Necessity may be the mother of invention, but the wheel is her most famous child. On its own the wheel is pretty useless, but the system of wheel and axle turned out a pre-historical technological revolution. But when, where, why, by whom and how […]
Category: World
The Edge of Europe
Europe is a somewhat contorted triangle at the Western extreme of Eurasia. Like most other regions, Europe is habitually presented with north pointing up. Which is fine, that is a standard and standards help us take in geographical data without having to reorient ourselves. […]
Om hundre år er allting glemt
On June 7 1905 with the most flimsy pretext the Norwegian parliament staged what ultimately turned out to be a peaceful nationalistic coup. In the twentieth century this was very much the exception, only two more cases followed. Iceland seceded from Denmark in 1944. […]
Watch this space
Inspired by the recent probing of Titan, my and others’ opinions on space travel are currently discussed at the Forums.
More revolution or evolution
It was too tempting to stay away from and nobody has been able to. An election where the liberal pro-Europe candidate was predicted the winner by the exit poll, but the incumbent is declared the winner in a process where the election itself got […]
Civilisation: What made us do it?
My travelling companion and favourite publication, New Scientist has a special issue on civilisation (vanity is posed as a prime suspect for the title question). Insightful as always, it still left open the question if there really is any new science to pre-history. I […]
Through Hermans
Just another case of being railroaded to places you really wouldn’t want to go to. The route Malaga-Cadiz leaves you stranded in the Dos Hermanas junction, though hopefully not for too long. Shuttling Malaga-Sevilla, Sevilla-Cadiz would still make more tourist sense.
It’s Prague Gypsy week
Or to be far more accurate, World Roma Festival. This is the same week Lidové Noviny had a notice that the recently published book Psychologie Romů (The Roma psychology), which among other things claims that Roma have smaller brains than non-Roma, is under police […]
Bokbålsvarsel
Jeg har gleden av å invitere til det første årlige bokbål i Oslo førstkommende lørdag 29. mai. Selv om bokbål har røtter helt tilbake til bokbålet i Alexandria og enda tidligere, har denne ærverdige tradisjonen ligget brakk de siste årene. Det er de som […]
Live and texting at the end of the line
This entry keeps me awake on the Czech-Polish boreder. It is past midnight and still one and a half hour to wait. Bohumin might be a nice town for all I know, but at this hour I wish I wasn’t here. That is the […]
