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Rock concert in a cabbage

How cabbages rocked the world – the Krautrock explosion

Have rocking cabbages changed modern pop? What is the sound of a cabbage singing, or a broccoli beat? In the German language Kraut means simply cabbage or herb, but in the early 1970s the English speaking world enthusiastically imported the sound of Krautrock. Critics of the day gave this new avant-garde West German genre the ironic name Krautrock and the name stuck, and so did the music, growing to become hugely influential. Did the critics mean to say this was vegetable music, like that of the Austrian Vegetable Orchestra? Not really, because since the end of the First World War Kraut has been a pejorative term in English for a German, supplanting earlier terms and possibly reflecting German fondness for eating sauerkraut, so the Krautrock neologism served both to describe and also mock experimental West German electro pop music of the 1960s and 1970s.
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Electric car revolution: Polestar experience to date

With 230,000 miles on the clock my 20-year-old Volvo V70 was still going strong, but in early 2022 the time had come to think of a replacement. My mind was made up that the next car had to be electric, and preferably one that was designed from scratch for the purpose, rather than based on an existing internal combustion model. This limited the choice, which can actually be a good thing in many situations. Instinctively I was drawn to the Polestar 2. Although the brand has been owned by Volvo since 2015 (which in turn has been owned by the Chinese company Geely since 2010), Polestars aren’t usually available through Volvo dealerships, so in March last year my partner and I booked a test drive at the nearest Polestar centre in Milton Keynes. Unfortunately but understandably, we weren’t allowed to take the car to nearby Silverstone, but the experience was nevertheless impressive, not least the amazing instant acceleration! But we weren’t quite ready to take the plunge and decided to wait a while longer.

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National Space Centre, Leicester

From steam engines to rocket science

Abbey Pumping Station posterThe proposed new advertising slogan for HE Translations is “From Steam Engines to Rocket Science”. The slogan aims to highlight our diverse range of translation services that cater to a wide spectrum of clients, from industries centred on traditional machinery to cutting-edge space technology.

National Space Centre, Leicester

Leicester is home to two significant attractions: Abbey Pumping Station and the National Space Centre. Abbey Pumping Station is a Victorian pumping station that was essential in supplying clean water to the city of Leicester during the Victorian era. On the other hand, the National Space Centre is a unique museum and educational facility focused on space exploration and research.

By using the slogan “From Steam Engines to Rocket Science”, HE Translations emphasises that its translation services can aid clients in both traditional industries and advanced sectors. The proximity of Abbey Pumping Station and the National Space Centre in Leicester perfectly represents the progression of industries over time. HE Translations provides specialised language services for technical, engineering, scientific and industrial fields, making us an ideal partner for a wide range of businesses, regardless of their nature and complexity.

In summary, the new advertising slogan, “From Steam Engines to Rocket Science,” by HE Translations is an effective way to emphasise our broad capabilities in catering to diverse clients while incorporating the proximity of two significant attractions in Leicester, our main office base.

Kursaal building

The forgotten Kursaal – cure-all or curse for chancers and dancers?

Before the days of wild swimming and thalassotherapy, taking the waters meant going to a posh spa for a cure using the mineral springs and thermal baths found there, with the Kursaal being a focal point. In nineteenth century Europe spas, often called thermal baths, were elite hotspots with ballrooms, promenades, Kursaal buildingand also casinos allowing visitors to take a bath in the financial sense. Spas were even haunts for artists, among them renowned Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky who lost money and found inspiration to write his novel The Gambler at Baden Baden in Germany, Europe’s foremost spa at the time. Surprisingly, contemporary medicine does now find real benefits to water therapies and bathing for a number of conditions, and the spa at Bath in England was found to effect real cures, possibly of conditions caused by lead poisoning.

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Smiling emoji with music headphones

Where do earworms come from?

Smiling emoji with music headphones
Almost everyone has had an earworm in their head at some time and tried to get it out, but where do they come from? Germany? The term earworm originated in German over a hundred years ago and entered English as a literal translation of the German word Ohrwurm, or ear-worm, which Germans used to describe a catchy tune caught in one’s head.

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The girl at the Hellschreiber

Hellschreiber – or the devil’s writing

Article by HE Translations marketing representative Mike Gayler

Those of a certain age will remember both telexes and fax machines. If you are a mere youngster, let me try to explain:

Telex was a way of sending typed messages from one ‘typewriter’ to another (please tell me you do vaguely know what a typewriter is? No? OK – let’s say from one keyboard to another).
The sending operator typed the message into his keyboard and it was sent through the phone system to the receiving keyboard, where the message would be printed out. How, you ask, did it get to the right place? Every keyboard had its own identification – originally not a number, but a name. Names like ‘Interflora’ , ‘Interpol’ or ‘Insurance’.Continue reading full article…

X-ray

Röntgen, Roentgen & X-Rays, or should they be called Lenard Rays?

Article by Dr Fred Starr PhD, FIMMM, FIE, MIMechE, CEng

Professor Röntgen’s discovery of X-rays, and the formation of the British National Health Service changed my life. Although it took another fortuitous discovery, almost forty years later, for me to understand why, and what had happened to me as a very young infant.

Who discovered X-Rays?

But first, let’s get back to the history of X-Rays and the peculiar title of this piece. There cannot be one German citizen who hasn’t had a Röntgendiagnostik and knows what it is about. Over here, it’s same with X-Rays, although not one in ten thousand would connect the name Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (or Roentgen as we tend to spell it in Britain) with the discovery. A discovery which not only revolutionised medical practice, but told us that there are just 92 naturally occurring elements, and transformed my own subject, the high temperature corrosion of metals.

X-ray

There is something of a shaggy dog story to what I found about the discovery, and why one might suggest that another German scientist, Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard, should get more credit than usually acknowledged. Rontgen is commonly thought to have discovered X-rays by accident. This is just not true. But he was lucky. He just happened to be using a sheet of paper that had been saturated with barium platinocyanide, that turned out to be one of the best detectors for X-Rays. And it just happened to be lying around, waiting to fluoresce when the X-rays struck.Continue reading full article…

Storm throwing debris in the air

Shitstorm travels to Germany

Article by John Morrish

Storm throwing debris in the air

Words travel, and sometimes in surprising ways. An English slang term has been enthusiastically adopted by the Germans. It has been embraced by the business and political classes, appeared in big headlines in the serious press, and been accepted by the Duden dictionary, an important work of reference. Angela Merkel has been known to use it. Nothing so unusual in any of that, except that the word is “shitstorm”.Continue reading full article…

Masked doctor with hypodermic for injection

Boos, boosts and booze infuse German news – English word boostern wins a prize

Masked doctor with hypodermic for injectionThe English word boostern has just won a coveted prize, unexpectedly being chosen as Germany’s 2021 Anglicism of the year after going viral in Germany – despite not being an English word. How did this happen?

The English verb to boost means to assist or encourage something to grow or rise, and also serves as a noun meaning something which, usually deliberately, helps something else increase or rise. So the space race saw the introduction of booster rockets, and child car safety regulations saw the introduction of booster seats to raise small children to the minimum height for safety belts. But boosting also has a more political and ambiguous dimension dating to nineteenth century North America, yet resonating in the scandals in the UK in 2022.Continue reading full article…

Diagram of the Agile method

What is agile today ?

How agile are you? Or rather, how agile is your company, and what does that mean today if you are not professional steeplejacks?  It is curious how this term became such a ubiquitous buzzword, as some find themselves thinking they need to race to catch up with a speeding trend, rather than risk being left behind and seen as clumsy or unbalanced.

A Management Today Words-Worth piece by John Morrish examined the question and indeed the word itself:Continue reading full article…