Audiostretto 59/4/24 English

For the electricity supply, we have power stations that distribute the electricity to the regions via appropriate lines. High-voltage lines are used for this purpose. Thanks to the masts, the cables with the high voltage are far away from the ground and without danger for us when we walk by. We take the supply of electricity in everyday life for granted - it is actually a very dangerous thing in i...

In our language we use the subjunctive tense, which expresses a possibility but not the reality. When we are convinced of something and plan to implement it concretely, we use the future tense. But when there is uncertainty or doubt, we use the subjunctive. This includes verbs like 'would' or 'could'. The subjunctive thus speaks of possibilities, chances, opportunities, risks and d...

There are drawings or pictures that are very concrete and detailed at one end or edge - for example on the left - and then become increasingly blurred and unrecognisable towards the opp!osite edge, for example on the right. Such a pictorial fadeout has a certain effect. For me, it expresses that a certain context, the very concrete is shown, but that it is not about the actual situation depicted....

I recently chose a vegan or vegetarian menu: Hörnli with minced meat. The minced meat was not meat, but a vegan substitute, probably based on sunflower seeds or mushrooms or something. Of course, you could tell the difference when you ate it, even though it looked very similar to the meat mince. I wondered why they would do something like that? So either you want minced meat and then it is minced...

If you know more than 365 people, it's a safe bet that you know at least two people who have the same birthday on the same day. Celebrating birthdays is certainly a cultural matter and also more or less important depending on the personality. Regardless of this, one can still say that celebrating a person, a life, at least once a year is indicated. And I think that each and every one of us app...

Anyone building a house is looking for a suitable location. Apart from the financial possibilities, the water supply is an important point. So what could be more obvious than to look for a site as close as possible to a river - perhaps even on its banks. This has many advantages: the necessary water can be used for hydropower, drinking water, irrigation of the cultivated land, etc. without long tr...

It is easier to judge many things from a distance. We are less emotionally involved. From a distance, we can judge other people and their fates more easily than if their fate is close to us because of a personal relationship. So it is easier for us to say from a distance that this or that is simply not possible. For example: we have now taken in enough refugees. On the other hand, if we know refug...

We are in an election year in Switzerland this year. Political parties are currently positioning themselves to be as successful as possible in the national elections in autumn. My rough classification is as follows: left stands for justice, centre for liberal, right for security, and green for ecology and nature. And in this field of tension, a parliament is then formed with the corresponding repr...

There is a saying that you are clutching at the last straw. Supposedly, the saying comes from the old Christian seafaring. The straw floats and when you are drowning, it is the last chance, the last little hope to save you from drowning. Even if it seems hopeless, a person in a desperate situation nevertheless places his hope in everything that could somehow bring salvation. Perhaps, in an analogo...

In argumentation, we sometimes talk about relative and absolute. For example: the rents are relatively high. Something can be relatively high but in its absolute number low. A fictitious example: the travel time by public transport to work is relatively high. This could mean, in absolute figures, that you spend 15 minutes a day on the tram for one way, but the tram stations are only 1 minute's...

Feelings need a host. By this I mean: joy or fear do not exist by themselves. They need a person through whom they manifest. But this also means that this person - by which I mean the host - has a say in how much these feelings can spread. In linguistic usage, we say that we have feelings and are not feelings. This is what is implied. So I also have an influence on which feelings I give how much s...

When you boil a hen's egg, you can choose how long you want to leave it in the shell in hot, boiling water. Depending on the length of time, the peeled egg will be harder or softer. So both the liquid egg white and the liquid egg yolk become hard with sufficient heat and a necessary long time. I find it interesting that the egg white and the yolk do not have the same basic conditions. Namely:...

When I was a child, perms were in fashion - at least that's how I remember it. Women talked about it. The topic actually concerned almost exclusively women - for men it was rather a taboo. At that time, the gender roles given by nature still applied and perms were something feminine in my perception. A kind of intermediate solution were curling tongs, with the help of which women could make wa...

Standing on an iron grate or placing a cup on the grate of the drip tray have certain practical things in common: On the one hand, the grille usually holds what is on it and keeps it from falling or going dangerously low, but on the other hand it still lets through what doesn't belong. With the coffee maker, you can place the cup and it will hold and excess water or milk will still flow out. W...

There are things, moments, environments, encounters, smells, melodies and much more that trigger a very specific state in us - we are transported to moments of our past. In English, this is called a trigger. This means that the things mentioned stimulate in us the state we experienced in those moments that we are reminded of by these triggers. For me, in these days when nature is awakening so magn...

It strikes me that if there is a hole in a window, even if it is only a small one caused by a pebble or other small, sharp object, then one cannot simply repair the damage locally, but the entire glass must be replaced. This reminds me of a comparison Jesus once made to his listeners when he said that you can't just sew a patch of new fabric onto an old, torn garment, otherwise the spot would...

Food does not have an infinite life. With increasing time, the freshness decreases and at some point they are no longer edible, sometimes even toxic. With certain foods this happens faster or even very quickly, with others it takes longer. Sometimes you can already recognise the condition by the smell or taste or you can see it; in the worst case, however, you cannot. Spoiled food can therefore be...

In our information society, we are constantly supplied with data - whether we like it or not. Visually, this is done via TV and many other things, and also via our hearing through constant exposure to sound. Sometimes it is not so easy to concentrate. I often find that when I am under time pressure, it is even more difficult for me to really listen or become quiet inside and take a kind of break....

If things are spatially close to each other, this can have the advantage that the things hardly or not at all slip. They give each other support and stability and thus protect each other from possible damage caused by external shaking and the resulting bumping against each other. In this case, closeness is mutual protection. On the other hand, a lot of closeness can also create pressure and one&#3...

I was having dinner with a friend the other day and the sun was shining beautifully through the window - when suddenly someone operated the external blinds and stopped the sun from coming in, i.e. created a shadow. I was more annoyed than grateful. On the other hand, in the hot summer we may long for shade. So shade covers, protects from the sun's rays. But we also know that sometimes we stand...

Do you personally know people who work in construction? They often work physically and are exposed to the sometimes adverse weather conditions. They accomplish an enormous amount and yet are hardly noticed. Yet - without them, where would we live? The house you live in was built by construction workers you probably never met. So others have worked enormously so that you now have a good roof over y...

In German we only know one term for a chain - be it a functional one like for locking a bicycle or in the marine sector or as jewellery around the neck. In English there are two different terms for it. A chain - they say - is as strong as its weakest link. And that is true. If the tension is great enough, the chain breaks at the weakest link. So a functional chain will be made as evenly strong as...

In the past, aeroplanes had these mighty propellers that turned enormously fast during flight and thus made it possible for the aeroplane to fly. In English, to propel means to propel. This fits very well because the propeller does indeed propel the aircraft. Interesting that the propeller does nothing else. But taken on its own, it can't function at all. It cannot propel itself. There are no...

You can certainly imagine what it looks like when air bubbles rise under water. You know this from pictures of divers, for example, who exhale and whose exhaled air then rises to the surface. This happens because air is lighter than the surrounding water. In a direct comparison, the compared parts behave accordingly to each other. Well, comparing can sometimes be good and sometimes not. Comparing...

Some of us are more holiday types for the mountains, others for the sea. For the latter, bathing in the sea is something special. And I have already experienced that hotels that have a pool and are close to the sea do not fill the pool with fresh water, but with sea water. When I stand in front of the pool, I can't automatically tell whether it's filled with fresh or seawater. I have all m...