14 News & Topics
14 News & Topics March 2 2023 | World and Press Forget dot-com, Americans are making a new dash for Morse code COMMUNICATION A new generation likes to communicate in dots and dashes. mit Die Nr.1 unter den Vokabeltrainern. By Will Pavia -Vokabeltrainer 1 A FEWyears ago, a group of New York ham radio enthusiasts decided to address a glaring problem. “There were not enough Morse code operators on Long Island,” said Howard Bernstein, 70, a retired chemicals importer. Amateur radio operators were once required to learn Morse code by the Federal Communications Commission, which licensed them, but this provision was dropped in the 1990s, and the code was no longer a staple of maritime and military communications. 2 Perhaps Morse code operators were destined to diminish in the age of Twitter and the internet until, like endangered birds, only one or two were left to call out to an uncomprehending world. Instead, after they founded a Morse code club and began offering online tutorials, | Photo: Chris Curry/Unsplash they discovered a new generation desperate to start communicating in dots and dashes. 3 “There was an explosion of interest,” Bernstein said. “We just so happened to be at the right place at the right time.” The Long Island CW Club – CW being the abbreviation for Morse transmissions – now has 3,340 paying members. “We have 90 new members a month coming in,” Bernstein said. The club boasts 75 Morse code teachers and offers 77 classes a week. 4 Nor is this revival limited to Long Island. At the headquarters of the American Radio Re- lay League in Connecticut, Bob Inderbitzen speaks of a “Morse code renaissance”. Each February, the league stages a 48-hour contest in which amateur radio operators contact as many other operators as possible. Between 2020 and 2022, the number of participants grew by ten per cent, to 4,872, and more of them were using Morse code. 5 Part of the growth is attributed to a new pursuit that combines amateur radio with mountaineering and journeys into America’s national parks. A programme called Summits on the Air encourages participants to broadcast from mountaintops and maintains a leaderboard of the most prolific contestants. Another programme involves parks; another requires communications from lighthouses. 6 They encourage the use of small, lightweight radios on which voice communications do not travel very far, Inderbitzen said. “But if all you are listening for is a very slight tone, it’s easier to convey intelligence over long distances. You can be on a mountaintop with a radio that sits on your knee, attached to a wire antenna you have strung up in a tree,” he said. “You don’t want to lug a computer up there.” But a small radio, no larger than a cigarette packet, can broadcast Morse code all over the world. 7 Bernstein, who learnt Morse code at the age of 13, compares it to learning a spoken language. He thinks some newcomers are nostalgic for the communications of another era. “I think people are getting tired of cell phones,” he said. In place of a tweet, they can exchange greetings in dots and dashes with someone halfway across the world who is really listening, he said. © The Times, London/News Licensing This article originally appeared in The Times, London. Get the vocabulary trainer! 0 – 1 DOT-COM (fig) das Internet (vgl. dot Punkt beim Morsen) — to make a dash for (fig) s. stürzen auf (vgl. dash Strich beim Morsen) — ham radio Amateurfunk; s.w.u.radio Funkgerät — to address angehen — glaring eklatant — radio operator Funker(in) — Federal Communications Commission für Radio, Satellit und Kabel zuständige US-Behörde — provision Auflage — staple Hauptbestandteil 2 – 3 to be destined to do h.: dazu verurteilt sein zu tun — to diminish weniger werden — uncomprehending verständnislos — to happen to do zufällig tun — abbreviation Abkürzung — transmission Übertragung — to boast vorweisen können 4 – 5 American Radio Relay League US-Vereinigung der Funkamateure — to stage veranstalten — participant Teilnehmer(in) — to attribute s.th. to etw. zurückführen auf — pursuit (Freizeit) Beschäftigung — mountaineering Bergsteigen — leaderboard Bestenliste — prolific produktiv — lighthouse Leuchtturm 6 – 7 slight leise — to convey übermitteln — intelligence Nachrichten — to string up anbringen — to lug (coll) schleppen — cell phone (AE) Handy www.phase6.de/wp/0623 Microsoft gets its first gaming union, largest in North America UNIONS Quality assurance testers at Microsoft-owned ZeniMax won their union vote. mit Die Nr.1 unter den Vokabeltrainern. By Shannon Liao -Vokabeltrainer 1 THE VIDEO GAMEindustry in North America just got its biggest labor union, composed of 306 quality assurance workers at Microsoft-owned ZeniMax. The tech giant approved the union following a vote Tuesday, after promising last June that it would respect workers’ rights to unionize. 2 The new union is part of the Communications Workers of America, or CWA, the largest communications and media labor union in the U.S., and includes all quality assurance testers at ZeniMax across studios in Maryland and Texas. Microsoft bought ZeniMax in 2021 for .5 billion, gaining ownership of game series like ‘The Elder Scrolls,’ ‘Fallout,’ and ‘Doom.’ 3 Quality assurance testers at ZeniMax Studios pushed to union ize, saying labor issues such as low wages and long hours Some workers at Microsoft-owned ZeniMax, the game studio behind games like ‘The Elder Scrolls Online,’ have now unionized. | Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images drove them to organize. “We have people working multiple jobs to make ends meet; we have people who spend two or three hours a day commuting because they can’t afford to live near the office in Rockville [Md.],” said Zach Lyon, a ZeniMax senior tester. “And working for a major AAA publisher with multiple stu- dios means we never really know when the crunch ends.” 4 Workers who spoke to ‘The Washington Post’ estimate that it took two years to gather enough support for the union to go public. “[Organizing] was our only option,” said Wayne Dayberry, another ZeniMax senior tester. “Pre-Microsoft purchase, we Die Nr.1 unter den Vokabeltrainern. tried to hash things out with management and HR and didn’t have any success there, so it kind of became our only option.” 5 Last June, Microsoft President Brad Smith told ‘The Washington Post’ that its labor neutrality agreement with the CWA, which has been helping ZeniMax and other game workers organize, meant that “we respect the right of our employees to make informed decisions on their own.” … 6 The next steps for the Zeni- Max workers are to set a date for bargaining and assemble a bargaining committee in the coming weeks. Microsoft spokesperson David Cuddy said: “In light of the results of the recent unionization vote, we recognize the Communications Workers of America (CWA) as the bargaining representative for the Quality Assurance employees at ZeniMax. We look forward to engaging in good faith negotiations as we work toward a collective bargaining agreement.” … © 2023 The Washington Post 0 – 3 (LABOR) UNIONGewerkschaft — quality assurance Qualitätssicherung — to unionize s. gewerkschaftlich organisieren — billion Milliarde — to gain ownership Eigentumsrechte erwerben — to make ends meet (fig) über die Runden kommen — to commute pendeln — AAA publisher Spieleentwickler mit hohem Budget — crunch h.: arbeitsintensive Phase 4 – 5 to hash things out (coll) etw. klären — HR = Human Resources Personalabteilung — labor neutrality agreement Vereinbarung, bei der sich ein Arbeitgeber dazu verpflichtet, sich der gewerkschaftlichen Organisation d. Belegschaft nicht entgegenzustellen — informed fundiert 6 bargaining Verhandlungen — to assemble zus.stellen — bargaining committee Tarifkommission — spokesperson Sprecher(in) — in light of angesichts — to engage in betreiben — good faith negotiations Verhandlungen mit e-m positiven Ergebnis für alle Beteiligten — bargaining agreement Tarifabschluss
World and Press | March 2 2023 Literature 15 ‘How to Sell a Haunted House’ by Grady Hendrix By Carol Memmott 1 TALES OF TERROR, by their very nature, take the things we cherish and turn them against us: A beloved pet wants to kill us (‘Cujo’), our home is cursed (‘The Haunting of Hill House’), the baby we’re expecting turns demonic (‘Rosemary’s Baby’). Yet, of all the horror tropes, is there any that’s scarier than dolls and puppets that come to life? 2 Grady Hendrix creates a whole new kind of toy-box hell in ‘How to Sell a Haunted House.’ This ingenious novel is a twisted story of malevolent puppets and dolls that have a problem with real estate deals. (Yes, there’s comic relief.) 3 This time around, Hendrix – who has written six other novels, including ‘Horrorstör,’ about a big-box store that sounds a lot like Ikea, and the darkly comic 0 – 1 HAUNTED Spuk- — to cherish lieben — beloved geliebt — cursed verflucht — The Haunting of Hill House dt. Titel: Spuk in Hill House — to turn demonic zum Satan werden — Rosemary’s Baby dt. Titel: Rosemarys Baby — trope Motiv 2 ingenious genial — twisted verstörend — malevolent bösartig — real estate Immobilien- — comic relief befreiende Komik 3 big-box store (AE) Kaufhaus — support group Selbsthilfegruppe — to recount erzählen — to erupt losbrechen — orphaned verwaist — to book world ‘The Final Girls Support Group’ – recounts the attack of puppet people that erupts when orphaned siblings Louise and Mark Joyner must work together to empty and sell the family home. If you’ve ever had to sort and discard a loved one’s possessions, you know what a true horror show it can be. And even before the puppets take a run at Mark and Louise, they’re emotionally terrorized by lingering childhood trauma and personal problems. 4 Like many people, Louise and Mark have financial difficulties, and if they want to cash in on their parents’ 1951 brick rancher in Charleston, they must clean it out. But what if their parents’ possessions don’t want to leave? Things get weird fast when Louise hears voices inside the supposedly abandoned house. 5 She discovers two dolls from her mother’s extensive collection sitting in her father’s brown velour chair, watching a shopping channel doll show. The threefoot-tall dolls are named Louise and Mark. Louise’s mother, who ran a Christian puppet ministry, loved the dolls more than the children she named them after, discard wegwerfen — to take a run at s.o. jdn. angreifen — lingering schwelend 4 – 5 to cash in on s.th. (coll) etw. zu Geld machen — brick rancher Ranchhaus mit Ziegelsteinfassade — extensive umfangreich — to make s.o. do one’s bidding jdn. nach seiner Pfeife tanzen lassen — creepy unheimlich 6 taxidermized ausgestopft — squirrel Eichhörnchen — to go on the defensive s. verteidigen — to peek linsen — nubbin (AE) Stummel- — to hiss zischen; fauchen — to bare one’s teeth die but most of all she loved her hand puppet, Pupkin, who talks and walks and makes dozens of other dolls, puppets, and humans do his bidding. Creepy. 6 Every chapter reveals new horrors as puppets, dolls, and taxidermized squirrels go on the defensive. The details are too delicious to reveal, but peek through your fingers at Pupkin dressed in “a blood-red body suit with a pointed hood and a yellow stomach.” Then continue, as “impossibly, without anyone moving him, he bent forward and climbed unsteadily onto his little nubbin legs. The empty sleeve of his puppet hole hung behind him like a tail.” When he starts running toward Louise, hissing and baring his teeth, Hendrix blows the hinges off the safety hatch that separates your comfy reading experience from ‘The Twilight Zone.’ 7 In uncertain times, readers relate to horror stories and consider their outrageousness a balm for what ails us. It’s why contemporary horror novelists like Hendrix, Stephen Graham Jones, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia are slashing their way up bestseller lists. Their novels teach us to stand up to whatever stands Zähne fletschen — to blow the hinges off s.th. (fig) etw. aus den Angeln reißen — hatch Luke — comfy = comfortable 7 outrageousness Ungeheuerlichkeit — balm Balsam — to ail Schmerzen bereiten — to slash one’s way up (fig) s. seinen Weg nach oben bahnen (to s. aufschlitzen) — crazed verrückt — relentless unerbittlich — to confront one’s fears s. seinen Ängsten stellen in for the crazed puppets in our lives. In ‘How to Sell a Haunted House,’ Hendrix, with relentless efficiency – and a bit of humor – forces us to confront our fears. © 2023 The Washington Post ‘How to Sell a Haunted House’ by Grady Hendrix, 432 pages, is published by Berkley, ISBN 978-0593201268. Neu! B2 – C1 – C2 Climate Change – noch ist es nicht zu spät • Original Pressetexte aus britischen u. US-amerikanischen Medien • gymnasiale Oberstufe / Abitur • Infografiken u. Vokabular zum Wortfeld Climate Change Special World and Press: Climate Change 64 Seiten, DIN A4, · ¤ 18,90 ISBN 978-3-7961-1179-2 www.sprachzeitungen.de crossword puzzle | By Katrin Günther All the words are in the articles on pages 14 and 15. Solution on page 16. 1 3 4 5 6 2 Across 1 To blame; to credit (Dot-com) 3 To get rid of (Book world) 8 Negotiations (Microsoft) 10 Dear to the heart (Book world) 12 To travel back and forth from work regularly (Microsoft) 13 A regulation (Dot-com) 15 Creative; original (Book world) 17 To look quickly or secretly (Book world) 18 A broadcast (Dot-com) 19 To form a trade union (Microsoft) Down 1 To put together (Microsoft) 2 A tower near the coast with a powerful light that gives a light signal to navigators (Dot-com) 4 To reduce (Dot-com) 5 Remaining (Book world) 6 Knowledgeable (Microsoft) 7 Evil-minded (Book world) 9 Lacking understanding (Dot-com) 11 A person who is chosen to speak officially for a group or organization (Microsoft) 14 To hold dear (Book world) 16 Used to say that s.th. bad is very obvious (Dot-com) 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
