Massive Space-Time Events

Dear Gran,

2005 is celebrated in Europe as Einstein Year, as it is the century anniversary of the release of Herr Professor Einstein's first theories. Yesterday I visited the Einstein Tower in Potsdam, which was built in the 1920's to test his theories on General Relativity by measuring stuff like the shape of the space-time continuum.


The telescope is still in use today to prove the latest theories, like the Potsdam Kartoffel. This theory describes how the Earth is not completely spherical, but shaped exactly like the vegetable regularly enjoyed by Potsdam astrophysicists dining over lunch together. The telescope supported the Potsdam Kartoffel theory by demonstrating that the Earth's gravity is uneven at different parts of the planet's surface e.g. you weigh more in northern Europe than you do when you are at the Equator. But I reckon that you don't need a fancy telescope or to be Einstein to have worked that out!

Of course people who live in Potsdam weigh more because they spend most of most of their time indoors sheltering from the weather and eating potatoes drowned in cheese, cream, egg and sausage, whereas people who live at the Equator spend most of their time outdoors sweating in the heat and eating fish and fresh fruit.

As you know, today is the 30th anniversary of Frau Dr Clutterbuck, which is traditionally celebrated with a picnic in a park, but today we celebrated indoors over lunch with Julie's work colleagues Oliver, Felix and Felix's partner Marina. Julie is currently working on a research paper together with Oliver and Felix, and after today I am expecting their new theory to be called either Berlin Kokos Suppe or Friedrichshain Cous Cous Salat or perhaps even Geburtstag Jogurt Kuchen.

Watch this space-time continuum for further details.

Brendan

Brendan's letter in the Age

Dear Gran,

I don't know if you are reading the Age these days, but Brendan had a letter published- not just that, it was the feature letter, with a box, and shading, and everything except a Tandberg cartoon. I include it below.

Much love,

Julie.

The future is blowing in the wind

February 17, 2005

Europeans have wholeheartedly embraced the creation of renewable energy, which is in stark contrast with Australians ("People power beats wind power", The Age, 16/2). This is because Europeans have directly experienced the devastating effects of dirty power production in the form of acid rain and Chernobyl nuclear fallout.

When I first arrived in Europe from Australia, I found the frequent sightings of the big white fans in paddocks remarkable - but at no time did I ever consider that they detracted from the beauty of the countryside.

Indeed, the presence of wind turbines alongside tourist routes and within sight of a 1200-year-old village indicated to me not only the acceptance of new technologies and industries in an old rural landscape, but also a growing confidence in a greener, healthier future.

In Germany, for example, the increased use of wind power is one part of a sustainable energy strategy that is helping the nation wean itself off nuclear energy. Germany has demonstrated the economic and technical feasibility of increasing renewable energy use without affecting the current high standard of living.

Germans have also demonstrated that a change in popular and political will is necessary in order to move from dirty to clean power production.

I hope that Australia does not wait for further destruction of the Great Barrier Reef or the Murray River before choosing to act on renewable energy.

Brendan Baxter, Berlin, Germany

OK (not quite the last post) - Moved

http://jerrajaunts.blogspot.com/2005/02/ok-not-quite-last-post.html

Lutherstadt Wittenberg Weekend

Dear Gran,
We caught the train to Wittenberg for the weekend to get away from Berlin. But perhaps an hour wasn't quite far enough, for we found more frozen ducks standing on frozen lakes here. Wittenberg is the town where Martin Luther lived, studied and preached but not where he nailed his 95 demands to the church door (because apparently this is just a myth.)

We spent a dark and stormy night in the youth hostel on the top floor of the 500 year old castle-church (there was no separation of church and state back then). Lying in the darkness we reassured ourselves that if the building had lasted 500 years, it wasn't going to blow over tonight. (Luther himself became a monk after a mortifying lightning storm.) But a little later as the winds pushed rattled our window and made the floor vibrate, I wondered about all the scaffolding around the building and the large writing under the tower saying that "God is safer than castles". Maybe they knew something about this building we didn't know.

In the early 90's the Wittenberg High School decided to renovate their drab old concrete communist-era building and so they contacted Hundertwasser, the Viennese artist-architect-environmentalist. The renovation was completed in 1999 with in his usual trees-coming-out-the-windows style and now students volunteer to spend their weekends proudly showing tourists through the building.

love from
Brendan and Julie

Frohsinn on the Spree

Dear Gran,
Surprisingly, the river has only just started to freeze over night, even though we have had no snow and mostly sun for over a week. The waves from barges on the river make breaks up the bigger sheets of ice and makes a lovely a soft crackling sound. One of the boats I saw was called Frohsinn which means 'cheerfulness' and is pronounced Fro-zen.

These ducks have chosen a good ice floe to stand on and watch the sun rise. The seagulls seemed to favour the moving ice in the middle (so they could commute downstream to the city for the day?). I was wondering why the swans were choosing to swim rather than stand on the ice, when I saw one young swan push itself out of the water onto an ice floe, which took some effort. While it was preening itself proudly, two of its siblings joined it on top of the ice and immediately the floe began to sink...
love from
Brendan

Sean's first (and possibly last) post - Moved

http://jerrajaunts.blogspot.com/2005/02/seans-first-and-possibly-last-post.html

the weather right now

Dear Gran,
This photo comes from a weather station here at the university. It is current- or as they say on The Internet, real time- so while I see it now as sunny blue skies, whenever you look at it might be night.



Much love to you,

Julie.

Reading

Dear Gran,
As always I have been reading a lot, especially in the train to and from work. Sometimes I have been reading in German, with frequent references to a dictionary for the hard words. This is improving my vocabulary, but doesn't help with the grammar.
One of the most interesting books that I read last year is called "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell", by Susanna Clarke. It is set around 1810, which would be familiar to you--- from Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, not personal experience I hasten to add! However the history of this Regency England is not entirely consistent with what we expect. The action is not just in the drawing rooms but also on the battlefields, something like in the Patrick O'Brian books. (Have you read those? They start off with Master & Commander...). Anyway, I think you might like it. (I just checked: you can get it at Oakleigh library, but you might have to reserve it ... click here for the library catalogue...)
We also read the Jasper Fforde books- Mum mentioned that she had also started on them- I hope you have had a go too. I think you would like the way these do very silly things with some of the classics.
We got them from the Amerika Gedenkbibliothek (American Memorial Library, one of the biggest public libraries here).
That library has also introduced Brendan to the Dorothy Sayer Wimsey mysteries. In one that I read, someone had underlined all the words they didn't recognise. Of course these are all those extremely British words, and emphasizing them gives a funny effect: "he dodders in here at ten every morning" "if the beastly newspapers didn't run it for all it's worth... "Poor old blighter".
Apart from the library, we sometimes buy books from the big bookshops, which have a reasonable choice of books in English, but also over the internet from Amazon. The range is huge, delivery is free... I have to exercise great self-control!
Much love to you,
Julie

PS. I talked to Sean this morning to wish him happy birthday.