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The motive is not really tangible for the investigators of the police and experts of the water management office hof, said a spokesman of the upper franconian police on friday. A consideration, however, is that the bowls are to be used for decorative purposes, for example, for jewelry.

"For those who do the protection, it is a heavy blow", said the police spokesman. In september, unknown persons had again stolen numerous specimens, between 3000 and 4000 pieces. Between june and august 1500 shells had already been stolen. The bavarian ministry of the environment has offered a reward of 10,000 euros for information on the possible environmental crime – a violation of the federal nature conservation act.

The probability of finding a pearl in a shell is very small; however, exact figures vary widely. For example, the website of the bundes fur umwelt und naturschutz deutschland (BUND) states that only one of about 5,000 river pearl mussels (margaritifera margaritifera) produces a decorative pearl.

The dark season arrives in october, when the clocks are changed to winter time. This also means an earlier start-up of the street lighting. In bad staffelstein, however, it has been noticed in recent weeks that the lanterns have missed the appropriate time more often than not.

Time instead of light

"We are aligned with a program from bayernwerk", explains wolfgang horath, director of the city of bad staffelstein. There, the switching on and off of the lamps is fixed to a certain time, unlike the dammerung switches that were previously used. "There are basically two variants", explains burkhard butz of bayernwerk AG. "The damper switch is a light catcher. When a certain threshold is exceeded, it switches the lighting on or off." This has one major advantage: "it is not dependent on the weather." On particularly dark days, the lights were therefore left on longer in the morning and turned on earlier in the evening. The disadvantage: the dammerungsschalter can be influenced. Something could obscure him or headlights could irritate him – and the system would already be levered out and lanterns could possibly remain completely switched off.

That’s why bayernwerk AG offers a second variant, which is also used in bad staffelstein. A kind of timer controls the street lighting. "There are fixed times per day, which shift every day. The program virtually follows an annual curve", says burkhard butz. This system is much less susceptible to storms and ensures that all lanterns go on or off at the same time. But an adjustment to the weather is not possible. "Therefore one has the feeling on bright days, the lanterns go on much too early. And on dark days too late."

In january, the board of SV buckenhofen celebrated the 90th birthday of their long-time honorary member julie dittrich. Birthday congratulations. That alone might not be so remarkable in this day and age, when people are getting older and older. But the fact that julie, at the age of 90, still goes to her SVB gymnastics class every wednesday at 6 p.M. Impresses not only the congratulators from the board of directors. All the gymnasts in the wednesday group are also enthusiastic about their julie. "She is an example for all of us. We want to achieve that, too" , according to the unanimous opinion of julie’s 74- to 86-year-old colleagues. The oldest member of the active seniors’ group is also particularly appreciated for her constant good humor and the fact that she is always up for a joke. Julie dittrich also likes to take herself for a ride, laughing mischievously and saying wittily: "i don’t feel 90 either, but i’m not allowed to look in the mirror"." Even on this wednesday after her round birthday, julie still loves to go to her gymnastics class. When asked why she’s still there, she answers very quickly: "I don’t go out with people as much anymore, but I look forward to my wednesday. I’ve known everyone for such a long time, and it’s always a nice round. And I will also be picked up." Julie has been active in the SVB since shortly after the gymnastics groups were founded and was motivated to join by her sister gunda back in the 1970s. Since then she has been a regular member of the wednesday group. Together, the current 13 participants are 1029 years old and all of them still enjoy keeping mobile with ball, hoop and theraband. Keep it up, that’s great!

Philipp kohlschreiber no longer wanted to sign autographs after his fifth unsuccessful run to the quarterfinals in new york.

The perennial US open round of 16 finalist threw his sweaty towel into the crowd and left the hot louis armstrong stadium after a 3-6, 2-6, 5-7 loss to japan’s kei nishikori. Kohlschreiber was the last of 16 german tennis pros to pack his bags before the decisive phase.

With a little distance, the 34-year-old bavarian took a more relaxed view of the defeat. "It was a great tournament, what can i reproach myself for?" Asked kohlschreiber. "I was actually always running behind, he was better in many respects."Only at the end did kohlschreiber really make the 2014 finalist sweat, but that was too little to make it into the last eight in what was already the eleventh round of a grand slam tournament for the second time after wimbledon 2012. "Eleven times heibt, almost once every year – that’s a good result," declared the old master and joked: "today i say: i’m still young, can work and improve many things about myself."