to give you an idea of how much fun i’m currently having, please look at this picture:
i’ve been spending the past two days with the citrate and glyoxylate cycles, the respective structural formulas, and other related things.
there’s no end in sight.
my friend armin mentioned yesterday that the german terrorists in the latest south park episode, “super fun time”, reminded him a lot of the ones from the 1988 movie “die hard”.
turns out he was right:
in “die hard”, the name of the villains’ leader is hans gruber (played by alan rickman) – in this southpark episode, his name is franz. i guess that’s about as close as they could get without risking a lawsuit?
by the way: in the german version of “die hard” (titled “stirb langsam”), the names of the terrorists had to be changed into english ones – hans, karl, heinrich, were changed to jack, charlie and henry.
update: note how the woman’s face is obscured by hans gruber in both images.
a tiny little modification of the standard settings for adblock plus – one of the best firefox plugins ever – has made my life a little easier:
type
about:configin firefox’ adress bar, search for the entry
extensions.adblockplus.defaulttoolbaractionand change the value to “3″.
this activates/deactivates adblock plus by a single click on the adblock logo. (using standard settings, you’d have to open the dropdown-menu and click “activate/deactivate”)
i’m using this function frequently (at least, more frequently than the “blockable elements” window that opens with standard settings), so this saves me some valuable time…
in this spirit: hooray for a good support forum.
great news from one of the rarest animals in the world:
Seven kakapo chicks that hatched just over two weeks ago on Whenua Hou (Codfish Island) have been transferred to specialised facilities in Nelson to ensure their survival, Conservation Minister, Steve Chadwick announced today.
“I am thrilled with this season’s kakapo breeding success. The safe arrival of these chicks brings the total kakapo population to 92 and is testament to the dedication of the Department of Conservation in ensuring that these ancient and critically endangered birds continue to survive,†Steve Chadwick said.
…
Kakapo last bred in 2005 when four chicks were produced, but the record year was in 2002 with 24 chicks.
source: kakapo chicks relocate to maximise survival
the ranger’s diaries, a relatively new feature over at the official kakapo website, provide a little insight into the day-to-day ongoings:
Safely ensconced in their new Nelson facility, the birds have been enjoying a routine of four-hourly feeds starting at 7 in the morning and finishing at 11 at night. They are doing well and making good weight gains; several of them have now hit 500 grams and are getting quite large and feisty at feed time!
source: Kakapo Ranger’s Diaries: Hot chicks in the city
see also: kakapo-related blog posts at thinkoholic.com (including photos)
have you ever wondered what the internet looks like?
have you heard other people say things like “the internet doesn’t work” or “we now have the internet at home”?
imho, the funniest part of this scene from south park is the reference to “close encounter of the third kind”:
the original scene from “close encounter of the third kind”:
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the following video provides a close-up view of the the development of 5 frog embryos.
11 days in 66 seconds:
more information on the making of this time-lapse video: [more...]
i’m in the process of making another frog spawn time-lapse video.
it looks quite promising so far: i’m getting high-resolution (both pixel- and time-wise) macro footage of 5 eggs.
this photo shows their current state:
day 6 is coming to an end, and they should soon hatch from their gelatinous eggs. [more...]
