Audiostretto 59/4/24 English

Everything has an end. On this earth, in this world, that is true. I know of no exception. This podcast began in the summer of 2021, and since then, over 1350 episodes have been released daily in German and over 1250 in English, without interruption. Now I feel that this time is coming to an end. So this episode is the last one for now. I don't know yet what will happen next, if there will be...

A sickle in use today is used to cut small amounts of grain and grass. It consists of a concave blade tapering towards the front and a wooden handle. It differs from the scythe in that it has a smaller blade and a shorter handle. Harvesting with a scythe or sickle cuts off as much of the crop as possible - but the cut leaves the root of the plant in the ground, and with it the potential for new gr...

In ice hockey, each player has a stick to move, guide and pass the puck. The goal of the game is to get the puck into the opposing team's goal. The hockey stick has a part at the end of the shaft called the blade, which is used to guide the puck. The player should only use the blade to guide the puck, not the skate or any other part of the body. Someone can be very good with the stick and the...

The German proverb goes: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This means that it is better to settle for what you can get than to aim for something uncertain. That way you know what you've got and don't get caught up in the uncertain surplus that you could potentially have. I think this is also based on the idea that I would rather make my own choices than be dependent on something...

When light hits the sloping surface of a prism, it is refracted because the speed of light changes as it passes from one medium, such as air, to another, such as the glass of which the prism is made. This means that white light, which is made up of light waves of different wavelengths, can be refracted into its constituent parts. It can then be seen that white light is made up of different coloure...

We all know the feeling of tiredness. It takes us significantly more effort to get up and do something than usual. Tiredness paralyses us. Tiredness can be the result of too little rest and sleep. In this case, the problem is quickly solved with one or two longer periods of sleep. But it can also go deeper. A general tiredness and the associated lack of motivation. Sleep and rest alone will not he...

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has coined the term ‘turning point’. It became a kind of winged term and was mentioned repeatedly in many places. A powerful word, in my opinion - a turning point. But who is virtually authorised to use such a term at a particular time or situation? Who defines when times change, when they change so significantly that we can really speak of a turning point - and furth...

Sometimes there are chain carousels at the fair. These rotate on their own axis and have chains attached to the circumference of their round roof, with chairs on which you can sit and then be thrown through the air by the rapid rotation. Because the chain is flexible, the end of the chain always lags slightly behind the anchor point on the roof. If you looked at it from above in 2 dimensions, the...

Rice is one of our staple foods. But Europe has the lowest rice production in the world. So we are dependent on imports. We have Asian neighbours where the rice cooker is always on - just as we go to the bakery every day and consume bread, they do the same with rice. It's there as a matter of course - even if it's not grown here. Recent political and armed conflicts have reminded us that even this...

Some people are described as perfectionists. This is not always understood or meant in a positive way. Sometimes it means that such people are pedantic and never satisfied with what they achieve or receive. Perfect, when translated literally, means accomplished. It means that there is nothing more that can be done to improve what you have and that your development is complete. We humans, as we all...

My father-in-law had a display case in his flat where he displayed things he had made. These objects were very beautiful to look at. They weren't as intricate as those made by an artist, but you could see that they had been carefully made. The colours were bright and you could see that someone had worked on them with passion and heart. But I kept asking myself: why did he do this? So that the...

I am a cyclist at heart. And I think it's one of man's greatest inventions. But for cycling to be fun, the bike has to be in good shape and well maintained. That includes good brakes, lights, enough air in the tyres and other things. It also includes wheels that are well aligned, i.e. not twisted into a figure of eight or anything else. The spokes are connected to the hub to make this work...

I used to have a running shoe that was very soft at the front of the shoe, with only a thin upper part. This meant that the front of my foot could move around a lot, which felt good because it felt like I was almost barefoot. This was good when I was just standing or walking a short distance, but not so good for longer distances because my feet got tired and hurt. But when I ran in them, I found t...

At Christmas time, there are certain baked goods that are decorated with sugar crystals: Doughmen, which we call Grättimänner or Grittibänzen in dialect, and Drei-Königs-Kuchen. Because the sugar is sprinkled on the dough before it is baked in the oven, there is a different amount on each pastry. But there is always some on top. It's part of it, both visually and flavour-wise. If you can't...

Caramel is something that many people really like. There are caramel sweets or caramel fillings in confectionery or even protein drinks that have a caramel flavour, and more recently it is often combined with salt. It is sweet and has its own flavour. But if you think about how caramel is made, you might be surprised: caramel is basically burnt or almost burnt sugar. The process of burning the sug...

When you swim, you stand at the edge of a pool or on a diving platform or board, or in nature on a ledge with the water in front of you. In an outdoor pool, you can see the bottom of the pool because it is not very deep and the water is very clean. This is not always the case in nature, especially in deep rivers, where the water can be murkier and less transparent. Then comes the moment to jump. S...

Many vehicles and ships have a steering wheel. As far as I know, it is round and can be turned in both directions. I don't know if these wheels can be turned more than once, but at least they have no beginning or end. When you get into the car, you can't tell from the steering wheel whether the wheels are straight or turned in. Because of the circular shape of the wheel, the steering wheel is alwa...

The other day I dreamt that I was on a train heading towards the station where I live. In my dream I suddenly looked out of the window and the surroundings didn't look familiar at all. I knew that I was on a train going to a neighbouring country. And that's obviously how it must have happened: I must have fallen asleep during the journey and missed the exit. I wasn't in the right place at the righ...

When I went into the bathroom the other morning, still quite tired, and just wanted to wash my hair over the bath, I turned on the water as usual to temper it before picking up the shower head. The shower was hanging in its fixture as usual, with the shower head facing me. You can guess what happened next... the setting was not as usual, so the water came out of the tap and I could then switch to...

In winter, falling rain can hit frozen ground and freeze. This is not necessarily what you would expect. In fact, you might think: it's warm enough that it's raining and not snowing, so the rain will wet the ground, and because it's not snowing, the roads and paths will just get wet, but there will be no need for winter maintenance in the sense of shovelling snow. However, if you don't take into a...

Pipettes are very useful for dosing liquid medicines or other substances in the laboratory, or sometimes for cooking and baking at home, because they allow you to dose the desired liquid drop by drop. There is usually a squeezable rubber at the end of the pipette, which is used to create a small vacuum to draw up the liquid. The same rubber is then squeezed again to dispense when the pipette is no...

Since the Enlightenment, the intellect has been given enormous importance in the Western world. The rule is: if it is not conceivable, it does not exist. What the mind cannot explain rationally should always be treated with caution or even rejection. This may - logically - be understandable from an intellectual point of view. But it is not right. It is only a partial truth. The mind is indeed a ve...

As the saying goes, 'All's well that ends well'. But all is not always well before the happy ending. There are hurts, disappointments, losses, fears and other things that we often find difficult to bear or cope with. Thank God, there are also joys, moments of happiness, undeserved grace and many positive things. And let's face it, we don't live with an attitude that the probability of good and bad...

It's winter, so a lot of ski sports are back in action. There are the so-called downhill races. I am always impressed when I see the speed at which these athletes go. Some of them are going faster than the speed limit on the motorway. But the athletes don't have a car body around them to protect them, they just race down the slopes. How dangerous, how risky, how perhaps even reckless. Unfortunatel...

Some biscuits are made from more than one type of dough, and this is reflected in their different colours. There may be a light centre and a darker outer edge. I used to think that both parts had to be cut out or moulded separately and then each individual cookie had to be assembled separately. That impressed me and I thought, what an effort, what patience on the part of the person doing it! Later...