Time travel

Thanks to Planet Schule time travel (Zeitreise) is possible. This site aims to help German children learn about a variety of subjects and the offerings include simulations, interactive animations, educational games and much more. Well worth a look if you want to learn German to talk or write about the topics covered. You may no longer be a child but you can still enjoy and learn from these. Perhaps human cultural development in the early stone age (Kulturelle Entwicklung des Menschen in der Altsteinzeit) isn't going to take you far in the streets of a modern German city but it might help you in a museum.

I'm interested more in recent history and so two Zeitreisen were of particularly interest Chronologie des Mauerfalls and Kriegskinder You can pick out years for which you want more information and click on pictures to bring up more information.

Happy time travel!

Is there anybody out there?

Not a question about why there's been no comments but that age-old speculation about whether extra-terrestrial life might one day be discovered. I tend to be open minded on this question but I am fascinated about how modern telescopes are beginning to find planets outside our solar system. This is well covered in the latest episode of Quarks & Co

Mit immer leistungsstärkeren Teleskopen blicken Wissenschaftler in den Himmel – getrieben von der großen Frage: Gibt es eine „zweite Erde“, gibt es vielleicht sogar Leben im All? Inzwischen haben sie über 400 Exoplaneten entdeckt – Planeten außerhalb unseres Sonnensystems. Quarks & Co begibt sich auf eine faszinierende Reise ins Universum und erklärt, wie man die Wahrscheinlichkeit von fernen Zivilisationen „berechnen“ kann.

You can access all the Quarks videos here - the one I'm talking about is Exoplaneten – Die Suche nach der zweiten Erde and to download the accompanying PDF click here

The wrong trousers and old clothes

What do you do with your old clothes? I guess many of us take them to charity shops if they're in a reasonable condition. I'm not certain there's an equivalent in Germany so let me know if I'm mistaken.

I did come across something about collecting clothing on a German church website

Was tun, wenn die Hosen nicht mehr passen oder einfach nicht mehr modisch sind. Bloß nicht wegwerfen, sagt Bettina Körtge vom Diakonischen Werk Jerichower Land. Tragbare Kleidung nimmt die Diakonie in Burg gerne

Burg is a town in Sachsen-Anhalt. There's an audio report accompanying the piece so take a look at http://www.ekmd.de/aktuellpresse/nachrichten/20018.html and learn German words about to do with helping the needy - Bedürftige