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Leonardo Da Vinci’s Machines in Kassel, Germany.
Sent to you this week by Martin, from Kassel in Germany. Probably one of the ugliest buildings in Kassel hosted an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s machines. Entrance was free—I had to go. I could get a glimpse of his inventive streak at close quarters. These were replicas, not the orignals. But still, the fusion…
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Do Keep Up, Please.
By Bruce Lloyd, in London and Frank Peters, in Cleebourg. Five hours, a broken website, one human mistake and one AI mistake. Somewhere in the repair job sits a more useful story about trust, judgement and our rapidly changing relationship with AI. At about ten o’clock one evening, I uploaded an update to a plugin…
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Garlic Bread à la Ralf
If garlic is the answer to everything, then this bread is probably the final proof. I like garlic. Really, I like garlic. For me, garlic bread should not be bread with a little garlic hiding somewhere in the butter. When I make it, you should know what you are eating. My friend Thomas and I…
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Just Add Garlic.
By Ralf Instant answers are useful. But curiosity starts when you understand why something works — and sometimes when you ask another person instead of Google. The Mayor gave me a new rule: whenever something goes wrong, I am allowed to give only one answer. Just add garlic. I liked this immediately. At home we…
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A Little More Freedom.
By Sylvie, France. From polishing shoes on Saturdays to reminding grown daughters to clean their rooms, some household rules disappear. Others simply change shape. When I was a child, Saturday meant cleaning. We lived on a farm, so shoes in the house were not a big problem. There was dirt anyway. But every Saturday, the…
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Keep Cool and Join at the End
By Manfred and Martin, both in Germany. The Swimming Club investigates one of everyday life’s stranger mysteries: why ten people waiting for the same thing can produce perfect order, quiet fury, or an entirely new system of civilisation. A queue ought to be one of the simplest human inventions. Somebody is first. Somebody is last….
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Where the Conversation Goes
A Brida Table starts with a question, but nobody knows where the conversation will end. A small international group meets in English, with a host who keeps the conversation open and gives everyone room to bring something of their own life to the table. No lesson to complete. No right answer to find. Just people…
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Curious Is a Dangerous Word
The Human Bit, by Frank Peters It began with a sales email. Someone had apparently visited the Brida website and noticed the language services we offered. Only we don’t really offer language services. Not in the way the email imagined them. The message was personal enough to look personal, but not quite personal enough to…
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Behind the scenes: Houston, We Have a Blue Monday
Staring from the surface of the moon as the spaceship leaves without me. It was supposed to be a standard, productive Monday. We had just come off a lovely weekend—the kind filled with places to go, things to do, and people to see. I had my to-do list ready. The Mayor had his. We had…
