Part 1: Hedy Lamarr, Engineer

Science is too important not to be a part of popular culture.

- Brian Cox

Whenever I hear a politician harp on about how much he favors education, I just roll my eyes, because every politician that's ever lived has harped on education, and very few have done anything to improve it.

- Statler N Waldorf, on fivethirtyeight.com

You're looking forward to finishing you degree in Mechanical Engineering? Then there's a strong probability that you're not German.

As they say, "The truth will always come out. You just might not be alive anymore when it finally happens."

You can claim that your security policy has never been breached, as long as your policy is to not check security.

Germans are known for their high degree of organisation, their bureaucratic mentality, and, of course, their Autobahn (which, in fact, did not originate with Hitler). When these three things come together, what do you get? Flensburg, that's what.

Most connoisseurs of Science Fiction would agree: Orson Scott Card is a master of his art (even though some if his short stories are a big heap of WTF[1]). The Ender's Game series[2] is a comprehensive and quite realistic depiction of what the future might hold for us, and what a contact with an uncomprehensible alien race could be like.

Criticism

God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players (i.e. everybody), to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.
- Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchet: Good Omens, Ace Books, New York, 1996, p.4

We Germans have lots of traditions pertaining to New Year's Eve (which over here is called Silvester) and the beginning of each new year. Just from the top of my head: Of course, there is food, in many families traditionally Fondue, there's the firecrackers, and there's drinking in moderation, of course! And then there's the weirder traditions, like watching the same, English-language (!) skit every year.