Bezoek: http://www.kjemi.uio.no/publikum/popularkjemi/egg/

Je kan dan precies opgeven hoe groot je ei is, hoe hard je hem hebben wilt, hoe warm je ei nu al is (kamertemperatuur? koelkast?) en zelfs op welke hoogte je je momenteel bevind. Allemaal zaken die invloed hebben op het koken van een ei.

Let wel, eerst het water aan de kook brengen, dan ei er in en de timer starten.

Eet smakelijk!!!

Blijft een triest verhaal.

Is er zomaar een heel gebouwtje weggebrand op de Prehistorische Nederzetting. Zonde joh. Nou moet die weer helemaal opnieuw gebouwd gaan worden. Nou, weet ik in ieder geval wel zeker dat mijn vlas droog is, die lag in dit huisje te drogen. Denk niet dat ik daar nog iets van terug zal vinden

Beste vrijwilligers,

Zoals sommige van jullie al weten, of misschien op het nieuws gehoord
hebben, afgelopen weekend, in de nacht van vrijdag op zaterdag is er brand
geweest op de nederzetting. Een van de bijgebouwtjes (het dichtst bij het
water, met de houten muren) is in vlammen opgegaan.

Er was, zoals je op bijgevoegde foto kan zien, helemaal niks meer van over.
De technische recherche heeft zaterdag wel foto’s genomen, maar kon verder
ook niks meer vinden. Ze hebben het wel in onderzoek. Hopen dus dat daar wat
uit komt. Zondag hebben we, met de aanwezige vrijwilligers, de rotzooi
opgeruimd zodat het er nu weer wat netter uit ziet.

Het is wel de bedoeling om het gebouw zo snel mogelijk weer op te bouwen. Op
de komende werkweekenden en werkzondagen gaan we daar aan bezig. Hierbij is
alle hulp natuurlijk welkom. We willen namelijk proberen om hem voor het
kampseizoen weer enigszins klaar te hebben. Dus een oproep aan jullie, als
er een werkweekend of werkzondag is, wij kunnen alle hulp gebruiken om het
gebouw weer op te bouwen!

Liefhebbers die willen helpen, doe maar een schreeuw.

Russian Inventor Patents Invisibility Cloak

Created: 26.01.2006 09:11 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 09:17 MSK

MosNews

A professor from chair of quantum and optical electronics of the Ulyanovsk State University in western Russia has patented a method of making things invisible, Interfax news agency reported.

The so-called invisibility cloak, created by Oleg Gadomsky, is called “The method of conversion of optical radiation” in the patent.

Gadomsky had been long experimenting on nanoparticles of gold. Thus, he invented a sub-micron stratum of microscopical colloid golden particles that makes an object placed behind it invisible for an observer.

“Only static objects can be made invisible for the time present, as during motion a radiation frequency changes. But soon it will be possible to create a cap of darkness and a magic cloak of Harry Potter, the scientist believes.

Zou dit komen door de nieuwe optie die rechts bovenin de pagina staat? Die waar je je email-adres kan achterlaten om automatisch met een kort mailtje op de hoogte te worden gebracht als er weer een nieuw berichtje hier verschijnt?

Voor ik het weet hoeven de vaste bezoekers hier niet meer willekeurig te kijken, maar krijgen ze allemaal netjes even een mailtje als er weer wat nieuws is. Daar gaat mijn bezoekersaantal

Moet je maar kijken wat ik allemaal vond:

Laat het even weten als je er nog meer vind op Internet!

DORDRECHT
In de Dordtse Biesbosch is een bever omgekomen. Hij werd onder een boom verpletterd waar hij zelf aan had geknaagd. Het was een van de twee bevers in het Nationaal Park.

Dan sta je als bever toch ook wel een beetje voor paal…

Desbetreffende bever

Van de Biesbosch site

Uitgegeven: 19 oktober 2005 19:44
STOCKHOLM – Een software-ontwerper uit Zweden heeft zijn zoontje naar de populaire internet-zoekmachine Google genoemd. De vader, afkomstig uit Libanon, wilde met de naam zijn enthousiasme voor de zoekmachine tot uitdrukking brengen.

Omdat iedereen dacht dat het een grap betrof, plaatste de trotse Elias Kai het geboortebewijs op internet. De naamgeving heeft ook voor de Libanees zelf gevolgen. Zijn vrienden noemen hem volgens Arabische traditie voortaan Abu Google, vader van Google.

Kadootje van Google.com	Dit is hem dan, Google Kai

Doet me denken, dit is dan het eerste kind denk ik dat volgens de nieuwe Nederlandse taal vernoemd is naar een werkwoord. Googlen maakt met de nieuwe spelling deel uit van ons woordenboek

De techniek kan worden gebruikt om anonieme surfers te ontmaskeren.

De truc wordt ‘fingerprinting’ genoemd. Volgens Kohno zijn er een aantal methoden om van afstand een besturingssysteem te fingerprinten.

“We hebben dit idee uitgewerkt tot het fingerprinten van de hardware, zonder dat het apparaat in kwestie hoeft mee te werken. Bij de fingerprinting-techniek wordt informatie in de TCP (transmission control protocol) headers gebruikt om de “clock skew” van een computer te bepalen, die door kleine afwijkingen in de hardware veroorzaakt wordt. De technieken werkt zelfs als een computer duizenden kilometers ver weg is, er meerdere hops tussen het meet apparaat en de computer zelf zijn en is niet afhankelijk van de technologie waarmee verbinding met het internet gemaakt wordt,” zo is te lezen op Security.nl.

Kohno heeft zijn methode met succes op diverse besturingssystemen gestest, waaronder Windows XP en 2000, Mac OS X Panther, Red Hat, Debian Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD en Windows Pocket pc 2002.

Bron: Nu.nl

Matthew Nagle, 25, was left paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair after a knife attack in 2001.

The pioneering surgery at New England Sinai Hospital, Massachusetts, last summer means he can now control everyday objects by thought alone.

The brain chip reads his mind and sends the thoughts to a computer to decipher.

Mind over matter

He can think his TV on and off, change channels and alter the volume thanks to the technology and software linked to devices in his home.

Scientists have been working for some time to devise a way to enable paralysed people to control devices with the brain.

Studies have shown that monkeys can control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain.

“It’s quite remarkable”
Dr Richard Apps, neurophysiologist from Bristol University

Recently four people, two of them partly paralysed wheelchair users, were able to move a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes that pick up brain waves.

Mr Nagle’s device, called BrainGate, consists of nearly 100 hair-thin electrodes implanted a millimetre deep into part of the motor cortex of his brain that controls movement.

Wires feed the information from the electrodes into a computer which analyses the brain signals.

The signals are interpreted and translated into cursor movements, offering the user an alternative way to control devices such as a computer with thought.

Motor control

Professor John Donoghue, an expert on neuroscience at Brown University, Rhode Island, is the scientist behind the device produced by Cyberkinetics.

He said: “The computer screen is basically a TV remote control panel, and in order to indicate a selection he merely has to pass the cursor over an icon, and that’s equivalent to a click when he goes over that icon.”

Mr Nagle has also been able to use thought to move a prosthetic hand and robotic arm to grab sweets from one person’s hand and place them into another.

Professor Donoghue hopes that ultimately implants such as this will allow people with paralysis to regain the use of their limbs.

The long term aim is to design a package the size of a mobile phone that will run on batteries, and to electrically stimulate the patient’s own muscles.

This will be difficult

The simple movements we take for granted in fact involve complex electrical signals which will be hard to replicate, Dr Richard Apps, a neurophysiologist from Bristol University, the UK, told the BBC News website.

He said there were millions of neurones in the brain involved with movement. The brain chip taps into only a very small number of these.

But he said the work was extremely exciting.

“It’s quite remarkable. They have taken research to the next stage to have a clear benefit for a patient that otherwise would not be able to move.

“It seems that they have cracked the crucial step and arguably the most challenging step to get hand movements.

“Just to be able to grasp an object is a major step forward.”

He said it might be possible to hone this further to achieve finer movements of the hand.

Source: BBC NEWS | Health | Brain chip reads man’s thoughts

For a demo of SoundWave, Opera’s P2P real-time voice technology, simply ask someone in your vicinity the following question:
“What is today’s date?”

More info, visit their website:
SoundWave Demo, Opera’s P2P real time voice technology – Opera Web Browser

From Associated Press:
Software Firm Has Fun on April Fool’s

Fri Apr 1, 8:12 AM ET

OSLO, Norway – Norway’s Opera Software ASA couldn’t resist the temptation of an April Fool’s joke heralding a breakthrough in peer-to-peer communications.

The company said it has developed “a platform-independent speech solution for short- and medium-range interpersonal communication.”

In plain language: human speech.

Opera said in an April Fool’s release that the so-called breakthrough, “Opera SoundWave,” has a range of 100 feet and could be easily tested without special equipment, simply by asking someone near you a question, such as “Is today April Fool’s Day?”

If readers didn’t get the joke by then, the statement went on to say that “Opera’s patent-pending P2P speech technology uses analogue signals carried through open air, enabling users to communicate in real-time without the use of computers or mobile phones.”

And for anyone with lingering doubts, it went on to say SoundWave was discovered accidentally when an Opera technician said something and realized his colleague understood.

“Like most people, I have used e-mail as my primary means of communication for many years and accepted that it is not always 100 percent effective,” said Trond Werner Hansen, of Opera, in the joke statement. “SoundWave has opened up a whole new world for me, enabling me to get things done faster and more efficiently than before � and it is remarkably easy to use.”

And just to make sure there was no one left who didn’t get it, the statement also offered an Internet link to “a technical preview of Opera SoundWave.”

At that site, the following statement appears: “For a demo of SoundWave, Opera’s P2P real-time voice technology, simply ask someone in your vicinity the following question: ‘What is today’s date?’”

The answer, of course, is April 1 � April Fool’s Day.

It came after an online news service claimed the country faced being banned from the 2006 World Cup finals.

Index news claimed FIFA would not allow Croatia to take part in the World Cup unless the country handed over fugitive general Ante Gotovina.

Gotovina is wanted for war crimes during the civil war that led to the break up of Yugoslavia. The EU has cancelled entry negotiations with Croatia for refusing to hand him over.

FIFA’s president Sepp Blatter was quoted as saying: “It is clear that Croats care about football more than about anything else.

“In contact with EU Council of Ministers, we have decided to ban Croatia from World Cup before the country extradites the fugitive general Ante Gotovina.”

Thousands of protestors took to the streets carrying banners in support of Gotovina and attacking FIFA before the web site admitted it had made the whole thing up.

As well as gathering in Zagreb, there were demonstrations outside General Gotovina’s birthplace Pakostane.

Local police spokesman Zlatko Mehun said: “There was a large gathering outside his former home. It was very heated but peaceful, and I have heard that there were also large gatherings in Zagreb and angry scenes, but I don’t believe there were any arrests.”

Croatia leads in the World Cup’s Group Eight with 13 points from five matches ahead of Sweden, Bulgaria, Hungary, Iceland and Malta.

Source: Ananova – April 1 joke sparks protests

“We cannot find any justification to continue deficit funding of a program that has no application other that proving that with enough money America can do anything,” said Bush.

“The whole world knows that already, so why keep spending money on it,” he added.

The announcement was made during an even rarer press conference with Whitehouse press corps, at which the President started proceedings by handing out Easter Eggs, quipping, “it might be politically incorrect to hand these out, but don’t worry we got them at a discount at a Walmart sale yesterday so they aren’t really a religious item anymore.”

With the press left looking like stunned bunnies, the President took to the podium before dropping today’s bombshell that Congressional supporter’s of the Space Shuttle now have told SpaceDaily, “will cost thousands of jobs, and leave school children confused as to what America can actually do in space anymore.”

During the press conference Bush told reporters, “I don’t want to see another NASA administrator – appointed on my watch – left to justify a program to Congress based on lies, dis-information, half-truths and sexed up reports.”

During a brief two-minute period provided for questions from the press, the first reporter asked if this meant the Space Station was also being shut down. To which the President answered, “we plan to either hold an auction on Ebay or give it away to “our international partners.”

Source: Bush Cancels Shuttle

Soon, there will be such a method. A pair of engineers in London have come up with a “building in a bag” — a sack of cement-impregnated fabric. To erect the structure, all you have to do is add water to the bag and inflate it with air. Twelve hours later the Nissen-shaped shelter is dried out and ready for use.

Just add water, inflate, have a bit of patience, and you’re done!

The structure is intended to improve upon two current methods of providing emergency shelter: tents, which provide only poor protection, or prefabricated, portable buildings that are expensive and difficult to transport. Dubbed the Concrete Canvas, the shelter incorporates the best aspects of both forms. It is almost as easy to transport as a tent, but is as durable and secure as a portable building.

The inventors are engineers pursuing a master’s degree in industrial design engineering at the Royal College of Art in London. William Crawford and Peter Brewin came up with the idea when they were thinking of an entry for the annual British Cement Association competition for new and innovative uses of concrete.

They thought of an inflatable concrete tent after hearing about inflatable structures that are built around broken gas pipes to carry out repairs.

“This gave us the idea of making a giant concrete eggshell for a shelter, using inflation to optimize the structure for a compressive load,” said Brewin. “Eggs are entirely compressive structures with enormous strength for a very thin wall.”

The idea won second prize in the cement association competition in 2004. Crawford and Brewin, who are both engineers and have worked, respectively, for the Ministry of Defense and as an officer in the British Army, were also inspired by the plaster-of paris-impregnated bandages used to set broken bones.

Crawford said he and Brewin have been developing the concept for 16 months and made eight full prototypes at one-eighth scale.

The inventors filed a patent, which covers the concept of creating structures using a cement-impregnated cloth bonded to an inflatable inner surface. Full-scale production is planned and could take off soon, as Concrete Canvas is short-listed for the New Business Challenge run by Imperial College London and the Tanaka Business School. The winner of the �25,000 ($48,000) prize will be announced next week.

The idea has already garnered several other awards, including the British Standards Institute Sustainable Design Award. This funded a trip to Uganda last year.

The pair spent a month meeting U.N. agencies and nongovernmental organizations, visiting refugee camps and demonstrating the prototype shelter. The response has been positive.

“If this was available now, we would buy 10 today,” said Monica Castellarnau, program head for Medicins Sans Frontieres in Uganda.

Aid agency chiefs have been impressed by the simplicity and economy of the idea. A bag weighing 230 kilograms (approximately 500 pounds) inflates into a shelter with 16 square meters (172 square feet) of floor space. Cost is estimated at �1,100 ($2,100), while an equivalent-size Portakabin (a type of portable building widely used in the United Kingdom) costs about �4,000 ($7,700). The same-size tent costs about �600 ($1,150).

Concrete Canvas comes folded in a sealed plastic sack. The volume of the sack controls the water-to-cement ratio, eliminating the need for water measurement. You literally just add water.

“The shelter can also be delivered sterile,” said Crawford. “This allows previously impossible surgical procedures to be performed in situ from day one of a crisis.”

Markus Hohl, a lecturer on the Industrial Design Engineering course, praised the successful teamwork of Crawford and Brewin. “They’ve come up with a design that integrates plastic to inflate the structure and doubles as the inner skin; a wicking fabric that draws the water in and an external resin of concrete which holds the thing together: Concrete Canvas is triple clever.”

Gareth Jones, former product development director of the award-winning vacuum-cleaner maker Dyson, admires the design simplicity and functionality of Concrete Canvas.

“The Concrete Canvas product tackles the key issues of portability, ease of assembly, durability and cost,” he said. “The applications in the humanitarian field are immediate and obvious, but there are many other fields where this technology could successfully be deployed.”

Source: Wired News

Hospital staff treating a retired school teacher for a headache found a five inch knife blade wedged in his head.

A headteacher from Poland went to the doctors suffering from a headache, following X-rays hospital staff found a knife embedded in his head.

The discovery was made after doctors X-rayed Leonard Woronowicz to see if he had cracked his skull in a fall while climbing over a stool in his kitchen four days earlier.

Instead they found a blade that had penetrated the 61-year-old’s head just below his right ear. It had snapped off at the handle without touching any major blood vessels or nerves – or causing any lasting damage.

He said: “I thought they might give me an aspirin, instead they pulled a five inch knife blade out of my head.”

Woronowicz, from the Polish town of Wojnowice, said he had tripped over the stool while doing work in his kitchen.

He said: “I had some tools and other gadgets scattered on the kitchen floor where I had been doing the work when I tripped. The blade from the kitchen knife must have pierced my head then. My head hurt a bit, but I was convinced that it was from the fall. There was a small gash on the side of my head near my ear, but I thought it would soon heal and did not make much of it. I put a plaster on it and left it.”

He added: “I didn’t even guess what had happened when the next day I wanted to cut a piece of bread but couldn’t find the kitchen knife. Despite carefully searching the room I could only find the handle. But I forgot about it as my headaches got worse over the next few days, and I decided to go to a hospital.”

Local doctors were bewildered at the sight of the X-ray pictures and immediately called for an ambulance to take the patient to the Bialystok regional centre hospital in Northern Poland.

Surgeons pulled the five inch blade out of his skull in an operation that took just a few minutes. The blade had gone into his head from the side near his right ear.

Dr Marek Rogowski from the Bialystok hospital said a surgeon could not have made a better job of placing the knife so that it missed all vital bones, nerves and blood vessels. He said: “We have found objects in patients’ bodies before, but this is unprecedented.”

Source: Ananova – Five inch knife found in man’s head

Tulips will be planted near the Polderbaan runway in the hope that their smell will drive away the mice which have been attracting birds such as buzzards and herons.

Airplane collisions with birds grew more than 50 per cent last year from three incidents per 10,000 flights in 2003 to five in 2004.

A KLM Boeing 737 which skidded off a runway at the end of last year is believed to have had a bird hit its engine as it took off from Schiphol Airport, newspaper Algemeen Dagblad reported.

“The nuisance is a regularly re-occurring subject of discussion with Schiphol. They could damage a plane’s engines and place a flight at risk,” KLM spokesman Hugo Baas said.

Airport bosses are also putting out dog patrols, alarm pistols and using tapes with shouting noises to get rid of the mice.

Source: Ananova – Tulips to deter mice