Audiostretto 59/4/24 English

Fog is increased humidity, so much increased that the air droplets form a kind of cloud - or just: Fog. This can become so dense that you can no longer see anything. But it only forms where the ideal conditions are present: sufficient humidity and suitable conditions of temperature and air pressure. The same amount of humidity at warmer temperatures would not form fog. So it is not true: so much h...

In our capitalist-oriented world, the law plays out that things that are rare but coveted have a higher price than things that are abundant and coveted. Rarity is a cost driver. Behind it plays the rule that if something is scarce, one is willing to give away more for it. If there is an abundance of something and it is offered by several sellers, the price is regulated downwards. In other words, t...

Do you remember: You were ill and the doctor gave you a therapy, for example medication. Why? To get rid of the illness - or to restore your health? Is there a difference here? Yes! The focus: do I look at the positive, the health, and the goal is to achieve it, or at the negative, the illness, and it should just go away? I am convinced this is a difference. It is the motivation. When we give each...

Sunrises or sunsets are something beautiful. There is something mysterious about them, something that leaves us speechless, that leaves us without words. Both are states of "no more" and "not yet". It is no longer night, but not yet day either. Or vice versa: it is no longer day but not yet night either. When one is over and the other begins can therefore not be so clearly defined. It remains myst...

Many of us like chocolate. Not all of us, I know. But I am one of them. And chocolate comes in very, very different forms these days. There are pralines or whole chocolate bars that weigh several 100 grams. And because there's no accounting for taste, everyone can enjoy the type and shape he or she likes best. But what I think plays a role in all the different versions is the form in which they ap...

I'm not a car owner, but I remember that my father used to change tyres sometime in autumn: from summer to winter tyres. As far as I know, they differ mainly in their tread. That is, a winter tyre has a more pronounced tread and thus more grip in the case of softer surfaces such as snow. This prevents the vehicle from skidding. A few millimetres in the rubber of the tyres are therefore relevant to...

When I was a child, suspenders were common. A good thing - except when I had to change trousers. My little fingers didn't have the strength yet to undo the buckles of the braces to move them from one pair of trousers to another. I remember something similar with a tube of spread. You had to squeeze it very hard until something came out. I could only do this with enormous effort, so that my hand hu...

We are approaching the time when Christmas decorations are put up in many places - inside and outside, private and public. Some are bright, flashy, eye-catching, others simple, rather modest and contemplative. What both have in common is that there is a specific time for this. After that, the decorations are put away again. If they were there all year round, they would not only cease to attract at...

Surely you have already met people who do something you would like to be able to do with such ease that it makes you envious - in a positive sense. Why do they do it so easily and I have such a hard time doing it or will never reach their level? When I watch birds, I feel the same way: with what ease they fly, knowing exactly how to use their wings - whether to fly actively or simply to glide. Env...

I was recently in Tallinn and in the evening in the dark I took a walk to and through the Old Town. It was beautiful. When I went back to the hotel, I somehow lost my orientation. I was pretty sure that the hotel had to be in a certain direction - or so I thought. Thank God I had my smartphone with me and a corresponding app, which then showed me the correct way. I was wrong with my sense of direc...

I am enormously grateful for my hands and how they serve me. Although I am not gifted in handicrafts, drawing or anything else manual, I can do so much with them and they support me so enormously. I am also fascinated by their ability to pick up and convey different stimuli to me when I touch them: cold or hot objects, rough or smooth and much more. The whole skin of my body is a huge network of s...

When I talk about isohypses, not everyone knows what they are. If, on the other hand, I use contour lines, some will probably have more of an idea of what I mean. They are lines on a map that have the same altitude indication in nature. So if you walk strictly along a contour line, you walk level, that is, you don't change your altitude, you don't go up or down. If, on the other hand, you walk at...

I am fascinated by geometric figures or patterns. For example, I find a simple squared pattern somehow amazing in itself. It actually only consists of straight lines intersecting at right angles, which then form squares or rectangles depending on how they are arranged. But when you look at them like this, they look so perfect, so well-formed, so flawless. Circles also have their charm: they have n...

I still remember buying vinyl records when I was a teenager. And when I was about 20, compact discs came along. This, of course, required a new player. A CD player. These were available for the stereo system - and there were even mobile ones for on the road. There was no comparison in size with today's MP3 player or smartphone, which today can hold many times the capacity of music compared to the...

Do you know people who radiate a great cordiality, in whose presence you can relax and just be yourself? There are also others with whom you have the impression that they have a flawless life, do everything right, are successful. You are less relaxed in their presence than with the former. Maybe because you don't want to do anything wrong, so that you meet their standards. Why do people have such...

Do you prefer going to the sea or the mountains? These are, in a way, opposites. In the mountains, solitude, often cool and sometimes nasty, barren. And then the sea with often very special and often also lush flora and fauna and in popular places very populated. And of course warm. Mostly. I noticed recently when reading the account of Jesus' ministry that he visited both places regularly. So he...

A crème slice is a slice of puff pastry filled with vanilla crème. Have you ever tried to eat it in such a way that it doesn't fall out of the mould? I have never succeeded. Even with a sharp knife, which I use to cut the pastry, I can't manage to keep the soft cream from oozing out of the sides when I press on the pastry from above. Only when I put them on their sides and cut them that way. But t...

I have not often seen an owl. Maybe in a zoo or animal park, but I don't think I've ever seen one in the wild. With owls I associate night activity, clear vision, especially in the dark, wisdom and also secrecy or silence and vigilance. It is also the symbol of intelligence. I particularly associate it with the combination of wisdom and silence. So not wordlessness out of ignorance or defiance but...

In my view, acceptance is not to be equated with tolerance. For me, acceptance has much more the character of a conscious decision. A decision in the direction of saying yes to something or accepting something that I would actually like to have differently or wish for differently. Nevertheless, I don't hold on to my preference, but allow myself to accept - with a conscious decision - something tha...

For me, values or the importance of things in life shift with increasing age. I don't necessarily mean material things, on the contrary. I think in the past, when I was much younger, goods were more important to me than non-material things. Today, I have noticed that this has shifted. Perhaps because in the past I couldn't afford certain things that I aspired to and they therefore had a special ap...

It's probably a discontinued model - the key fob. It can be used for one or more keys and you have all the keys you need in one place. Many of the fobs can also be attached to the waistband by means of a device. In the future, locks and doors will probably be opened more and more with the smartphone. The advantage of bundling keys in one place like this is that you have everything together and the...

I was talking to a woman the other day who was wearing a beautiful coloured necklace. I noticed this jewellery and I just thought it was beautiful. But what I also noticed - and not only with this person - is that the jewellery worn is not only beautiful per se, but that it also makes the wearer(s) more beautiful. It is as if the beauty of the jewellery rubs off and also enchants the person wearin...

There are different wine glasses. I found the following text explaining the importance of the shape of the glass for the taste of the wine: "The most beautiful and complex bouquet does not come into its own if the wine is drunk or smelled from the wrong glass. It is therefore not a fad of cranky wine snobs to insist on different glasses for different wines; it serves the pleasure to a great extent...

When there is air in water or water in air, I observe that regardless of the size of the bubbles in the water or the drops in the air, they both have something in common: regardless of their own size in the foreign medium, they remain intrinsically their own. By this I mean: an air bubble, no matter how big, always consists only of air and does not mix with the different environment. The same appl...

I had the privilege of taking a walk along a lake the other evening. It was a clear night but hardly any moonlight. The path led through a forest bordering the lake. It was very dark. You couldn't really see the path and the natural ground was correspondingly uneven, i.e. not flat. In such a situation, you walk more carefully, avoiding tripping and hurting yourself. Because I knew how dark it coul...