Christmas time, peaceful time

For Christmas Eve a poem ... As I could not find any nice English Christmas poems I chose a German one. And when it comes to (Christmas) romanticism and dreaming who else could be the author than Joseph von Eichendorff ...?

Weihnachten

Markt und Straßen steh'n verlassen,
still erleuchtet jedes Haus.

Sinnend geh' ich durch die Gassen,
alles sieht so festlich aus.

 An den Fenstern haben Frauen
buntes Spielzeug fromm geschmückt.

Tausend Kindlein stehn und schauen,
sind so wunderstill beglückt.

Und ich wand're aus den Mauern
bis hinaus ins freie Feld.

Hehres Glänzen, heil'ges Schauern!
Wie so weit und still die Welt!

Sterne hoch die Kreise schlingen.

Aus des Schnees Einsamkeit
steigt's wie wunderbares Singen -
O du gnadenreiche Zeit!

Aaand, of course for everything: A music recommendation! ;)

Left: For those with time and muse: Bach - Christmas Oratorium (with English subtitles). Right: For those with less time and muse (or those who - like me - like calssical music more than baroque music): Beethoven - Symphony No. 1

Christmas bakery in the house of Hell

No news for a long time ... Exams, lab reports and the like. But now it is Christmas time and Christmas time is always family time so today I wrote a little report about baking in the house of Hell - which is where I live of course. ;) 

Baking with love!

So starting off we (mother + grandmother + sibblings) threw all the ingredients in the appropriate bowls, mixed everything together and started rolling out the dough. That was the time of the first incident when our oldest family member entered the kitchen. After he examined the scenery carefully he explained that we should use a hammer. To get the dough in cookie shape. Without looking the highest kitchen-commander told him he was a blatherskite. After considering this for a while he disappeared. But only to return with a hammer a few minutes later still insisting that we needed it. Despite powerfully eloquent declaiming his cause and with rich gestures showing us how to use his favourite device the highest kitchen-commander still attested him that he was a blatherskite. So after a while he left again. This time only to make room for middle-son who stormed into the kitchen with a cardboard box over his head and making hellish noises which even drowned the ghettoblaster orchestra that old-son was conducting standing in the middle of the room unavailingly gesturing to clarify that the contrabasses should play louder. After this it was lunch time ...

The baking hammer -
a device irreplaceable in every kitchen!
(Thor would be proud.)

This went quite relaxed until everybody (almost) finished lunch. After he finished first the fadder ("father" as pronounced in the house of Hell) of the house stole some food from middle-sons plate and confidentially explained to him that this is something you should not do ... Afterwards - everybody was done now - everybody started - as usual - talking, cheering and mumbling at the same time and - as usual as well - you could only understand middle-son telling how a few years earlier he always burned plastic bottles with a friend and explained his smelly clothes with the neighbours smoking all the time. Then he cheerfully slapped fadder on the shoulder and ended his story with "That's how it was, right? - Why aren't you Sean Connery by the way?". The fadder only slightly nodded and got up to set up coffee. A few minutes later he returned and casually mentioned that he ate all the Christmas cookies we baked earlier (~ 3 kg so far) to make room for the coffee machine.

First cookies ready for the oven.
2731 more to follow!

All in all this was a very normal day in the house of Hell so far. I am looking forward to three more weeks that will go on in approximately the same way - there is no better place than where your family is! :) For today there are still 27 different kinds of Christmas cookies to bake so that is what I will proceed with now.

Photoluminescence of immigrants

Breaking news! (Not to be taken too seriously though ...)

As at the moment most of the stuff that is going on at the university is writing lab reports I wanted to share some of the more important results with you! A few days ago (or is it already weeks?) we were sitting in k-space (probably only physicists come up with the idea to call a room k-space ...) and half-heartegly discussing our plots of the most recent data. Just before we ate lunch so slowly we were falling into "food hibernation". Shutting down all important physicist functions like brain, fine mechanics a.s.o we entered a state that many politicians must live in. Because suddenly it was obvious! The data we acquired one day before from photoluminscence excitation spectroscopy (PLE) showed the development of immigrant violence in Sweden! (The immigrants were we (or "was us"?) in this case ... but no, we did not fight each other over exercise tasks.) As you can see yourself from the figure below the violence rate increased dramatically with the start of the measurements (beginning of our studies), then dropped a little when the night clubs were discovered. The long term development for the next five days however shows an increase again as exams are coming up. Perfectly reasonable, is it not? We at least concluded that this analysis should be enough to campaign in the next election in whatever country might have the next elections ... Will you vote for us? ;)

Analysis of the immigrant violence in Sweden from PLE measurement.
Significant spots and developments are professionally highlighted.
(Figure reproduced from original considerations in k-space.)

Hallands 3/4

Half of the brunch - everything made on our
own. Especially the ham, of course!

Today it is exactly one week ago ... Like one of my former high-school teachers once said: "Sometimes you have to do something hard!" (I am amazed that I still remember this.^^) So one week ago I got up at 7:00 in the morning. On a Sunday! Voluntarily! Ok, maybe this was not "hard" but rather "crazy" ... But I was asked if I could work at Halland's brunch and since I did not do that so far I said yes. It paid off though!

Our (ver nice!) förman chose to make a christmas themed brunch since it was the first of Advent. This included self-made bread, cookies, "usual brunch stuff" ;) and grönkål which was what I was mostly responsible for. Rip three kilograms of grönkål apart, cook it, fry it. Standing in kale-vapour at eight in the morning mentally still half in bed felt a little like cooking meth without gas mask must feel ... But after the morning dizziness disappeared everything went alright and the brunch turned out really great!

As there were not so many people attending the brunch we had a lot of food left again ... Enough for the whole following week! So it was not only fun working there but it also paid off somehow. :) Only now I am torn between fun work and maybe more awesome food leftovers and getting up at a time that usually does not even exist on a physicist's clock ... "Det é kärlek!" ;)

A real vinking's adventure!

Amon Amarth - Death in Fire

Some of you might know that besides calssical music, jazz and rock I am also a big fan of metal music. Yesterday Amon Amarth played in Malmö. So right on my doorstep. I already knew this since one and a half month but was unsure if I should go or not. (By now I do not even know why I ever hseitated.) For those of you who do not know: Amon Amarth is a Swedish metal band and one of the most famous in the world. So the consideration was: Swedish metal band in Sweden 20 km from where I live ... Yesterday I finally came to reason and bought a ticket literally three minutes before the reservation time passed. (The counter was running in the top left corner of the screen.)

Some time afterwards I got a little concerned if I should have bought the ticket insurance as well because the storm outside was not decreasing - very much on the contrary. But "whatever" I thought and rode to the central station, the way to the concert place meticulously planned, with three different arrival routes, two alternative routes and an emergency extraction point, as is self-evident when you go to an unknown territory. ;) Arriving at the train station - surprise, surprise - all trains cancelled. ALL trains cancelled. Someone at the train station claimed to know that one of the contact lines was blown off. That made me wonder if an area where there are heavy winds from time time could maybe prepare for a case like this ... (Actually exactly the same happened last time when it was stormy.) Ok, but that is another story.

So how to get to Malmö now? Well, as there was heavy wind anyway I just decided to fly there. "Been there, done that" as someone already quoted today. ;) So then I made it to Malmö. There the storm was even funnier: It contained heavy snow and hail as well. :) The wind blew the snow-hail so strong that you could not see. And by that I do not mean "not see where you are going" but "not see". Parts of the time it was impossible to keep your eyes open because of the snow-hail. Well somehow the destination "concert" was reached through all inconvenience and I already felt like a real viking. ;)

Cheers to an incredible evennig!

Then the concert started. First "Hell" (funny enough to mention on this blog. ;) ) as support and "Carcass" as second act who both played good music. (Nevertheless, I do not like them for different reasons. But the music was cool. ;) ) Then the main act which justified everything: Amon Amarth!

You can read at many places that Johan Hegg (singer) is very charismatic front man but that does not quite describe it. Although it was only a small crowd of maybe 300(?) people everything fit yesterday and probably everything felt - again - like a real viking. ;) Really, really good sound (for all of the bands), everybody with a top performance and Johan Hegg as the thundergod in person. :D I saw some videos where his voice seemed a little stressed but yesterday - perfect! Even better than on the records! So you see I am still a little flashed. ;) Should you ever have the opportunity to see Amon Amarth live - use it! Should you ever have the opportunity to decide between Amon Amarth and another band - chose Amon Amarth. (Yeah I failed my own advice on the Grasspop Festival a few years ago but then I did not know ...) Great evening!

The super secret science base

Crazy whatever-setup for whatever. ;)
(Actually it is a vacuum chamber
where synchrotron photons can be
injected to examine samples.)

Yesterday we visited the MAX-lab here in Lund. It was called a "lab" which usually involves doing

something on your own. Measuring squares for example. Well, that was another lab I will tell about next time. ;)

First I was a little concerned that this lab in MAX-lab could be a little boring as there were no student lab setups but only "real" science setups. It was not boring. Nobody prepared us for what we should see in the big hall of MAX-lab.

But first: What is MaxLab? Short answer: It is a synchrotron. What is this? It is a big circle (circumference of 90 m for MAX-II) where electrons are driven around to emit bremsstrahlung. The bremsstrahlung are photons (light) which are then used for experiments. So this 90 m circle stood in a big hall, its most critical radiation areas secured by a super high-tech red and white barrier chain which the radiation cannot pass. (No image due to scientific concealment.) But it was not only the synchroton there. There was everything! A paradise for every do-it-yourselfer and experimental physicist! Just a lot of stuff, tools, screws, materials, vacuum chambers, improvised stands for photon pipelines with the pipelines itself, cables, ... everything! :D It felt like area 51, only cooler as we were really there.

Atomic submarine feeling ...

To give an impression of all the crazy stuff I put some pictures from the highly secret science base here. When we passed one of the corridors it looked just like in a nuclear submarine. Five minutes later a mechanical voice from some hidden speakers announced: "MAX-II injection in five minutes!" (not kidding :D) and againfive minutes later: "MAX-II injection now!" More science-fiction is almost not possible!

Control base for everything.
To the right there was a second
setup like this. :)

Actually, science-fiction is not even that far off as they are currently building MAX-lab IV in Lund. It shall be finished in 2016 and will be the most brilliant synchrotron wordlwide at the time! And in MAX-III they developed some modern magnets that all the fancy synchrotron institutions in the world want to use.^^ Just the right time to get here! ;)