Mailbox
In the final edition of Mailbox in 2014: Random acts of kindness in the Czech Republic, listener criticism, suggestions and other feedback, answers to last month's quiz question as well as a brand new question for January 2015. Listeners/readers quoted: Drew Kerekes, Bill Reed, Subhas Chakraborty, Hans Verner Lollike, Jayanta Chakrabarty, Dipita Chakrabarty, Colin Law, Muhammad Punhal Khoso, Valery Lugovskiy.
Although we’ve been blessed with very mild weather lately, unexpected freezing rain on the 1st of December wreaked havoc on rail tracks around the country. Drew Kerekes from Vancouver, Canada, and his family were left stranded on a train outside the town of Olomouc but were assisted by a Czech Railways employee who arranged translation for them and provided them with food and hot drinks.
“Folks, thanks for a great show that I really enjoy listening to. My wife and I moved to Prague in June and after ‘interacting’ with immigration we are allowed to stay for a while. We are loving this opportunity and the biggest obstacle to embracing and being embraced by Prague is the language. Your program helps greatly with this, but there are a few places where you seem to be overlooking that some of your listeners have MEAGER language skills (but trying). As a very simple example, the program is closed by noting the web site as .CZ and this is pronounced ‘cee zed.’ Now I know that the letter z is pronounced ‘zed’ in Czech, but not that way in English. A small point, but why is it not pronounced in the English way.
Finally, many programs interact with locals representing a business of varying sorts. After the introduction that mentions (too quickly) the specific location of the business followed by the interview. I have never heard a re-noting of the address at the end of the interview. Now this is a mistake that should NEVER be made by an interview show. The whole point of such a show is to highlight the business so that the listeners could access the business if they wish. Not recapping the interview with a closing statement of just exactly where the business is located (stated distinctly and slowly) is an egregious error in direction and production. Thanks again for your show.”
We apologize if it’s difficult for a non-Czech speaker to make out local names in our radio broadcasts, no matter how hard we may try to pronounce them clearly. But as all our programmes are available both in sound and text, you can look them up on our website. The transcripts often also contain useful internet links, such as to the businesses you mention in the final part of your e-mail. As a public service broadcaster, Czech Radio is obliged to follow strict regulations when it comes to advertising. So we need to tread very carefully in our reports so as not to explicitly promote any commercial enterprises. We do hope you will continue to follow our programmes and find them useful.
“I visit the website of Radio Praha whenever I find time. The information which I get from the web page is very useful. My keen interest in the Czech Republic grows more and more after my visit to Prague via Berlin and Dresden in the year 2012. I had visited most parts of the city of Prague, enjoyed the beauty of the Vltava River, the city's architecture and very beautiful monuments and museums.”
Hans Verner Lollike from Denmark writes:
“You really put me on the spot on this one: Organic chemistry is far away from theology, which is my subject. This is my bit: 1) Johann Josef Loschmidt (born 15 March 1821 in Karlovy Vary – died 8 July 1895 in Vienna). He worked most of his time as chemistry professor in Vienna.
2) Friedrich August Kekulé, (born 7 September 1829 in Darmstadt – died 13 July 1896 in Bonn) was a German organic chemist. As far I can see, the result of their studies was finding out the molecules in organic chemistry have a complicated 3-D structure.”
“Josef Loschmidt born to a poor Bohemian farmer in Počerny, a small village near the picturesque Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic grew up to be the pioneer and the undisputed top ranking scientist in the fields of physics and chemistry. Amongst his great works mention may be made of his structural chemical formulae, proposed in 1861 for use in many important molecules.
“The other notable scientist with a Czech connection related with the discovery of the chemical compound benzene is a descendant of old Bohemian nobility, He is none other than the renowned August Kekule who left an indelible mark as the discoverer of structural chemistry. He was drawn to the mystery of benzene, one of the important compounds used extensively in industries. Benzene's structural components were baffling to scientists. August Kekule after many years of perseverance solved its structure in 1865, a feat that had eluded scientists for long. Like most great discoveries, this idea came to Kekule in a daydream.”
“a) Josef Loschmidt - the renowned chemist born in Putschin, Bohemia, was the first to propose the cyclic structure for benzene.
“b) August Kekulé - son of a civil servant of Czech descent was the principal founder of the chemical structure and known to the world for the discovery of benzene.”
Colin Law from New Zealand went into great detail as always:
This answer was sent in by Muhammad Punhal Khoso from Pakistan:
“Johann Josef Loschmidt: Born in Carlsbad, a town located in the Austrian Empire (now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic), Loschmidt became professor of physical chemistry at the University of Vienna in 1868. He is a notable Austrian scientist who performed ground-breaking work in chemistry, physics (thermodynamics, optics, electrodynamics), and crystal forms.
And finally, Valery Lugovskiy from Belarus writes:
“The beauty of the elegant roundish formula of benzene was born in the throes of perennial efforts of several fathers who drop by drop supplemented each other in a skilful fervour.
“Two of them, Jan (Johann) Josef Loschmidt (born in 1821, Karlovy Vary) and Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz (born in 1829, Darmstadt) were chemists with Czech roots. The biographies of scientists argue in favor of a pan-European community. (And the questions of your radio encourage us to improve the knowledge of the local humanitarian and technical erudition.)”
This month we would like to know the name of the medieval missionary and explorer, member of the order of the Friars Minor. The son of a Czech soldier and Italian mother, born in the Italian region of Friuli in the late 13th century, he is best known for travelling to Beijing in 1316. He was possibly also the first European to visit Tibet.
