A tribute to those who have lost their lives while racing in Formula 1. Let's hope it will take a long time before a deadly accident happens again. Some parts of the clip could be experienced shocking. This once more shows how dangerous racing can be.
Some more news about my life now, tomorrow I'll be going to have a conversation about Chemisch Dispuut Leiden with one of the recruiters of Shell. I hope this will all work out nicely and that Shell will have some ideas about further promotion for their cause.
Also I'm invited for the 'farewell party' for our rector magnificus Breimer. He is going to resign in February and therefor the university has organised a party. Ofcourse I'll also have to do some lab work and I'll have to attend colleges. So this will be a pretty busy week for me again.
Since China launched a missile to take out an out of order satellite, the US has been thinking about defense measures for their satellites. Last time a satellite was destroyed (1985), it was the US who tested a anti-satellites missile. Therefore the words should be taken with some consideration.
Now the result of this test and a possible space-war could be that countries trying to develop their own space infrastructure will withhold their plans for now, because expensive equipment could be destroyed within minutes. Another possibility is that the US and China are going to start a new space race and increase funding and research on exploring space and the solar system.
It seems that when there was any chance of space funding being cut, it's now washed away by the Chinese attempts to show their supremacy in space. China is currently maintaining far less satellites than the US, but should be considered as the most likely enemy when it comes to a race.
Source: Wired
Just like so many bloggers these days I just had to write about the iPhone. It seems that this wonderfull mobile device will be able to play music files, contact the internet, function as your calendar and yes it'll also be able to call your friends. The phone will have 4 or 8 GB of memory, depending on model, to save your music and photographs.
Sounds like a nice bunch of features right? Ok then, now I'll tell you why I'm not going to buy it. I'm not even going to whine about the price and the fact that you need a 2 year contract to buy it, because I think that when you're buying something you must buy something good. And buying a high quality product should be worth the price. This is exactly the reason this won't be my phone. A product combining a walkman, digital camera, handheld and phone in one device could almost never be of such standards as a normal Sony MP3 walkman or a Palm handheld. Just take a look at the camera. The iPhone features a 2 megapixel camera, ok you can make nice pictures with this resolution. It's just that this feature isn't on the edge of what's possible on mobile phones. Take a look at the Sony K800i or the Nokia N73. Both already have a 3 megapixel camera and are on the market for some time. Apple's iPhone won't be for sale for another 6 months.
Apple seems to be running ahead in combining features into one device. But still it seems that none of this features are able to compete with their leading high-end standards. Thus Apple's iPhone will already be out of date when it will appear on the shelves.
A worldwide distributed computer program predicts a rise in temperature for the British Isles of 4 degrees Celsius. Apart from that an increased winter rainfall and summer drought were also predicted. The computers connected to the network made their calculations to a number of different models and the results were put into a graph. Probability of the models was taken from the results the models gave for the temperature curve in the past.
As seen on the map below the UK will not have the highest increase in temperature. Regions like Alaska and the North Pole will suffer an even higher increase.
Now is this all caused by mankind or do we just live in a time of global warming caused by the cycles the Earth makes throughout eons. One thing that we could be sure of is the fact that there aren't enough quality resources on Earth to satisfy the a total population of over 6 billion people. We already see the problems now China is getting wealthier, what if also Africa begins to start growing? The world is getting overpopulated and the only one who can change that is humanity itself.
Source: BBC's Climat experiment
Source: BBC Science
I've just found this ad from Lego on the internet. Isn't it wonderful how Lego is promoting science in purest form: the periodic table.
Today was the most boring day of the year. I had to assign parameters to the infrared spectroscope and wait, and wait some more. When the waiting was over the machine would give a spectrum which had to be printed and then the work started all over again... Tomorrow I'm up for another day of waiting.
Some of the pictures I took on a trip to Rome and Pompeii. It's almost 3 years ago now I've been there but when I look at these pictures I can remember how beautiful the views were. Click on the thumbs to get the full picture.
I was looking for a mobile hard drive to store the files I need on different locations for work and leisure. The reason for me to chose this drive was that LaCie makes high-end quality products. This can be seen from the storage systems it develops for networks and the LCD screens with ultra high specs (and prices..).
The main specs of this drive are a 100 GB hard drive rotating at 5400 rpm and the fact that it can power itself using the USB connection with the PC you're sharing your files with. This is a very big advantage because you no longer need to take a power adapter with you all the time. Only drawback is the packed USB cable with a length of a mere 1.5 meters. This is just to short to be able to put the drive on the place you had in mind and it leaves no other possibility than to just put the drive on top of your PC.
The drive is just as big as a notebook drive and has a minimalistic design. The front is made of some kind of metal, while the other sides are made of plastics. On top of the drive there are some spaces cut out. This could come in very handy if you own multiple drives of this kind, because you can then stack them.
The heat the drive produces is reasonably low. After watching a movie the drive had a temperature of around 20 degrees Celsius. The drive hasn't got an active cooling system which only would make more noise. When the drive is rotating it also barely makes any sound.
Another plus is the fact that the drive is compatible with all Windows versions newer than Windows 98. This takes away the need to install drivers on every PC you're going to connect the drive to.
Overall the drive is very reliable, performing well and exactly what you would expect from a mobile hard drive made by a high-end company. If you want to read a review in dutch you can click the link in the menu to the left.
I've got my mobile LaCie hard drive and it's working perfectly! I've already used it to backup my music, movies and files from the computers of Chemisch Dispuut Leiden. This weekend I'll post an extended review on this blog and Tweakers.net.
Tomorrow I'll have to face an exam about structural analysis. I don't know if I'll be able to pass it because I haven't start learning yet. And tonight there will be a drink to celebrate the constitution of a new board for our sister assiociation 'Emile'.
Tomorrow will be a rather long day, it'll also be fun though. I'll be able to pick up my mobile hard drive. I did order it from another shop than I wrote last time. After some intense testing I'll write a review (probably this weekend).
Also I'll have a meeting with a student association from Delft. It's to discuss our common interests in the Molecular Science & Technology students we share. I hope some good will come out of it.
And in the evening I'll be having dinner with all of the board members from student associations connected to science studies in Leiden. So next update won't be tomorrow I guess.
Scientists have been able to isolate stem cells from amniotic fluid. This opens new doors to stem cells research because the biggest con against it was the fact that stem cell had to be taken from discarded embryo's. In the minds of conners this has some resemblance with murder. With this new way of gaining stem cells research has become some easier to defend.
Don't be too excited though. Gaining stem cells from a pregnant woman with a needle could cause pathogens to enter the womb and the needle wound could fail to heal. Another method is to harvest the fluid when labour is starting.
Source: InkyCircus
Shares of Google went from $414 to $460 last year. This still can be seen as a rise, but compared to the moves in 2004 and 2005 its just a mere 9%, with this Google is falling behind on the Dow Jones Index. Google's market value is almost 150 billion dollar, which is way overrated from my perspective. Okay, they have a well running advertising agency running which is delivering ads for the biggest part of the Internet. But Google's power will shrink when a new company comes with a bright idea on how to develop the Internet, and then Google will collapse just like Yahoo! shares did in 2000 and 2001. So keep in mind when you're about to buy Google shares that you're buying an air balloon.
My own shares had a great week. Dutch telecom operator KPN managed to rise from €10.77 to €11.30. This is equal to a 5% rise. So this first week of trading already earned me my interest I would have got over a year time from my bank (3%).
I just bumped on an article about how to speciate the humanoid population of the United States so that there will be one lesser race and a superior race. The lower race could take on jobs at local McDonald's or check tickets when you are entering the cinema to see a movie. Of course this all is written in a ironic way. But it also suggests that with the latest scientific progress in genome engineering it could happen a lot sooner then you've learned from the process of evolution.
If you want to get yourself a blond haired and blue eyed baby then I suggest you have a look at this news article on Times Online. It's explaining how Denmark is the world leading supplier of sperm. And guess what, Denmark is saving up sperm to help the rest of the world when there's a shortage of men.
Science Café Leiden recruiting people to help organising the next editions of Science Café. You'll be helping to bring up new subjects, write experts and promote the Café in your area of work or study. Preferred are those with a background in medical and social sciences. Are you willing to join this team in their attempts to interest the public for science? Check their website.
In the news today: Germany's population decreased by 130.000 last year. Immigrants are not able to compensate for the low number of births in the country. Scientists expect that this trend will cause a decrease of population from 82 million now to 70 million in the year 2050.
Is the Dutch population also decreasing? No, Dutch population grew with 28684 according to CBS.
I've just had an email stating that my ordered Porsche hard drive will not be delivered before the 26th of Januari. Guess I'll have to wait for some time...
Tomorrow I'll have to attend the first meeting of this year. Some important updates have to be discussed for the Betabanenmarkt. It seems that companies from the chemical sector aren't that interested anymore and that the number of attending companies will be low.
Next week will be the first hard week in this year. I'll have to cope with some 'New Year drinks' and at the end of the week I'll have an exam about structural analysis. Though this exam shouldn't be that hard.
The mobile hard drive still has the status 'unknown' for delivery time, so this could also turn out to be a long time.
Another post on this blog since the beginning of December! I hope you all will have a prosperous 2007! Let's hope the world is going to be a better place after all.
I have already started my to enlarge my dependence on electronics by making the first purchase of this year. It's a mobile hard drive from LaCie, which has been designed by F.A. Porsche and is using its USB bus for power. A review of the disk will be posted on Tweakers and linked from here. I'll also try to make a review in english to post on this blog.
