Monthly Archive for July, 2010

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Real fire

Some of you might have noticed, while we were in Schönbrunn gardens, a fire broke out in a building nearby. So after two “false” alarms at our hotel, finally some real work for the fire brigade…

Why do we meet?

Visitor from Iran: “Can you say some words, why do we all meet here?”
IYPT President: “For coffee.”
Visitor from Iran: “No, here in Vienna, why do we meet?”
IYPT President: “Because they have very good coffee in Vienna!”

Blackboard erased

It took us several hours yesterday evening to compile the jury for the fifth Selective PF. After we were finished, we were exhausted and decided to go to sleep, and type it into the computer on the next day.

When we came to the office this morning, somebody had erased the blackboard!

After a moment of shock that several hours of work might have been lost, we realized that fortunately we were smart enough to take a photo of the blackboard before leaving last night. So, no harm done!

Still, I wonder what the one who erased the blackboard was thinking. In my opinion it was quite obvious that the information on it was very important.

Results, alarm


Ok, so the results for round 3 and the previews for round 4 are available now. And I heard something about another fire alarm at our hotel. Someone’s towel wet again? I mean, come on, are you still doing experiments on problem 12 or what?
Well, I’m glad that I still have to work at our office and my ears didn’t get hurt again.
update: I added Florian’s picture.

About the results & new photos

The good news: I’m awake again and I received new pictures and I’m adding them to day 1 & 2 right now.
The bad: Compiling and publishing the results didn’t work as smoothly as I had in mind. Groups with 4 teams naturally take much longer, so we worked until 2:30 pm on the results and previews. And having 300 people waiting makes you want to do this fast. Doing complicated tasks fast after a night without much sleep (thanks again to whoever triggered the fire alarm last night!) leads to errors. I’m sorry…
Well, now everything seams to be ok, at least no one’s complaining any more.
Oh, and constantly changing the juror’s schedule doesn’t help much either by the way… Now that PF3 is almost over, we finally have the schedule for PF3 online.
So I decided that for this PF I’ll take my time, double check everything and try not to make any errors. So it’ll take longer this time. Sorry. Please don’t drive anyone crazy. You’ll be much happier with correct results and previews half an hour later if they’re correct…
So just watch the football finals while waiting…

Two hours’ holiday with Mr Schreck

In the break between the Opening Ceremony and the first fight, I was asked to accompamy Mr Schreck on a tour to the ferris wheel. I was very pleased to do so and together with Wolfgang Resch, we spent a nice “2 hours’ holiday”, as Mr Schreck called it, in the Prater. After the ride, we had some ice cream while walking through the Prater.
When the first fight started, it was almost time for Mr Schreck to leave, but at least he was able to watch Austria’s first report before we rushed to the airport.

update by tim: I’ve just uploaded some more pictures of this tour to the ferris wheel to our gallery.

Exhaustion is kicking in

Several technical problems, the general stress at IYPT, the fire alarm in the middle of the night, etc., are taking effect…

A pic says more than a thousand words…

Tim is exhausted

Tim is exhausted

Media echo

http://wien.orf.at/stories/454999/ -> 300 students, 24 teams and 30 nations, write theoretical essays
http://tvthek.orf.at/programs/70018-Wien-heute/episodes/1497263-Wien-heute/1498267-Physik-Weltmeisterschaft-in-Wien -> China won last year, Angel is world champion
http://tvthek.orf.at/programs/70018-Wien-heute/episodes/1497263-Wien-heute/1498267-Physik-Weltmeisterschaft-in-Wien -> 300 students, 24 teams and 30 nations
http://www.salzburg.com/online/nachrichten/newsletter/Oesterreich-als-Geheimtipp-fuer-die-WM.html?article=eGMmOI8VfZWlQdE0jtObR57PZWhKIEbVyGlpV9s&img=&text=&mode=

I noted some of the mistakes. Funny how the media never gets it right. But still, we’re thankfull for every report.

Photos! Lots of photos!

I just uploaded more than 250 photos. They were collected from Wolfgang, Maximilian, Harald and Saskia – Thank you!
I removed all blurry pictures and all that showed any information about a report.

Fire Alarm at 1:30 am

A huge “thank you” to whoever set off the fire alarm at 1:30 am. The fact that I took my laptop with me just in case that this is not a false alarm somewhat worries me.

update 8:50 am: Someone tried to dry a towel with a lightbulb. I have feelings towards this person similar as expressed in this song.