Audiostretto 59/4/24 English

When I graduated in the early 90s of the last century, certain agendas were very common among managers and executives. These were real folders with many tabs and calendar representations in different forms: as a yearly planner, by the day or weekly, etc. Apart from the fact that such editions cost several hundred francs, there were also extremely expensive seminars on the correct and best use of t...

When you bake a cake and want to remove it from the tin after baking - it's not always so easy. The dough sticks to the wall or the bottom of the tin. Then you run the risk of having to force the baked good away from the sticky spot. If you do this with your hand and apply enough pressure - then it usually goes wrong, by which I mean: the beautiful cake is torn apart and one part is in your ha...

The other day I was invited to lunch with dear friends. We had pot au feu. As far as I understood, meat and vegetables are cooked for a long time. And finally served. Everything was very fine and tender. Interesting: the broth, i.e. the liquid for or during the boiling down, was not to be poured off like when cooking pasta, but part of the meal. It was more or less an appetiser in the form of a de...

If it does not rain for a longer period of time, the soil dries out more and more. It becomes hard and cracked. Plants with deep roots can nevertheless draw the necessary moisture from the depths. Superficial plants, on the other hand, dry out and die after a certain time. It is interesting that when it then starts to rain, the soil does not - as one might expect - absorb and soak up the much-need...

Most of us know prisons from films or news reports. When I think of prison, I see barren rooms with small barred windows. The only thing that separates a prisoner from freedom is a bit of iron and brickwork. But this is so strong that freedom, although so close, is not accessible. Even if the vast majority of us are not outwardly imprisoned, we still know inner prisons: for example, painful experi...

I currently work in an environment that knows and uses many abbreviations. This may be very practical for those who know the abbreviations and their meaning, but very cryptic and confusing for everyone else. Such abbreviations can quickly come across as a secret language that is only accessible to a select circle of people, i.e. quasi-elitist. That doesn't have to be the case. But when you are...

When I was drinking a cappuccino the other day, I noticed something or was reminded of a comparison. What I noticed is that after a certain time, the coffee and the milk or the milk foam mix more and more and in the end they are no longer distinguishable. So if at the beginning the black of the coffee and the white of the milk are still very clearly distinguishable, this becomes more and more diff...

In nature, it is often the case that the bigger something or a living being is, the stronger and more powerful it is. So an elephant has significantly more power than a mouse or a whale displaces significantly more water than a goldfish. And we know a similar law as humans - even in childhood or at school, the law of the strongest often applies. Or whoever has more money often has more influence o...

Perhaps you know the foreign term amplitude. It is used in physics in the theory of oscillations and means how much something deflects during an oscillation. So if you have a rope with a body at the end and thus make the rope oscillate, how far the rope with the body ultimately deflects. In many cases, however, one also sees representations with so-called oscillating movements, i.e. not straight l...

As children, we were allowed to go to the car wash with our father from time to time. That was an experience! We were in the car while our father slowly steered it through the car wash. First came these big vertical brushes and it was as if they were squeezing the car. Then there was the water that splashed from all sides and the soap that created the big foam. Lots of activity and then towards th...

When I was filling out my tax return the other day, I was told that I could use an app to scan the enclosures. That seemed handy. So I downloaded the app onto my smartphone and followed the instructions. The first thing to do was to scan a binary code on the tax return. So I looked for the corresponding code. However, I only found a barcode and no QR code. Despite several attempts, it just didn&#3...

In my naivety I thought that pine cones were full of seeds and when the cones fell to the ground they would be carried away by animals such as squirrels, rot somewhere and there the seeds of these cones would give rise to new trees. Far from it! There are male and female cones and when the time is ripe, the male parts, the pollen, are carried by the wind to the female parts, the seeds, and when it...

When you go to a museum or an older church, it is not uncommon to see, for example, a valuable, powerful and richly decorated chalice. This chalice alone is worth an enormous amount today. At that time, however, in addition to its functional significance, it was also an expression of the wealth or status of the owner or, in particular, of the contents that were consumed from the cup. Thus, communi...

Mobile phones need a functioning radio network to dial into. This happens automatically as long as the device is not switched off or in flight mode. Once the connection has worked, the signal strength is important - it indicates how good the connection quality is. This is usually expressed with small bars at the top of the phone screen. The more bars, the better the connection and thus the better...

Each truck has its own capacity: a mini-van carries less than one of these huge hulks. It all depends on the load area and the volume. But not only! Sure, I can only load as many wadding packages into a truck as there is actually room for - but: I may not be able to load as many lead packages as there would actually be room for. The lorry has a limit not only in terms of its volume, but also in te...

Imagine an ICE train driving through the city - that would probably be quite unusual and dangerous. Imagine you had to take a tram from Basel to Hamburg - that would probably be quite uncomfortable and maybe sooner or later you would also miss a toilet or an on-board bistro. Actually, these scenarios should be possible, because both a train and a tram run on rails, are supplied with the necessary...

When I was in Poland the other day, I met a woman on the street with a conspicuously large frame of glasses. The conspicuous glasses frame caught my attention when we crossed each other on the street. I did not like it at all, on the contrary. Unprompted, thoughts such as "How can you wear such ugly glasses?!" came to my mind and I really couldn't find an answer to this question. It...

We have different senses that serve to satisfy our basic needs. For example, our eyes help us to perceive food and to check it for edibility if necessary. Or our ears warn us of possible danger so that we can change our current location in time. I suspect that this is similar in many or all animals: perception serves mainly to sustain life. But with us humans it goes further. We not only eat food...

On many a window hangs a colourful glass pane or something embroidered or crocheted or an origami made of coloured transparent paper, etc. This decorates the window and often gives it more colour or simply a touch of personal, living quality. What is inherent in all this decoration, however, is that it never tries to cover the entire window pane in such a way that no more light can get through. Ra...

String is useful for tying things together. The cord can have different thicknesses or thicknesses. A cord in the home is different from one in shipping, where a really thick cord is called a rope. Either way. But the cord - as far as I can tell - really only has a purpose when it is used. Simply by itself, a cord makes no sense or gives no value. But if it is needed, it can be enormously helpful....

We face massive challenges as a society of this time. Whether it is the climate crisis, the financial world or armed conflicts: solutions are needed that we have not known before and that challenge us. Different cultures, competition, views of life and understandings of truth that do not always coincide play a role that should not be underestimated. Where can help be found here? And where hope? Fo...

I suspect most birds have wings. These are needed or used for flying. Sounds logical. But I think I have observed that the wings of all bird species are different or rarely if ever the same. An eagle has different wings and probably different wing shapes than a chicken or a sparrow. The wings also serve as propulsion for gliding. And for the mother birds certainly for the young to protect them. Bi...

In a loudspeaker, a magnet and a voice coil move the speaker membrane in time with the given electrical signal. This causes the air to vibrate, which our eardrums perceive as sounds. We can thus explain natural phenomena through physical units and laws. With such a clear analysis, the effect or what we perceive becomes reproducible. If we know all the components and how they work and interact, we...

Anyone who rides a bicycle must be able to keep their balance. You are supported in this by the ride or the speed. This means that it is easier to keep your balance on a moving bike than on a stationary one. And then there are the curves. If you go round a bend, you must not keep the same upright position as when you go straight out - that would be fatal. Instead, you have to lean in the curve. Th...

I was wondering why in German the pedestrian crossings are called "zebra crossings". On the one hand, because I don't know any yellow zebras and, on the other hand, because a zebra has absolutely no regular stripes on its coat like a zebra stripe. In my opinion, a bee or a wasp would be a more suitable example - here, first of all, yellow is present and the rings around the body are...