On the photos you can see some shots of us developing our LEGO vehicles in the robotics lab at DMU. As usual we working till late, or better till early with our out of hours permit. We tested the robot in the lab and it worked very well, it’s too bad that it nevertheless had trouble in the real challenge. However, apart from the results the Vienna trip was a great experience.

On Friday we took the plane to Bratislava (that was cheaper), where our terrorist, Chaekith was almost sent back at the border. At the airport they picked us up with a bus so we didn’t have to walk to the border control for the impressive distance of about 80 metres. I hardly took a seat. Taxi’s brought us to our apartments in Vienna.

In the evening it was time to go out. Simon brought us to a nice pub with a dance floor in the basement (the brewery / der brennerei). The music was quite good there. We had some pizza and partied till around 4 AM when the pubs were closing. At 5 in the morning we usually slept. The next morning we had breakfast early and went to the Siemens buildings where the robotics challenge took place.

Several people from our course participated in different challenges. Ben won a prize in the freestyle challenge where he presented his flying miniature helicopter. He used this helicopter in his project where he had developed a control using an evolutionary computing methodology. Constans participated in more or less every other challenge. Jonathan participated in the Sumo challenge where robots had to pull each other out of the sumo area. Sometimes however it was better not to run out of the area accidentally than to really defeat your opponent. I was thinking of using a sticker for the purpose of a robot, which can never been pushed out of the area (unless someone has a build in grabber). Ian, Chaekith and I participated in the slalom challenges.

In the parallel slalom the aim was to follow a line as fast as possible. The line consisted of different tiles that were put together resulting in arcs and corners that were a difficulty to take. We had to deal with the lighting conditions in which Ians robot failed but our robot used auto-calibration and performed quite well in that sense. Since we used LEGO mindstorms we were somewhat limited by the processing speed, number of sensors and especially the low accuracy of the sensors. Our robots had difficulty at the 90 degree corner and lost the track just before the finish. What a shame. At least we know it can do it, since it performed rather well on our test track in UK even for the enhanced parallel slalom.

In the enhanced parallel slalom a tunnel a discontinuation of the track and a brick obstacle were added as extra difficulties. At our testing track our robot dealt well with these difficulties however in the real challenge it was detecting bricks everywhere for some reason and it therefore went into brick avoidance mode too often. This issue is still unresolved.

In the evening we went to a restaurant with our group from DMU. The restaurant was about five floors under the ground in a historical building. In the night it was of course time to go out and to see more of the city. With our unlimited underground pass we used this extensively and we have seen loads of the city. In the photographs you see many nice buildings. Not everyone went in the city however, some people went to the pub directly. We were lucky that our roommates opened the door in the mornings to let us in. The next morning we missed out our breakfast, that was just too early.

That they the finals were there. The dedicated robots (electronics) were performing the best since they were manufactured especially for the purpose of the challenge. We hadn’t got the money for that option however. In the afternoon we went to a small island in the city where we had dinner in a Greek restaurant with all of us. We ended that day with an after party for participants where we were for a short time. After which we travelled through the city till the U-bahn closed and we were frightened that we had to walk back al the way from the south of Vienna. But luckily there were night buses which were also free with our card. When the pub was closing that night we went on in another pub that was open until late (or early).

Last day we choose to join Jenny and her husband Wilson. Wilson had lived in Vienna for some time. We saw several places of which we had seen some already. Later that day we went to a more peaceful suburb where we had a large lunch and some nice wines. We finished the day with a walk in the hills, on the photo you see me pushing the pram with Rose inside up the hill. Although the pavement was horrible Rose seemed to be able to sleep all the way. On top of the hill we came to a place where we had a nice lookout over the city. Finally we took the bus in the wrong direction which made us return late at the hotel after which we returned home.

This was only a few days but an awesome experience. The photos can be seen individually or as a slideshow.

After reading Blindness (De stad der Blinden) of José Saramago I definitely wanted to read more from this Nobel Prize winning author. I started in his book Het Schijnbestaan (Eng: The Cave, Orig: A Caverna) but haven’t finished it yet. Blindness is one of my favourite books, however The Double seemed to be quite different.

Wondering about the name of the book ‘De man in duplo’ or ‘The Man duplicated’ instead of ‘De dubbelganger’ or ‘The double’. However the Dutch name is more near to the original name and the meaning is also slightly different. The story is about a history teacher that finds someone exactly identical to himself in a B movie that he was watching. Saramago describes the thoughts of the history teacher and chooses a worst case scenerio, which is usually of most interest. The book is interesting because of its perspective, the way of telling, the considerations of the main character. However after reading the book, with an original ending, I hadn’t got the impression that I read something really unique, something that leaves an impression. Also I thought the book hadn’t got much progression in it, especially in the first half of it. However it was an interesting read, but it won’t be one of my favourites. Those are still Blindness and "Nooit meer slapen" (Eng: Beyond Sleep) of W.F. Hermans. Also the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, that I am currently reading seems to be very good :-).

Some months ago we have been to Manchester. Visiting the stadium and the city centre. On the photo you see our guide in the stadium. Many Dutch players seem to play for the club (e.g. Van der Sar). The city centre was definitely not as good as Oxford or Stratford upon Avond. We met Chinsky there while visiting the museum for modern arts. Photos of the city centre and the stadium can be found on on facebook.

Two people actually put up this movie as one of their best movies, so I thought there was a need to wacht it. And, okay it was funny sometimes, it needed to be, there was a funny guy after all. Well, it ain’t bad. A lot of people say the acting is done so well, well not in my opinion though.  Maybe they believe so because the dialogues were thought through. However, what I like about the film is that a question is raised. Should we, the people on the street, judge about good and bad? (my rating: 6.6/10)

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… SD: wait…

Retired general Michael Dunlavey, who supervised Guantánamo for eight months in 2002, tried to locate records on Mohammed al-Qahtani, accused by the US of plotting the 9/11 attacks, but found they had disappeared.

The records on al-Qahtani, who was interrogated for 48 days - "were backed up … after I left, there was a snafu and all was lost", Dunlavey told Philippe Sands QC, who reports the conversation in his book Torture Team, previewed last week by the Guardian. Snafu stands for Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.

Saudi-born al-Qahtani was sexually taunted, forced to perform dog tricks and given enemas at Guantánamo.

More about Guantánamo Bay on the Amnesty International web site [dutch]

And as a present we all got a calendar, so the ISKCON calendar in my room for last year has been replaced for a mosque of the month calendar this year. With this month the mosque from Casablanca.

The photos of the visit to the mosque are publicly available and can be found on facebook.

A recent article from the Guardian concludes with the following user guide:

Vitamin A (retinol)
Helps keep skin healthy, enhances immunity and helps you see in dim light. But all you need is 0.7mg a day if you are a man and 0.6mg if you are a woman, according to the Food Standards Agency (FSA), which says you can get all you need from foods such as cheese, eggs, oily fish, milk and yoghurt. Liver, another source, is not recommended for pregnant women. More than 1.5mg of per day may make your bones more brittle and prone to fracture as you age.

Vitamin C
We need around 40mg a day and it is not stored in the body because it is water soluble - but we should get enough from a normal diet. It is in a wide variety of fruit and vegetables and protects cells and helps the body absorb iron. Taking less than 1000mg in supplements is unlikely to do harm, says the FSA, but large amounts can cause diarrhoea and flatulence.

Beta-carotene
Turns into vitamin A in the body. You should get all you need from a varied diet, in particular from yellow and green leafy vegetables such as spinach, carrots and red peppers; and yellow fruit such as mangos, melons and apricots. Too much beta-carotene can increase the chances of smokers developing lung cancer. The FSA recommends taking no more than 7mg a day in supplements.

Vitamin E
Protects cell membranes. It is fat soluble, so the body will store it and you do not need a dose every day. It is found in plant oils, nuts and seeds and wheatgerm in cereals. The FSA advises that taking too much supplementary vitamin E is not a good idea, but less than 540mg a day is "unlikely to cause any harm".

Selenium
The tiny amounts we need should be easily obtained from meat, nuts, bread, fish or eggs. It has an important role in the immune system, in thyroid hormone metabolism, reproduction and prevention of damage to cells and tissues. Too much can lead to loss of skin, hair and nails, but ingesting less than 0.35mg a day will do no harm.