Author Archives: Andrea

Linnéa und ihre Brüder

WDR Doku: Kranke Kinder: Sterben kann ich, wenn ich tot bin. (YouTube, 43min; Erstausstrahlung im TV 2017)

“Er will auf dem Brett stehen, das hat sich Tjorben geschworen. Einmal die Welle reiten, solange es sein Körper noch kann.

Tjorben ist 10 Jahre, als der Autor Alexander Ruda anfängt, ihn und seine Familie zu begleiten. Er trifft Tjorben und seine Schwester Linnéa in Dänemark, in einem Surf Camp. Tjorben ist krank, genau wie sein älterer Bruder Finn. Beide leiden an Muskeldystrophie. Die statistische Lebenserwartung der an dieser Krankheit leidenden Menschen ist deutlich verkürzt.

Mutter Tanja (40) hält die Familie zusammen. Seit dem Tod ihres jüngsten Sohnes arbeitet sie als Trauerbegleiterin, weil sie mit ihren Erfahrungen anderen helfen möchte. Woher nimmt sie die Kraft, worin findet sie Halt? Wie überwinden sie und ihr Mann Frank (59) die dunklen Momente in der Familie? Die Angst, die Zweifel, die Wut auf das Schicksal? Und was bedeutet es für Tjorben (12) und Finn (15), ein verkürztes Leben vor sich zu haben? Muss man schneller leben? Intensiver?

Nach drei Tagen im Meer schafft er es: Tjorben reitet die Welle. Zum ersten Mal und vielleicht auch zum letzten Mal. Das aber ist ihm egal. In guten Zeiten zählt nur der Augenblick.”

Spoiler: Mirrors don’t flip left and right.

Minute Physics: Why Do Mirrors Flip Left & Right (but not up & down)? (Youtube, 3:23min) “This video is about why words flip left & right (aka horizontally) in a mirror but not up & down (aka vertically). The answer has to do with specular reflection, mirrors being like windows into another world (alternate universes, just with in and out flipped!), and transparency of the things we write on.”

Probably the best explanations I’ve seen/heard about mirrors so far.

“Women have their place in the world, but they do not belong in the Canyon of the Colorado.“

The Atavist Magazine: The Wild Ones. “People said that women had no place in the Grand Canyon and would likely die trying to run the Colorado River. In 1938, two female scientists set out to prove them wrong.”

“Not least among the journey’s many dangers, according to “experienced river men“ who refused to give their names to the national newspapers covering the expedition, was the presence of women in the party. Only one woman had ever attempted the trip through the Grand Canyon. Her name was Bessie Hyde, and she’d vanished with her husband, Glen, on their honeymoon in 1928. Their boat was found empty. Their bodies were never recovered.

Unnamed sources told reporters that the two women in the crew were “one of the hazards, as they are ‘so much baggage’ and would probably need help in an emergency.“ They were scientists—botanists, to be precise. “So they’re looking for flowers and Indian caves,“ a river runner said. “Well, I don’t know about that, but I do know they’ll find a peck of trouble before they get through.“

In fact, Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter had come from Michigan with much hardier plants in mind. Tucked into side canyons, braving what Jotter called “barren and hellish“ conditions, were tough, spiny things: species of cactus that no one had ever catalogued before. Clover and Jotter would become the first people to do so—if they survived.”

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7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 and finally 63

The New York Times Magazine: Does Who You Are at 7 Determine Who You Are at 63? “In 1964, with “Seven Up!“ Michael Apted stumbled into making what has become the most profound documentary series in the history of cinema. Fifty-five years later, the project is reaching its conclusion.”

“To spend time with a child is to dwell under the terms of an uneasy truce between the possibility of the present and the inevitability of the future. Our deepest hope for the children we love is that they will enjoy the liberties of an open-ended destiny, that their desires will be given the free play they deserve, that the circumstances of their birth and upbringing will be felt as opportunities rather than encumbrances; our greatest fear is that they will feel thwarted by forces beyond their control. At the same time, we can’t help poring over their faces and gestures for any signals of eventuality — the trace hints and betrayals of what will emerge in time as their character, their plot, their fate. And what we project forward for the children in our midst can rarely be disentangled from what we project backward for ourselves.”

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