Audiostretto 59/4/24 English

Fear in education is often used. A scary scenario is painted in front of the children's eyes to dissuade them from doing something or to make something unattractive. Climbing a tree, for example. Often the argument is that there is a high level of danger. In principle, this is not a lie. But fear in this form is a kind of blackmail. And often the fear is greater in the people in authority than in...

Some terms from other languages have become established in our linguistic usage and we hardly have a corresponding German word for them. For example, toaster. In German, the appliance would actually be called a bread toaster and a toast was originally a so-called "Bähschnitte". I had never heard either term in use in any area where German is spoken. A toast is also a toast in our country and is pr...

It was not long ago that our society was said to be hedonistic. This meant that all our actions are aimed at increasing pleasure and avoiding pain. Then came "Geiz ist Geil" and many currents today have something ascetic about them, such as interval fasting or a lifestyle with regular gym visits, the weekly jogging distance to be completed. Sometimes I think that we have already covered so many li...

When a prescription for medicines is filled in the pharmacy, the dispensing is checked by means of a so-called medicine check. This means that a staff member picks out the requested medicines and goes with the prescription and the preparations to another specialist - often the pharmacist - and has them check whether the correct medicines have been chosen. This is important so that no wrong or inco...

You know those mirrors that distort the reflection? You see yourself distorted: you are very thin or very fat or taller or more compressed etc. than in reality. It's funny to look at and we know immediately that this is not real, but a false image of us. But we only recognise it because the exaggeration is so big. If it were smaller, we might ask ourselves "oh, have I put on weight again - I suspe...

I am always amazed when I see a plane in the air. How can it be that such a heavy thing stays in the air? It is certainly engineering and of course it can be explained scientifically and technically. But you have to come up with it first. For me, it is hidden potential that could and still can be discovered and exploited through diligent and persistent searching. Regardless of the fuel. We have ma...

Have you ever worn one of those VR or Ar or MR goggles that took you into an augmented reality or virtual reality? There you see things that do not exist or cannot be seen in the actual real world. This can be fascinating, but somehow also frightening. Because certain visualisations are very real and can actually suggest a different reality than the one that is currently valid. Of course, there ar...

An ordinary chair has four legs. This makes it stable. The important thing is that the four legs must be well coordinated. If one is too long or too short, this can lead to wobbling and instability. This happens as a result of redundancy in contact with the floor. If the chair had only three legs, there would be no over-matching or redundancy and thus no risk of wobbling. But the legs would also h...

There are certainly definitions, perhaps from the World Health Organisation, that say what prosperity is. The fact is, however, that many people are not well off, or have too little or barely enough to live on, while a very few live in abundance. We are undoubtedly among the latter. We live in prosperity, they say. But what is prosperity? I like the compound word: well-being and status: that is, a...

What comes to mind when you hear the term lion? Is it the animal in the wild that you hope to see on a safari in the wild? Or is it the dull animal that nervously paces back and forth in its cramped cage in a city zoo as a caged animal? Or is it the symbolic figure in many a fairy tale who represents the brave, self-sacrificing patriarch who always ensures justice? There are so many ideas and imag...

Seagulls don't really occur where I live. They are rather birds of the sea. They feed on all sorts of things, including carrion, so they don't have a good reputation. They often appear in groups, so it is difficult to attack them. If they appear in flocks - around a fishing boat, for example - you can assume that there is something to get. Jesus once gives the enigmatic answer to the question when...

Street signs adorn the streets in our neighbourhoods. Some of them are terrestrial, others are attached to buildings. I like them. A kind of functional art in the neighbourhood. Where I know my way around, I don't really need them, I know the street names and squares and alleys by heart, so the street signs are obsolete for me. But not for someone who is not familiar with the area. He or she depen...

On the road, there are lanes in urban areas. These are areas where road users populate the road space in an orderly manner. So you should not drive just anywhere then, but in one of the indicated lanes. This makes traffic smoother, more orderly and safer. In theory, you don't have to adhere to this. I could drive my vehicle wherever I want, but I would endanger myself and others. Not only because...

We humans are creatures of habit. We often do things in the same way. These habits, regularities give us a certain security. We often go the same ways, maybe we have the same schedules or procedures or just do things the same way over and over again. Simple examples are: Brushing our teeth with the same hand, putting on a jumper: first this sleeve, then the other. It feels familiar or we do it wit...

QR codes are omnipresent today: be it on a payment slip or an event or business cards, etc. However, they originally come from the manufacturing industry. QR stands for quick response. Over 4000 characters can be stored in such a code - quite a lot of information. The individual fields contain different information. But the border zone is also important. It is necessary so that the delimitation ca...

I can close a garment with a button. For example, a cardigan. There are press studs and those that are sewn on and have a buttonhole as a counterpart, into which the button is inserted and thus holds both sides together. I think it's an ingenious invention. But without a buttonhole and without fastening, the button is useless. It is sometimes misused for money donations or perhaps also for cash ma...

A beehive is a tightly woven basket. It serves as a home for the bees and protects them sufficiently from environmental influences. Thus, bees can build their home and live their lives as entire colonies in such baskets. From the human point of view, this is a conscious, controlled act, because humans have created the basket and placed it accordingly. From the bees' point of view, it is probably s...

At the fair, we have bumper cars that run on a very slippery surface and are designed to be collided with, that is, to deliberately seek violent contact. We have a special word for this in our dialect - but it cannot easily be translated into the official German language. I don't know a suitable word. So how do I translate so that what I mean is understood? It requires a detailed paraphrase. That'...

Nowadays, for many people, a water bottle is as much a part of their everyday luggage as their keys or wallet. This means you can take care of your fluid balance at any time and drink when you want. Be it on the street, on public transport, at an event or during class. That was not the case 30 years ago. And as is often the case with such changes, one asks: is this a good or bad development. Some...

They say that God does not throw dice. The statement goes back to Albert Einstein. What he meant by it has not really been clarified to this day. It is probably about the fact that physics knows no coincidence. I also believe that God does not play dice, i.e. that he does or allows things to happen purely by chance or out of pure moods. But I also don't believe that everything is already definitel...

Did you know that the part you hold in your hand when filling up with fuel at the end of the hose and inserting it into the opening of the tank is called a nozzle? I was not aware of it. It happened to me when I was driving and had to refuel that I didn't always know how the part worked. In the dumbest case, I'm at the petrol station, it has fuel, I have enough money, the tank is empty and ready f...

In our time, science is finding that glaciers are increasingly melting. This is a trend that has been going on for a long time and there is no change in sight. On the contrary, experts are alarmed that the retreat is happening faster than previously thought. Are glaciers important? Yes. They are an important element for storing water and permafrost is therefore of central importance for the Alps....

Doubts tend to have a negative connotation here. They are often equated with fickleness or indecisiveness. But I think doubt is good in itself. It is the conscious questioning of something once again. And in my opinion, that can't actually do any harm. On the contrary, doubt can become the starting point for a more conscious decision or attitude or whatever. Then, when I face the doubts, take them...

In some places there is an iron ring or something similar. For example, at our composting plant. There, a chain is attached to the ring so that the plant is not entered outside the operating hours. So the ring serves as a stable element for fastening - in this case a chain. If this ring were not there, it would probably be difficult to fasten the chain in such a way that it would hold. The ring th...

I recently bought a nice, warm sheepskin. It's lovely to sit on because it's very soft and because it gives off a very pleasant warmth. So what is or was a natural protection against the cold for the animal still serves me in the same way today. That is not a matter of course at all. Normally, vital functions are only active as long as the creature in question is still alive. So with a tree, the b...