Geek, Nerd, etc.

Since it popped up in a discussion recently, I'd like to point out my personal view on the Geek vs. Nerd topic:

A Geek is a person who is fascinated by technical stuff - computers, mathematics, physics, chemistry, electronics, you-name-it. Still, a Geek is able to participate in hour-long conversations (even with the other sex) without including any of these favourite topics. You may want to see thinkgeek.com to get an impression.

A Nerd on the other hand is inept of any kind of social life, conversation, or contact with members of the other sex. While still maintaining the interest in above-mentioned topics, s/he often does not excel at them either. A collection of Nerd thoughts can be found at bash.org - you have been warned.

Wahlbefehl / Call to Vote

Wer nicht zur EU-Wahl geht, hat für 5 Jahre das Recht verspielt, sich über die "undemokratische" EU und die "mangelnde Mitbestimmung" und sonstige populistischen Unterstellungen aufzuregen.

Whoever doesn't vote in the upcoming elections for the European Parliament has lost the right to complain about a "lack of democracy" or "lack of co-determination" and similar populistic resentments for the next 5 years.

Computational Knowledge

Wolfram Alpha is online. I put it to a test:

It is still calculating...

Planck & Herschel

This is so smart: Planck and Herschel are orbiting L2, one of the two Lagrangian points really "close" to earth (just 5 lightseconds or 48.6 nanoparsecs away). I remember dimly that we should build space cities at the L-Points (there are 5 of them, I'd personally like to live on L4 or L5 - they seem to be really cool places!), since it's easy to stay in a stable orbit there. The physics behind L-Points is really simple, and very fascinating!
derStandard.at forum members have been questioning the meaning of Planck & Herschel missions. Let me answer them with a thought from Babylon 5: one thing is certain - at one point, our sun will go supernova, destroying Earth. If mankind wants to survive beyond that point (hehehe, if we even make it that far!), there is only one direction to go: space.

Wahlkabine.at

Die netten Leute von wahlkabine.at bescheinigen mir 236 Übereinstimmungspunkte mit den Grünen, 195 mit den mir bis dato unbekannten JuLis, 145 mit der KPÖ, 36 mit der SPÖ und 7 mit der ÖVP. Danach wird es düster - HPM kommt auf -23, die FPÖ auf -90 und die Bienenzüchter gar auf -136. Hach, was soll ich nur wählen....