blog.marcoha.com

I’m twittering again: http://twitter.com/marcoha

This book is now on my wishlist: Chemical Shifts and Coupling Constants for Silicon-29. A bargain, at only $8,539.00 (plus, shipping is free!).

Check out the reviews. Here are some:

I picked up a copy at my local used book store at a discount. It was only $7,000 so I feel like it was a HUGE bargain.

Some people chide this epic for being “too commercial,” calling it the “Harry Potter of Chemical Shifts and Coupling Constants for Silicon-29,” but let me assure you, the depth and scope of Gupta’s insight is a blessing on all of mankind

(Found through New Scientist’s Last Word)

A nice cheerful video for the weekend about global dimming and the possible underestimation of the effect of CO2 on global warming:

Looks like the Carter catastrophe is heading our way.

Pff, my illness is really kicking in. I’m coughing my lungs out. I spent most of last night in a sweaty delirium.

Before I completely succumb, with my last strength I want to recommend to you the Flight of the Conchords, the DVD of the first season of which my sister Jenny treated me to on Newtonmas.

I already knew them from a CD I got from m’colleague, so I was thoroughly thrilled. Haven’t laughed this much in ages!

This is an excerpt from a live concert:

“This is the future, the distant future…
This is the future, the year 2000!”

(full lyrics)

:-)

Another favourite:

“Lives are like retractible pencils
If you push them too hard they’re gonna break
And people are like paper dolls
Paper dolls and people, they’re a similar shape
Hmm hmm hm
Love is like a roll of tape
It’s real good for making two things one
But just like that roll of tape
Love sometimes breaks off before you were done”

(full lyrics)

Man, I was so upset when I’d watched the last episode. More!

Sore throat, cottonwool head (those who know me will know how much I hate that), muscle ache. All the classic symptoms of a flu.

Time to curl up on the couch and see if I can cross some movies from 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die off my list. I might have to leave the house and enter the Cold to get some more movies though. I probably shouldn’t…

As many others, last night I celebrated the start of the consular year. Today the Roman consuls would have entered their offices, had the Roman Empire still existed. Not sure why we still celebrate that, but I guess we have to start our years somewhere.

My year starts with a big headache, as is the norm for alcohol-consuming societies around the world. I wish everybody a headache-free 2009! It’s already too late for me…

Best of 2008:

• Joining BV Lely, playing basketball again
• Organising, and playing in, the Amsterdam Rollerbasketball Tournament
• My mom being in the Netherlands for a few months
• Rollersoccer tournament in San Fransisco
• Climbing Half-Dome (again)
• Being there at the pivotal MyGuide-Eiffeltowers game six in the Eredivisie finals
• Being amazed by the 3D TV at Discovery ‘08
• Favourite book: Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, by Mark Lynas.
• Favourite movie: There Will Be Blood

Worst of 2008:

• LHC helium leak
• My mother having difficulty settling down in the Netherlands
• The new Bond movie
• Marine leaving me

I just put my old PhD thesis online here (10MB). There are occasional requests for it, most recently from a student from Nankai University. So, in the interest of Science, I scanned the whole thing and put it all in a PDF. Spent almost the whole day doing it! Wouldn’t have had to do this if I still had the LaTeX source for it.

I’ve done my first written basketball exam :-)

Passed my F-exam with 80 points (out of 100). Now I’m gonna suffer, because they’re gonna put me on the refereeing schedule more, now I actually know the rules (well, 80% of them).

Yesterday was the first day I had to referee an official basketball game. I was pretty nervous. I’ve done it before, but that’s already so long ago, I hardly remember it.

It was arranged that I would share the honours with one of my team-mates, who’s a proper ref with official shirt and all. But when it my turn in the limelight there turned out to be only three refs for three games, so I had to arbiter a game by myself! I chose the lowest level one. Man, it was tough! I made a lot of bad calls, mostly because I just didn’t see clearly. One of the players seems to have actually bitten another player and I gave the player that was bitten a foul. But afterwards, none of the players seemed to hold a real grievance.

Next week, I’m taking my F-course, where I’ll actually learn how to arbiter, I imagine.