"These light rays", German physics II

Only days ago, we had fun with an idiosyncratic interpretation of waves in In space, no one can hear you laugh - German physics, and we just found another fun example.

This second example is from a German web site called Ruhrbarone, which means Barons of the Ruhr Industrial Region. For once German is shorter than English, the name of the river Ruhr is shorthand for the large industrial area north-east of Cologne, Germany.

Since much of the region has been heavily social democratic because it was the heavy industry heartland of Germany, the name Barons of the Ruhr is both a dig at the captains of industry of old and at the social democratic amigo networks of today.

The article in question is Will these death rays kill us? The Ruhr region in fear.  The site (in German only) published two letters, one of which, from 17 March, we partially translate for your reading pleasure: We will close the curtains on all windows so no children will be exposed to these light rays.

You may have guessed that the reason for these letters sent out by two schools in the state to parents and legal guardians was the well publicized partial eclipse of the sun on March 20, 2015.

The author of the Ruhrbarone site points out that he believes most schools have prepared their students correctly for the event and surmises that some are caught in "over protective mode", a somewhat sad phenomenon.

Here at the K-Landnews, we are not sad at all about school principals displaying a disproportionate amount of worry and/or a cheerful ignorance of physics!

We are simply relieved to see that being overprotective of kids is not limited to the United States but is found in a country as rational as Germany, too.

This fact has set us off on a quest to come up with a culturally adequate popular scare like a sharknado. It won't be easy because there are no sharks outside of zoos and aquariums in Germany, neither are there any tornadoes to speak off, other than some dirt devil size disturbances.

One the side of problems to overcome, here are some examples: Raining men is taken by a song, raining cats and dogs by the Brits, raining frogs might cause a war, but we are not giving up.

On the plus side, German physics should make the final choice much easier.