Calculus

Tomorrow at this time the first part of my first exam will come to an end. Hopefully I will be able to fill out the right answers. I've been preparing for this exam for the last three weeks and feel like I know some of it, but it's a very hard course.
Nearly 200 pages full of mathematical formulas and principals, including proof of all statements that are made. On average there is a statement with proof on every page throughout the whole textbook. This means a little less than 200 statements with proof that I must be able to reproduce tomorrow.
Although I feel confident I will be able to produce some of the most important ones, I'm not sure about a whole lot of other statements.
Unfortunately the exam consists of two parts. The theoretical part is tomorrow in the afternoon, the second part consist of excercises and is scheduled the day after in the morning. It is a good thing to have some time between both parts, where I can review some excercises. But it's also a very long time where pressure will start build.
With less than 24 hours to go I'm going to review the most important statements again, in order to be prepared as good as possible.

Ball lightning explained

An explanation for the formation of ball lightning was found by New Zealand researchers.

"Ball lightning forms when lightning strikes soil, turning any silica in the soil into pure silicon vapor. As the vapor cools, the silicon condenses into a floating aerosol bound into a ball by charges that gather on its surface, and it glows with the heat of silicon recombining with oxygen."

To prove the theory, a Brazilian research team set up a test, which resulted in small ball lightning the size of pingpong balls.

MIT courses available online

Famous American university MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has made its courses available on the internet for free. This is part of the OpenCourseWare program they are participating in.
MIT wants to make their knowledge available to everyone, including those who can't afford to study at a big university. A lot of courses are already available at the moment. In the future all MIT courses will be available through the program.

Last.fm

I registered at last.fm last week.
Last.fm is a website that keeps track of the music you listen to, using plugins for the most used music players around. When you listen to your music, with your favorite music player, information about the songs you have heard, is sent to the last.fm website.
This information is used to make a profile of your listening habbits: what is your favorite artist, what kind of music do you like most, ...
This profile is then used to match you with other people who have a similar taste. You are provided with other music those people like and which you migth like too, as you have a mutual musical taste.

At least that's what the website is telling me. I have used the plugin for a few days now, but it will take a few weeks - according to their website - to build a profile.

BTW: I got the plugin working on iTunes (it keeps track of both the music I listen to on iTunes and my iPod) and on XMMS (Linux).

Clouds

It seems the plane on this picture is coming out of a cloud or flying through one, but in fact the cloud is generated by the plane itself. And no, the plane is not on fire or leaking any fluids.





The cloud is induced by the plane flying at a speed near but not greater than the sound barrier. The effect is caused by the Prandtl-Glauert Singularity.
In short: At speeds near the sound barrier and at certain pressure, the temperature drops, causing moisture in the air to condensate and forming a cloud.

Physics can be beautiful. :-)

Jeugdsentiment

(The title is in dutch, and can be translated as 'childhood memories'.)

A few weeks ago I heard a song when listening to Studio Brussel, a Belgian radio station. The song was picked up by the DJ on a myspace.com website of a group called Fixkes.

It seems this band originates from a small town near the place where I grew up. Having left the region for some years now, I was quite pleased to hear their song because it brought back some nice memories of my childhood.

The band members must be of my age, as a lot of elements in the lyrics of the songs reminded me of things that happened when I was younger. The singer sang in his local dialect, which is not very different from mine.

It was quite nostalgic, hearing that song. And I liked it.
(I'm not sure about the title of the song, but you can listen to it on the website of the group)

Lack of time

I just figured out that I need about 3 or 4 copies of myself (or the equivalent of 3 or 4 times the duration of a week) to be able to do all the things I'm interested and occupied in, in a sufficient way.
For instance: I'm a student and I would like to spend all my time on attending courses, making exercices, studying and preparing for the next class, writing papers, doing exams and reading articles and books related to my field of study, which is physics and astronomy, by the way.
But to pay for my living, I'm working part-time as a sysadmin and programmer. This consumes some of my precious time during the week, and all the time I spend working, isn't spend on studying. To combine both and be able to spend all the time I like on my studies, I would need 1,5 times the equivalent of a week.
But I like programming and I program some more in my spare time, as a hobby, so to do everything I would like to do, I would need another week. Which means I would need 2 times the equivalent of a week, to do all I would like relating my study, my work and programming.
And it doesn't end here. I'm a social person and like to hang out with my friends, play games, eat together or go to parties, visit family, ... This would add another half time the equivalent of a week, to do everything right and proper.
And to top it all off, I like to stay current with what's happening in the world: politics, economics, science, culture, ... And I like to read books and going to the theater or musical concerts. This equals another equivalent of a week.
Add to it that I need some sleep and need to wash, cook, eat, clean my appartement and go buy some food and supplies and it sums up to 4 times the equivalent of a week, to get everything done I would like to get it done.

Unfortunatly, it isn't possible to get 4 times the equivalent of a week fit into the period of one week. If you do know how to do it however, please let me know. ;-)
So there are several options to get things done:

• copy myself 3 times, in such a way that I have a mutual brain of some sort, so that I 'know' what the four of me are doing/have done.

As cloning human beings isn't possible at the moment, this isn't really an option.

• choose one of the things I would like to do best, and spend all my time on that one, neglecting all the rest for the time being, until I reach a point I get the feeling I have done enough and then start spending all my time on one of the other things.

This isn't a very practical solution, as I need to work in order to pay for my living while I'm studying. And I would stop to be a social being if I spend all my time programming, not to mention what a mess my apartment would become after a while.
So this leads to the more practical solutions:

• plan the week so that everything gets enough but not all time, knowing that it will take longer (About 4 times longer ;-) ) to reach the same level of completion, compared to when every part gets full attention.

This means making choices and sacrifices, which is what most people have to do, and the way I'm doing it too.

But If I could find a way to do some things more efficient like programming for example, so that it's less timeconsuming, I would be able to spend more time on my other occupations and hobbies.
I'm going to reflect on this last thought and I will write some more about it when I come to another insight.