Living where other people spend their holidays

Life

My wife and I have a new project. We are renovating a new home in the Black Forest. A truly lovely place to be. The woods around produce a lot of good air, oxygen and positive energy. Hiking trails are nearby. We instantly perceived a kind of ‘revitalization’ on the spot. And it is an area where other people go for vacation. OK, in all honesty, there is also a lot of work to be done as we are factually fundamentally renovating the house. On some days this might be more a challenge (esp. when it is about bureaucratic paper chase). On others it is absolutely fun planning how we are going to live and making it happen hands-on. And a great opportunity to get the brain freed from mental load and a more intellectual day-to-day…

The Art of Aquascaping

Life

During the boring COVID-19 lock-downs I rediscovered one of my childhoods hobbies, fishkeeping. I wanted to fight a bit the personal lows with my department, all being stuck at home alone for a few months already and likely a few more. So, I gave ourselves a summer-at-home challenge to do something creative. Something fun also bringing back positive energy. Something where we could remotely but jointly enjoy well invested quality time. I myself had the urgent need to do something with my hands, something creative and something real. Not just colorful slides on the screen but being perceptible by all senses. And with exploring opportunities, I realized that since I had been involved years ago my previous hobby fishkeeping had actually developed into an art. Inspired and driven by the (meanwhile) legendary Japanese designer, photographer and aquarist Takashi Amano, who had factually reinvented field. At the time I had to retire my last tank ~20 years ago, fishkeeping had been a more frumpy activity, honestly spoken. This didn’t stop me from enjoying it. But it it was mostly about discussing best ways to keep the water clean, who has the largest tank, and who keeps the most fancy fish species. Back to it in 2020, I learned that today it is about creatively designing a piece of nature, a realistic landscape, in any tank size (with smaller ones actually leading the movement), and sometimes even without any fish. Amano’s work had completely transformed the whole space. An amazing example how something hackneyed, insipid, stuck has been turned into something completely new and amazing. By a single individual who had a vision and made it happen. By combining tradition, (local) culture & philosophy, implementation capability, and creativity. And not to be forgotten, Amano grew a huge and global business out of it. Which also enabled professional opportunities many other people who became professional aquascape designers, influencers and vendors. My personal aquascaping ambitions are way less professional. I enjoy designing underwater nature sceneries as a creative & hands-on counterbalance to my more intellectual & hands-off day-to-day job. By the way, the COVID-lock-down team activity had been an awesome success. We had lot of fun with sharing individual artwork and results. Some people (like me) rediscovered buried interests and talents … others discovered new ones. It helped us all to keep a good mental health and staying close at challenging…

Photographic Workshop in the Black Forest

Life

People who know me a bit better also know that photography is my personal passion. Even provided it is not really my preferred genre, but I took an opportunity to improve my capabilities on landscape photography at a 1-day small-group workshop in the Black Forest, Germany. Together with a professional photographer we started in the darkness of the pre-sunrise morning, walking up the Herzogenhorn peak (where the photo above was shot). This was followed by additional locations around, the Feldsee (lake) and the Fahler Wasserfall (waterfall). Photography is my perfect way to clearing my head and resetting my brain. Looking to the world through a lens makes you being fully focused and concentrated. Photography allowed me to learn how different perspectives can be and how exciting it is to explore different ones. Some selected shots by me @Flickr…

Müllheim Chamber Choir performing “Sunrise Mass” and “Tango Mass”

Life

Music was my first love … and I really enjoy playing it. As a young man I had been a quite active trumpet player. For the last ~20 years I switched to singing in a choir. I particularly enjoy doing music together with others, forming one orchestrated musical body, listening to each other, contributing to a unified sound, and – certainly – performing on stage. Plus, it is pure fun. On December 14th/15th 2024, the Müllheim Chamber Choir (I am singing in) performed two fantastic pieces of music, the “Sunrise Mass” by Ola Gjeilo and the “Misatango” by Martin Palmeri … who I had the pleasure to meet and sing together with a couple of years ago. But this is another story. I am sharing some YouTube clips of the Müllheim Chamber Choir below. Curious if you can spot me. And looking forward seeing you at one of our next…

Leaving 2015 positively

Life Opinion

2015 has been a good year!

It might not appear as such on the first view. And unfortunately there are always enough “devaluators” who are first and foremost fixated on crises and conflicts.

But a lot of positive and good things happened in 2015 which are worth to look back on. In the German newspaper DIE ZEIT (#52, 23.12.2015) Hannes Soltau, Merlind Theile and Doreen Borsutzki published a remarkable collection of facts.

Sense and sensibility

Life Opinion Science

Traditionally an old years end is the time of reflections. No, I do not mean the bright glittering snow in some people winter holidays. I am talking about thoughts regarding the sense of life. Did I get the best out of the old year? Could I have done something better? What will be in the new year, what challenges and tasks are waiting for me? And what are my personal priorities in life? As a young PhD student – quite a few years ago – I read a Science article by Gregg Easterbrook about the social as well as ethical conflicts between science and religion. Surprisingly it did not pick out the inconsistency of both but their reconciliation as a central theme. During these days I have had many committed discussions as a scientist defending the evolutionary theory against creationists as well as defending my Christian faith against science believers. Yes, I am a Christian and a scientist (but not a “christian scientist”!). To my opinion there is no true incompatibility but just two sides of a single coin. And so I always found myself between the lines. Assumed there would really be incompatibility. Should it not be possible to have the sensibility to tolerate each others position? Should it not be possible to have the sensibility to accept that there are different levels of consciousness? Let us have a look to some of the battles fought in the US “bible belt” about what children should be taught in school, e.g.. Sorry for being honest but sometimes it seems to me like children from the kindergarden squabbling for their Lego. Who is going to tell them that they will have more fun and will be more successful when playing together? Telling you my point of view: science is giving the knowledge, faith – independent if Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Naturalistic, or whatever – is giving the sense. Both together create wisdom. In other words, science tells us how the world works, religion tells us for what the world works. One cannot without the other, or as Gregg Easterbrook used to say “they have linked destinies”. Originally published in January 2001 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…