lego serving science

I especially like this Google Science Fair 2012 video, because it shows how much makeshift and creative improvisation takes place in laboratory work—quite to the contrary of the usual renditions of hight-tech labs in movies. And I of course do like it, because Lego is used. Another instance of Lego serving science is a recent publicity stunt: The personnel of the German research-station ↑Neumayer III in antarctica are ↑recreating their station out of 7000 Lego pieces [in German]. Seemingly as a kind of group therapy to overcome the boredom during the antarctic winter :-) … Continue reading

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who is inside?

zeph’s pop culture quiz #20 Who is inside the tube?     Just leave a comment with your educated guess—you can ask for additional hints, too. [Leaving a comment is easy; just click the ‘Leave a comment’ at the end of the post and fill in the form. If it’s the first time you post a comment, it will be held for moderation. But I am constantly checking, and once I’ve approved a comment, your next ones won’t be held, but published immediately by the system.] UPDATE and solution (26 March 2012): That’s a first, nobody solved the riddle. And … Continue reading

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entering arkham city

After a careful clean reinstall finally I am able to immerse into the ↑Batman‘s mythic universe. A bunch of goons inside a slightly decaying 19th century room. By the masks they wear you can tell that they are ↑Two-Face‘s henchmen. He makes them resemble himself. Chattering away they search the room and find a wall-safe hidden behind a painting. That’s the moment when they get disturbed from above. Fear of the Batman immediately fills them.  But it’s not the dark knight’s skin I get to slip into first—it’s ↑Catwoman‘s instead. Her appearance soothed me, I have to confess. Despite the … Continue reading

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arkham city rant

This was intended to become a longer rant from me—after the installation of ‘↑Batman: Arkham City‘ (Rocksteady Studios 2011) crashed my brand new system so badly that I had to jump back several recovery points to get it up and running again. But then, on ↑the official forums, I found the posts and threads by KIO. His forum post signature already sums it up: ‘DRM limitations are a punishment for the paying customer and an encouragement to seek better service elsewhere … And then they complain about piracy.’ No reason any more for me to write myself, because KIO already … Continue reading

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hardware rant

It really was high time. It was a bit more than five years ago that I ↵built my system. So a serious hardware upgrade was overdue. The necessary research done, I ↵ordered the needed parts. Until now I didn’t get around to insert those parts—last Saturday I did. I hoped to do, that is, because last Saturday the journey only began.     Unpacking the mainboard (Asus Sabertooth P67), then installing the CPU (Intel Core i5-2400) and RAM (Corsair Vengeance 16GB) on it. All that went in a breeze.     Next I ripped out the old mainboard and replaced … Continue reading

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what is he?

zeph’s pop culture quiz #19 What is the man in the picture?     Just leave a comment with your educated guess—you can ask for additional hints, too. [Leaving a comment is easy; just click the ‘Leave a comment’ at the end of the post and fill in the form. If it’s the first time you post a comment, it will be held for moderation. But I am constantly checking, and once I’ve approved a comment, your next ones won’t be held, but published immediately by the system.] UPDATE and solution (14 March 2012): Again Alexander Rabitsch ↵did it way … Continue reading

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