Recent Content
Discworld MUD
posted on 2019-02-05
Imagine a game that lets you earn your way by writing poetry. A game in which you can go on hunting expeditions against fearsome monsters or campaign to be elected magistrate. A game where players run shops and newspapers, and organise tea parties and capture-the-flag tournaments. A game that has been online and in continuous development for almost three decades. Welcome to Discworld MUD.
more...Review: God's Philosophers
posted on 2019-01-28
For the past two years, I've been on the lookout for a good book on medieval scholarship. For one, I find the Middle Ages a strange and intriguing period; for another, I always enjoy reading about the history of science. “Standing on the shoulders of giants” is what we do as scientists – but who were these giants? And who were their giants? How did they think, argue, communicate? Well, I finally found what I was looking for. The book in question is James Hannam's “God's Philosophers – How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science”. Here is a summary of the volume, with a few of my own thoughts attached.
more...Silicon Valley Syndrome
posted on 2019-01-14
“Silicon Valley Syndrome” is the name I give to a wide-spread myth that is frequently found in affluent, tech-savvy circles. It is the belief that “Every social problem can be solved if you just throw enough technology at it”. This belief lies at the heart of many, many attempts to make the world a better place. Their proponents will say things like: “We can save democracy by combating fake news with algorithms”, or “We can solve Third World hunger using satellite imagery”, or “We can improve education in poor areas by giving every kid an iPad”. These are all laudable attempts, and yet their fundamental assumption is all too often sadly misguided. Why is that?
more...ASCII Art Animations in Lisp
posted on 2019-01-07
ASCII art may have fallen out of popular favour a couple of decades ago with the rise of “proper” computer graphics, but they are still fun to create. Having made a few myself, I always had the itch to not just create a static ASCII image, but to try my hand at an ASCII animation. Well, I finally did it. In this post I will show you how to create a very simple animation using Common Lisp and the classic Unix text-user-interface library, ncurses.
more..."Die einzig wahre Religion?!"
posted on 2018-12-24
Ist es vermessen, zu meinen, man habe den “einzig wahren Glauben”? Diesem Vorwurf sehen sich Christen oft ausgesetzt. Jüngst wieder in einem Streitgespräch über Glaube und Vernunft, das Spektrum der Wissenschaft im Oktober veröffentlichte: Gleich zweimal brachte ihn Volker Sommer, ein agnostischer Primatologe, gegen die gläubige Physikerin Barbara Drossel vor. Dabei ist es eine Anklage, die auf logisch sehr wackligen Beinen steht.
more...Mapping with QGIS
posted on 2018-12-19
In our modern lives, we take readily available maps for granted. The likes of Google Earth, Apple Maps or Open Street Map mean that high quality, high resolution maps are usually just a mouse click or finger swipe away. But sometimes you may find yourself in a place where the existing maps are just not good enough. Or you require a specialised map for a specific purpose. In such cases, you might end up having to create your own. This post shows you how to do that, using the open source software QGIS.
more...An Impression of Common Lisp
posted on 2018-12-04
Common Lisp is a lovely language to work with. Although it has faded into an unfortunate semi-obscurity on the modern computing landscape, it is still a powerful and elegant language that is a joy to use. I've had a lot of fun playing around with it and discovering more about it in the past two months, and wanted to record and share some of that in this post.
more...My Journey to the Ants
posted on 2018-11-26
Ants have always been some of my favourite animals. As a child, I spent hours watching their work and their wars - watching and wondering. In fact, I know few biologists who are not fascinated by ants. I simply had the good fortune of growing up in a place where I had plenty of ant life to see. Having been back in Zambia for a few months, I was able to continue my observations. Here is a “best-of” reel: a small glimpse into the world of African ants.
more...Rezension: Mein Leben für die Natur
posted on 2018-11-23
Josef H. Reichholfs “Mein Leben für die Natur - auf den Spuren von Ökologie und Evolution” ist eine genauso faszinierende wie anregende und streitbare Lektüre. Das 2015 erschienene Buch bietet Auszüge aus einem halben Jahrhundert Naturbeobachtungen, aufbereitet wie eine Doku und gekonnt verwoben mit ökologischen Überlegungen und gesellschaftlichen Kommentaren.
more...MooBreeder - a simple breeding game
posted on 2018-11-22
Recently I have been doing some teaching at a secondary school. Accordingly, I have been on a constant look-out for ways to make my lessons more engaging. So when the topic of selective breeding came up in one of my Key Stage 3 biology classes, I thought I might be able to turn the whole thing into a game.
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