Spotlight - 11.2019

8 Spotlight 11/2019 IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Foto: Maverick Pictures/Shutterstock.com; JohnGollop, CSA Images/iStock.com

Hundreds of people have registered to become the next US pres-

ident, but few of them have won as much attention as Demo-

cratic candidate Pete Buttigieg. If elected, Buttigieg, 37, would

be the youngest and first openly homosexual president in US

history. He doesn’t want people to elect him for those reasons,

however, but because of what he can do for his country. He said

on the TV show The View, “I think we need bold ideas. We need

a different perspective, and I think it’s not a bad thing to come

from a different generation.”

Born in South Bend, Indiana, Buttigieg won a national contest

for a political essay he wrote when he was a teenager. While at university,

he was elected student president of Harvard’s Institute of Politics. After completing

his studies, he worked at a consulting firm in Chicago, before returning to South Bend

to begin his political career. Buttigieg, who describes himself as progressive, has been

the mayor of South Bend since 2012 and was a US Army lieutenant from 2009–17. He

is in favor of many of the things President Trump has been against, including environ-

mentally friendly policies, health care for all, and amnesty for undocumented youth.

WHO EXACTLY IS

Pete Buttigieg?

EASY US

Why visit Robot Captain Crabs Cajun

Seafood & Bar in the small US city of

Newark, Delaware? For the sci-fi

thrill of being served lobster,

crabs, and crawfish by four-

foot (1.2-meter) tall robots.

“These robots are the

most adorable thing I have

ever seen in my life,” one

patron told Philadelphia’s

Action News. “I don’t know

if I’m going to be able to look

away from them to eat my

food.”

As The Washington Post reports,

owner Guang Chen first saw hostess

and server robots in action while visiting

China. He decided to import several — for

$20,000 apiece. Now, if you walk into his

restaurant, a person welcomes you

and programs your table num-

ber into the computer. A host-

ess robot (named Shirley

or Calli) guides you with a

smiling “face” to your table,

where a person then takes

your order. A server robot

with trays built into its body

(either Dexter, Sheldon, or

Alvin) brings the food, but a

real person actually places the

meals on the table. Then the robot

says, “Please enjoy your meal,” and hur-

ries back to the kitchen.

adorable [E(dO:rEb&l]

, hinreißend, reizend

crab [krÄb]

, Krabbe

crawfish [(krO:fIS]

, Krebs, Languste

hostess [(hoUstEs]

, Servicekraft

lobster [(lA:bst&r]

, Hummer

patron [(peItrEn]

, Stammkunde, Stamm-

kundin

thrill [TrIl]

, Nervenkitzel

tray [treI]

, Tablett

grey seal [)greI (si:&l]

, Kegelrobbe

lull: ~ to sleep [lVl]

, in den Schlaf wiegen

mammal [(mÄm&l]

, Säugetier

pitch [pItS]

, Tonlage, Tonhöhe

seal pup [(si:&l pVp]

, Robbenbaby

twinkle [(twINk&l]

, funkeln, glänzen

ultimately [(VltImEtli]

, letztendlich

vocal tract

[)vEUk&l (trÄkt]

, Vokaltrakt, Stimm-

weg

UNITED STATES

Seafood and sci-fi

EASY US

Texts by Talitha Linehan and Claudine Weber-Hof

bold [boUld]

, mutig

consulting firm

[kEn(sVltIN f§:m]

, Beratungsunterneh-

men

essay [(eseI]

, Aufsatz

mayor [(meI&r]

, Bürgermeister(in)

SCOTLAND

Twinkle,

twinkle,

little seal

MEDIUM

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star, / How I

wonder what you are...” While parents

sing this song to lull children to sleep,

researchers at the University of St An-

drews in Scotland have found a new

use: they taught it to seal pups, who

learned to sing it as part of a speech

development study.

“Surprisingly, non-human primates

have very limited abilities in this do-

main,” Professor Vincent Janik told

the press. “Finding other mammals

that use their vocal tract in the same

way as us to modify sounds informs

us on how vocal skills are influenced

by genetics and learning and can ulti-

mately help to develop new methods

to study speech disorders.”

Zola, Gandalf and Janice, three

young grey seals, were taught regular

seal sounds first. Researchers then

changed the pitch and tone to be more

like that of human speech and songs.

The result, while not perfect, is im-

pressive. Hear the seal songs at https://

youtu.be/-ahW_f5Sd3Q