Thursday, December 27, 2007

More pictures from the end of 2007


My courtyard in the snow


Alvarina freezing



View over the valley from my window


Mom and I



Anto and Dott. Cara, the surgeon that saved my hand




Anto the day after the operation




eating pizza with my hand-injured fellows at the hospital

view from the hospital



my roommates eating the gourmet hospital food


After the operation...


Antonietta, one of my roomates


My roomates (Alessia and Simona) at the hospital

With Paolo and Giulio in Venezia



























Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Ciao ragazzi,

I hope you are all fine and enjoying Christmas holidays withyour beloved. Here in Sardinia it has been a 24-hours non-stop eating with family and friends, just like at Kioloa last year with some of you (still remember that with joy). I wanted to congratulate with Kia and Raul for getting the jobs and with Kiri for having her first paper published. Well done, Canberra survivors! All the ANU will be proud of you!
Life in Italy has been fine, apart that I have been hospitalized tohave surgery to my left hand a few weeks ago. Luckily all is fine now, the hand will be functioning well soon, according to the doctors (but when I see that idiot that broke my finger in Canberra I am going to chop his head off!!).
A trip to Venice before the operation and snow in my village after helped to cheer me up. And the great news is that I got a very good consultancy job in Laos for twoi months. So, in January and February I will be useful for society again, after 3 months of easy-cozy life in the Sardinian countryside. Just what I needed before heading back to exciting Canberra to finish my PhD. Paula and Marteen, please hang on there, do not leave!
Enjoy some pictures I took over the last few months.

I send you a big hug and wish you a fantastic 2008. May the New Year bring you all you wish.

Anto

Venezi: Biennale of Art. by Cheri Samba (Congo)





Venezia: Biennale of Art. Spanish pavillion


Venezia: unexpected visitor at the Biennale


Venezia: Biennale of Art: with my sister and brother-in-law


Venezi: Biennale of Art: diving into the lagoon




Venezia: Anto with Giulio (right) and Paolo (left) at an opening of an architect studio on the Canal Grande



Venezia: gondolino on the Canal Grande

Thursday, December 20, 2007

It's alive!!! It's Alive!!!!

Heyyy!!!

Today has been a good week! We managed to resurect the two furnaces we have here in the lab from the dead! When I got here, they had 2 hight temperature furnaces sitting there which did not work. Not so anymore! Thanks to the skills of doctor Frankenstein here, and his lovely assistants (actually they did mot of the work) managed to bring them back to life after a year or so of them gathering dust! This means I might be able to start running experiments after the new years!! Yay!!! And the cool thing is that in here you can get diploma students to run the experiments for you! Double yay!!!

Hugs and merry Christmas to everybody!

Raúl

Myself, Vera (left - PhD student) and Julia (right - Diploma student) pretending to be operating the furnace.

After a long while (e.g. a year), the furnace finally fires up to 1300ºC!!!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Green car!

Hey!!!!!

I know this is not exactly about my life in Bonn, but I thought I could share this with you guys. Check this Austrian blog out, which shows different models of green, emission-free electric cars, hybrids, solar cells, and highly efficient batteries. It is important that people are made aware that there actually exists technology in the world that can run without the use of fossil fuels. I also recomend viewing of "Who Killed the electric car" to further understand why it is important to know that these breakthroughs exist. The website is called Green Car and you can access it by clicking its name.



The very Swedish Volvo ReCharge, a plug-in hybrid. Richardson and Kia should think of this one :P

Monday, December 10, 2007

Ave Johannes!

To Caesar what is from Caeser, to Johannes what is from Johannes...

When I was writing my Marie Curie Application I had no idea in how to write or where to start... That was when Jo-highness came to help... Danke Dude!!! You're the MC king!

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Radiaction

Survivor Canberra is also culture!

Today we will start the Survivor Canberra-pedia... And Today's topic:

Marie Curie: Born in France in 1885, she was a daughter of a prostitute and a soldier. The harsh life of suburban Marseilles made her tough. In the streets, she made her living singing in the streets together to Edith Piaf. With the advent of radio, Marie was hired as a sound effect technician. Knowing almost how every sounds on the street (as the street was her home for many years), Marie Curie was a great asset to the Radio Nacionele de France. Her daily show 'The paw of the Dragon' was a great success in the 1930's. It featured the story of an american ninja that go to Japan to fight a Karate competition, but he get in trouble with the Yakuza for not allowing one of their pupils to win the championship. Until today, the same techniques she used for producing the sounds of a ninja fight in the radio are used in Bruce Lee and Charlie Chan and Charlie Chaplin. She invented the genre 'Radio-action' and patented it. That was the moment her life turns. She sued the American military to use her term (radioaction), that was only created for fictional and peaceful proportion when they (the military) justified the genocide they commit in Japan. She won the case and dedicated most of her fortune to Libertarian causes.

One of the recipients of the Marie Curie money was the Founder of the MLS (Movement for the
Liberation of Sweden from the monarchy and system bolaget), Omar Al Naves (pictured). However, the later ran away with the money and there are anecdotal evidences that he has used the funds in Alzheimer's disease Research.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

It's Official!!!!!!!

Hey guys!
It's now super-official, my first paper is in PubMed, in ePub! (PMID: 18041784). Thanks to my (old) lab! Richardson and Kia, Monique and Bruce. I'll have a mug of Glühwein for you all to celebrate tonight ;) Miss you all stacks! I am now officially a real scientist!!!

Well, that turned out crap. You can find it on PubMed for real in any case!
Best!
Kiri

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Nach Freiburg

As promised here are some pics from Freiburg! Expect further contributions from P&J and Kiri as well.
It was really nice to see them, and Freiburg is a very picturesque medieval city next to the Black Forest. Laila for a change didn't cry at the sight of me and we actually got along pretty well. ;-)


Little Laila contemplating a styrofoam ball

Pinar, Johannes and Laila, our gracious hosts in downtown Freiburg.

The Christmans Markt near the City Council (Rathaus). It was completely packed full of people to the point we could barely walk. Yet we had plenty of yummy food (wurst anyone?) and gluwein.


Laila and J.J. Letzkus in action through the throng of people in the markt.

Germans like their Münsters big and very high! Hmmmmm...

The Black Forest!!
P&J's street. Really cool with enormous 19th Century houses on the hillside.
Another markt, this time next to the Münster



The ICE high speed trains that I have spent 15 hours in over the last few days. they are really the best way to travel through Germany, especially if you are lucky enough to go 1st class because it was cheaper that weekend! :P
JJ Letzkus and Laila posing for the photo.
Some nice houses in pastel tones in a small town next to Freiburg
View to Downtown Freiburg from the black forest. You can see the Münster from there... well it said so in the sign there, because apparently it wasn't obvious enough just from the view.
Kiri the Green papparazi! She likes trees, especially if they are green. The advantage of being a green papparazzi I am told, is that your famous tree doesn't move all that much :P



Sunday, December 2, 2007

Mi casa es su casa!

Hey!!!!

Just some quick pics of my new flat here in Bonn. No furniture yet, so it is quite empty at the moment. I have just arrived here to start working, and good thing too because I am poor enough that I would have to consider prostituting myself to the highest bidder (which wouldn't be much). Hope everything is good with you guys and I hope to have to house ready for visitors sometime in late January to early February. Visitors hey! It means I need someone to visit. ;) Kiri is coming to give the flat "a woman's touch" in a couple of weeks so she will be the first visitor.

Hugs,

Raúl

The bedroom. With my improvised single bed in the floor.

The kitchen which is quite cool and open to the....
Living room! It's quite spacious and I am getting a futon sofa/bed for visitors to enjoy.