Science meets Comedy

You think science only involves boring equations, difficult formulas, numbers, data... - anything but fun? Read this post and think again!

Maybe some of you know poetry slams. After all, they have become quite popular recently. In a normal poetry slam, an artist has five minutes to present a text he or she has written themselves. Whispering, shouting, screaming - everything is allowed, but they must not sing (at least not during their whole performance) or use instruments. Also, artists are not allowed to use any requisites. In a poetry slam, the audience decides who wins by rating the performances with numbers or applause.

While in a normal poetry slam you should entertain your audience or make them re-evaluate their view of a topic, in a science slam the main goal is to inform the audience about your field of research. If you can entertain them at the same time, or change their views on your subject - even better! Performers of a science slam are apparently allowed to use requisites, and they have six minutes instead of five for their presentation.

In a science slam, it is less important to pay attention to the language you are using. Performers don't need to think of clever rhymes or puns, it is more important to explain their work in a simple way and show why they are fascinated by it. Most importantly, maybe, they are trying to convince the audience that research is not just something that happens far away from our daily lives in laboratories, but something that concerns us all and can make our lives easier and better.

In Austria, science slams take place approximately every three months, but the location changes, so it might take a while until there is one in a city near you. In the meantime, you can watch this video of Martin Moder, who was elected best Austrian science slammer and will take part in the European science slam finals later this year. Unfortunately, the video is in German. Generally, science slams don't seem to be popular in the English-speaking world yet. You can try your luck on youtube, where some of the videos have at least English subtitles.

Fans of the "real" poetry slam might denounce science slams because they differ too much from the original concept of a poetry slam, especially because they don't pay attention to linguistic aspects. However, I think they are a great way to bring various fields of scientific research closer to a large audience. Maybe they will encourage someone to study something scientific, or maybe it will change someone's mind about genetic modification and the like.

whatever makes you "glow"

It's been a while since I published my last post. This is because I had a lot of work to do for university, but also because I decided to put some serious quality time into my language learning. 

During the Easter holidays, I spent a week in Sweden with two of my friends. We don't speak Swedish but a friend of mine and I have recently started to learn Norwegian. When we heard people talking in Swedish - which is phonetically not so distant from Norwegian - we suddenly had a vivid connection to the Norwegian language and were totally motivated to put more effort into studying it back home.

In Sweden, we also met a German guy who studies in Brazil and can speak seven languages more or less fluently. If you need proof, watch this video! Unfortunately, he left Stockholm only one day after we had arrived, but on that one evening we spent together in our hostel's kitchen, he gave us many valuable tips and showed us some useful websites that might help us improve our language skills.

One of these websites (okay, it's a blog, not a website) is The Polyglot Dream. This is a blog owned by an Italian man who can speak ten languages. He blogs about his language learning skills, but also about the culture of different countries and about his trips to different places. Every post comes with at least one audio file - sometimes you can read and listen to the same text in as many as five different languages! I love blog posts with accompanying audio files because I feel that good quality acoustic input is often too little, but the most important phase in a conversation is the active listening - you have to understand what the other person is trying to tell you before you get to try to formulate your answer! I recommend you to listen to this interview about the role of talent in language acquisition. It lasts for half an hour but it is definitely worth listening to. Their views on the topic are interesting and it is highly motivational as well.

Some weeks ago I also borrowed an Italian audio book from the library. The book is called "Novecento" and it talks about a boy who is born on a cruise ship that goes back and forth between Europe and America. The boy becomes a piano virtuoso who plays for the guests on board. However, he refuses to leave the ship and people start wondering why...

I loved the story because it was written like a play and even contained poems. It was quite easy to understand, too. I have already decided that I will borrow some more Italian audio books from the library next week.

As far as Norwegian is concerned, I'm still searching for a good resource to use. I listened to a Norwegian radio station but there is mostly music and only little talk. It is a bit frustrating that my level is not high enough to follow a normal conversation yet because that limits the range of videos and audio files I can listen to. I listened to some children's stories but I was soon fed up with them because they were too ridiculous...to sum up, I'm still investigating Norwegian resources.

If you are still reading at this point, you might have wondered what the title has to do with all of this. Well, whatever makes you "glow", whatever makes you happy, excited, whatever you find intriguing will help you boost your level in a language :-)

The ultimate Styrian food experience

Today, we were finally given the corrected texts from our first progress check. We had to recommend a location where you can get the ultimate Styrian food experience. I chose the 'Stubenberghaus', a restaurant on top of a mountain where I had been working as a waitress for one whole summer.

If you want to try typical Austrian dishes in an extraordinary location, the ‘Stubenberghaus’ is the place to go. It is located on top of the ‘Schöckl’, a mountain north of Graz. The best time to visit the ‘Stubenberghaus’ is in summer. Even if it is unbearably hot in the city, it is relatively cool on top of the mountain. I recommend booking a table if you want to enjoy the breath-taking view from their terrace. This is because there are usually a great number of tourists and hikers.

Since all the ingredients have to be brought to the restaurant by cable car, the choice of dishes is somewhat limited. However, they also have home-made specials consisting of seasonal ingredients that are quite tasty.

If you like meat, try the ‘Kürbiskernschnitzel’, a piece of pork that is covered in flour, egg and pumpkin seeds and then deep-fried. Even though I do not usually like the taste of meat, it was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, the ‘Stubenberghaus’ does not cater specifically for vegetarians or vegans. Non-meat-eaters are best asking the staff, who all speak English, for a vegetarian option. Anyone with a sweet tooth is advised to order the ‘Kaiserschmarren’, a typical Austrian dessert that resembled shredded pancakes. It will be freshly prepared for you and served with sugary plum jam. I strongly advise you not to order one for you alone however unless it is your main course – it is simply too filling.

Dining at the ‘Stubenberghaus’ may be a bit pricey for a student, but having lunch while enjoying a stunning view of Graz and its surroundings is a memorable experience that should definitely not be missed.

I am honestly surprised that I got such a good mark on my test because I was not completely content with it. After the exam, I felt like I should have used more new vocabulary. Sometimes I had a somewhat unelegant way to express myself, but our teachers provided great suggestions that helped me rewrite the text in a (hopefully) better way.

a creative waste of time

Talking on the phone...

in a boring lecture at university...

on a long bus/train ride or flight...

What do we do? We start doodling.

Nothing special, right?

Wrong.

Some people have realized the creative and meditative potential that lies in everyday doodling. They thought that this form of art needs more recognition and coined the term "zentangling". Zentagles are usually drawn with a black pen on paper squares that are 9cm in width. They consist only of a variety of repetitive abstract patterns, lines and curves. Since the patterns are abstract, there are no mistakes and you are not supposed to erase anything. This website, for example, has collected many different patterns, instructions and variations. Zentangle has its own website, where you can read about their philosophy and methods. They also have a blog where you can see wonderful doodles.

At first, I found it quite ridiculous that Zentangle is promoted so excessively, with its own website, books and a drawing kit with tiles and pens you can order. Nonetheless, I was bored and suddenly felt like drawing some of the patterns I had seen online. 

The first one did not turn out very pretty. In fact, I was disappointed that my pattern looked nothing like the one I had seen online, but I had a sudden motivation to try another one. I put on some relaxing music - this playlist by Justin Vernon, by the way - and started tangling again. At some point, I heard a knocking at my door. It was my mum, who was furious because I had been on the computer (listening to music) for more than two hours. Yes, I spent two full hours doodling!

These are the ones I drew:

If I said that those were two wasted hours, I would be lying. Actually, the doodling was a form of meditation and I feel completely relaxed now. It is also oddly rewarding to be creative in such a simple way.

I still feel opposed to the fact that something so natural as doodling is being commercialised, but that does not mean that doodling itself is a worthless pastime. Quite the opposite, it is challenging and at the same time calming - two hours doodling are definitely more fun than two hours of watching TV.

As always, there are some people who put more effort into their work than others, and their doodles are undeniably works of art:

Let's vote!

“We must go back to teach Europeans to love Europe.”

Jean Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, El Pais, 2004

From May 22 to May 25, millions of people will have the right to elect the new members of the European Parliament, in short EMPs. In the last elections in 2009, only a little more than 43% of all EU citizens used their right to vote, and I fear that the number will not be much different this year. In my opinion, one of the main problems is that many people have no idea what the European Parliament actually does. To be honest, I had no idea either, but I decided to investigate and present you a summary here.

There are 751 MEPs representing the citizens of the European Union in the European Parliament. How many members a state can elect depends on its size, but no state has less than six representatives. The largest state, Germany, has 96. Normally, MEPs with similar political views – regardless of their nationality - will form fractions in order to make it easier to represent their interests.

What does the European Parliament do? In short, it has three main roles:

passing European laws

The Parliament receives a proposal, an idea for a law, from the Commission. It discusses the law and can make amendments. The proposal is then sent to the Council, and if the Council approves it it becomes a law. If the Council does not like the idea, it will be sent back to the Parliament for a second reading, where the proposal can be accepted, amended again or rejected.

controlling and monitoring the Commission to make sure they are working democratically

The Parliament can examine reports produced by the Commission, or it can question Commissioners. If necessary, the Parliament can set up committees of inquiry.

When national leaders meet for European Council summits, Parliament gives its opinion on the topics on the agenda.

budgetary power

The Parliament and the Council propose a number for the annual budget of the EU. Like with laws, the Parliament and Council need to be of the same opinion in order for the budget to be adopted. The Parliament can amend the budget plan. 

Here is a short video summarising the election process:

I hope you feel better informed now. See you at the elections, hopefully :-)

If you want to read more about MEPs, these are the pages I took the information from:

http://europa.eu/about-eu/institutions-bodies/european-parliament/index_en.htm

http://www.eu2014.at/europawahl-2014-faq/ (in German)