December 31st 2012 – on New Year’s Eve many of us decided on a list of new year’s resolutions, be it to work harder, spend more time with family and friends, loose weight and get fitter and so on. However, after only a few days many of us have forgotten … Continue reading
This week we will continue our music series on famous classical pieces with Beethoven’s masterpiece: Symphony No. 9 (Op. 125). This piece is one of the best known works in the Western classical repertoire and the European Anthem is based on the final movement, the Ode to Joy. Most people … Continue reading
Christmas is nigh and after the past stressful weeks at work and some frantic shopping sprees, we finally get to sit together with our family and friends, eating copious amounts of turkey, goose or duck, followed by sweet desserts and a plethora of presents. This is the time of year … Continue reading
The moon has always been an object of mystic interest to humans. Some nights we see it clearly and bright; during full moon and when the sky is clear. Other nights we look for the moon in vain, for instance when the sky is clouded over. Interestingly we only ever … Continue reading
Don’t we all wish to live long and healthily without any diseases such as dementia, diabetes or a weak heart? Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, a Dutch woman who passed away in 2005 at the age of 115, lived through three centuries without any health problems and was told to be “as fit … Continue reading
What is quality and what are values? This is the integral question Robert Pirsig asks in his book “Lila”, which is a sequel to his famous novel “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance”. City Connect reported on the latter book previously, and now we will continue the philosophical debate. … Continue reading
“We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone.” Zen and the art of … Continue reading
A good night’s sleep is important for many reasons and researches have found another good reason why it is so important to rest calmly during the night. Your memory sharpens during sleep, when your brain puts all the information you acquired during the day in order. This phenomenon has been … Continue reading
City Connect commemorates River Phoenix, the older brother of Joaquin Phoenix, who died on October 31 1993 under tragic personal circumstances. His work encompassed 24 films and television appearances, including the coming-of-age film Stand by Me, the science fiction adventure Explorers, the action sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the … Continue reading
May 22 in 1878 in the Eglise Saint Sulpice in Paris/France. That was the date when Saint-Saëns’ masterpiece was performed for the first time. He dedicated this work to his benefactor Albert Libon. This event was preceded by some sad events in the composer’s private life. Both his sons had … Continue reading
When we open the newspapers in the morning or switch on the evening news on the TV we are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of bad news. Most newspaper articles will focus on the negatives in the world, which will have the same effect on our psyche: stress, disappointment, fear, … Continue reading
Have you ever felt a tingling sensation in your muscles during a work-out? Do you sometimes feel faint after heavy exercise? Are you sluggish after a heavy cardiovascular session and you feel more exhausted than you should? Besides the fact that your training regime might be completely wrong, you may … Continue reading
Many of us will have had problems with acne before to varying extents at different stages of our life. It is never pretty and can be a nuisance for us as it itches, can lower our self-esteem and it looks unhealthy. But how can we reduce it? Acne can arise … Continue reading
Often we read in newspapers about the pursuit of happiness, often sounding as if it were the only thing that people are looking for these days. But what exactly is that happiness we are searching for? Can we really be truly happy? Why does everyone always talk about “looking for … Continue reading
This week, I will present some inspirational quotes again, which will hopefully inspire you, dear reader, to reflect on your life and the relations you have with other people. Often we live one hectic day after the next and forget to sit down and contemplate about what we are doing. … Continue reading
One of the true wonders of nature and life is birth, and many a times couples have been contemplating the question that has been occupying human beings possibly since the beginning of humankind: will it be a boy or a girl? There are tests available these days, such as ultrasound, … Continue reading
Getting a six pack can be a hard task and many people have tried to get a flat stomach doing lots of abdominal exercises. There are countless exercises for this muscle group and fitness models present their perfectly sculptured and flat stomach in almost every exercise video. But why do so … Continue reading
The world of biology was relatively quiet and untainted, whereas other natural sciences such as physics and chemistry had suffered from some bad reputations. Nuclear physics is now associated with the tragedies of Chernobyl and Fukushima and chemistry has been associated with pesticides, dangerous drugs and horrible toxins. But the … Continue reading
Where do we come from and who are we? Who were our ancestors? Why are we the dominant intelligent species on this planet and what made us be the first organism to create such a technological revolution? Who exactly are we? Who is Homo sapiens? These questions have been occupying … Continue reading
Some people might argue that certain things should not be interfered with and others may say that it is irresponsible not to control it. In our modern society, raising children has become increasingly difficult and is an increasingly huge responsibility, possibly more than ever before. Things have changed in the … Continue reading
Have you ever come home, opened your fridge and wondered what to have for dinner with the few ingredients you have available? Have you ever come back home and ordered some take away since what you had really wasn’t so promising? These scenarios seem to become more and more common … Continue reading
Astronauts on long space missions may not be able to take antibiotics to treat infections or aspirin to treat headaches, simply because drugs have been found to decay much faster in space than on earth. A recent study in the AAPS Journal found, that the half-life of drugs is much … Continue reading
Recently I came across the recordings of “Tabaluga”, a German children’s story by the pop star Peter Maffay. It is old now and probably not quite what children are listening to these days, but the central message is powerful and still holds. Tabaluga is a small dragon who is making … Continue reading
A few decades ago, the international community published guidelines for athletes, trying to ban performance enhancing drugs in order to guarantee the safety of sportsmen and -women and ensure fair competitions. The phenomenon of enhancing an individual’s performance in sports is also known as doping. Although these guidelines exist for … Continue reading
Recently, the scientific Journal Nature published an interesting theory online. Astronomers believe that the surface area of a distant star is influenced by the gravity of a huge alien planet. Earth’s moon is responsible for the tides that we observe here on Earth and equally, so the astronomers argue, the … Continue reading
This week I am continuing our music series on another very famous piece of romantic classical music: The Requiem of the German composer Johannes Brahms. The requiem carries the obscure title “Ein Deutsches Requiem” (A German Requiem) and the lyrics are in German as opposed to Latin used in most … Continue reading