1.
Two teachers meet ...
"Do you actually work more with tablets or more with laptops?"
"With blankets."
With this joke, my colleague Armin Himmelrath starts his story about
corona protection in German schools,
more precisely: airing the classrooms.
At first I was unsure whether to recommend this story to you at all.
Because either a) you have children and are
already sufficiently familiar
with the
permanent embarrassment of the German school system
in the corona crisis - further evidence of persistent absurdity would only plunge you into depression.
Or b) You have no children and are still lulled into the sweet illusion that there is - in Germany, a country of education!
- the kids in the classroom can't be that bad.
And then in Armin's story about ventilation you read sentences like this: "'We have a lot of classrooms in which the windows cannot be opened," says a teacher from Nuremberg. Sometimes the hinges are broken, sometimes the handles have fallen off. "
Icon: enlarge
"National obsession" of the Germans?
Lessons with the window open (at a school in Karlsruhe)
Photo: Uli Deck / dpa
The fact that you can't really ventilate many classrooms - even if you wanted to - is only one side of the story.
The key question is whether this measure recommended by the Conference of Ministers of Education
offers
protection from aerosols
and thus corona infections
at all
.
"After their specialist discussion on ventilation a few weeks ago, the ministers gave the impression that all experts agreed on this recommendation," says Armin.
"When you talk to the experts themselves, it sounds very different."
So it could be that the ministerial round decided against the expertise - and in favor of a more easily feasible and above all cheap option.
It's just a shame that it seems to be largely ineffective.
Read the full story here: Germany fails to ventilate
2.
Shit!
As a volunteer for a local newspaper, I descended into
the city's
sewage system
for a report on "Hamburg's Underworld"
.
A long time ago, but unforgettable: the smells, the damp, faecal air, the objects that workers had pulled from the sewer over the decades.
We are often closer to the filth of our lives than we thought.
My colleague Christopher Piltz has researched an "unresolved problem" and reported how and where
wastewater
ends up in nature
in
Germany
, for example in Berlin.
"There are around 190 discharge points along the Spree and the Landwehr Canal," writes Christopher.
"If it rains heavily in the capital, the sewer system overflows. The liquid then drives the Spree downstream into the Havel."
Icon: enlarge
Mixed water retention basin in Hamburg
Photo: Christian Charisius / picture alliance / dpa
The most astonishing problem for me: Hardly anyone, not even the environment ministries of the federal states, can say how many millions of liters of dirty water are discharged every year.
The sewage associations partially measure this - or they estimate it.
But these numbers are often not passed on and questioned.
Christopher quotes an expert: "Only when we know how systems actually behave can we improve them in a targeted manner."
If you want to do something now - the first step is logical.
Because, says Christopher: "It's frightening to see what some people throw away in the toilet. Sanitary towels, condoms, tampons. Apparently many people don't worry that all of this could end up in the next stream."
So please: don't just wash everything away!
Read the full story here: Germany's unsolved problem
3.
It's just polls, stupid!
Do you remember what you did on
US election night in 2016
?
Back then I was in the US as a reporter - actually in Washington, but because they - we were so sure!
- designated election winner
Hillary Clinton
wanted to celebrate in a New York convention center with a glass ceiling (and break through it), so we journalists pulled there too and tore each other over the few free press passes that were still available.
In the early morning of this unbelievable night, the shame: no President for the USA, instead
Donald Trump
in the White House.
At the time it was unanimous:
But the polls, what about the polls?
They predicted the outcome quite differently!
For real?
My colleague Alexander Sarovic is part of the SPIEGEL reporter team in the USA this year, he was concerned with the question of what was wrong with the polls at the time - and why we read them wrong.
Icon: enlarge
Election posters in Fairfax, Virginia: Fewer undecided voters than 2016
Photo: ALEXANDER DRAGO / REUTERS
And 2020?
To the Biden fans among you, let me say: It looks good.
"If you take the forecasts of the data analysts at FiveThirtyEight as a basis, you can see a particularly interesting scenario," writes Alex.
"If Biden only wins those states in which he is forecast to lead by five or more points, he would already have more than the 270 electors in
Electoral College
necessary for victory
- even if Trump should prevail in all other states."
And even that is unlikely at the moment.
"It actually looks like the road to re-election will be very tough for Trump," says Alex.
"The polls see Biden consistently ahead. Even with the group that carried him to the White House four years ago, Trump seems to be losing ground: white voters."
Before I lose my grip on my feet, Alex says one more sentence: "I would still be careful with forecasts."
Read the full story here: The shaky gauge
What else is important today
Söder wants lockdown measures for the Berchtesgadener Land district:
The Bavarian district has one of the highest 7-day incidences nationwide, now the Prime Minister wants to push the numbers down with drastic measures.
The French police take action against extremists after the murder of a teacher:
after a teacher is beheaded by a suspected Islamist, the French police carry out operations against radicals.
According to Interior Minister Darmanin, a number of complaints about spreading hatred on the Internet have been received since the act.
Fischer-Verlag separates from Monika Maron:
The controversial author published her books for 40 years with S. Fischer Verlag.
Now the publishing house parted with her.
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +
Self-employed, mothers, migrants -
if a lockdown
would hit particularly hard:
the second wave of infections threatens a lockdown.
That would be very bitter for groups of people who have already been severely affected by the corona crisis.
Who is it?
A data analysis
"If Trump loses, there will be a civil war":
Northampton County is considered a barometer for the USA.
Whoever wins here usually also becomes president.
Local Republicans are very concerned, some are arming themselves.
This is what life is like in an (almost) Corona-free country:
It has long been possible to party in clubs again: While Europe is in the middle of the second wave, Corona in China is as good as over.
But people pay a high price for normality in everyday life.
Here's how you can finally do sports again: As
you get older, you should do sports to stay healthy.
But what if you haven't done anything for a long time?
How do you get back to work?
A guide to the comeback.
Which is not so important today
Icon: enlarge
Dream in the tree: this room is hidden in the jungle of the Mexican resort of Tulum.
It belongs to the Sfer Ik Museion Uh May gallery, or IK Lab for short
Photo: Architect Roth Architecture, Project SFER IK Museion Tulum, Tulum / Mexico / Photo Fernando Artigas, Beyond the West, Gestaltung 2020
This column is a sham this time - because what could be more important than the question of how and
where we live
?
Today on SPIEGEL.de I saw the photo of a tree house (or better: tree loft), sighed "Ohhh" and remembered an (unfulfilled) childhood dream.
The photo belongs to a book review of the "Leben" department, Katharina Cichosch has looked at the illustrated book "Beyond the West".
It introduces houses that, as she writes, “stand out from what the West is used to. Quite simply because things have to be built differently in Asia, Africa and South America. Population growth, heat and flooding - that's all in the Global South More extreme. Local experiences therefore play a greater role than do architectural styles celebrated in other parts of the world. "
But just see for yourself!
Typo of the day
, now corrected: "Board game classic 'Siederl von Catan'"
Cartoon of the day:
Brexit
Icon: enlarge Photo: Klaus Stuttmann
And tonight?
We stick to living
.
The American entertainment monster Netflix is not entirely innocent of the fact that the majority of humanity is using the self-isolation of the pandemic to optimize their homes, or more precisely: to clean up, to unclutter.
After
Marie Kondo
first taught us
the new credo of consumer society ("Does it spark joy?"), The two Americans
Clea Shearer
and
Joanna Teplin
are now
moving
around the littered houses and in "The Home Edit" show all non-disposable people how to do one still gets the curve in terms of garbage disposal.
Spoiler: If my impression is not wrong after two episodes, the two women simply pack all the junk in plastic boxes with color coordination.
But hey - know how!
With this in mind: Pack ma's!
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This is what it looks like when Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer (left) have finished with the customer (here: Kloé Kardashian): The chaos disappears in plastic boxes
Photo: CHRISTOPHER PATEY / NETFLIX
Have a nice evening.
Your Patricia Dreyer
Here you can order the "Lage am Abend" by email.
