The world’s gonna end today (in one hour!), so I’m not sure if I should go to work.
If, by some amazing piece of luck, the world doesn’t end, I’ll watch the new The Restaurant series that supposedly starts this evening.
On Sunday, when rollerbasketball fell in the water, I visited G & his little family. Poor G broke his collarbone on a bad fall during rollerbasketball last week. He’s in quite a bit of pain. We watched a movie together. I was up for something serious, like The Diving Bell and The Butterfly or The Mist, but horror or serious stuff was out of the question, so we went for a kids movie, The Golden Compass. Pretty boring (especially on small TV), although the anti-religious theme should resonate with me.
I fed G’s son and amazed his parents by feeding him loads of vegetables. He seems to like me: must be my cold and distant demeanour.
Yesterday I watched another amazing episode of The Long Way Round and had some icecream at Haagen-Daz’s with the departing Mario. Tanya said she had an amazing time, but Mario lamented the fact that he did not have enough time. Time… it is a problem.
Oh, and our website familii.nl is finally out of invite-only: anybody can register now.
And now, for a commercial break:
Boom de yada! I should note: I never even watch that channel.
The Artis lecture last night was pretty good. Dr. Kattenberg is a really good speaker. Very interesting to hear about how the IPCC works, what it does etc. Among the audience there were quite a few climate change skeptics, most notably the geologist Harry Priem, curator of the Artis Geological Museum. The counter-argument seems to be that climatology is not an exact science and that the models IPCC refers to are not accurate enough to make any kind of predictions. I’ve been convinced by what I read that the models are the best we have and might even be overly optimistic.
The Artis planetarium is not the best place for a lecture: there is no real place for the lecturer to stand. Dr. Kattenberg had to walk around the projector in the centre. The slides were projected on two sides of the domed ceiling, but he could only use his laser pointer on one wall, which was invisible to those seated right underneath that wall. Still, the seats are pretty comfortable and I had a good view.
Did my familial duties today, as behooves Easter weekend, and visited my dad in Abbekerk. He, his wife Tiny and myself subsequently went to Hoorn to meet up with my half-brother Ruud and his new girlfriend. My half-sister wasn’t there, she’s in Italy. Checking out the pope, apparently :-)
On the way there I read a really interesting piece in the New Scientist on Bohmian mechanics, which allows for a deterministic quantum mechanics. There is hope for objective reality yet! Hey, I’m grasping at straws here!
“Enviromentalist and 2007 Australian of the Year Tim Flannery has declared his support for the hugely unpopular Japanese whaling program” (Daily Telegraph)
I wouldn’t call it support, as such, it more like he’s saying there are other, more pressing, things to focus on, such as the decline in krill populations.
I’d prefer it though if these whales weren’t being hunted.
Watch this. To the end! (David Keith’s geoengineering page)
Very interesting, especially the idea that talking about this is a “moral hazard” and that nations could pursue this without consulting others.
I should be at Schiphol right now, waiting for my plane to leave. Instead I’m home. The reason is that my flight was delayed by about four hours.
I’m making the most of it. Just emptied our boat of water. I’ll also get a chance to pick up my copy of New Scientist at Waterstones, which will give me something to read on my trip. My subscription hasn’t kicked in yet, so I still have to buy it at the shop.
I’m also bringing along Critical Mass by Philip Ball for the trip, a book I started, but never finished.
I got hooked by Bryson’s recommendation on the cover, sucker that I am ;-) Not sure why I gave it up. Something more enticing came along, I guess.
The Road to Reality is just too massive to bring along. Plus, I’m thinking of giving up on that book. Without prior knowledge of complex analysis, I’m not sure anybody can really read this. I’m completely lost. I, reluctantly, have to admit defeat. My mate Adriaan is also going to attempt this one. Good luck, Adriaan, I believe in you!!
Anyway, back to my predicament. I hope the guy that’s supposed to pick me up at San Jose informs himself about the flight schedule!
Just got this email from Philips, imploring me to buy Christmas gifts. At the top of this mail there’s this picture:
Holy shit, she looks like some kind of alien! Has she been body snatched??
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