Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Coign of Vantage - addicted again

I think I am much more selective than before, but once again I found a game which got me playing all over again.This is the first screen which shows a hint where the cursor  should be.



The pixels are in 3 dimensions and you have to rotate the image so that you are looking at the picture from above and seeing the projection of the pixels in a plane. It is not very easy at first but the progress makes you scontinue with a new game. One of the good features is that the images are not the same from game to game. It is unbelievable how big the effect on the pixels is when you move the cursor just a little bit.

I found the game in Random Good Stuff and you can play the game here.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Congratulations Ahtisaari


Martti Ahtisaari

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace
Prize for 2008 to Martti Ahtisaari for his important efforts, on
several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve
international conflicts. These efforts have contributed to a more
peaceful world and to "fraternity between nations" in Alfred
Nobel’s spirit.


Martti Ahtisaari was the President of Finland in 1994-2000.

  • In 1989-90 he played a significant part in the establishment of Namibia’s independence
  • 2005 he and his organization Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) were
    central to the solution of the complicated Aceh question in Indonesia.
  • In 1999 and again in 2005-07, he sought under especially difficult circumstances to find a solution to the conflict in Kosovo.
  • In 2008, through the CMI and in cooperation with other institutions,
    Ahtisaari has tried to help find a peaceful conclusion to the problems
    in Iraq.
  • He has also made constructive contributions to the resolution of
    conflicts in Northern Ireland, in Central Asia, and on the Horn of
    Africa.
He has already been awarded several times:

Ahtisaari was the third (or fourth) Finnish person receiving the Nobel Prize

Frans Eemil Sillanpää was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
in 1939 "for his deep understanding of his country's peasantry and the
exquisite art with which he has portrayed their way of life and their
relationship with Nature."

Artturi Ilmari Virtanen 1945 in Chemistry for his research and inventions in agricultural and nutrition chemistry, especially for his fodder preservation method.

(Ragnar Arthur Granit was a Finnish scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1967 along with Haldan Keffer Hartline and George Wald but he had both Swedish and Finnish citizenship. Granit said that his Nobel prize "belongs fifty-fifty to Finland and Sweden")

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Puzzling Safe

I have always been a fan of puzzling items and this one is: Band Saw Safe from portfolio: alex schlegel



The description says:
The 13 drawers of this band-saw box rotate rather than open outward. Objects
for safekeeping are placed into the large, central drawer through a hole in the
bottom of the box. Since the arrows on the front of each drawer point toward
the drawer's open side, objects may be moved from one drawer to another by
first lining up the arrows on the two drawers and then rotating the entire box
so that the objects fall from the first drawer to the second.


I  must admit that if I placed something in safekeeping here, I probably never could get it out myself.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Math Anxiety

I am preparing for a two-day course in learning to use Moodle. Already a year ago I learned about WiZiQ which helps teachers to create online lessons. Browsing their site I found this great presentation about Math Anxiety. It is meant for both teachers and students. I think my conciense about handling the students is clear :)

The presentation is a bit long, but worth to watch.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Mathematics in Noodles

I found this cool video from kottke.org. It is a clip from Philip Morrison's 1987 PBS program "The Ring of Truth: Atoms" featuring chef Kin Jing Mark making noodles to demonstrate the principle of halving.