Ruhig is the corresponding adjective to the German noun die Ruhe, which itself has its origins in the Germanic rowo. Relatives of rowo can be found in pretty much all other Germanic languages … except English. For some reason all English words forRuhe come from Latin… silence, quietness, peace, tranquility, calmness… even rest can be explained via Latin.
Here some examples with ruhig as quiet.
- Sei ruhig!
- Ich gehe in ein ruhiges Café.
- Thomas ist im Kurs immer sehr ruhig.
But ruhig is even broader than quiet. Ruhig is kind of a word for low amounts of excitement or activity without having a notion of boring… so it might be peaceful, smooth, still , calm , relaxed… here is the complete list from Leo.
- Bleib bitte ruhig: ich habe deinen Laptop kaputt gemacht.
- Please stay calm / don’t freak out: I’ve broken your laptop.
- Die Kerze hat eine ruhige Flamme.
- The candle has a still flame.
- Er hat mich mit ruhigem Blick angeguckt.
- He looked at me with a steady gaze.
- Das Meer ist sehr ruhig.
- The ocean is very calm.
- Der Film war ruhig aber gut.
- The movie was slow/calm but good.
Now, there are a number of important words with ruhig... we already learned die Ruhe, which is equally broad. It can be silence, but also peace or rest … so basically low activity or little excitement :).
- Ruhe bitte!
- Silence please.
- Ich will in Ruhe meinen Kaffee trinken.
- I want to drink my coffee in peace.
- Thomas ist krank und braucht viel Ruhe.
- Thomas is sick and needs a lot of rest.
- Lass mich in Ruhe!
- Leave me alone!
Then there are 2 verbs with ruhig – one is beruhigen which is to calm down. Important thing is that you always have to beruhigen SOMEONE… either yourself or someone else., but you can’t just say:
- Beruhige! (Wrong)
That won’t work.
- Beruhige dich!
- Calm (yourself) down!
- Maria ist vor der Prüfung sehr nervös, aber Thomas beruhigt sie ein bisschen.
- Maria is a little nervous before the exam but Thomas calms her down a bit.
The ge-form of beruhigen is beruhigt. This can be simply translated as calmed down, but it is very often used as relieved.
- Als ich gehört habe, dass Dativ nicht Thema der Prüfung ist, war ich beruhigt.
- When I heard that Dativ will not be part of the exam I was relieved.
The corresponding adjective is beruhigend… and of course it can be used for all meanings of ruhig.
- Die Musik ist sehr beruhigend.
- The music is soothing.
- Die Worte des Arztes waren beruhigend.
- Die doctors words were reassuring.
Ruhig goes together very well with the prefix un- and we get unruhig, which again is awfully broad and can mean anything from restless to agitated to troubled. However all meanings have in common that itunruhig sound quite negative and ruhig is positive. So if you have a very active person or a vivid discussion, unruhig is NOT the word for it.
- Ich kann mich nicht konzentrieren. Ich bin irgendwie unruhig.
- I can’t concentrate, I am feeling kind of restless.
The prefix un- can also be squeezed into the verb beruhigen which yields beunruhigen. Until the age of 11 or 12, I had not realized that this is pronounced be- un – ruhigt…. I always read it beun (boyn) – ruhigt and I perceived it as a nice old fashioned German verb without realizing that it is beruhigt withun in there. Anyways, beunruhigen is almost exclusively used in sense of to worry.
- Meine Mutter geht seit 5 Tagen nicht ans Telefon. Das beunruhigt mich ein bisschen.
- My mom is hasn’t been answering her phone for 5 days. That worries me a bit.
Other words with ruhig are ruhelos – restless, ruhig stellen – sedate (for example for a leg), die Unruhe – the unrest but I don’t want to give examples for all of those… and I’d rather get back to the word ruhigitself. We already have seen, that it is very broad. But:
IT IS EVEN MORE BROADERER !
Apparently Germans love the word ruhig soooo much that they used it so much that it finally became a flavoring particle… what does it express? Well, it kind of is an “allowifier”, an “approvator”, a soft encouragement, a verbal carte blanche. And as words say much more than … words, here are some examples first.
- Du kannst mich ruhig morgen früh wecken.
- Oh don’t worry, you can wake me up tomorrow morning, it is not a problem.
You are not saying that you WANT to be woken up, but you indirectly promise that won’t mind it. I’ll leave it up to you to draw the connection to the original quiet-ruhig…(lazy me) and rather give you another example.
You and your flat mates want to go to the park. But you have an important e-mail to write so you mind say something like:
- Ich muss noch meine E-Mail fertig schreiben, aber geht ruhig schon los.
- I have to finish an e-mail, but just go ahead (and I’ll join you then).
I don’t think that there is an adequate equivalent in English “feel free to …” sure transports the meaning but to me it sounds way to formal. Ruhig as a flavoring particle is always sounding really really nice and friendly… unless you use it ironically of course.
- Kein Problem, du kannst ruhig immer dein dreckiges Geschirr tagelang in der Spüle stehen lassen. Das stört mich garnicht. Wer braucht schon eine Spüle.
- Oh no problem. Of course you can leave your dirty dishes standing in the sink for days. That does not bother me at all. Who needs a sink anyways?
This ironic ruhig is also very common if you complain to people about something they haven’t done.
- Ok… es ist nicht deine Schuld, dass du zu spät bist, aber du hättest ruhig mal anrufen können.
- Ok … it is not your fault that you’re late but it would have been nice if you had called /but at least you could have called.
So… knowing the flavoring power of ruhig, we can also make sense of sentences like this.
- Du kannst ruhig laut Musik hören. Die Nachbarn sind nicht da.
- Don’t worry, you can listen to loud music. The neighbors are not around.
About the usage of this flavoring ruhig... well grammatically people often use it in imperative sentences, but it does not sound like an order at all… it is more a statement.
- Sprich ruhig schnell!
- You can speak fast.
And quite often people the generic phrasing “Mach ruhig!” as a simple nice way to approve of something.
- “Ich mache jetzt den Laptop aus?”
“Mach ruhig!” - “I’ll turn off the computer now?”
“Oh sure, go ahead.”
As ruhig is used to express some sort of direct approval , it is hard if not impossible to use in contexts other than a dialog. This is different to other flavors like doch or schon, which may be used in novels as well. Ruhig doesn’t really work outside of face-to-face conversation… but there, Germans use it every day.
Alright… so we have a little time left here. What could we do… hmmm hmmm hmm… oh I have an idea. We could talk about the difference between leise, still und ruhig. Yeah… let’s do that.
Leise is probably the most limited of the three words as leise is almost completely restricted to the sound domain and it basically means… not loud.
- Im Fahrstuhl läuft leise Musik.
- There is soft / low level music in the elevator.
Now when a mom or your partner tells you:
- Sei leise!
it is often meant in sense of
- Be quiet!
but technically you are only told to turn down the volume.
If they really want absolute silence, they should tell you this:
- Sei still!
Still means without sound. You can leise sprechen but you cannot still sprechen.
Still however is a little more broad than leise. If you call someone a leiser Mensch, that sounds odd as it means the person is emitting little sound. Calling a person still however doesn’t mean that he or she is mute, it means quiet person. And still is not limited to the sound domain. In school you are often told to sit still :
- Thomas! Kannst du nicht mal 5 Minuten still sitzen.
- Thomas! Can’t you sit still for 5 minutes.
and also the following idiom is using still.
- Stille Wasser sind tief.
- Still waters run deep.
So we have leise as with low volume and still as no volume (plus some abstract meanings). And how does ruhig fit into this? Well, it is not really a good replacement for neither of the 2. To sit ruhig would sound very positive while still sitzen just means sitting without moving all the time. Ruhige music is music that is soothing and not very energetic while leise music is music at low volume … even Panthera can be leise music but ruhig? Not so much.
I hope you get the idea. I actually think it doesn’t really make sense to give translations here as it is really dependent on the situation. Leise has overlaps with calm, quiet and silent and so do still andruhig. Just remember the idea behind the words. So what would that Björk song be? You know.. “it’s oh so quiet.”? Tough one… could be either word actually so you have to decide for yourself, which fits best to the rest of the song :).
Bamboo shades and Portugese tiles.
Rolleiflex 2.8F, Zeiss Planar 80mm
You may hear the phrase “electronic music” and think of superstar dubstep DJs in funny helmets at beachside celebrity parties. Alternately, you may think of the mercurial compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen, the musique concrete of Pierre Henry, or the otherworldly experimentalism of François Bayle. If you’re in that latter camp of music nerd, then this post may bring you very glad tidings indeed. Ubuweb—that stalwart repository of all things 20th-century avant-garde—now hosts an extraordinary compilation: the 476-song History of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music, originally a 62 CD set.
Get ready to make fire with a lemon, toilet paper, steel wool and some nails… Safety first.
In a recent randomized placebo-controlled trial of 17 heavy-drinking American men, for example, they found that taking kudzu cut alcohol consumption by between 34% and 57%.
But before you rush out to buy kudzu extract, there's a sting in this particular tale. Our test, and those carried out in the US, involved each person taking 500mg of the active ingredient. But we looked hard and we couldn't find any brands of kudzu available in the UK that have the government's THR mark, which guarantees that they actually contain what they say on the label.
Most problem drinkers eat badly and generally lack sufficient levels of vitamins (particularly B and C) and amino acids (the building blocks of protein). Excessive alcohol itself is toxic. The vitamins, herbs, and other supplements in our list can restore depleted nutrients and also aid in dealing with the effects of withdrawing from alcohol.
Recovering alcoholics may confuse feelings of hunger for alcoholic cravings and need encouragement to return to normal dietary patterns. A healthy diet for recovery includes vitamin-rich protein, complex carbohydrate and high-fiber foods. Vitamin supplements aid in restoring proper nourishment.
Vitamin B Depletion
The most common deficiencies from alcoholism include thiamine, pyridoxine and folic acid, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Thiamine, a B vitamin found in meat, grains and yeast, helps metabolize carbohydrates. Fish, liver, cereals and yeast contain pyridoxine, or vitamin B-6. Green vegetables, fruit and liver contain folic acid, also a B vitamin. B vitamin foods also include poultry, nuts, brown rice and dairy products. Broccoli, asparagus, potatoes, bananas, apricots and figs contain B vitamins.
L-glutamine
500-1,000 mg L-glutamine twice a day between meals
Vitamin C
1,000 mg 3 times a day
Milk Thistle
120-175 mg 3 times a day between meals
Chromium
200 mcg twice a day
Kudzu
The Chinese Pharmacopoeia states that an effective dose of dried kudzu root is 9-15g taken prior to drinking (1 hour minimum) if you are trying to cut down on your drinking. Take 10g, 3 times a day if you are abstaining from alcohol.
Kudzu root compounds can affect the same neurotransmitters (including serotonin, GABA, and glutamate) as alcohol consumption can.
According to A Holistic Approach to Health in Early Recovery article:
In double-blind research, alcoholics treated with DLPA (D, L-phenylalanine) combined with L-tyrosine, L-glutamine, prescription L-tryptophan, plus a multivitamin, had reduced withdrawal symptoms and decreased stress. One study suggests that kudzu, used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat alcohol abuse, might help reduce cravings and the patients that I’ve treated with it respond with fewer cravings [1].
1). Benlhabib, et al. “Kudzu root extract suppresses voluntary alcohol intake and alcohol withdrawal symptoms in P rats receiving free access to water and alcohol.” J Med Food. 2004 Summer; 7 (2): 168-179.
According to thethe new study, which was published this month in the Journal of Physiology, researchers at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland found that:
Those rats that had jogged on wheels showed robust levels of neurogenesis. Their hippocampal tissue teemed with new neurons, far more than in the brains of the sedentary animals. The greater the distance that a runner had covered during the experiment, the more new cells its brain now contained.
There were far fewer new neurons in the brains of the animals that had completed high-intensity interval training. They showed somewhat higher amounts than in the sedentary animals but far less than in the distance runners.
And the weight-training rats, although they were much stronger at the end of the experiment than they had been at the start, showed no discernible augmentation of neurogenesis. Their hippocampal tissue looked just like that of the animals that had not exercised at all.
Amazon’s web services arm has updated its terms of service with a special clause that kicks in in the event of corpses consuming human flesh and the like fall of civilisation.
Clause 57.10 of the AWS terms of service states: “This restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organised civilisation.”
“The original workers that were not paid anything by their employers were newly freed slaves,” she tells Quartz. “This whole concept of not paying them anything and letting them live on tips carried over from slavery.”
Many Americans in post-slavery America initially resisted tipping, a custom that originated with European aristocrats. To tip was patronizing, Jayaraman writes in her book; it was seen as “despicable, undemocratic and wholly un-American.”
It could be useful. You can drive it right into a lake.
David Bowie died recently. You may have heard. I wasn't a full-tilt fan and in consequence thereof didn't rend as many garments as some. As might be put by someone within hailing distance of youth, the dude was okay. He occupies a small amount of real estate on my playlist. One of them, "Putting out Fire with Gasoline," the theme from the 1980s remake of "Cat People," I went considerably out of my way to get.
Why do I bring it Bowie up now? Because in all the public mourning and celebration-of-life in print over the past week or so I don't recall seeing much about Bowie's super-legendary introduction to "New York's large and influential counter-culture, most of whom had never heard of David Bowie," as put by the site "The Ziggy Stardust Companion." That would have been September 28, 1972, his Carnegie Hall debut, which was the mightiest display of the power of the hipper-than-thou ever seen in the City that Doesn't Understate.
Das Wetter in geschlossenen Räumen (2015) or "Weather in Closed Spaces"
Set at a luxury hotel in a conflict zone. Development aid worker Dorothea begins an affair with a young Arab drifter, Alec. A literal take on the humanitarian aid.
Imagine, if you will, the following scene. I pop into the National Gallery to view the 2014 BP National Portrait Award and look in bemusement at the exhibition, which is mostly comprised of rather old-fashioned paintings. It’s an uninspiring show, a hotchpotch, as are most exhibitions drawn from open submissions. Inexplicably enraged by this, I rush home and pen an article claiming that painting is dead and that it looks anachronistic, indeed stupid, on a gallery wall in the 21st century. Not only that, but I then extrapolate that all painting is dull and stupid – Caravaggio, Rubens, Picasso, Hockney, Richter, the lot.
Spui, Amsterdam. Rolleiflex 2.8F, Carl Zeiss Planar, Kodak Porta 160
The photos above were taken in Amsterdam on vintage Rolleiflex 2.8F (Model K7F) Carl Zeiss Planar 2.8 80mm lens using Kodak Ektar 100 film.
The mayor is backing the redevelopment of South Park’s eyesore neighbourhood into ‘SoDo SoPa’ – but Kenny’s father is not impressed. Kids, it’s time to get with the gentrification programme
By virtue of its location south of downtown South Park, the new zone will, the mayor announced, be named SoDo SoPa. “Sleek, sexy ... so SoDo SoPa.” Just listen to all those sexy single sibilant syllables. But acronyms are just the beginning: new retail opportunities can also have earthy, muscular names like Steed, the Stag and Brighton’s. One restaurant in Sodo Sopa is called Vernacular.
According to the latest study, giving your body enoough time to digest food is critical for optimal health and a good sleep. It is the case even if you eat all fat diet, versus have access to food at all times.
Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California recently published a study in the journal Cell Metabolism that investigated one important aspect of this problem. Their question: which is more important—what you eat or when you eat? For example, what would happen if you could only eat between the hours of 9 am and 4 pm? Would you gain less weight and be healthier overall even if you ate a high fat diet? Their answer was “yes.”
Mice were given free access to either a standard, nutritionally-balanced chow or a chow that was high (61% of calories) in fat. Some mice were allowed total access to the food at all times. Some mice were only allowed access to their assigned diet for an eight hour window during the early phase of their normal active period. As anyone would have predicted, the mice given total all-day access to a high fat diet (the standard American diet) developed obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome and altered sleep-wake rhythms.