Tag: time

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Commuters dissatisfaction

Commuting to work is only in few cases a choice. The stress associated with commuting is not negligible. Most employees report low satisfaction levels with commuting to jobs and subsequently this has a negative impact on overall satisfaction with one’s job. A study on urban China shows that employees on formal work contracts can often compensate with shorter weekly working time or higher earnings from work, but only partially. The negative impact of commuting on job satisfaction is rather sticky and substantially higher for employees on informally employed workers in urban China, who do not have resident permits in urban areas. With millions of workers commuting daily to work beyond China, the evidence suggests to take commuters’ dissatisfaction more seriously. Public transport infrastructure has to keep pace with more people working in urban areas, but willing to accept long commuting distances. If we add commuting time to working time, the long hours of work over years constitute a considerable health hazard.

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China Job Quality

In a small study of 771 Chinese adults, Dong, Wu, Ni & Lu (2021) have reported on the impact of long working hours on job satisfaction. If you work few hours, job satisfaction increases as you work more hours. However, working many hours already, additional work, 40+ per week, does no longer increase work satisfaction in China. In order to preserve the recommended or communist work ethos of a “996 work schedule” (from 9 a.m to 9 p.m, 6 days a week) the authors recommend that managers support more autonomy for workers to fix their schedules as this could increase their job satisfaction. Autonomy to schedule your work and more autonomy in decision-making moderate the impact of long work hours on job satisfaction. Eventually the Chinese comrades might get satisfaction in other areas but work as well.
(Book Exhibits on Karl Marx, Museum Trier Germany Books 2023)

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Mammalian Aging

Mammals share a lot of similarities with respect to aging. The researchers Alexander Tyshkovskiy and Vadim N. Gladyshev et al. (2026) spearheaded multiple research to identify similarities across humans, macaques, rodents and mice. The outcome of this overarching study of mammalian aging and mortality is a set of biomarkers that can serve to predict time to death.
Why is this interesting? With the rise of the longevity interest in the 21st century, the need increases to use robust biomarkers that can assess any presumably miraculous innovation to smooth human aging or prolong the time to death. Steps towards “universal transcriptomic signatures” including CDKN1A and LGALS3 (compare across species), which proved to be important in mortality predictions based on the large UK Biodata.
It is the accumulation of damage, which drives  processes of aging . However, “inflammation, replicative senescence, metabolic inhibition and γ-irradiation” can be attenuated or occasionally even reversed. The aging of cellular components has been demonstrated using “modular-specific clocks”.
With these biological advances in the field of biomarkers, the BPS nexus (biology-psychology-society links) could receive more attention as well in order to enlarge the society-wide research into the causes of human aging.
(Image: Staatsballett Berlin, Choreographie Crystal Pite, Gods and Dogs, Angels’ Atlas performed 2026-5, final applause)

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Nature as a concept

We all hold implicit or explicit concepts of nature in our minds. There are few countries that have “battled” over the course of history with changing and often “politicised” concepts of nature. The exhibition in the DHM “Deutsches Historisches Museum” on “Nature and German History, Faith – Biology – Power” is convincing with this cross-disciplinary approach to the subject. The chronological structure of the exhibition starts with Hildegard von Bingen’s vision of nature embedded into the huge diversity of plants with almost spiritual power. Admiration of plants and the animal world, however, became an economic resource just like gold and slavery during colonization, being followed by industrialization as the epitome of man’s power over nature. Counter movements have been on the rise in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Another power struggle over how and who defines the dominant concept of nature in the 21st century. As nuclear energy, bombs and waste redefined the long-term consequences of “treating” nature, the battles about the prevailing concept of nature intensify. The exhibition in Berlin 2026 is a fine example of a historical perspective on the relationship between society, nature and technology, where the concept of nature becomes a malleable concept between the other two players or systems. (Image: Metamorphosis of the silk moth, DHM 2026-5)

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Gone paddling

Similar to windsurfing, paddling has not only a physiological, but also an ecological impact. Rather than using external power the equipment requires a good sense of balance on the board and propulsion originates in your own muscles. The benefits are great for mind and body and sharing a board is the standard way of getting your regular exercise.
There are more and more stations near the sea or on lakes available in 2026-5, so that it has become a much more accessible form of exercise. Paddling is also an age-inclusive practice, since the “probability to fail“, with the pleasure of spontaneous diving, is spread relatively equal across ages. Learning curves, however, may differ substantially across generations depending on prior balancing experiences. The ecological bottleneck consists in the access to sufficiently clean water resources so that the healthy and fun exercise shall have positive long-term health effects. 

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Nothing changed

It reads like an entry into a personal diary. The poem “Darmstadt, 4. Januar” by Renate Schmidgall (2025, p. 24) reflects on the obsession with change. The sky shows traces of airplanes, which have passed some time ago. Trees age slowly, a pigeon sets off. “Nichts ist anders als gestern,” (Nothing is different from yesterday, then suddenly a poem finds again its space in me, …). Nothing changed, and yet, suddenly, all is different again. Motivation sets in and time appears rather short.
In “Donnerstag” (Thursday) Schmidgall (2026, p.30) notes a daily routine and the planning of today, even the day after tomorrow. Emptying her paper basket, she finds a quotation from Bruno Schulz she noted previously. “An allem schuld ist der schnelle Zerfall der Zeit.” (The fault of everything is the rapid dissolution of time).
Time is portrait in these two poems as both a moment-specific personal experience as well as the short-cut description of a society-wide trend. Just, as if time was the driving force of change on both levels, even if we know it is not time in itself, but other forces are at work. “O tempora, o mores” as Cicero stated, appears to be still valid summary claim. (Image: Neue Nationalgalerie Front – WZB (Stirling architecture) in background, Fog installation in sculpture garden 2026-5).

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Time in poetry

Some might argue poetry is all about time. It is a perfect way to “decelerate”. Reading pace, in most instances, slows down considerably. At least the first time reading is frequently a stop and go process. A few examples of poetry may hit personal trigger points. The random collection of poems I consulted in the “Lese lounge” in 2026-5 contained each the topic of time in one or the other form. Renate Schmidgall (2025) carries time indirectly in her title “Kein Verlass auf Uhren und Gestirne” (Don’t depend on clocks and stars, own translation). She creates new metaphors like “Am Kirchturm rostet die Zeit” (p. 12 On the church tower time rusts). This sentence precedes the sentence which became the book title. Time is also envisioned a bit like an onion in another metaphor “die Uhr schält rückwärts die Stunden“ (the clock peels backwards the hours). So much to gain with so little time spent with poetry.  (Image: Bronse in Jardin des Plantes, Paris, homage to Saint-John Perse 2026). 

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Taking a break

The time a researcher spends reading is still above average, I suppose. Even in times of AI doing astonishing summaries of documents and texts in general, we still need to check the output by reading as well. Taking a break from data compilation and writing, it’s time to do other reading. The Staatsbibliothek tries to lure people studying and researching there into their „Reading Lounge“. In 2026-5 the proposed reading is poetry. Based on the recommendations by an expert group 10 titles of German and 10 translations of poetry are available with direct access for onsite reading. The shift from on screen reading to paper based reading gives your eyesight a break. Your mind wonders off to something else. Much better concentration and new synapses afterwards. Why is still so difficult to take a break this way? We are working on it. 

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Time Response

Time enters in many studies of behavior as response time. It could be summerized under a mechanism defined as “action – reaction” in many instances. In the animal model this is studied not only from external stimuli and bodily reactions, but with direct brain or nerve stimulation and subsequent reactions in other parts of the body.
Within humans the same rationale is widely acknowledged as well (Kimura2023). In many processes it is not no longer a question, whether a response will occur, but the differences in response time play a crucial role, for example in processes of aging. In many mental processes, response time is a fairly reliable indicator of aging as response time increases and the reaction is slowed down. The focus then shifts on strategies how to keep response times within usual boundaries. Eliminating or at least reducing disturbing peripheral influences like noise or light as distractions become an issue. In jazz music, the “call – response” mechanism has entered as a successful element in composition and improvisation. Time and response or response time is a highly passionate, physiologic and emotional issue.

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1000+ entries

From time to time it is useful to review whether a project is still on track or has developed biases, which may run for some time without reviews. Just like the United Nations Strategic Development Goals (SDGs) have been set 1bout 10 years ago, I do scan my own publishing project whether I still cover the SDGs in a larger spread. The goals need monitoring and I shall redo my own review as well.
As the number of blog entries on a daily basis has reached 1000+ entries, a review becomes a bit of a statistical exercise. As a kind of anniversary reward, a publication of more collections beyond the AI-reader or the Paris Olympics 2024 reader should be fun. However, there is so much work with checking and updating links, that the e-book, pdf and epub publications have become a time-consuming effort.
The search function implemented on this digital publication format is so fast and powerful that I am myself delighted again and again about the digging up of previous entries, concepts and evidence retained.
Time is a treasure and a value in its own right. Test it!