Audiostretto 59/4/24 English

Anyone travelling on official roads in our country generally travels in a lane. This means that we invest a lot not only in providing good roads and well prepared and maintained surfaces, but also in clearly structuring them with markings so that traffic can flow as orderly and safely as possible. There is also the possibility of changing lanes. However, this is not permitted everywhere - even if...

In Basel, at Carnival there are so-called Pfeiffer, playing the piccolos and Tambouren playing a single drum. They play their instruments while they walk. So coordination in walking and playing is important. And concentration and stamina. The sound of the drums is produced by beating on a strongly stretched skin and a hollow body. There is no mini version with the same effect. You can't save weigh...

At larger Swiss stations, there are small black boards near the catenaries on the platform that are hardly noticed because they hang so high and actually only light up very rarely. That is when the train is due to arrive. When it's nasty on the platform and you have to wait and don't know when the train will arrive, these boards are an encouragement to me: even if the train is not yet visible, but...

I recently stumbled across an online dictionary on the internet about the definition of God. It says: "God - in polytheistic religions a superhuman, in monotheistic religions supreme - supernatural being on whom the religious person feels dependent." That was a bit of a revelation for me. I had never thought of it that way before - but it makes total sense to me that so many today have no relation...

I noticed the other day that the word "gentile" has a very different meaning in Italian than in English. I.e. in Italian "gentile" means friendly, in English it means not Jewish. The word is of course pronounced differently depending on the language - but is nevertheless spelled identically. So you can't use the same words in the same way in different languages, but you have to know their meaning...

When my parents were younger, smoking was cool. Even in my generation to some extent. Then, of course, smoking was always associated with the aspect of addiction. Not without good reason. But at the same time there was also the reality of pride and arrogance - among those who did not smoke towards smokers. We still observe similar phenomena today. But the fact is: we all have our weaknesses, chara...

I am one of those people who loves bread enormously. Therefore, there was a time when I made bread almost exclusively myself. At the beginning without a kneading machine. Depending on the amount of dough, it was quite exhausting and during the kneading I could not see or smell anything of the good fresh bread it would become. It was simply cumbersome. But if I hadn't kneaded the dough for the righ...

When I was a little boy, my sister and I both wore tights in the winter. That was perfectly OK. But the older I got, the more I got the impression that tights were for girls and long johns were for boys. I started to feel ashamed of the tights and uncomfortable and would rather freeze than wear them. Interesting how something originally normal for me suddenly became something I began to reject, al...

I very rarely drive a car, but I remember that when traffic jams occur, for example due to increased traffic, they are announced in advance by appropriate warning signs. The intention behind this is that, especially on a motorway, vehicles do not have to brake abruptly from their high speed or, worse still, cause an accident because they are too surprised about the fact that the traffic is at a st...

Just recently, I was offered a free yoghurt in the grocery store to try it out. A good idea, actually: the supplier can hand out his product to a customer for testing without any obligation. If the customer likes or needs it, they not only know that it exists but also where to get it. In life, there are sometimes situations where we need supernatural help. We are in a situation where human options...

You've probably seen joggers wearing finisher's T-shirts. In other words, a T-shirt with big letters indicating which run they had successfully completed. I've also taken part in runs and it's a great feeling to get the finisher's shirt at the finish. But is it really necessary to wear it in public? Does everyone have to see your achievements? Do these joggers want to show off and let everyone kno...

A few days ago I talked about our conscience. It gives us a strong sense of justice. We perceive situations or behaviour as unjust and sometimes suffer with them and become angry when we cannot change the situation. Or we rejoice and are relieved when justice is done. Quite often, however, our sense of justice is only an indication that something is out of balance. How it can be brought back into...

When I was a child, Lego came up with the Lego-figures. So there were not only the bricks any more, but also all kinds of figures that represented certain professions or groups of people. That was great for playing. It really stimulated the imagination. I think our imagination is more than just an escape from reality. I believe much more that our fantasy can be the pre-stage of reality and that it...

Light bulbs are no longer state-of-the-art today. But you can make a nice comparison with them: A thin wire is made to glow in the context of a gas and that illuminates the surroundings. Transferred to our lives: What do you glow for? What is your passion? If you live your passion in the fitting environment, then you are an enlightenment for those around you. Then others can see more in their live...

Are you a chess player? Not me. I just know the rules, but no strategies on how to win the game. But I do notice that the alternating black and white squares give clear rules for the chess pieces and their movements. So technically, every chess piece could be on any square. But not according to the rules. Then the game would become unfair. I believe that in our society we also have rules that appl...

As a young surveyor, I was allowed or had to take the survey sensor to an inaccessible place on a large construction site for a measurement. A crane was necessary for this. I had to climb into the crane basket, attach it to the crane chains myself and then let the crane operator guide me to the appropriate place on the construction site - a very steep and high slope. I had to overcome some fear be...

Some men wear a beard. And of course there are almost infinite variations of these beards. Depending on the fashion, these beards look different. Some say a beard is a sign of masculinity. Others say insecure men hide their true face behind it. Either way, a beard is also a non-verbal signal. A man expresses something, sends a message with it. What about you in terms of non-verbal communication? I...

As a teenager, I had an aquarium at home for a while. It wasn't big and I didn't have any expensive fish. The effort for cleaning and maintenance was not small either. Nevertheless: something became visible in the aquarium that I didn't get to see elsewhere in my life: The insight into a small part of the underwater world. There were beautiful and fascinating things - for example, how the fish mov...

These days, we hear about hurricanes and tropical storms. These can cause great destruction and claim human lives with enormous force. They are caused by the deflecting force of the earth's rotation. There, a swirling of the air masses around a centre of rotation is set in motion, from which the typical eye of the storm later develops. The strongest winds and thus the greatest destruction are at t...

A house usually has windows. So do a caravan, tent or cabin, etc. The window helps to let daylight into the interior and thus make things visible inside, so that you don't trip or bump into things. But the window also serves to let you see from the inside, from the protected environment to the outside. Hildegard von Bingen, a German mystic, abbess and natural scientist said that the eyes are the w...

Depending on the conditions and the type of grain, an ear of corn carries about 40 grains. This means that a grain that produces an ear has a multiplication of about a factor of 40. What a number! When I think about the fact that money in the bank is currently yielding almost no interest at all, this fertility of creation is tremendous. It means not only that so much can be produced, but also that...

Dominoes, as you know, have two parts, each with a point field. The aim of the game, as far as I know, is to line up the dominoes in such a way that neighbouring or adjoining dominoes always have exactly the point pattern of their adjacent domino. I think we humans also have at least two sides: the one on the outside and the one on the inside, and somewhere we long for it and also need a certain h...

In most cases, a train or tram runs today because it is connected by a pantograph to the overhead line, which carries the high voltage and thus allows the required energy to flow. Others run on fuel such as diesel. The former are totally dependent on the energy output of the overhead line, but in that sense can run so to speak indefinitely as long as this connection is intact. The latter are indep...

We know the saying, "If your only tool is a hammer, all the world looks like a nail." The meaning is obvious: if we only know one way to deal with certain situations, in our perception all situations are the same and we always behave the same way. But that is not always good. If you find yourself in a situation today that causes you stress because you know it and you know that you will not feel we...

Let's be honest - man or woman. Most of us had a favourite plushie or something similar in childhood. It was dear and precious to us and accompanied us for many years and felt as if it was actually alive. Maybe you still have yours or have even passed it on to your own children or a next generation. Maybe you feel embarrassed about that now... Either way, I think the example shows us how much we a...