Audiostretto 59/4/24 English

Do you know your joy triggers? They can be very different. Often - and thank goodness for that - it's people and encounters with them. But not only. I recently came across a statement that spontaneously appealed to me and triggered precisely this effect: Happiness and joy and, interestingly, that's what this statement is all about. I read: "Being able to see the light of the sun means...

If you work with a computer at work today, it is common to work from home or while travelling. The employee has access to the company data shared with him via his computer over the Internet. This is as if they were physically in the office, as if they were on the local network. This is made possible by what is known as a virtual private network, or VPN for short. It refers to a network connection...

Do you recognise the following situation? You live in a neighbourhood and there is a neighbour. You meet him for the first time, then for the second time. You soon get the impression that this person is a bit special or strange. Perhaps he doesn't greet you and when he does, he does so very strangely or doesn't hold the door open for you, even though you are about to come to the door, etc....

Nowadays, if you don't know something, you ask Google. Google knows everything. Very practical - well, as long as you have internet access, otherwise it gets difficult. But this direct access to knowledge also has its downsides. On the one hand, we don't become smarter, although we perhaps look up and read a lot more than we used to, but rather dumber, because we don't have to memorise...

Did you hate the climbing pole when you were a child? I remember how we tried to climb up this pole with enormous effort, especially as young schoolchildren, but failed after just a few moves. Later, it was much easier for me and I was able to apply techniques so that I could get up the pole more easily and it was only a matter of time before I was at the top. Looking back, it's clear to me th...

It is not uncommon for people who are prominent or in the public eye to talk about their vocation and to debate whether or not the task or lifestyle they have chosen actually corresponds to their vocation, or to mention personalities who live or have lived their vocation in a very special way. The term is of biblical origin. A calling is symbolised by a cloak, especially in the case of prophets. T...

Have you ever seen a pan with a scratched base? This means that the surface has been damaged either when cleaning or emptying the pan with objects that are too hard or improperly. The pan is therefore permanently damaged. If you go ice skating, you will also leave scratches or scuff marks on the ice from the sharp blades of your skates. The two objects can therefore be compared: The scratched pan...

You have probably seen geometric figures that give you a three-dimensional impression. For example: a square is two-dimensional, flat or even. A cube, on the other hand, has three dimensions. You can also draw it in such a way that you get the impression of a solid and not just a surface. So far nothing special. But remember: on a plane, a sheet of paper, i.e. in two dimensions, I can depict a rea...

As a child, you probably also used the seesaw in the playground, where one or more people of roughly the same weight sit at one end and then take turns lifting each other up and then back down again. However, the whole thing only works really well if the weight at both ends is more or less the same. I think it's a nice image of how we can elevate each other in our dealings with each other, for...

In life, it happens all the time that not everything runs smoothly or the way you would like it to. You make plans for the day and are well on your way - and then suddenly something unexpected happens that throws your entire schedule into disarray and perhaps also causes great concern or stress and overwhelm. How do you react then? And what helps you then? I find it interesting that in the prayer...

In the past, in ornate written documents or books, the first letters of a section were often specially emphasised. These emphasised letters are called capitals. The opposite is the common, i.e. the rest of the text. Versal comes from the Latin versus, which means the turning of the plough, the furrow, the line. That makes sense. When reading, however, I often felt that this emphasis was so strong...

We humans are sometimes strange creatures. On the one hand, we want a lot of security, predictability, clarity, etc. We appreciate clear rules, depending on the type of person we are, we are keen to ensure that agreements are adhered to very precisely and, especially in the West, we are very influenced by state laws, regulations etc. and rely on the punctuality of public transport. Woe betide us.....

Anyone who unexpectedly breaks a shoelace knows how annoying it can be. The remaining piece is often too short to tie the shoe properly and tightly. However, you can't just use any string or something similar as a replacement. The length must be correct so that there is not too much shoelace or too little to tie. The thickness must be right so that you can get the bendel through the shoe eyele...

Did you know that bees don't build hexagons for honeycombs, but round cylinders? As they work on these cylinders, they heat the wax. This makes it soft and mouldable. In this process, it takes on the most energy-efficient shape - that of a hexagon. The heat and the external pressure thus lead to the most optimal shape via the melting process. You could also say that in this case, creation prod...

A coffee machine has a container into which the water is poured to prepare the coffee. The water tank is prepared before preparation so that the subsequent preparation process can be completed successfully. The good thing about the water tank is that, depending on its size, it can be filled with a lot of water and can therefore prepare not just a few coffees, but a large number. However, this also...

There are people who like to take responsibility - and therefore also those who do not. In my opinion, taking responsibility has to do with identifying with something or someone, taking an interest and investing your heart. That you are not indifferent to what happens to the thing or the person and that you are prepared to invest yourself where necessary. The word itself contains the term "re...

The desert is a place where water is in short supply. It is therefore a place where life is in great danger. I myself only have ideas about such areas based on reports. I have heard that the desert is a special place and not just a place to be avoided at all costs. Especially in spiritual matters, the desert is a very crucial place - we read in the Bible that the people of Israel received commandm...

Honey is a delicious natural product that the industrious bees provide us with - or perhaps more correctly: that we steal from the bees. If we weren't such food thieves, the bees would have more. But would there then be more bees? The fact is that although we harvest the honey and actually take it away from the bees, there is enough. You can interpret that however you like. In any case, I thin...

Ski poles, whether alpine ski poles or cross-country ski poles, have small discs at the lower end. These are sometimes a little bulky to transport, but are helpful when in use. That's why you have them. If I want to push off in the snow, the pole doesn't help me that much without these plates because it simply sinks into the soft snow and pulls me back instead of helping me to push off. Or...

If you throw a stone into a calm, still body of water, waves are created that spread out fairly evenly in all directions - in other words, circular waves are created. This is not only beautiful to look at, but I also find it fascinating. From the entry point of the stone, something goes further. So the stone doesn't just sink, but triggers something else. An action causes a reaction. A basic l...

Eating is a serious matter. At least that's what I was taught as a child. I was always told "You don't play with your food!" Without questioning this, I obeyed - and stopped playing with food. Too bad. I found it strange why you are allowed to design cakes or other desserts so lovingly and decorate them with smileys etc. My conclusion: you can't play with food, but you can wi...

There are numerous situations in life in which we are dependent on situational resources. For example, when I operate the windscreen wipers in my car, they may work perfectly in the rain - but if I want to clean the windscreen and there is no cleaning fluid, the wipers work in vain. Or I want to read a technical article, understand its content and put it into practice - but I'm too unfocussed...

For me as a child, an effervescent tablet was like a table bomb on New Year's Eve: full of surprises, mysterious, astonishing, endlessly watchable and simply wonderful. With its bubbling in the water, it really caught my attention and I always wondered how it works, where in the tablet these thousands of bubbles are hidden. As an adult, you hardly ever ask yourself these questions any more. Yo...

At the Venice Carnival, special masks are used to cover the eyes. In addition to covering the entire body with these masks, the eyes are also made unrecognizable so that the person cannot be recognized directly. Nevertheless, the mask allows you to look at others with your own eyes. This is contradictory: on the one hand, I don't want to be recognized, yet I want to recognize others and use th...

In crime thrillers, it often happens that if the perpetrator is not caught at the scene of the crime, a search for clues is carried out. The forensics team arrives in special clothing so as not to contaminate the crime scene and to find even the smallest trace of the perpetrator. If they finally find something and the traces found allow the identity of the perpetrator to be determined, they can tr...