Satire und Humor
Credit phb Humor ist wenn man trotzdem lacht … Frage: Was macht Frau, wenn man lacht? Satire – Die Kunst…
Read MoreWhich animal would you compare yourself to and why? Why is the mother of all questions: Not because of the ivory, though ... When observing elephants in Namibia and Zimbabwe at the Chobe National Park for weeks, I came to the conclusion, I wished I was a mighty Elephant Bull in my next live. Not a monkey.
POTUS and Corruption How Power corrupts ...The ZDF documentary series Trump — Die Spur des Geldes arrives at precisely the right moment — and asks precisely the right question. Do Trump's politics and his family's business dealings merge into one? A look at global deals, loyal networks, and their consequences for the United States and the world. [ZDF](https://www.zdf.de/dokus/trump-die-spur-des-geldes-100)This is not tabloid journalism. It is investigative documentary filmmaking in the European public broadcasting tradition — methodical, sourced, and uncomfortable.The series, by authors Tristan Söhngen and Jörg Levsen, follows the connections between politics and private enterprise during Trump's second term, with filming locations including New York, Washington, Singapore, Southeast Asia — and even a small town in North Rhine-Westphalia. (https://www.prisma.de/news/tv/Die-Trump-Connection-Das-Geschaeft-mit-der-Macht-ZDF-Dokumentation-ueber-Donald-Trump-und-sein-politisches-Amt-sowie-seine-persoenlichen-Interessen,55922075) That last detail alone is worth pausing over. The reach of Trumpian financial entanglements into the German heartland is not a metaphor. It is a documented fact.The film shows how Trump governs without any separation from his business empire, and how political decisions, economic interests, and personal networks are interlocked — at crypto conferences, construction projects, and in regulatory decisions that place loyalty above competence. (https://www.magdeburg-klickt.de/doku-die-trump-connection-das-geschaeft-mit-der-macht-zdf-2015-2100-uhr/) The dismantling of anti-corruption mechanisms and the restructuring of the Department of Justice compound the picture: transparency and the separation of powers are being systematically undermined. [Magdeburg](https://www.magdeburg-klickt.de/doku-die-trump-connection-das-geschaeft-mit-der-macht-zdf-2015-2100-uhr/)For educators, the series raises questions that go well beyond American politics. What we are witnessing is a structural collapse of…
It has been a few weeks since I wanted to share this song. Finally, talking with my 100-years-self, I release it for all of you.Hace unas semanas que quería compartir esta canción. Finalmente, tras hablar con mi yo-centenario, la publico para todos vosotros. Democracy, are you still in there? // Democracia, ¿Sigues ahí?
History as Human ExperienceKen Follett's Century Trilogy: A ReviewPeter H Bloecker | Burleigh Waters, Gold CoastThere is a moment in Fall of Giants, the first volume of Ken Follett's Century Trilogy, when a young Welsh miner and a Russian revolutionary find themselves on opposite sides of a war that neither of them chose, yet both of them understand. It is a small moment in a vast novel — barely half a page. But it carries the weight of the entire project: history is not made by the powerful. It is endured, shaped, and ultimately survived by ordinary people who happen to be standing in its path.The Century Trilogy — Fall of Giants (World War I), Winter of the World (World War II), and Edge of Eternity (Cold War to 1989) — is an act of narrative ambition that few contemporary writers would attempt. Across three volumes and roughly 3,500 pages, Follett traces five interconnected families — Welsh, English, Russian, German, and American — through the defining catastrophes of the twentieth century. The result is something rare in popular fiction: a serious work dressed in the clothes of entertainment.The Architecture of the ProjectFollett is, above all, a structural engineer of narrative. His plots do not meander — they are load-bearing. Like the cathedral in his earlier masterwork The Pillars of the Earth, the Century Trilogy is built with extraordinary care: each family…
What is the last thing you learned? There is no last thing, as I learn about three new things per day. My definition of learning is very unique and only valid for myself: Observe and focus and reflect. Inspired by Atomic Habits and other authors. We all are standing on the shoulders of giants. Like Einstein. And many others. We are born to learn daily.
Credit phb Humor ist wenn man trotzdem lacht … Frage: Was macht Frau, wenn man lacht? Satire – Die Kunst des indirekten AngriffsEin kurzer Essay mit Blick auf die deutsche Tradition Satire lügt nicht. Sie übertreibt – und trifft damit genauer als jede nüchterne Bestandsaufnahme. Das ist ihr Paradox und ihr Geheimnis. In der deutschen Kulturtradition allerdings hat dieses Paradox eine besondere Geschichte – und eine besondere Schwierigkeit.Denn die Deutschen, so das hartnäckige Vorurteil, besitzen keinen Humor. Das stimmt natürlich nicht. Was sie bisweilen fehlt, ist die Leichtigkeit im Umgang mit der Ironie – jener kulturellen Technik, die zwischen dem Gesagten und dem Gemeinten einen Abstand hält, ohne diesen Abstand durch Fußnote oder Erklärung zu schließen. Eine schwierige Erbschaft, in der Tat. Die deutsche Satire hat große Namen hervorgebracht – und war dennoch stets mit einem Unbehagen behaftet. Heinrich Heine, der vielleicht schärfste satirische Geist der deutschen Literatur, musste sein Werk größtenteils im Pariser Exil schreiben. Der Prophet im eigenen Land: zu unbequem, zu bissig, zu präzise. Seine Lobgesänge auf König Ludwig oder die Zeitgedichte treffen die deutsche Selbstgefälligkeit mit einer Eleganz, die bis heute irritiert, weil die Ironie nie ganz aufgelöst wird, weil der Leser im Ungewissen bleibt, ob er lachen oder erschrecken soll.Das ist kein Zufall. Heine verstand, was gute Satire leisten muss: Sie darf das Unbehagen nicht auflösen. Sie muss es kultivieren.Tucholsky, ein Jahrhundert später, trieb dasselbe Spiel,…
Credit phb From Mud to Mind: Geometry, Language and the Origins of Abstraction A meditation on how humanity learned to think beyond the visible There is a remarkable story hidden inside the word Geometrie. Its Greek roots — γῆ (gē, earth) and μέτρον (métron, measure) — tell us that this most abstract of disciplines began in the mud. Every year, the Nile flooded its banks and erased the boundary markers of Egyptian farmland. Surveyors waded back into the delta to remeasure, recalculate, and re-divide. Geometrie was, at its birth, a practical technology of survival and ownership — not of the mind, but of the foot and the rope and the saturated soil. And then something extraordinary happened. The Greeks took this earthy craft and asked: what are the principles behind it? Euclid, writing around 300 BCE, produced the Elements — thirteen books that never once mention a Nile flood, a piece of land, or a boundary dispute. Instead he offered points, lines, planes, and axioms: a world of pure relation, stripped of all material content. Geometry had undergone its first great Abstraktion — the leap from the particular to the universal, from mud to mind. Sprache: When the Word Detached from the World A parallel story unfolded in the origins of language itself — though we are still, millennia later, trying to understand it fully. The German word Sprache connects to…
Projektwoche Klasse 11 – Wenn die Erde bebt | Bloecker Blog Gymnasium Oberstufe · Projektwoche · Klasse 11 Wenn die Erde bebt — Literatur,Krieg und die Fragenach dem Menschen Ein fächerübergreifendes Unterrichtsprojekt mit KI-Unterstützung · Voltaire · Kleist · Geschichte Fächer Deutsch · Geschichte · Politik · Philosophie Stufe Klasse 11 · LK & GK Dauer Eine Projektwoche von P. H. Blöcker Zwei Texte. Dasselbe Erdbeben. Fünf Kriege. Eine Frage — lernt die Menschheit aus Katastrophen, oder wiederholt sie dieselben Mechanismen unter neuen Namen? 01 · Konzept & LernzieleWarum diese Projektwoche? Diese Projektwoche verbindet zwei kanonische Texte der deutschsprachigen Schullektüre — Voltaires Candide (1759) und Kleists Das Erdbeben in Chili (1807) — mit fünf historischen Kriegs- und Konfliktzenarien des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts. Ziel ist keine bloße Wissensvermittlung, sondern die Entwicklung einer analytischen Grundhaltung, die für die Facharbeit in der Oberstufe unverzichtbar ist. Übergeordnete Leitfrage der Woche „Lernt die Menschheit aus Katastrophen — oder wiederholt sie dieselben Mechanismen unter neuen Namen?" Die Schülerinnen und Schüler erwerben dabei folgende Kompetenzen: Kompetenz Fachverankerung Textanalytische Tiefe LK/GK Deutsch Historisch-politisches Kontextualisieren Geschichte, Sozialkunde Ethisches Argumentieren Philosophie, Religion Medien- und Quellenkritik mit KI-Tools Fächerübergreifend Strukturiertes wissenschaftliches Schreiben Facharbeitvorbereitung 02 · WochenstrukturMontag bis Freitag im Überblick Montag Literarische Grundlegung „Zwei Texte, eine Frage" Vormittag · Plenum (LK/GK Deutsch gemeinsam) Einstieg mit einer einzigen Frage, unkommentiert an die Tafel geschrieben: „Wer trägt die Schuld, wenn eine Welt zusammenbricht?"…
Here are 10 theses for my readers — written with my higher education focus & audience in mind: The Anthropic Agentic Coding Trends Report 2026: Ten Theses The era of AI as autocomplete is over. We have entered the era of AI as autonomous agent — systems that plan, execute, and iterate across entire workflows without waiting for the next human prompt. The developer’s role has fundamentally shifted — from writing code to directing, supervising, and reviewing agents that write code. The hand has been replaced by the eye. Human judgment remains irreplaceable — but its location has moved. Developers delegate 60% of their work to AI yet fully trust only 0–20% without oversight. The critical skill is now knowing what to delegate and when to intervene. Multi-agent coordination is the new architecture. Specialist agents work in parallel — one writes, one tests, one reviews security — orchestrated by humans who increasingly resemble conductors rather than musicians. The productivity numbers are no longer theoretical. Rakuten completed a complex migration through a 12.5-million-line codebase in seven hours with 99.9% accuracy. TELUS saved 500,000 working hours. These are not pilots — they are production realities. Coding is no longer the exclusive domain of engineers. Domain experts across law, medicine, finance, and education are building functional tools without traditional programming knowledge. The wall between “those who code” and “those who don’t” is dissolving. Security…
Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to. When working at the DHPS in Windhoek, I was asked by the Principal and Board of the German Private High School to extend my contract of 6 years to another 2 years. Credit phb | Hartmann Valley However, a new Principal took over and came back from BVA / ZfA, my extension was not approved by the ZfA, though the Board of the DHPS had asked me and my family to stay until 1996. My two children were both students of the DHPS and had to leave their best friends behind in Namibia. I found this heart breaking, indeed … So my wife and myself took a serious decision to compensate their frustration and losses: We both took 6 months of unpaid long leave and travelled via Van and two tents 6 months through NZ instead of taking our two children back to their German High School in Lower Saxony. Later they both confirmed: The best decision we had ever made since leaving Germany for six full years in 1988. We arrived in WHK on 1st Jan 1988.
— Blogbeitrag Literatur im DaF-Unterricht — W.G. Sebald und andere Autoren Ein Blogbeitrag von Peter H. Bloecker | Gold Coast, Queensland | 2026 Das Projekt Dieser Blog-Beitrag entsteht im Rahmen einer persönlichen Beschäftigung mit der Frage, welche Rolle deutschsprachige Gegenwartsliteratur im modernen Deutsch-als-Fremdsprache-Unterricht spielen kann und sollte. Als ehemaliger Deutschlehrer in Niedersachsen und langjähriger Fachlehrer für Deutsch und Englisch liegt mir dieses Thema besonders am Herzen. Es geht nicht nur um Methodik. Es geht um die Frage: Welche Texte berühren, fordern und öffnen gleichzeitig Türen zur deutschen Sprache und Kultur? Zu den bundesdeutschen Lesern, auch jungen Lesern? W.G. Sebald steht dabei vorerst im Mittelpunkt> Ein Autor, der selbst zwischen zwei Sprachen und zwei Welten lebte, zwischen dem bayerischen Allgäu und dem englischen Norwich. Seine Werke laden ein zur Auseinandersetzung mit Erinnerung, Verlust, Identität und dem langen Schatten der deutschen Geschichte nach den beiden Weltkriegen nach 1945. Die Stunde Null. Warum Sebald? W.G. Sebald (1944–2001) ist kein einfacher Autor, und das ist genau der Grund, warum er m E so wertvoll ist auch fuer Lernende der deutschen Sprache und Kultur. Seine Prosa ist langsam, nachdenklich, tief verankert in europäischer Kulturgeschichte. Der charakteristische Sebald-Satz, lang, mäandernd, voller Einschübe, ist oft eine Herausforderung für fortgeschrittene Lernende, aber auch ein Modell für stilistisches Bewusstsein. Besonders Die Ausgewanderten eignet sich für den akademischen DaF-Unterricht auf dem Niveau C1/C2: Vier Lebensgeschichten, thematisch verbunden durch Exil und Entwurzelung…
When an AI Company Said “No” to the Pentagon — And Paid the Price A Report for Informed Citizens | 28 February 2026 What exactly Happened? On Friday, 27 February 2026, US President Donald Trump ordered every federal agency to stop using the artificial intelligence products of Anthropic, the San Francisco-based company behind the AI assistant Claude. In a Truth Social post, Trump directed every federal agency to “immediately cease” all use of Anthropic’s technology, with a six-month phase-out period granted to agencies like the Pentagon that had already integrated it into their systems. Shortly after, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the Pentagon would formally label Anthropic a “Supply-Chain Risk to National Security” A designation normally reserved for companies associated with foreign adversaries such as China or Russia — barring any military contractor or supplier from conducting commercial activity with the company. What Was the Actual Dispute? The confrontation had been building for months. At its core was a fundamental disagreement about what an AI company is permitted to refuse. Anthropic had been operating under a Pentagon contract worth up to USD 200 million to support defence operations. The company had made clear throughout months of contract negotiations that it would not allow its AI systems to be used for domestic mass surveillance or for direct control of lethal autonomous weapons. The Pentagon, for its part, demanded the right to…