Misc.

Unwrapping The German Tradition of Schultüte

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Image Credit: Pixabay Schultüte is a cherished tradition in Germany designed to ease the anxieties of the little ones starting first grade. Parents or godparents would make a Schultüte (“school cone”) or a Zuckertüte (“sugar cone”) at home, mark it with the children’s names, and take it to school to hang it in the “Schultütenbaum” (school cone tree). Then, on their first school day, children would pick their cones from the magic Schultütenbaum on the school grounds, careful not to break them. After the …

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End of the Year Favourites (2022)

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It’s that time of the year to look back and review all the things that made my life easier and more pleasant. None of the links below is a referral; I will update this note if I change the links to referrals. As this year was devastating with the war in Ukraine and protests in Iran, I don’t feel in the mental position to share more than the books I enjoyed this year.  Some of the books I liked had a dedicated article on …

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Reading Insights (2022)

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Before the printing press, only a small, literate elite, largely confined to the Church, had access to books, ideas and learning. The power of the Church was rooted in its exclusive access to scriptures and through them to the word of God. This gave the clergy unrivalled control over the people’s minds. The printing and distribution of books unleashed a voracious appetite for literacy and disseminated ideas across national and cultural boundaries on a scale that was previously unimaginable.  Sir Ken Robinson – Out of …

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Writing Insights (2022)

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Sappho is counted as one of the greatest poets of Antiquity, often named “The Tenth Muse” or “The Poetess”. Historically, the “lesbian” term originates from the name of the island of Lesbos, Sappho’s birthplace. A more in-depth description of what sapphic means nowadays can be found on the lgbtqia.fandom.com website.  Sappho wrote thousands of verses, but only about 650 lines have survived. Perhaps the Catholic Church disapproved of her poetry (there are claims that Sappho’s works were burned on the orders of Pope Gregory VII). Or maybe the dialect …

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Between Two Wor(l)ds: Schadenfreude and Mudita

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There are four possible ways in which we can combine our reactions when we observe another person’s happiness or unhappiness: we can feel pleasure at another’s unhappiness (schadenfreude), displeasure at another’s unhappiness (compassion), displeasure at another’s happiness (envy), or pleasure at their happiness (mudita). Schadenfreude is a word borrowed from German, composed by Schaden (“damage/harm”) and Freude (“joy”). Thus, schadenfreude means tingling or even waves of pleasure noticing another’s misfortunes. The critical difference between schadenfreude and sadism is that sadism gives pleasure by inflicting pain. In contrast, …

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Seeing the World through the Japanese Concept of Wabi-Sabi

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Wabi-sabi is a Japanese concept through which the world is accepted as beautifully imperfect with humble and subtle flaws as it naturally grows and decays. Etymologically, the noun wabi is better understood through its adjective form wabishii (wretched, dreadful). In time, a negative connotation of wabi transformed through the influence of Zen philosophy, with its core concepts of accepting and contemplating imperfection and impermanence, into the quiet simplicity of rustic beauty, for things created by nature or people.  Wabi is beauty coming from subtle imperfections.  The noun sabi is …

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When Incentives Fail. A Story about Rats, Cobras, Nails, and Atrocities. 

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Part 1: When Incentives Fail. A Story about Rats, Cobras, Nails, and Atrocities.  Part 2: Avoiding Perverse Incentives  More than a century ago, the French colonialists decided to modernize the French Indochina, especially its capital, Hanoi. Large areas of Hanoi were cleared to accommodate French-style districts with boulevards, bridges, palaces, villas and gardens. This major infrastructure project was supposed to transform Hanoi from a cramped and narrow city into a symbol of France’s “civilising” mission in Indochina.  A sign of cleanliness and civilization was …

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What Makes Finland a Happy Country

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A few weeks ago, the World Happiness Report published its yearly global survey results about how people from more than 150 countries worldwide evaluated their lives. The full report can be found here (page 22). What is the methodology for ranking countries based on their happiness? The polling company Gallup conducts interviews with hundreds of thousands of people across the nations included in the report. People assess their own happiness using a scale from 1 to 10, responding to questions such as if they smiled, laughed or experienced …

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