Audiostretto 59/4/24 English

Trees are fascinating parts of creation. On the one hand, they have a very practical use for us because they convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and therefore ensure that we can continue to breathe. On the other hand, they embody strength, stability, continuity and also serve human needs in a very practical way with their wood - and, depending on the type of tree, with their fruit. What is also imp...

There is usually a salt and pepper shaker on each table in a catering establishment. What they have in common is that the size of the shakers is easy to hold with one hand, they are easy to sprinkle and they can be refilled. They are therefore nothing more than containers that provide the actual contents in portions. In fact, the company could simply place a kilo pack of salt and a jar of pepperco...

At school, chemistry was a closed book for me. I simply didn't understand a lot of things, the theory was incomprehensible to me. But I found the work in the lab fascinating, the special equipment, trying things out and testing and experimenting. I still particularly like the meaning of experimenting today: finding out. In other words, you do something in order to gain a new or perhaps previou...

Societies need values to guide them, which are universally valid and respected. We live in a world of declining values, we hear here and there. If we no longer have values that are universally valid and respected by everyone, cornerstones such as truth, freedom, justice etc. become individually interpreted axioms and sooner or later the consequences are conflicts, an increased willingness to use v...

Just recently there was a neighbourhood flea market Sunday in our neighbourhood. This meant that anyone who wanted to could offer things they no longer wanted in the public space in front of their house. In the evening of the same day, there was as much furniture in our street on the pavement opposite as there would be during a moving house. The next day, the rubbish collectors came and took it al...

Every table usually has a table edge. This is the place where the table ends. Interesting that this area has its own name. It doesn't have to be. It could simply be called the end of the table top, but this part has its own name. Many of us have had unpleasant encounters with this part of the furniture - namely because we bumped into it and it was a painful experience. It's not the table e...

It's summertime and many of us are enjoying the long days. Some of us certainly enjoy the many delicious fruits at this time of year and all the fresh produce that is not available in the winter months. If I were to ask in December whether anyone likes Christmas biscuits, there is a good chance that the answer would be yes. These many different biscuits are delicious and nutritious and delight...

If a knife or pair of scissors becomes blunt, you don't have to throw them away, you can have them sharpened and they will regain their sharpness for cutting. In the past, there were specially trained and equipped professionals who travelled from house to house offering this service. So how is this sharpening restored? By using the same or a similarly hardened object. In other words, the sciss...

In my childhood, it was common to see a ladder wagon here and there. These were wooden trolleys in which you could place materials and transport them by hand. Today you might still see them in folklore museums but not in everyday life. A pity really. They were not only practical for goods, but as children we also enjoyed sitting in them and being pulled by an adult. Today, alternatives are used, o...

Strawberries are now on sale again these days and weeks and many have been waiting a long time for this time. When ripe, strawberries can be enormously refreshing, aromatic, fruity and delicious. You can enjoy them as berries or on a cake, with muesli, as jam, in combination with rhubarb and some even like them with pepper. For me, the strawberry also has many parallels with us humans: it grows ve...

Have you ever come across the term calligraphy? It is a compound term and literally means: beautiful writing. So it's about the art of beautiful writing. I like such calligraphic works because they have something artistic and noble about them. In surveying, until a few decades ago, the land register sheets, which were maintained on aluminium boards in the offices, were also provided with calli...

If you are travelling by train, you can only get to where the tracks have been laid. It is predetermined which areas are developed and it is generally not possible to take any route to your destination. This sometimes leads to detours. It is therefore a good idea to use switches to change from one connection to another so that the route can be found more easily. A switch is therefore a decisive po...

Have you ever been to a party where napkins were artistically folded on the tables for the upcoming meal? I can only marvel at such creativity and I always found it difficult to unfold the napkin to use it. I felt as if I was really destroying a work of art or even a small creature. When I see something like this, I ask myself: how did it come about, how was it created? Did the artist already know...

Recently, a colleague told me the following story: he was in Florida and ate a special cake there that he really enjoyed. As he had discovered it before during a previous trip to Florida, he enjoyed it even more. Back home, he had the idea of trying to make this cake himself. To his great surprise, it was relatively easy to make and tasted just as good as it did in the United States. It is an exam...

The expression 'there's a worm in it' means that something is not really going well, that something is stuck somewhere, is not as it should or could be - a muddled situation. With hazelnuts, you may have noticed that there are sometimes very small holes in the hard shell and that the nut kernel is infested with a worm. This is the hazelnut borer. It is a small weevil that lays its eggs...

We tend to rate the complex as more impressive and the simple as more banal. For example, we may have more respect for a trained physicist than for a cleaner - because the tasks appear to be of different levels of difficulty. Yet the physicist cannot carry out his work in his laboratory if it is not clean and thoroughly cleaned - by the cleaner, for example. This could also be observed in music -...

An aircraft needs a propulsion system so that it can take off and fly. It must be powerful enough to make the entire weight of the aircraft, including the load, fly. Care is taken to make the aircraft as light as possible so that the propulsion system can be used efficiently. Nevertheless, in addition to the active part of the propulsion system, there are predominantly passive parts on the aircraf...

I was on the train the other day and was checked by a young man with a physical impairment to his arm. He did his job very professionally and seemed competent and confident - you didn't notice his disability at all. Only when he had to operate the device was he unable to use both hands and then his disability was noticeable. I thought about the fact that he seemed very content and balanced to...

There is a famous and magnificent water fountain in the lake in Geneva. I've only seen it myself in pictures and unfortunately never in person. But what certainly makes such a water feature so fascinating is the fact that it is not natural. Normally the water flows downwards and does not jump upwards into the air. Things that don't conform to the norm fascinate us. At least we think so. Bu...

We talked yesterday in the last episode of Audiostretto about simplicity and how this is sometimes more effective than a perfectly targeted solution that you won't achieve. I used the example of drawing a bird. But what if it's a completely different example, a completely different challenge? In such cases, I find it helpful to stick to the saying "How do I tell my child?" It&#39...

Suppose I gave you the task of drawing a bird - what would you do? Well, perhaps you are talented at drawing and then this task would not present you with any difficulties. But suppose you are not. Such a task could be stressful and in the end you might be dissatisfied and frustrated with the result because you couldn't put on paper what you had in your mind's eye. You may have tried to pa...

When you make coffee with a portafilter, you fill it with ground coffee powder. However, before you insert the portafilter into the machine and brew the coffee, you tap the portafilter a few times on a hard surface so that the powder you have just filled in collapses and then you press it flat with a tamper. Only then is the coffee brewed. This means that nothing remains of the original height of...

Determination How easy is it for you to make decisions? Some people find it very easy to make decisions - whether they are very small ones like choosing what to wear or very big ones like deciding on a major purchase. For others it's the other way round: even choosing clothes in the morning takes an enormous amount of time and in the end a decision is made under time pressure but perhaps only...

From a pragmatic point of view, a door usually belongs to at least one room and provides access or exit to this room or the transition from one room to another. They can be closed or open and some can be closed with a locking mechanism so that they can only be opened if the right key is available. However, a door also has a deeper figurative meaning. In life, doors can be open or closed for decisi...

After the cold, dark and barren winter season, nature awakens and brings with it not only wonderful growth on the various plants, but also magnificent colours and, what's more, wonderful fruits in their own season. However, it is important to note that berries and stone fruit in particular are sometimes very sensitive to pressure. This means that you have to be very careful when picking them i...