| Hermann RochholzGermany's FreefallHow Ideology Destroys a Country a Second Time |
| Even if everyone agrees,everyone can be wrong.Bertrand RussellPhilanthropic people lose all sense of humanity.It's their distinguishing characteristic.Oscar Wilde |
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| 1st Edition 2021: 2021/09/03(coincident to 2nd German edition)Text and Cover:© Dr.-Ing. Hermann RochholzFreefall_202109_A1_epubV51Typesetting: LibreOffice WriterDiagrams: LibreOffice CalcCover: LibreOffice Draw(epub converter: Calibre) |
Everything’s just fine in Germany, isn’t it?
Everything’s being converted to organic. People want to live healthy, long lives. That’s why all herbicides are being banned from our farmlands. Somehow we’ll manage without them. The fields are being “re-naturalized” through reforestation. Moreover, corn is being planted in order to produce biodiesel. Food will surely come from somewhere.
The climate problem and environmental protection can be easily solved simply by installing wind power plants, expanding photovoltaics and shutting down those coal and nuclear power plants. At the same time, people are protesting against wind turbines, power lines and new storage power stations for the sake of preserving the environment. Electricity will soon be used to charge the batteries in electric cars, produce hydrogen or, better yet, “liquid fuels” – something that should have been done a long time ago. No problemo!
The plastic in the oceans can be dealt with by banning plastic straws, and many “celebs” are campaigning against plastic waste on television. We simply dump our plastic waste free of charge in China in order to explain environmental protection to them. Wow!
Innovators like Elon Musk are promising a wonderful future: Mars flights, “hyperloops” and electric cars will revolutionize life. Just what everybody needs! Artificial intelligence will help – somehow. Air taxis are regarded by visionaries as a future means of transport because in five years’ time we’ll all be surely flying out and about in them. They’ll help us save the world!
Well, a few tiny problems persist. Germany’s railways have punctuality issues with their ICE (Intercity Express) fleet of high-speed trains. The opening of Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport was delayed by nine years in November 2020. There’s the “Stuttgart 21” railway project, the Hamburg opera house, and the Gorch Fock (tall ship) overhaul – all more than 10 times as expensive as estimated. The G36 light rifle shoots around street corners. German ammunition depots only have enough in reserve for one week at most. And the car industry is cheating on its reported 2003 to 2017 emissions figures. Replacement windows cost €10,000 each in public buildings. Refurbishing the federally sponsored swimming pools is taking a bit long at eight years, and big newspaper publishing houses are telling stories that have been completely invented as fact.
But even that’s very easy to get a grip on: The EU simply passes a regulation to ensure that cars produce almost 40% less CO2 from 2030 onward – problem solved! After all, star journalist Claas Relotius was fired. “DER SPIEGEL” magazine is doing proper reporting now. Starting today, Volkswagen is honest once again, as they declare that they only want to build electric cars. Starting today, the managing directors of Berlin Brandenburg Airport LLC are telling the truth as they assure us that the airport will open “by the end of the year”. All problems are solved! Wonderful, isn’t it?
The unemployment figures are as low as never before, and that just happens to always be the case prior to every election. Great!
This is what the “quality” press is reporting. It now boasts a “Fact Finder” that guarantees not to report false stories because it’s a “Fact Finder”, after all; and journalists who find facts can easily judge what is indeed a fact or what’s nonsense due to their excellent technical-mathematical training. Down with the fake news!
We simply ditch all our pesticides and everything’ll be solved! For centuries, farmers only wanted to support the chemical industry and poison the population and, of course, themselves, too. What morons!
You get the feeling that everyone in Germany nowadays carries the surname Baerbock, Habeck (Green politicians) or Longstocking. Mrs. Longstocking is, of course, a Swede, who, as Pippilotta Långstrump, is acting as a certain role model for her young audience.
And never has anyone ever come up with the idea of running transport vehicles in a vacuum before. Elon Musk is certainly the very, very first to do so; and fires have never existed in Australia before: Even 1,000 years ago, the Aborigines had boasted an army of volunteer firefighters who arrived immediately on the scene with their fire flappers and water-filled bladders – or was that an alien fire brigade? I’m not sure anymore.
This is the revision of a book that has not yet been published in the English language. It has been updated and restructured. The introduction was shortened, diagrams were added and, among other things, the chapters “Manipulation Instruments of a Democracy”, “Framing”, “Fact Finder” and “Press” added as well. Calculations were moved to the appendix, which is marked using curly brackets or braces {}. Examples of journalistic reporting are depicted in a magazine that sold fairy tales as facts, and there’s a glossary.
I hereby thank all those people who provided me with material and with constructive criticism. I also thank my Internet discussion partners who opened my eyes. Some “visions” were far beyond what I could have imagined myself as an engineer.
Table of Contents
Opinion versus Facts
The Other Point of View
Statistics
Statistical Errors and Statistical Abuse
Consequences
The Last Percentages – Cutting Losses
Wind Turbines
Electric Scooters
Outer Space Transporters
Carbon Fiber Concrete
Elbow Pads and Citybike Frames
Summary of the “Spoilsports”
Fashion – Perfecting the Body
Burning (Plastic) Materials
Consequences
“Side Effects”