I looked around I saw the most marvelous mountainscape of yellow-green mountainsides, bathed in the last rays of the setting sun, against a clear (autumn?) sky.

I googled mountainscape and found this photo that reminds me of my dreamview.
Photo courtesy: http://fotofoobar.shankraft.com/

The enormous chocolate shop

2009-10-20T13:00:00.002+02:00

I dreamt of an enormous chocolate shop. No, not a shop made of chocolate, but a shop selling chocolate: bonbons, marcipan, cakes and the like. And the shop was big - like a supermarket. And although I took my time to explore it, I did not even see it all. All chocolate was arranged on plates set on tables covered with white cloth, which gave the whole shop a very exclusive look. I found it strange that the items near the counter turned out to be also chocolate, but from known brands like Toblerone bars and marcipan from Anton Berg. Funny how you remember strange details from dreams...

Illustration courtesy: White Rabbit Chocolate

The land of cranberries

2009-09-30T13:20:00.002+02:00

The island of Terschelling, in the Dutch Waddenzee, is famous for its cranberry delicacies. It did not really occur to me how how famous or how ubiquitous before I realised that the umpteenth meal I was served there contained the ump^2-iest version of cranberries I had been served. They make cranberry jam, cranberry cake, cranberry juice, cranberry liquor, cranberry you-name-it-and-they-got-it!

Illustration courtesy: Vinkes Web - Cranberries

Where did the shrimp go?

2009-09-24T14:57:00.003+02:00

Have you seen this shrimp? Two weeks ago, I added five black crystal shrimp to our department aquarium in addition to the three red crystal shrimp and three larger Malawa shrimp already there. The black striped shrimp soon went into hiding, and became difficult to spot, but as of today I fail to find any of them. Have you seen them? Did they leave a message? Did you or a Chinese girl eat them?

We welcome any hints to solve the mystery of the missing shrimp.

Illustration courtesy: www.petshrimp.com

Get rid of those fruit flies in your kitchen

2009-08-31T11:29:00.003+02:00

When it is not enough to just remove fruit fly attracting stuff, it may be necessary to employ more drastic methods for fruit fly elimination. In our kitchen we have had great success with the following recipe:
In a small bowl, pour half a cup of vinegar, one drop of detergent and a bit of water to mix. Soon the flies will be circling the bowl and, after tasting the deliciously smelling mix, they will drop dead [evil laughter!]

Illustration courtesy: eHow - How to naturally get rid of fruit flies

Dinosaur Comics

2009-08-24T14:09:00.006+02:00

My favourite T-Rex appears every day in dinosaur comics on qwantz.com

Illustration from this interview "Humor from the North" from the People You Don't Know podcast.

Light after the storm

2009-07-25T16:53:00.003+02:00

The weather has been very moody lately, sunshine, rain, storm, sunshine, clouds, sunshine, thunderstorm, rain, rain, sunshine, clouds... But I love the way the colours of the world are illuminated by the returning sun.

Photo courtesy: shenqiflow.gaia.com

Waterboarding

2009-06-17T15:43:00.002+02:00

Nobody these days claim that the "witches" of the middle ages were given a fair trial. It is obvious that they were tortured till they either confessed or died. Then why would anyone believe the argument that torture is a reliable way of interrogating suspected terrorists?

Illustration courtesy: clouddragon.wordpress.org

Get up!

2009-05-16T13:43:00.002+02:00

If you spend too much of your day sitting down, you are likely to have a shorter life span than if you sit less. Thorough research from a long-term (12 year) study of 17,013 Canadians showed that mortality rates increase with higher level of daily sitting time, independent of leisure time physical activity. In other words, the bad effect you get from sitting down for most of the day is not eliminated by increased exercise in your spare time. So get up from that chair!

Read the original research paper from Katzmarzyk et al.
Illustration courtesy: AdjustableBeds.com

The pied piper

2009-05-12T14:34:00.002+02:00

Rats!
They fought the dogs, and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women's chats,
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.

When I mentioned the children rhymes of A.A. Milne, Philip drew attention to the rhyme of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The origin of the story is not all fiction, but we can be certain that the story is not all facts...

Currently reading

2009-04-28T17:04:00.002+02:00

Mr Pye by Mervyn Peake
Dreaming - a very short introduction
The Brain - a very short introduction
QED by Richard Feynman
Collected short stories by Roald Dahl
Den femte revolution by Lone Frank
The man who mistook his wife for a hat by Oliver Sacks
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Emotions - a very short introduction

Since I started writing this post I finished reading Mr. Pye, but I left it here, just to make the list look longer...

Blossom rain

2009-04-24T12:55:00.003+02:00

Cycling to work today, a brisk but warm breeze came against me, just as I was passing by a row of trees in bloom. Moments like that are too surprising, too short and too rare to catch on film or show to friends, but the image is still on my mind. I will dream of it again, reminded by photos like this of awesome cherry blossoms.

Photo courtesy: Fine Rain on Flickr

Danish culture

2009-04-23T17:17:00.002+02:00

Trying to catch up on the Danish culture I have missed out on by ignorance or simply by living abroad, I have watched a lot of Danish films lately. Yesterday, reviewing Idioterne, I came to think about how little censorship was and is enforced in Danish media.
Naked people? No problem, show it on the silverscreen, show the kids on primetime TV. Naked people by Lars von Trier? The same... however these characters engage in explicit sex, in broad daylight, 10+ people in the same scene. No big stir, no uproar, except outside Denmark. So I am wondering: does this give Danish culture an image of tolerance, or plain blunt insensitivity?

Lost my number

2009-04-16T18:40:00.004+02:00

I have lost my Skype-in number... It belongs to someone else now. It is like loosing a little piece of something that was part of my identity, along the lines of loosing a domain name that you have been using for years. Rather sad circumstances, but that is the way things go if you do not renew your subscription.

And here I must say that it is not because Skype did not give me the chance, no they notified me even more than once that my subscription was due, and that they would keep the number in reserve for me for three months (in case I would still like to keep the same number). Unfortunately for me, three months passed, I did not renew, and now my number is gone.

The worst part is to choose a new number, and then circulate it to all my friends, telling them the old one is no longer valid. Maybe it will happen sometime in this millenia...

Illustration courtesy: www.invata-mate.info

Water the plants

2009-04-06T13:47:00.002+02:00

A company specialised in installing and caring for plants in office environments did exactly that; they installed and cared for plants in our whole department. Except, they did not manage the "care" part. To some it may seem to be a bigger problem to buy and transport the plants and decide where to place them, but for these guys it seemed to be more difficult to send someone to water the plants at a regular interval.

Now we water our plants ourselves.

Illustration courtesy: homeexchangetravel.blogs.com

Garfield minus Garfield

2009-03-16T11:30:00.002+01:00

Did you ever imagine reading your favourite comic without the main character of the comic? Well, Dan Walsh did, and he unfolded his creative idea (apparently with the blessing of Jim Davis) by making the website: GarfieldMinusGarfield.net

I love it! Thanks Dan, I will keep an eye on your blog to see what else fun you are up to.

Postcard from Norway

2009-03-14T12:41:00.003+01:00

For the first year of many, I have not been on skiing holiday with my family. Today I received a postcard with greetings from everyone. It sure made me long for the snowy deserts of Norway...

Bioinformatics and experimentation

2009-03-09T12:38:00.003+01:00

Russ Altman got a good discussion going on his blog. The many reactions were initiated by a post about bioinformatics people and whether or not they benefit from experience in the experimental lab.

See also: The blog of Russ Altman

I am an idiot

2009-02-18T00:59:00.001+01:00

You will find more excellent comics at xkcd.com

Bij de praatdokter

2009-02-16T16:10:00.002+01:00

Automatic doors

2009-02-04T19:40:00.002+01:00

Hey Sonja, thanks for reminding me of the excellent comics at xkcd.com ;)

Relief by diagnose

2009-01-29T14:41:00.003+01:00

A good friend of mine wrote me to tell me some good news. At an age of 45+ and after years of distress he finally found the explanation for the multitude of problematic situations he had encountered in his life. He got a diagnose of Aspergers Syndrome. Then he realised that all the occasions where he had failed in social situations was either when he had unknowingly hurt someones feelings and made them mad, or when he himself got mad and did not get the response he expected from others. Now he is actively practising reading body language and imagining how other people feel about their situation. In his letter he thanked me for always just accepting him for who he is. I thank him for the same.

Illustration courtesy: saesonforgodsmag.dk
(I put this illustration here because I find it funny that you can have a word that does not mean asparagus but sounds sooo much like asparagus...)

There was a time when I had super powers

2009-01-23T11:49:00.001+01:00

More TooMuchCoffeeMan at www.tmcm.com

This may take a while

2009-01-21T16:18:00.003+01:00

More TooMuchCoffeeMan at www.tmcm.com

The Prestige

2009-01-05T13:36:00.003+01:00

Joanna recommended a film to me. A film which she said was actually a better story than the story in the novel that the film is based on (NB: the wiki entry contains spoilers!). Not having read the book, I saw the film, and I enjoyed it. Very exciting plot with lots of twists to it, including even supernatural events that you could not have predicted.

Read about The Prestige at IMDB

The 10 assertive rights of an individual

2008-12-18T14:25:00.004+01:00

Assertive Right #1: I have the right to judge my own behavior, thoughts, and emotions and to take the responsibility for their initiation and consequence.

Assertive Right #2: I have the right to offer neither reason nor excuse to justify my behavior.

Assertive Right #3: I have the right to judge whether I am responsible for finding solutions to others' problems.

Assertive Right #4: I have the right to change my mind.

Assertive Right #5: I have the right to say, ``I don't know.''

Assertive Right #6: I have the right to make mistakes and be responsible for them.

Assertive Right #7: I have the right to be independent of the good will of others before coping with them.

Assertive Right #8: I have the right to be illogical in making decisions.

Assertive Right #9: I have the right to say, ``I don't understand.''

Assertive Right #10: I have the right to say, ``I don't care.''

If you are ever stressed about a situation, it may sometimes help to review your assertive rights. Using google I found this list of the ten assertive rights from Coping.org

Conversation with God

2008-12-12T17:29:00.005+01:00

I do not see myself as a religious person. I do not actively practise any religion, and I put no value in the fact that I chose to go through the rituals of both baptism and confirmation in the Danish protestant church. I do however, know some people who, although they do not practise a specific religion, characterise themselves as religious.

About a year ago, I was for the first time introduced to the book "Conversation with God" by Neale Donald Walsch. It is the first of a series of books in which Walsch asks questions and God answers.

I immediately liked the book. The style is straightforward, the chapters are short, it is written in colloquial English, and even though I disbelieve and even disagree with many of the facts and arguments presented in the book, I must say that I love the recurring theme and message:

You are the creator of your own reality

In my opinion it is a message that you can embrace or deny, regardless of your overall conception of religion or belief. If you read it, please tell me what you think.

Illustration courtesy: de-conversion.com

The damped system

2008-12-04T07:57:00.005+01:00

I was reading Schrödingers "What is life?" and came across his description of the mechanics of the human ear and auditory system. It is a very refined system, but it is limited to detecting a certain range of frequencies. The cilia that detect vibrations do not seem to have a mechanical limit to the same range, so why do we not detect sounds to the same extent as the cilia can be activated? According to Schrödinger, this limit is a result of the integrated damping of the sensory signal. It is possible to conceive another 'wiring' of the system, with less or no damping, and so it would be a far more sensitive system, but unfortunately it would have the side effect of near constant detection of vibrations, which would be literally a very noisy sensory experience. Compare it to playing a piece on the piano with your foot holding the right pedal all the time.
Also, I can not help but compare to the complete human nervous system. Without the automatic damping (e.g. the subconscious filtering) of sensory input from touch and pressure on the skin, muscle movement, temperature, sound, vision, intestines, it is difficult to imagine the brain spending time on prolonged intellectual activities. An exhaustive exercise, really.

I suck at math

2008-11-28T13:45:00.000+01:00

More nerdy comics at xkcd.com

No stress

2008-11-25T13:34:00.002+01:00

No blog posts? No stress!

I never left the States?

2008-11-11T15:40:00.004+01:00

What happens if the green Departure Record is still in your passport when you return home from the US? Well then you have never been registered as leaving the country! This may not sound as a problem to you, but since the normal visa allows visitors to stay for a maximum of three months, not registering your leave means that after three months you have exceeded the maximum stay, and may face serious trouble next time you want to apply for a US visa!

The good news is, that if you did not need a special visa in the first place, e.g. if you are from EU, and you left by scheduled flight, your passport number was registered with your boarding pass, so it is easy to show that you did indeed leave the US before the end of the three months.

Read more at the US Customs Border Protection

Priorities

2008-11-08T12:02:00.002+01:00

Kids have their own priorities, especially nerdy kids...

Have some more laughs at XKCD.com

Parkside on Ellery

2008-11-06T11:41:00.001+01:00

Last week I was in Boston for a conference, and I stayed at an excellent Bed & Breakfast in Cambridge. Parkside on Ellery is located off the beaten track, in a residential area, at walking distance to Harvard Square and Harvard University. For transport you can either take the subway from Harvard Square, or, on weekdays, the bus line 68 on the corner will take you straight down to the centre of town. The place is quiet and the rooms are homely and comfy.

If you ever go there, please send my regards to David, your host. He is very hospitable and gave me lots of helpful local advice during my stay.

Congratulations to all Americans

2008-11-05T11:16:00.002+01:00

To all Americans,
I would like to use this historic opportunity to congratulate you with your new president. You made the right choice. Now all you have to do is stand by your choice and support the government initiatives to bring the US back on track again. I believe you can do it and now is your big chance.

Best wishes,
-glyn.dk

Spa spa spa

2008-10-27T07:24:00.005+01:00

Mud, mud, glorious mud! We (Joanna and I) got a mud treatment, while Urzsula and Isabel had a face treatment and a hand massage. What luxury creatures we are. This day at the spa was our birthday present for Joanna, and I am happy that we all came along to keep her company and enjoy the mud too. :o)

Illustration: De Thermen Nijmegen

Pitbull campaigning

2008-10-15T09:14:00.003+02:00

"The McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism, and each day the mob howls louder. The onus is on the man who says he puts his country first to call off the dogs, pit bulls and otherwise." - NYtimes

Read the article at NYtimes.com: "The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama"

Colour IQ test

2008-10-14T08:38:00.003+02:00

Are you good at distinguishing close shades of colour? Find out by trying the Color IQ test by Xrite.

Tinas smykker

2008-10-13T10:04:00.004+02:00

Tina has a selection of hand-made jewellery for sale. You can visit her website to have a look at the options, and if you live near Odense, Denmark, you can make an appointment to view the selection at her home address.

Visit: www.TinasSmykker.dk

Biden versus Palin

2008-10-09T11:21:00.002+02:00

Saturday night live made an excellent remake of the latest vice-presidential candidate debate. Check it out on NBC: Saturday Night Live VP Debate Open: Palin / Biden

Obama versus McCain

2008-10-09T11:17:00.005+02:00

Obama is an idealist and I like his ideals. McCain is indeed a "maverick", but in the negative sense of the word - from the behaviour he is exhibiting I just do not trust him.

Buy your Obama t-shirts online at CafePress.com

How to be happy

2008-09-26T13:23:00.004+02:00

Visit: Toomuchcoffeeman.com

Jacob Holdt in the news

2008-09-18T11:06:00.003+02:00

I am a big fan of Jacob Holdt. When I was in elementary school he was touring the Danish schools with his dias-show "Amerikanske billeder". These pictures of ghettos and racist confrontations made a big impression on me. Both the pictures themselves, but also the story of this self-declared tramp, who went on a journey to places where most people would be afraid to go, and in these places portrayed the faults of the American society.

Jacob Holdt is now making headlines again with his new photo exhibition "The Ghetto in our Hearts" where he declares that Denmark is more racist than present-day USA.

Read also:
Wikipedia about Jacob Holdt
From Politiken: "Danmark har overhalet USA i racisme" (in Danish)
The new exhibition "Ghettoen i vore hjerter" (in Danish)

Quote me

2008-09-15T17:03:00.003+02:00

"The trick to work effectively is just as much working hard as working in the right direction"
Think of a group of workers building a bridge, and you will understand what I mean.

-glyn

Scandinavia

2008-09-12T12:49:00.003+02:00

I toes curled up as if I was hearing nails on a blackboard when Philip said that you can "...almost count Lithuania as Scandinavian". It made me immediately object and I sought the aid of Wikipedia to clarify and rectify the facts about Scandinavia. The term is used by many and often used wrongly, at least in the eyes of the Scandinavians themselves. Scandinavia is a term for describing collectively the countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which makes it a geographical term although these countries have many other cultural, ethnical and historical ties.

Check out the Wikipedia entry on Scandinavia or
Illustration courtesy: this clickable map of Scandinavia

Recycling kits

2008-09-10T11:07:00.003+02:00

This is probably the most fun way to handle your trash - recycle it to useful objects or decoration.
Example shown: The film container room divider!

See more recycling exellency on the website of RePlayground.com

The invasion

2008-09-08T13:01:00.001+02:00

”The readings are very encouraging, Commander. Most of the planet is covered in saline water. The life forms that we have detected so far consist of a 70% aqueous solution. All rather reminiscent of home.” Lieutenant Zarbee finished reading his report. He wafted his tentacles gently to maintain his position in front of the spacecraft’s main control panel and awaited further instructions. His superior, Fleet Commander Vernaan swam closer to the screens to check the data. “No force fields, no magnetic barriers, no global defense of any kind!” He chuckled to himself, “Thank you, Lieutenant. I believe, I shall spearhead this attack myself. Prepare my assault ship for immediate descent to the surface of this unsuspecting world”. Zarbee deftly whisked his tentacles and swam out of the control centre leaving Vernaan to gloat over his imminent conquest.

During the descent to the waters of the blue-green planet, Vernaan thought of the many previous surprise attacks on other worlds. The superior weaponry of the Medusa race had swept all resistance aside. “Await my signal, Lieutenant. It should not take me long to subdue this world, no longer than three rotations of the planet.”

“I understand, Commander. And in the unlikely event that you should encounter resistance?”

“If the resistance is great enough for me to have need of assistance then the technology of this planet is greater than ours and therefore an invasion so far from our home base would be inadvisable.”

“I understand, Commander. Good luck.!”

Vernaan’s assault ship plunged into the foaming seas of the planet. As soon as the craft came to rest on the seabed, Vernaan deployed the ship’s sensors fore and aft and started to scan the environs for higher life forms. Vernaan peered at the screens but the waters were murky and visibility poor. “Only rocks and vegetable matter” mused Vernaan as he swam from monitor to monitor, tuning the biologic sensors. Suddenly, the whole craft shuddered under the force of a prodigious blow. Vernaan was slammed away from the monitors by the shock wave. Several of his tentacles were clinging to the controls. The whole craft was lifted, turned upside down and shaken violently. The hull was being crushed. The tortured metal first bent and ruptured. The fluids in which Vernaan swam were streaming out. Briefly, before the craft was torn in two, Vernaan saw on the spluttering monitors the image of a gigantic creature whose huge claws were pulling the assault ship apart.

Vernaan found himself in the saline waters. He felt himself withering as the osmotic pressure drew out his body fluids. He was without his life support system, without his weaponry, alone in an alien sea with no way of communication to the fleet, surrounded by monstrous creatures. He had to flee, to hide. He forced his crippled body to swim, to escape. The creatures attacked him biting his tentacles, eating him alive! Then he saw a glimmer of hope, a narrow cave! He swam inside and burrowed into the slime, out of sight of his pursuers.

Johnny Simpson rose up from the tidal pool and yelled out, “Mum! Look Mum! Come and have a look at this crab I’ve found!” Mrs Simpson, ensconced in a deck-chair, under the shade of a gaudy parasol, lowered her “Woman’s Weekly” magazine. With evident annoyance, she stared at her skinny, shivering off-spring. “What is the matter, Johnny. You’ve seen crabs before haven’t you?”

“Yeah, but this crab is holding a knife and fork!”

“ No more of your silly tales. Now come out and get dried before you catch pneumonia!” replied Mrs Simpson, waving a towel at him to stress her remark.

“Can we come back to the beach to-morrow, eh, Mum? Can we, eh?”

“Yes, yes, perhaps but only if you stop that nasty habit!” Johnny was picking his nose again.

“But my nose is tickling me, Mum” whined Johnny.

“Then use a handkerchief, for goodness sakes” retorted Mrs Simpson. She gave his frail body a last, unnecessarily hard rub with the rough towel, then rummaged in her beach-bag to a box of paper tissues. Johnny took a tissue and blow his nose violently. While Mrs. Simpson immersed herself again in the “Woman’s Weekly” wonder diet, Johnny examined his bogies meticulously. He caught his breath then shouted out in surprise “Hey, mum! Look! I had a jelly fish up my nose!” He obligingly held up the tissue for his mother to inspect. Mrs. Simpson turned her head away in disgust. “Stop playing those nasty tricks and get dressed,you little urchin”. She lifted up her magazine to shield her sight from the offending tissue.

Johnny picked up the slimy contents of the tissue between his thumb and forefinger. “Perhaps its not a jelly-fish after all”, thought Johnny. “It’s just a bogie”. He rolled the slime into a tight ball then with a furtive glance at his mother to ensure she wasn’t looking, he popped the ball into his mouth.

Bring your alpaca

2008-09-02T10:35:00.002+02:00

I was browsing mailinglists, and read in a review of the Smart car, that the reviewer found the Honda Fit a better choice for a small fuel-efficient car. Of curiosity I googled "Honda Fit", since I know what a Smart looks like, but I had never heard of a Honda Fit. Apparently, the Honda Fit is a small car with a big interior. On their website Honda illustrate how you can fit five people, or a surf board, or your bike, or your alpaca... in the car.

Illustration courtesy: Honda Fit interior photos

Christmas pudding!

2008-09-01T11:42:00.002+02:00

Joanna brought me a surprising present today: a miniature christmas pudding!
It is of the brand Matthew Walker (the pudding experts since 1899) and it is a Classic Christmas Pudding, Traditionally steamed with juicy sultanas & raisins, cider & sherry... mmm

Where she bought it? In the British Shop in Nijmegen. If you want one too and you do not have a British Shop nearby, I suggest you visit the Matthew Walker online store.

Illustration courtesy: Matthew Walker christmas puddings

Buienradar Nijmegen

2008-08-13T17:14:00.001+02:00

When to cycle home? Have a look at the Buienradar.nl

About McD food

2008-07-19T12:54:00.001+02:00

Why am I generally against eating food from McDonalds or Burger King? Because their average meals contain more fat, more sugar, more salt and less dietary fibre than what I would prefer in a healthy varied diet. Why? Because saturated fats and high levels of cholesterol impacts the fatty acid balance in your blood, which again gives you an increased risk of thrombosis (blood clotting). And what about the sugar? Consuming a lot of sugar rises your insulin levels, telling your body to store energy, which again on a daily basis increases your risk of growing overweight and developing diabetes.

I am not implying that eating once in a while at McD will make you immediately fat and diabetic, but I advise against making any kind of habit of eating these types of foods. If you do go to McD, you might want to have a look at the dietary information of a BigMac, which can also be found on their wrappers (at least in the US). And if you feel guilty because you eat at McD anyway, you can at least make the best choice of their menu: always opt for the low calorie, low saturated fat.

McDonalds is not unaware of their image of fast-food-is-bad-for-you. For some time now they have tried to improve their image, especially since the Supersize me film came out. A very positive step was when they removed the transfat cooking oils from their restaurants. However, remember that making the best health choice for you is always up to you.

Photo courtesy: OTC medical group

Music photos from Roskilde 2008

2008-07-18T11:18:00.003+02:00

Elvis has added photos from Roskilde Festival to his homepage. You will find photos from Jay-z, Tumi and the Volume, Juan Formell y los Van Van and Joan as a policewoman.

Photo courtesy: Elvistiger.nl

New gmail contact policy

2008-07-17T13:46:00.002+02:00

Gmail has now implemented a new policy for managing your Gmail contacts. Instead of automatically adding all email addresses you send to as contacts, they now distinguish between your contacts and your suggested contacts. If they would have done something like this a long time ago, the mess (read the spam) generated by Konnects to everybody in my gmail contact list would have been considerably less severe!
However, I agree with Blogjunkies that Gmail has not fixed the automatic and very loose contact handling, but mainly just made their contact policy more complicated.

Blogpost by Blogjunkies: "Gmail Tries to Be Less Creepy, Fails"
Blog by Gmail: "Updates to Gmail contact manager"

Visit trynen.dk

2008-07-16T15:23:00.002+02:00

Katrine Mosegaard has updated her homepage with cool photos of her recent works. Go check it out!

Weather for Roskilde Festival

2008-06-27T08:22:00.002+02:00

Every year there is a fear of rain (check out some muddy pics from 2004 or 2007 and you know what I mean), but the perfect weather for Roskilde Festival is not just to have sunshine for the whole week. With just a few consecutive dry days the festival becomes one big dusty cloud - imagine 100.000 people walking aroud on dry dirt for a day or two. For the festival weather, we rather want some raindrops once in a while, to cool the people down he he, and to keep the dust on the ground. Above you see the current weather forecast that includes the first couple of days (Sunday through Wednesday) and in my opinion, it looks like very decent weather for the purpose. :o)

See you at Roskilde Festival!

Travel light

2008-06-25T11:34:00.003+02:00

Maybe you should consider packing in only one small bag this time. I think this site is worth more than 5 minutes browsing: www.onebag.com
It has all the tips and guidelines you need to minimize your luggage for any trip. Check it out!

Gallery online

2008-06-23T14:08:00.003+02:00

After many months of absense, my gallery is now online again. This time powered by Coppermine photo gallery.

See my gallery at www.glyn.dk/gallery

Define necessity

2008-06-20T10:17:00.003+02:00

I found this illustration through some random browsing, and it really appeals to me to contrast what the western world term necessities in daily life, to life crucial needs that are not fulfilled, resulting in catastrophes and death.

Think about it, twice, next time you use the word "necessary".

Back from Westerwald

2008-06-19T11:13:00.001+02:00

&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;

View Larger Map

Programmers block

2008-06-13T13:24:00.003+02:00

It is like a writers block, except it is for programming in particular. It can be described as a mental block against programming for certain projects or a specific programming language, whereas at the same time there may be no sign of a general writers block or even programming block for other programming languages or for programming on other projects.

ZDNet: When programmers can write no more
Slashdot: Overcoming programmers block

Illustration by KeyTrap

The usual suspects 2

2008-06-12T11:57:00.004+02:00

You know them. You have met them before. And coincidently, they are always around where something is going on. They stay to one side, look pleasant and rather innocent, but you KNOW, you KNOW who to blame in the end. The glyn.dk CSI dept, once again lines up the usual suspects.

The usual suspects were seen recently at multivlaai.nl

Cat-sitting

2008-06-09T16:51:00.002+02:00

I have spent all weekend with a nasty little lady (see photo). Her mother went to a conference in Barcelona, and of course this little puss needs company, attention and someone to dig her claws into. She is actually much bigger now than on the photo. I think the photo is two weeks old and this kitten is growing incredibly fast. To be honest, it was fun taking care of Peaches, but I am nevertheless happy to leave the responsibility to Joanna again. :o)

The usual suspects

2008-06-06T10:47:00.004+02:00

The professor has been murdered. As a service to the community, the glyn.dk CSI dept. presents you with a lineup of the usual suspects. If you have any information concerning the crime, please leave your comment on this post.

If you want to participate in the investigation of the DNA found on the scene, please contact the DNA labs.

Gerrit Rietveld Academy Graduation Show

2008-06-03T09:29:00.004+02:00

INVITATION

Gerrit Rietveld Academy Graduation Show.

Opens Wednesday the 25th of June
16.00 - 21.00
At the Gerrit Rietveld Academy
Frederik Roeskestraat 96
1076ED Amsterdam

Runs Thursday the 26th and Friday the 27th 11.00 - 20.00
And Saturday the 28th and Sunday the 29th 11.00 - 16.00
(Graduation ceremony Sunday 16.00 - 1800)

Jowan the redoomer

2008-06-02T09:40:00.004+02:00

Chitchat in the kitchen yesterday led to a discussion of the meaning of the word 'redeemer', a word which is often used in connection with Jesus Christ. Eventually, the silly songs of Daan together with some witty comments resulted in Jowan being declared the 'redoomer of mankind'.
Imagine this:
Jowan steps up before the people: "You have been doomed before!" He bellows of all his might, "and some of you might have been saved..." he gazes at the crowd and holds out a threatening fist, "but now - I doom you again!"

Thus spoke Jowan the redoomer...

Help women stay in science

2008-05-30T15:01:00.004+02:00

This article and graph from 2000 showing the proportion of women in academic positions is nearly unchanged when updated to figures of today.

An editors note "Help women stay in science" from The Scientist in September 2007, initated a flood of comments with interesting personal views and points on what it is that causes the heavy gender imbalance at top scientific leadership positions.

A quote from the comments:
"I don't know why some of the more seasoned members of the scientific community haven't realized the untapped potential of hiring mothers part time (is no one else aware of thier multitasking capabilities??)"

- The story continues in The Scientist January 2008 issue: "Why aren't there many women in the top spots in academia?"
- Tinyflame blogging on "Women in Science"
- SES Science diversity Meme: Women scientists

Spinning revisited

2008-05-26T15:16:00.002+02:00

It has been more than half a year since I last went to a spinning class at the university sport centre. This weekend, having done no dancing at all (is that really me?), I definitely needed the exercise when I went to spinning Sunday morning. And I tell you - it did me good.
Since last time the sport centre has made a new room only for spinning, with extra good airconditioning, a good sound system, a computer and beamer for possible digital introductions to the lessons, and last but not least a party mirror ball in the ceiling. Apart from the mirror ball, I find these things are excellent improvements to the spinning experience. (The mirror ball just makes it bling-bling, and who needs bling-bling when sweating and panting for your life?)

Illustration courtesy: Stadium.be

Save a life in Sichuan (from Miaomiao)

2008-05-23T13:29:00.002+02:00

Dear all,

As you may know, an earthquake of 8.0 magnitude struck Wenchuan (Sichuan, China) on Monday at 14:28 local time (06:28 GMT). More than 50,000 people died, over a quarter of million injured and over 30,000 are still being buried in the rubble. Furthermore, millions of people have to stay outdoor all day and night as around 3.5 million houses are destroyed (data by local time 19:00, May 13th). The numbers, unfortunately, are still expected to rise.

Now China is open to accept the help form inside and outside of the country. Despite thousands of miles away from the home country, I feel as sad as the Chinese people who are suffering. We pray for them in tears and try our best to help.

The Chinese Red Cross announces 50 Euro will help to save a life:
10 euro for bed quilt
30 euro for food (rice, instant noodle and water etc.)
5 euro for Cooking oil (5 L)
5 euro for administration fee (staff reservation, transportation and delivery )

In total, 50 euro will help one people to go through the first month after the disaster which is the most difficult period.

As the international transfer would generate a cost of 5.5 euro or even higher, we decided to put all the money together into one account and then transfer it back to China.

If you are willing to join us and offer a helping hand, you can transfer the money to any of the follow accounts:

1.Foundation of Chinese Student Support in the Netherlands:
Account number: 49 37 24 648
Name : CHINESE STUDENT SUPPORT
City: Rotterdam

2.Association of Chinese Students & Scholars in the Netherlands (ACSSNL) :
Account number: 57 93 63 562
Name : ACSSNL
City: WAALRE

Please mark your donation as “donation for SICHUAN” or “donation for China”. You can mark "donation for SICHUAN, orphan" if you prefer the money to be used for the orphans, or "donation for SICHUAN, material" if you want the money to be used for the reconstruction of the area, or "donation for SICHUAN, Red Cross" as the money will be sent to the Chinese red cross foundation directly.

The donations to these two accounts would be combined together and whenever the amount is over 5000Euro (current setting), it would be transferred. Bank of China will transfer this donation without charging service fee, and the donation will be received by red cross China and related organization within 24 hours.

All the donations received, transfer records and receipts from the Chinese Red Cross would be posted on internet (http://www.gogodutch.com/showthread.php?t=232977, I am the editor in chief of this website) , and you can check it whenever you want. You may send an email to donationNL@gmail.com after your contribution. We will reply you confirming the arrival of your donation.

Alternatively, you can help us through The International Red Cross, the information can be found via:
http://www.ifrc.org/what/disasters/response/sichuan-earthquake/index.asp
(choose "I would like my contribution to go to China Earthquake")

Thank you for your kind attention to read this message and your kind donations to help people who are trapped, endangered and being homeless due to the worst earthquake in China in the past three decades.

With kind regards

Miaomiao (I am a member of the foundation board, till today ~60,000 euro has been donated and sent to China)

HAMLET destruktionen

2008-05-19T10:45:00.002+02:00

If you are anywhere near Copenhagen this week or the next, do not miss the current performance of Aktoratet. HAMLET destruktionen is playing on Faar302, with Maja Clementsen Hansen performing the action-packed monologue. Do not miss it!

Rediscovery of the garden gnomes

2008-05-19T09:37:00.003+02:00

This weekend was the first of two weekends of spring cleaning in my house. Daan, Wenke and Niels did a marvelous job in the garden. Not only did they remove half the weight of biomass in our garden to make space and light for the pretty flowers that through all this time still survive in our flower bed, they also discovered a small but happy group of garden gnomes in one corner. When I saw them I immediately asked who had the idea to buy garden gnomes, as it turned out, they had always been there. Only none of us had ever seen them before thanks to the dense jungle of undergrowth thriving there for more than a year.
Welcome back gnomes, do not go disappearing again soon!

Illustration courtesy: Allposters.com

Carnaval in Copenhagen

2008-05-10T10:10:00.002+02:00

Warm up all week, and today the Copenhagen carnaval starts with a magnificent parade through the centre of Copenhagen!

Sending spam mails

2008-04-09T12:35:00.003+02:00

I would classify myself as a spammer now - even if by accident.
I received one of those numerous "Join my network" kind of emails. Curious as I am, I went to the site to check it out, though I knew already that I do not really need more professional networks than LinkedIn. This new network site is called Konnects. As a service, they offer to check if anyone of your contacts are already in their network. I let them check my gmail contacts by using my gmail account login, and I could see that only two of my contacts are presently using Konnects. Then their site offered to send invitations to all the contacts on my list, and I decided "No, I do not want to bother anyone with this new site", so I deselected all from the list. Now at this point I must have made a mistake, or the website has a bug, for what happened is, that Konnects sent invitations to everybody in my contact list. This includes not only emails of my friends, family and colleagues, but also every email address that has ever sent mail to me on my gmail address, including mailing lists and support and no-reply email addresses.
Now you might think that at least it was a single event, no harm done in the long run. But, Konnects did not only send one, but on average three invites to each email address! I felt something had to be done, so I wrote an email to all my contacts, excusing for the spam behaviour of the Konnects invitation mailer. However, it turns out, gmail has a limit for sending emails. If you send more than 500 mails, they will block you for 24hrs! So now I am not only a spammer, I am also locked out of my favourite mail program for 24hrs, making it impossible to reply directly to all the mail I receive for the rest of the day. :(

*Sigh* at least, as Philip says with a smile: "It could be worse!"

Illustration courtesy: Linuxfocus.org

Carcinogenic cereals

2008-04-03T12:31:00.003+02:00

The favourite breakfast of me and my family, namely muesli and cereals with oats, just got a hard accusation by recent research: Oats contain the carcinogenic compound acrylamide. It is not a natural occuring substance in oats, but the processing of the oats to increase shelftime to the standard of approximately one year, includes heating to high temperatures which causes the acrylamide formation.

The good news is, cereals and oatmeal are not the worst offenders in this case. The top acrylamide-rich foods are french fries and potato chips. However, it is estimated that 25% of the average consumer daily intake of acrylamide is from coffee consumption. You may also be unwittingly generating acrylamide in your own preparation of foods. Be careful not to overfry your potatoes, leave them nice and golden instead of dark brown or burnt.

Read more:
Politiken covers the oatmeal story (in Danish)
Survey data on acrylamide in food by US FDA
Top twenty acrylamide-rich foods by Dr Ben Kim

Photo courtesy: gizmodo.com.au

Cool in NY

2008-03-26T16:10:00.003+01:00

NY is cool, in many ways, especially in the early spring. So I wear my bonnet to keep my ears warm. But NY has not failed to realise that spring IS here, so the sun is shining bright most of the day. I bought myself a pair of BIG fancy sunglasses for $3, which not only save my late-night-dancing-eyes from the merciless sun, but also make me look almost as cool as New York.

Bagels for lunch

2008-03-25T15:53:00.001+01:00

I can give my highest recommendations to the hostel Manhattan Inn. It is a small place, with dorm rooms that all have bathroom ensuite. I was in a six-bed female dorm for two days, and really enjoyed my stay. I was concerned that there would be a lot of noise from the other dorms, but as soon as the door was closed we could only hear the traffic outside (hard to avoid the noise of traffic in NY). There is a small common room/ kitchen where breakfast is self-served in the morning included in the price. The breakfast consists of coffee, tea, juice, cornflakes, milk, fresh fruit and a selection of bagels and muffins with butter and jam, on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Since I am picky and prefer muesli and low-fat milk in the morning, I bought my breakfast myself from the deli on the corner, and allowed myself to bring a bagel and a muffin for my lunch. Mmm... delicious.

Illustration courtesy: Harlan Bakeries

Duplessey Monday Morning

2008-03-24T15:44:00.000+01:00

When I arrived in NY late Sunday afternoon I went straight to the Piel Canela social, and after two hours there I continued to the Mojito Sundays at club Iguana. Lots of good dancing both places and many familiar faces.

Next morning I woke up at dawn as usual (after approx 4 hrs sleep) and went out to explore NY. At 11am I had an appointment with Duplessey-Monic Walker for a private salsa lesson, and "Wow!" did she do me good. She gave me loads of tips and exercises, and she did not let me relax for one moment. I could feel it afterwards, and I am sure the changes are visible in my dancing.

Monday evening it was my intention to go drop in to some classes and then go dancing at Session 73, but at nine pm I fell asleep on my bed in the hostel and slept as a stone till next morning. Duplessey sure worked me good.

Photo courtesy: salsanewyork.com

Zen and the art of microarray chip design

2008-03-20T18:33:00.001+01:00

I have been reading a lot of books lately, correction: I am reading a lot of books at the moment. When in Norway I finished "Conversations with God" and "Zen and the art of motercycle maintenance". Both happen to be very philosophical of nature:
The first is about inward quality of life, how you can achieve more and be more satisfied by taking life in your own hands - create your Self by conscious choices in your life.
The second is about how you relate to the outside world. The author describes to contrasting ways of viewing the world, the classical and the romantic. The classical is the analytic way, where the solutions to problems are found by describing the object in minute detail until the description reveals the answer to the problem. The romantic, on the other hand, acts on feeling, on gut feeling about what is good Quality.

What I find a bit funny is that I have been working more than a year on a scientific project concerning Quality of microarray chip design. And when it came to the point where I wanted to draw the conclusion, finalise a hypothesis and confirm it, a new question showed up that could not be answered by analysing the data we had. Also, it was not possible in the scope of the project to provide the data that could give us the final answer. So to this problem I had to step out of the analytical way of thinking (it was practically a dead end) and zoom out and give a subjective solution to what will be the best way to deal with the new question. It may be unsatisfactory in a scientific way to solve problems by gut feeling, but in some cases (in science as well as in life), there is no analytical answer possible to a specific question, and then you have to do something else. At least I am entertained by the fact that I draw my own situation into the context I am reading to make it all make sense, hey, that is also why I am blogging this right now...

a deamon with OCD

2008-03-19T16:31:00.002+01:00

I asked Philip if he knew what this gam_server program does, since it is constantly taking up 100% CPU. He answered "Aaargh, kill all gam_server!". Apparently it does not know when it should finish checking file associations for consistency... a deamon with OCD?

Encyclopedia of Life

2008-03-17T11:21:00.000+01:00

The Encyclopedia of Life has taken on the amazing task of documenting all species of life on Earth. Their website states:
"Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about all life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world."

Browse around or take a tour at the Encyclopedia of Life.

Asian crusts

2008-03-03T10:12:00.002+01:00

If nothing else would entice me to visit Asia at least once in a lifetime, it might be to try out the new craze: exquisitely filled pizza crusts. Take for instance the shrimp-filled crust by Pizza Hut in Japan shown above, is that not something you would travel half the world to try?

Illustration by slice.seriousthreats.com

Hold været

2008-03-02T22:22:00.002+01:00

Four days more, and I will be off to Norway for my skiing holiday. Lets hope the weather will behave and be none of the hot or cold extremes we experienced the past two years. Check out the local Norwegian weather on TV2 Vær.

Laughing at lunch

2008-02-29T12:55:00.003+01:00

The other day we had it over Futurama quotes and anecdotes. Today we continued to giggle over Black Adder and the Funniest Joke in The World (by Monty Python). I spiced up the conversation with some quotes from Danish radio comedy shows...

Have a laugh yourself, take for instance the Worlds funniest jokes from wikipedia.

Illustration courtesy: www.healthyeastleigh.org.uk

BMC good initiative

2008-02-28T13:27:00.003+01:00

I would like to draw attention to this new electronic scientific journal by BioMedCentral:

"The aim of BMC Research Notes is to reduce the loss suffered by the research community when results remain unpublished because they do not form a sufficiently complete story to justify the publication of a full research article. A key objective of the journal is to ensure that associated data sets are published in standard, reusable formats whenever possible. Data sets published in the journal will be made searchable and easy to harvest for reuse."

In my opinion it is an excellent initiative, both to encourage publishing incremental and 'negative' results, as well as the focus on open and easy access to data sets and results.

Read more about BMC Research Notes.

Open Source Licenses

2008-02-26T12:56:00.003+01:00

Not until a few days ago, when I was about to submit source code to be hosted on bioinformatics.org, did I realise how many different open source licenses are out there. I thought that open source was open source, but the plethora of license texts actually imply very different obligations for the user. For example I did not know that if you distribute a program under the GPL (GNU General Public License) you have the choice to either distribute the complete source code with it or "Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code...". There are many more details that could make a difference, so I think it is well worth reading the full license texts along with the wiki comparison of free software licenses before deciding which license to choose for your program.

Read the full license text from the Open Source Initiative: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/

Illustration courtesy: Neuton.net

Congress: Women in Science

2008-02-22T14:00:00.003+01:00

On March 6th there is a congress at Radboud University about women in science. Please see the website for more information: http://www.ru.nl/viw/congres_women_in/

Illustration courtesy: Women in Science, German embassy of New Delhi

Another issue

2008-02-17T18:41:00.002+01:00

So, apparently the burning of tires, cars and schools in Copenhagen and the rest of Denmark is a different issue than the recently reheated discussion about the Mohammed cartoons. I found a distinction and explanation on a Danish blog, but I still miss a discussion in the newspaper Politiken.

Today they started some background story about angry teenagers behaving like we saw it in France.