Tarte, chocolade

where?
Somebody got elder again :)
Wishing you a very-very happy birthday with this:

Welcome - bienvenue

We, Boa Constrectors of University approve you as a doctor :)

clap clap clap clap
and if you'd move in :)

What a circus!

Yeah, that one too, but right now I want to talk about an experience we had in Vegas during our trip. I think it will need 2-3 posts to cover the things I try to share with you after our latest adventure. I start with the easiest part: a show we watched there.
The tickets were gift from my friend, M. We went with a slight skepticism in our hearts because as a general rule we don't like circus.
This one however blew us away right at the opening of the curtains. Which is a breath-taking spectacular in itself, I have to say.
It was a preformance by the famous (Canadian!) Cirque du Soleil, O. (My theory is that the title refers to the fact that you keep saying OOOOh! throughout the two hour show.)

This picture is from the finale, as we have seen it too. The magic is not really in what they are doing, but the scenes, the stage changing constantly (some part of the show is in water!), the surreal costumes, the whole dream-like setting, and, of course, powerful music. Magic, at its finest. If you have a chance ever to see them,,,or you happen to go to Vegas: this is a show which worth it. Thank you, M!

Hurraaaaaaaaay!!!!!

Don't you dare to forget: the Event of the year takes place tomorrow!!! All the happiness on Earth to you!!! (plus rice/casinos/palmtrees etc.)

...and for those of you who don't participate in any glamorous and touching event just now, console yourself with nice (even if a bit cheesy) pics from others. (Credit also goes to them for the photo.)

An art blog

This one is it, I was shocked and felt well with seeing lab-things at the lollipops :)
I thought she (I guess she) would like that moving pad for painting the gel-results at nana's formal lab.... what's the name of that thing anyway?

People ain't no good (?)

Let me share two music I have just got to know tonite: the first one is sad but beatiful (like everything else from the master)


with the lyrics here I have no idea why I hadn't heard this one before...

The other one is from the concert where I had just been (an excellent one! and full of lust for life - could not be more different from our dear Nick). Have a nice weekend!

Of cities and their people

This is a really old theory of mine, I wonder if you find some truth to it (knowing that it is forcedly over-simplified...)

I find that the cities and the people who live in can be characterised by the same traits. Example: to me London is bustling, noisy, but filled with art, culture and an "I am better than anyone" snobbist attitude paired with loads of money - and the whole mix poured over with some cheap parfume...as are the people. Budapest to me is a city of extremes: nowhere can you find so much excellence together with so much negligence of details, so fabulous beauty with so scary ugliness, so much depression and anger with that much lust for life...as in its people and its walls. To me Brussels is desperately grey - struggling to get out of it, but failing again and again, probably due to laziness. Paris is about glamour and elegance, but faking so much: not letting anybody into any of its inner thoughts, just showing up with the best appearance every day - making you believe that you get everything, even though you are far from it.

How about Vancouver? How about Ljubljana? Any such subjective impressions?

(Photo: courtesy of P.K. from the "Millenáris" series)

Event of the year # 2

13/10/09

Mourning again, but I had to...

... because I promised once to translate this but I won't. This should be also in french.
And I can't say bye ... I did not expect "missing" him so much.

Somebody left us - and I do not believe

Event of the year

Just a quick note: today is a special day. Lynx is having her pre-defence! That is, when the serious discussions take place. Good luck to you, dear Lynx! Your eyes can see through the darkness of human ignorance and shed light on our lost minds!

Quote of the day

here's one for you from GB Shaw, just to ponder:

"There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it."

And a music, to go with it! I have overheard it in a pub recently, after many-many years. Luckily it is on youtube :) I nearly forgot how great this video was.



And the lyrics, of course.

Human-made species or nature-determined science?

I am at a loss, and I will indignantly use you, dear friends, and your deep knowledge to bring me back to senses.

I was curious, don't ask why, to know whether there was an endogenous American species of hedgehogs. I guess I wanted to check whether my intuition that children literature and animation involving hedgehogs were mainly European. It seemed to me that when it came to spikes, common representations are generally with porcupines in Disneys and Tex Averys, and with hedgehogs in our sweet old world's animated movies. Or maybe I just needed a spiky hug. Don't ask I said. Now the answer is clear:

There is no such thing as an endogenous American hedgehog.

Good to know. But that is not the end of the story. I came across an article about the "American hedgehog". It says:

[...] initial imports [...] into the North American exotic animal market in 1990 [...] came from two locations in Africa, [...] Kenya and Egypt. From the outset, the still inexplicable decision to cross the Algerian and White-Bellied species was made and The "North American" hedgehog was born.

Until now, nothing suprising, it is just a hybrid, right?

While this new hybrid species thrived and adapted remarkably well to captivity, sadly, the two parent species as well as the Egyptian species did not.

Now THAT is what started me thinking. I could have started thinking earlier, I know, but well here I am. I never had given a thought to the fact that when a hybrid is fertile, it should imply seriously re-thinking about whether the two parent species were really distinct species in the first place, no? I know that the old definition of a species as a set of cross-fertile individuals is outdated and that some genomic-based definition is more appropriate, but, first of all I don't quite know what it is, and second, why would this genomic definition be proof to my two-parent-species-giving-birth-to-a-fertile-hybrid-were-not-distinct-species-in-the-first-place argument?
I never really understood the subtleties which I were taught that two separate populations of a parent species which got isolated and begin to grow distinct features might sometimes be considered as distinct species, sometimes only as sub-species. Does the definition of species include a statistic test of distance between two populations genomes? But then species wouldn't be constant in times, if some event were to decrease distant. Imagine the following scenario: for a reason that leaves all phenotypes and genotypes unchanged, the two parent populations of our North-American hedgehog migrate from Egypt and Kenya to a place I don't know where. They mix, mingle and you have a couple of generations later individuals from one species, the other, or hybrid. All these individuals are cross-fertile, right? How do you define species then? Do you redefine the parent species? Those individuals that first migrated, to which species do you consider they belong now? Do you have to change your theory because new individuals were born? Does it make a difference when they were born because some lonely people out there got those guys come across each other in their backyards or because the guys willingly migrated to a new place?

Ok I stop here with my stupid scenario. But hell! I won't sleep tonight. Please give a thought to my migrate-and-mingle paradox, would you please?

Revelations

This is adance-related posted, yet again! I present you one of the greatest dance companies of our time: one that I very recently had the chance to see on stage, thanks to tarelle! This video contains 15sec-bits from one of their oldest-running show, choreographed by the founding father himself, Alvin Ailey. Unfortunately the quality of the picture is quite bad, but still, you can see how extraordinary these dancers are:



There are also two other videos, complete pieces and with better picture. Here is one and this is the second. I think these are not the best of the show (very subjectively put) but still breathtaking. I hope you like them! (The Parisian audience clapped hard enough to make them dance the finale three more times! By the end everybody was up on their feet dancing :) )

Bakerman is making dough

A you might have noticed, I came back to VCB and am trying to catch up with all your witty posts. They are great ! :) Now I want to share this horrible thing with you to cool down a bit on this too-happy blog. I have tried to watch again the Lars von Trier's video. I and I have found...

My goodness, I have found this thing. Erk.

This thing. Here is what they do when LVT is not around. Laid Back all left alone to themselves and their German taste. Well I love the guitar, though :)

Now if you have gone all through the video, you might have noticed one thing, around the end, which compensates for everything.You want an clue? Ok, it is from second 3:26. Seen it?

What was your sign?

I inscribed K in the kindergarten of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Meeting the ladies there was itself an adventure for me, I immediately had a similar feeling what Hungarians have when seeing a policeman. I don't have to say: without any reason, he will be in very good hands from September.
He is big, I have to let him go and I already feel lonely. And I'm very old, having such a big child.
I had to choose a sign for him. I always thought that he would do it on the first day. So, since the ball and the car was taken, and the rest was butterfly and a very ugly flower, and the snail had eyes on the feet, I took the balloon. Which was his first nickname, Lufi.
Mine was - even though I didn't know the A.E. Bizottsag - the umbrella. I knew somebody who's was the knife.
What was yours?

phd comics

Here is a link for Lynx's post:

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=125

Motto (could be): If you can't change it, make fun of it.

Check out the rest too! I am subscribed now. Lifesaver.

Catsup

Here is an important piece of information I got to know only a day ago:

If you cat gets sprayed by a skunk

(depicted above), which is a truly nasty thing, the only way you can get rid of the penetrant reek is to give the animal a bath in tomato juice!

Now I wonder how you do that? All common cats hate bath and also hate tomato smell. Combine the two and you are sure to end up in the emergency room stiched up like a soccerball. What a disgrace.

On the other hand, I really would like to talk to the person who came up with the idea: how on Earth do you decide to pour V8 onto your smelly cat? Did s/he try other stuff before, like gasoline, vinegar or bleach? I wonder.

Anyhow, if you ever decide to move to my half of this interesting planet, you might need the info.

Genderanalyzer

I have been in a real hard-core feminist mode recently (thanks to my machoist-schoivinist colleagues) so here's some links that go well with this mood:

The first is a blog, I have stumbled upon it completely by chance. She writes about her life as an American thirty-something grad student in biology (she is about to finish) and some of the thoughts/situations coincide with mines a lot. For example that one about the behavior of women (and their male bosses) in science. It worth a look.

The second one is just a "fun-game" which situates our blog giving it a "71% chance that it is written by a woman". Ha! See tarelle? You should really get back on track! :)

Take it easy

Want to bet that I know for sure what Lars von Trier you had seen for the ever-first time in your lives? I am sure it's not the one that you think: it is this - one of the best in its kind in my humble opinion. I have just found out yesterday and wanted to share :) Have a good chillout!

Where have I been?

It happened, that my mother asked for the small one to buy him a motorbike and take him to the playground. I had 1.5 hours to spend. The bigger one chose to compile and program in peace - finally - so I went for a walk and had a (de)coffee on the terrace in peace. Just like years ago, waiting for somebody or just sitting there. Kremes were nice indeed - I brought for them.
It is no contest, rather have a look at the site, including the cookbook. Anyone who applies for it can get one on my bill :)

A cause worth attention - guerilla gardening!

There are really not many causes I feel aligning to (mostly because they handle the problems stupidly) but there are some exceptions, like bookcrossing or like this one I have just discovered! So, pick up your shovels and a few bulbs and plant something! Flowerpower :)

...and last but not least (and connected to the thematic on the "flower" side):

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, i !!!!! :)

Black sandals experience

How to clean Teva sandals? I heard this question from a person long time ago very frequently, he put it in hypo for a day - no. I know that the seawater helps lot also - something else I'm looking for now.
I would be extremely happy, if somebody told, because in the last almost 10 years lots of things - have to tell, the best buy in may life so far after the F77 book - really lots of things came in and paint my feet black.

Do you also know the experience?

Eating Pegasus

No, it's not miss-spelled: that's what my people from my lab can eat for a week once a year. Here's the story: every year we organise a training for scientists from all over the world - and we take them to a restaurant for lunch. The menu was translated by a colleague for this occasion (it is always the same) and shows an item called "Pegasus filet". I was the only one who thought it was suspicious and I asked the waiter (the others ordered it without thinking). It turns out that a new "substitute" fish for tuna(?), called pangasius is on the menu...quite nice, I have to admit.

Anyhow, since years, the translated menu is not corrected. And people keep ordering Pegasus filet. They don't even think. I wonder if they actually ever heard about Pegasus. And this is a university. These are my educated colleagues .

Where have we been?

Here is s pic of what we've climbed just a few days ago (it is not our photo as we only came back yesterday evening, but there'll be some soon, I promise)


a hint to help you guess: the capital (not of the country but of the autonomous territory) is named after a herbal plant (also a spice). If you can't guess I'll give you some more clues (and photos) soon! ;)

just a quick one

I found this today and I love it!

Easy to be hard

I thought I've already posted this but now I cannot find the trace - so here I go again (I think that it was temporarily "taken away" by youtube but it reappeared...thank God!) So here is my all-time favourite from Hair:



I remember when I've first seen it with my Mum she told me "you were just as little and cute as the kid when your father left us". But that's clearly not why I love that song - I just think it is beautiful. Enjoy! (and be patent, the song only starts at about the middle)

Where are my pens?

Ok, this might sound crazy but I have to share it with you.

My pens are gone. They are constantly missing. Ever since I learned to write, I struggle with the phenomenon: I have my pen, scribbling happily, I put it down, just for a mere moment: and -poof-it's gone, disppeared, vanished to thin air. And I don't find it, ever again. I lost hundreds of pens this way: the cheap, the fancy, the gift, the bought, the one with my name on it: I lost them all.

And I know: I am not alone. My fellows are living their everyday tragedies of mysteriously disappearing pens, the loss of the beloved, hand-friendly, the one with that specific hue of the blue...gradually, silently, millions and billions of pens cease to exist each year.

But where do they go? They are not under the bed, I checked it. Some might be on the bottom of my backpack, but not all of them, impossible.

I lost some sleep over it but eventually figured it out: they get transported into a parallel universe somehow. It seems likely that due to their longitudinal shape and probably the metal spiral inside, they slip through the worm-holes of the space. There must be a place (Bionapoly is a likely destination, for that matter) where the inhabitating creatures cry out time to time "But where all this pens are coming from?" Maybe they are already building a spaceship to haul them back here.

In the meantime, my friends, hold on tight to your pens, and don't blame your roommate when one more is gone.

Food again

And here is the recipe for the Original Nanaimo Bar!!!

It really exists, I didn't make this up! It looks like this:

And it is made like this:

Ingredients:

Bottom Layer

1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup sugar, 5 tablespoons cocoa, 1 egg beaten, 1 1/4 cup graham wafer crumbs, 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds , 1 cup coconut
Second Layer
1/2 cup unsalted butter, 4 tablespoons cream, 2 tablespoons vanilla pudding powder, 2 cups icing sugar
Third Layer

4 squares semi-sweet chocolate (1 oz. each), 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Directions:
Bottom Layer
Melt first 3 ingredients in top of double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, coconut, and nuts. Press firmly into an ungreased 8" x 8" pan.
Second Layer
Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light. Spread over bottom layer.
Third Layer
Melt chocolate and butter overlow heat. Cool. Once cool, but still liquid, pour over second layer and chill in refrigerator.
Makes 24 bars.

Complicated and it's probably not worth the hassle...well, well...

Video and favourite blogger

I have found a great video on the blog of my favourite blogger and I wanted to post it - but then I thought, hey, why not present her to you?

I've been reading her blog faithfully for a long time (since 2004, actually) and have read it through good and bad times - that had left her great writing skills intact. (sorry tarell, you won't be able to read her...or will you? :) ) We have almost met on a couple of occasions, but finally it remained a virtual "connaissance".

So: hello, hónyomi! (és bocs, hogy elloptam a képet :) )

No reason to feel discouraged at your slabs

Dear scientists,

Here is a "physicists's" joke that a friend of mine (yes I have physicist friends) told me over lunch.

Q: How many numbers are there in Physics
R: (or shall I give you the answer later so that you try to guess? I'll add the label "contest, then")

Tarelle b-day

There was a birthday quite recently - and I wouldn't like it to go unnoticed...so let me share some of the pics with you! This first does not require much explanation and this way you know where we've spent the most beautiful day of the year. 

I was fascinated by the cast iron thingy up there - I certainly wouldn't climb up the wall if this was waiting on top! 

No ships this time - this is actually the pond in the middle of Luxembourg...not completely empty :)

...and this one is a romantic shot by tarelle - happy (retrospective) bday and plenty of romantic photos to  come!!!

Hugs to all

No, this is not a belated Valentine's day message. I just want to share my recent reading adventure with you : The book is Desmond Morris: Intimate Behaviour.
I guess you know the zoologist author, and the book, in spite of the pink cover, is purely scientific. It talks about the forms and the importance of touch; how we touch a friend, a partner, a stranger in different situations and what the message is behind.
Most importantly, it brings evidence that touch is needed for every human being: children are bigger, healthier and smarter if their moms hugs them, touch eases the pain, and, of course, loneliness.
Morris thinks that civilized people have a great shortage of gentle touch: we are so restricted in this, that we hire professionals: hairdressers, chiropractors, or we see a doctor just to be touched. That people fight for the sake of bodily contact. (That must be extreme but not unimaginable, I think...)
He also suggested that if we were a bit more intimate with our fellow people, a lot of tension and frustration would go away and we were happier a little bit.
Independently from his research, there is a movement, http://www.freehugscampaign.org/
which has the same goal. Here is a video of what are they doing. Just watch the people's face, it tells stories.



I've always found hard to touch other people, even my close relatives or friends (I don't have to tell you that :)), and reading the book didn't make it easier. I am not ready to stand on the corner with my FREE HUGS cardboard sign, either, but I welcome the movement and happy that there are people out there who are able to do just that. And I promiss, that next time we meet, I will hug you! (want it or not :))

First late birthday sg.

Harom darab citromt veszek
Ha megeszem sarga leszek
tule
Sarga leszek, mint a citrom
Szeretem a csokoladet.

Harom darab pemzlit veszek
Ha megeszem szoros leszek
tule
Szoros leszek, mint a pemzli
Szeretem a csokoladet.

Harom darab labast veszek
Ha megeszem fazek leszek
tule
Fazek leszek, mint a labas
Szeretem a csokoladet.

Happy birthday P!

I wish you to be happy with your life,
allways feel that you would like to do much more,
dream big and find your dreams,
grow big and let yourself be found
and have a nice cake
and tomatoes and chicken ;)
and give a kiss to your Mom
(Yes, I heard then menu)

It's worth a post: singing

I mentioned our talk to A. who said that I DO sing when I prepare food for ex. but he doesn't mind at all.
But he does sing also when it's ski jumps (Planicaaaaa, planicaaaa). And when he is in good mood, which is funny, I sing in the bath when I'm blue.
In the car it's funny in the summer - when they forget the window :D (Kocsiba be ablakot le :S)
I do sing, it makes me happy. I think its a therapy. It dissolves stress surprisingly quickly. But who has the idea to sing when shouting?
Lynx has private homework to translate all to tarelle - if is interested.
On plant physiology lab we sang Harom darab citromt veszek and Avanti poppolo.
We didn't fail, I don't know why.

What did you sing in wierd situations?

Extremely strange ad

Seen on Facebook. I dare not imagine the kind of "High Paying Jobs".

Post fight, busy night.

Well this gets into a post fight, now! So good!

I got a little story to tell you guys here
It starts like this
I go to this Tate Gallery
Actually it's not a gallery, it's more like a museum
Like the MoMA on 53rd Street or something
You know, the MoMa, it's a nice place, but in this case
We're not talking about the MoMa

Well, I walk in
I'm with this guy, a friend of mine
And we're talking
And you know who we get to talk to?
We just met Laura
The problem is
I can't make out what she's saying
'Cause she comes from there
Up there in the North
A place called Doncaster
Still... We keep talking to Laura

(Chorus)
Are we up for a drink?
I can see no thing else 'round here
Are we up for a drink?
Are we up for a drink?
I can see no thing else 'round here
Are we up for a drink?
Are we up for a drink?
Are we up for a drink?

Now, looking at my empty glass with no wine left
I slowly seem to realize
He's eying this girl on the sofa
And that's actually Laura
Lovely Laura, lovely fella
It's the girl he's after
That's his aim, that's his game

So we're going nagedinag, he goes ragidirag
I go flipfloppyto and “How about you?”
And what they want – O, I can make out
So I try to help, but it's not that hard
Let's go to my place, let's leave this bar, with the girl
Let's get the motherfucking shit out
Wanna get a dinner in my home?
That's what you want?

Are we up for a meal?
I can see no thing else 'round here
Are we up for a meal?
Are we up for a meal?
I can see no thing else 'round here
Are we up for a meal?
Are we up for a meal?
Are we up for a meal?

So now we're all in my place
And it's eleven thirty or even later
And we're cooking something not quite light
So we just drinking
So we just talking about people and places
So we just stay there in me dining room
Talking to Laura
Some jokes I don't understand
Some cigar - some music
And he's looking at the girl on the sofa all the time
So I'm asking myself
What should I do with them?
I got this big sofa bed we could open for you guys to crash on
There was this beer
And it'd always come up to my brain
And we're just drinking
And we've been having good time
We got knocked out
I don't know what happened to them after that
I was already gone to my bed

Something glad was gonna happen
Something bright was gonna happen

Yeah, you've quite understood, but they are grown-ups, right?

Did they sleep very long?
I can see no real reason here
Did they sleep very long?
Did they sleep very long?
I can see no real reason here
Did they sleep very long?
Did they sleep very long?
Did they sleep very long?

Ohhhh
Yeeeah

On the next morning we're having breakfast at eight
When my flatmate's coming in like that - "look at that!"
What's he saying?
Nothing. But once they've gone
He comes to me and asks:
"Did you know these guys?"

"Just met them in the tube" - I answer - "why?"

"Oh, ok, I thought you might have met them at the Museum"
"Well, no. In the Tube."

Discover Torpedo Boyz!

Ok let me just tell you this : the story is absolutely true. Final dialog included. Now for the framing text, you'll appreciate that, I'm sure:

Why was I blessed with this rage

Discover Morcheeba!

Happy new week to you all!

Rock is not dead

here you go - I really wanted to get my xmas present, but now I am too late :(

Anyway, today I'll talk to you about the greatest thing in the seventies (even if most of them actually started in the sixties, but hey): rock music. I've been watching a bbc-serie recently (more about that soon) and it has a really good soundtrack, which made me re-listen to many on my favourites and look for new ones, which means here is a selection of top-class jumpy music!

Let's start with some smooth, pshychedelic rock: my all-time favourites, Pink Floyd or a tribute to nanaimo (and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ;-) ) : Jefferson Airplane. And there is no post on the seventies without Sister Morphine.

But hey, let's hear some real rock-stuff: turn up the volume, get a drink and loosen your hair for Creedence Clearwater (or kredenc, as my father refers to them), The Who, Rolling Stones, Doors, or Led Zeppelin (no available songs thanks to Warner Music).

OK, let's finish our session with some glam-rock: the No1 jumping tune: Jean Genie and a classic T-Rex. Now, let's cool down with Life on Mars! (Space oddity is an extra, only of you have somebody to dance a slow with).

I have obviously left out loads of good stuff - who else shouldn't I have ?

Sail on

Where are you, my friends?
Is our site dead?
I send you a song from someone who never dies. Here are the lyrics.
And, silver girls and boys, I mean it.