More reading

I guess I must have fallen in the summer-laziness mood. Instead of actually doing something, I admire things that were done by others. So I just finished reading "Die Leber wächst mit ihren Aufgaben" by Eckart von Hirschhausen (no joke, this is his real name) and quite liked it. I'll roughly translate and describe some of the ideas given in this book.



1) I've learned that Aspirin is of natural origin - the salicylic acid can be found for example in willow bark. I learned later from Wikipedia that in 1853, acetylsalicylic acid was synthesized, which was less irritating than the original acid and just as effective. The compound was patented in 1899 under the name Aspirin.

2) The monks live in average five years longer than men outside of monasteries, living actually just as long as women.

3) I love this one: The best entertainer in the world is our own cerebral cortex.

4) I have to agree with the author when he claims that in the good ol' days of snail mail, we checked the mailbox once a day - and were disappointed once a day for not getting anything we hoped for. Now we constantly check our email mailbox - and get to live in constant disappointment.

So, drop me a line, reader, and make me happier :-)