Archive for October, 2017
Berufsstände und ihre Wahnvorstellungen
Saturday, October 21st, 2017Ein Beruf bringt Risiken mit sich, Risiken für die, die ihn ausüben, und Risiken für deren Umwelt (das heißt: für die Allgemeinheit).
Die Macht über das Leben von Menschen befällt nicht nur Ärzte, sondern auch, und das besonders intensiv, Lehrer. Wievielen Kindern wurde nicht das Leben zerstört durch durchgeknallte Lehrer? Die Macht über andere Menschen, über ihr Leben, läßt Lehrer und Ärzte durchdrehen. Die Folge: Größenwahn ohne Ende…
Größenwahn, ein typisches Symptom bei Ärzten und ein typisches Symptom bei Lehrern. In beiden Fällen entstanden im Lauf der Ausbildung und in der Arbeitswelt, also nach Beginn der Ausbildung. Bei Journalisten liegt der Ausbruch des Wahns in den meisten Fällen vermutlich schon lange vor Beginn von Studium und Volontariat, nämlich in der Schulzeit, wenn die ideologische Indoktrinierung durch die Umgebung und die Lehrer so richtig zu wirken beginnt. “Man” wird Journalist, “weil man ‘etwas bewegen’ will”.
Journalisten haben nicht nur einen Wahn, sondern frönen einer Mehrzahl davon. Deren erster ist der Wahn, “etwas bewegen” zu wollen. Was? Natürlich “für die Menschheit”, “sozialistisch”, und so weiter und so weiter. Von politisch links bis esoterisch auf der Höhe von Tannenzapfen und Erdferkeln das ganze Spektrum durch.
Ein weiterer, ein in der Ausbildung eingeprügelter Wahn: die “Ausgewogenheit”. “Ausgewogen” ist es, wenn man zu einem Politiker X einen Politiker y der Gegenseite befragt. “Ausgewogen” ist es, wenn man zum Thema Impfen A befragt, einen Universitätsprofessor der Medizin, und ihm als gleichwertig einen mit Mühe der Hauptschule entlaufenen Impfgegner B befragt, und A und B als völlig gleichwertig nebeneinander stellt, optisch und akustisch, und beim Print im Layout.
Dann müßte ein koryphäaler Journalist folgerichtig zu jeder Aussage der Kanzler oder der Minister immer jeweils einen Angehörigen der NPD befragen, oder, noch besser, der NSPAD Auslandsorganisation. Alleine das Vorbringen dieser Idee löst wildes Gekreische aus, von akustisch laut bis total schockstumm. Auch die AfD wird rigoros ausgeschlossen.
Die Ausgewogenheit der Journalisten ist am Ende, wenn sie Stimmen zu Worte kommen ließe, die der eigenen Ideologie nicht ins Konzept passen…
Der Kern des Wahns ist die IDEE, zu einer Aussage eine gegenteilige gegenüberstellen zu müssen. Aber das MUSS man nicht, und sehr häufig DARF man es wegen der betreffenden Sache auch nicht!
Das Nebeneinanderstellen von zum Beispiel Impfbefürwortern und Impfgegnern ist extrem dumm, weil die Impfgegner ideologischen Müll und Lügen von sich geben, und obendrein rhetorische Kampfmaschinen sind, im Gegensatz zu vernünftigen Medizinern (die mitunter nicht mal einen einzigen Satz grammatisch fehlerfrei über die Bühne bringen). Aber das WOLLEN Journalisten nicht wahrhaben. Schlimmer als wildgewordene Kinder in der Süßwarenabteilung gebärden sie sich, schlagen wid um sich, blocken jegliche rationalen Argumente radikal ab.
Ein neuer Wahn im Journalismus ist der “konstruktive Journalismus”. Wenn es etwas Negatives zu berichten gibt, dann MUSS auch immer eine Lösung präsentiert werden. Die Ideologie verlangt es: Es MUSS eine Lösung präsentiert werden.
Damit verläßt der Journalist die Neutralität und macht PR.
- “Wir wissen nicht, was Luis Trenker bevorzugt. Wir empfehlen Togal.”
Diese Form der Togal-Werbung war in den 1960-ern ein “running gag”. Sie ist ein Musterbeispiel für “problemlösungsorientierte Werbung”: “XYZ plagt Sie? Dazu haben wir etwas.”
Konstruktiver Journalismus ist ein weit offenes Scheunentor; Myriaden Verkäufer und Lobbyisten werden bei den Journalisten Schlange stehen, wenn sie erfahren, daß zu einem Negativum der Journalist eine Lösung sucht; denn sie haben eine!
Der Journalist verkommt zum Endglied einer Werbemaschine. Falls er nicht von Anfang an eine ist. Und DAVON kann man ausgehen…
Life with a baking automaton
Friday, October 13th, 2017Well, the first thing is to get a bread-making machine. Then buy some 3 to 5 packs of ready-made mixtures. Read the description thoroughly for hidden tricks.
I did that. Only, my memory is bad and I had few chances to recognize the tricks. So I kept the empty packages for later to read them again. Very worth-wile to do that.
With the mixtures make tests. See how the machine works, how the dough is, how it reacts, how the yeast growth changes the dough, etc.
At the beginning one has zero knowledge. So one must observe. And the mistakes most of the times are fun. But not always.
One thing is how the dough grows, driven by the yeast. If the dough volume exceeds the limit, the dough will overflow and fall onto the heating pipes. Would result in terrible stench. So always have an eye on the machine.
One thing most people won’t do: turn the machine upside down. I do that to clear out whatever has fallen into the machine. I do that even if the machine is active – during the rest phase or the baking phase. Take the pot out and tilt the machine. Works.
One thing nearly nobody will ever do: take out the pot while the machine is active. Of course that should not be done when the machine is driving the mixer arm. But when the yeast is given time to develop or during the baking phase it is no problem at all to take out the pot.
As not all things go right all the time it is necessary to take out the pot at some occasions. One is when the dough does not have the right consistency. Sometimes I have to restart the machine, so that it will knead the dough better. It is no problem at all to do that.
When the dough is going up too fast, take out the pot, give it some claps on the side to “scare” the dough … and the situation is saved.
In the manual are some recipes. It is important to get an exact measuring description: How much water? How much flour? Etc. So I have 1 “standard” mix written on a sheet of paper, glued to the cupboard.
After some time of observing one knows about the consistency of the dough over time.
When changing the mixture one has to look at the consistency and what it will do to the finished bread.
Too much water makes the dough more fluid, so the gas will develop faster and blow it up easier and faster. Higher risk of overflow. AND the bread will collapse in the middle because in the baking phase the gas will get out because it takes longer for the heat to reach the inner zone.
Taking out the finished bread too late will cause the crust to become crispy or hard.
Putting the finished bread into a closed box so that the vapor still coming out will build a cloud which “works” the bread, and makes the crust softer.
Too few water will make the bread more like a stone. Good weapon to throw with. ;O)
My last experiment was to put some pears into the microwave oven. I had cut the pears and sliced them with a pommes frites making tool. Was big fun to cut that stuff so easily. The pears are the Japanese Nashi pears. They have very much sap, but are very hard. I put them into the microwave with the peel still on them.
I put about half of the pears into the pot right at the beginning of the kneading. Since the kneading destroys very much of the material I added the rest a short time before the machine stops kneading, just some few minutes.
It is important to know what the machine does over time. My machine makes beep noises. I have no idea what they are good for. But they give me some kind of orientation. One point on the timescale is some minutes before the machine stops kneading. At that point additions can be put in.
The machine starts with a display of 2:50, that is 2 hours and 50 minutes. The baking phase at the end starts at about 45 or so minutes.
The kneading phase actually is several phases. In the first the arm moves in short steps. That is when there is much liquid and much dry flour. Then, after some time, the normal movements begin.
During the kneading phase it is possible to stop the machine and start from zero again. Later, in the resting phase, it is a bit more complicated because the yeast already has developed. The longer time for growth of the yeast rises the risk of overflow after a restart.
On the other hand, when the yeast did not turn out to be effective enough, a restart is a good and easy way to handle that.
During the kneading phase one can add things like fruit or other flours. One is corn flour. So far I tried polenta, a not very fine grained corn flour. It is hard. So one of the experiments was to let it rest with water for some hours to soak up the water and get softer.
But corn polenta is a stubborn stuff. ;O)
Other ingredients might be potatoes. No need to buy the expensive potato powder. Just use cooked potatoes. I am sure that they will make the taste much better.
So far I added apples, pears, polenta, pressed oats (soft ones and crunchy ones). Oats are a phantastic addition. One thing they are extremely good for: prevent too much water vaporizing at the top and making the crust hard. The oats are poured on the top, build a layer, and so lead to a soft and well-tasting surface.
Flours of other cereals I did not buy.
After the kneading phase is over one can take out the pot and make changes. One is to put chocolate drops into the dough. Doing that when the machine still kneads will smear them a bit into the dough. Putting them in after kneading lets the drops keep their form. Putting in the drops during the last 2 minutes of kneading is easy. But one has to have the time table for that. This is why it is important to write that down during the first experiments.
To add something can be done by mixing it into the dough. Or by taking one part of the dough and a second one, like for marble cake. Or by taking out a part of the dough and putting a layer of, say, apples slices in the pot, then cover that with the dough one took out.
I think it is as easy as cooking a soup: throw some stuff in and see what happens.
One ingredient is fat. Too much makes the surface brown. Too few makes it very pale.
As yeast one can use the yeast powder. That is what is in the ready-made mixtures. But of course one can take fresh yeast. In Germany it is sold in the dairy products area of the supermarkets, mostly near butter, cheese, etc.
The bad thing with fresh yeast is that one does not know how active it is. So one has to carefully observe the resting phase of the dough. Too much or too active yeast makes it very active – and the dough is very keen to overflow…
Fresh yeast has the disadvantage of being usable only for a short time before it gets infected with bacteria. One has to keep it in the fridge. The bad thing there: It can not be frosted…
Another bad effect is the flavor. But to use baking powder I so far did not try. But I will.
Some funny ingredients are spices. Like cinnamon. Or aniseed. But garlic powder or herbs of the Provence also are great. Makes really tasty bread, not the usual chemistry stuff taste one gets in the supermarket.
One of the things I always wanted to try is pumpkins. Pumpkins contain a lot of water, just like the pears. So one has to to be very careful with mixing. I put the pumpkins in the microwave to have them cooked. These I put into the pot right at the start, so they will be kneaded thoroughly into the dough.
A second dose of pumpkins I put in shortly before the end of the kneading. This part will not be mashed intensely, and will be very tasty in the finished bread.
I think that material ground very fine and mixed thoroughly in dough does not taste as strong as bigger pieces, which can be chewed. This will lessen the necessary amount to get a full taste.
Well, that is about it. The rest is fun with experimenting.
Mankind’s best friend is the dog. Man’s best friend is the bread-making machine.
Englisch ist eine sehr schlampige Sprache…
Sunday, October 8th, 2017In diesem Artikel
- “Archaeologist explains innovation of ‘fluting’ ancient stone weaponry”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170404160022.htm
geht es um die Herstellung von Pfeilspitzen, speziell um die Technik der Oberflächenbearbeitung.
- Zitat:
{*quote*]
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Kent State University’s Metin Eren, Ph.D., director of archaeology and assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences, and his colleagues are not only asking these questions but testing their unique new theories. They want to better understand the engineering, techniques and purposes of Clovis weapon technologies. Specifically, they study stone projectile points, such as arrowheads and spear points, made by flint knapping, the ancient practice of chipping away at the edges of rocks to shape them into weapons and tools.
In their most recent article published online in the Journal of Archaeological Science, Eren and his co-authors from Southern Methodist University (Brett A. Story, David J. Meltzer and Kaitlyn A. Thomas), University of Tulsa (Briggs Buchanan), Rogers State University (Brian N. Andrews), Texas A&M University and the University of Missouri (Michael J. O’Brien) explain the flint knapping technique of “fluting” the Clovis points, which could be considered the first truly American invention. This singular technological attribute, the flake removal or “flute,” is absent from the stone-tool repertoire of Pleistocene Northeast Asia, where the Clovis ancestors came from.
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[*/quote*]
Die Frage ist: Wie übersetzt man das Wort “flute”?
Eine Suche bei http://www.leo.org bringt eine wahre Flut für “flute”. Ein einziges Wort und eine Riesenmenge von Bedeutungen. Englisch ist in der Tat sehr schlampig.