The yoghurt incident

Followers of this exceptional (albeit rarely updated) blog might remember my fil- and yoghurt experimentation, and how important it is to not x-ray the culture if wanting to grow it. The following scenario took place at the Trudeau airport in Montreal, after an excellent Sinterklaas weekend south of the city, visiting David's aunt and her family. They have a farm, with many cows, and the milk is simply divine. With such milk, you can also produce excellent yoghurt. They also have free-roaming, tame and completely adorable hens, here demonstrated by David:

Sound effects should be obvious... (or click the image to be brought to said sound effects...)

My mission was clear: Transport a small amount of the yoghurt back home to Winnipeg, and try to make more in my nowadays well-used yoghurt maker. Easy! I just needed a small container. Astrid had just the one - 1 dl. Or so I thought...

To add some spice to the story, I was also transporting 2 packages of energy-saving lightbulbs from ikea for my supervisor. I did check a suitcase, but it was of the soft kind, and I didn't want to have broken lightbulbs and poisonous gas over all my stuff. However, these lightbulbs not only look dangerous, I'm sure you can do dangerous things with them, if you have those kinds of inclinations. So I thought it best to ask security before I checked my bag. The security personnel turned the bulbs over and over while the creases in their foreheads turned deeper and deeper. Finally they had to call for a supervisor, who immediately said it was ok. Wow. I was impressed. Checked the bag, went back to security, showed my see-through ziplock bag with hand santizer and yoghurt. Uhoh. That container might just be too big. The girl at security looked very troubled, trying to find an indication of the size of the container. She eventually found a miniature text indicating a size of 120 ml. Well, that's out of the question. Gah! My Yoghurt! Desperate times!

"But I only neeed about 3 table spoons, can't we just take out half of it?" No, that doesn't work, it's the container that's the issue, not how much liquid is inside.

"Can I put 3 tablespoons of it in one of your ziplock bags then?" No, it had to be IN a container. David now enters the conversation - he has a red pass, which will grant him access to all Canadian airports. And pilots can bring as much liquid as they please. Would that be ok? No, only if he wears his uniform.

At this point David gets a little irritated too, and mutters something about picking up a uniform at the nearest masquerade store if that is what it takes. The lucrative store nearby sells a package of airline approved sizes, for the bargain price of 11 dollars. Grr. What to do? David comes up with the excellent idea to empty the hand sanitizer bottle and squeeze the yoghurt into it. Yey! So the next 15 minutes, I spend at the washroom cleaning and squeezing.

(yoghurt into a hand santizer bottle, that is). Good thing we had a lot of time.

Approved! Going through detectors. But then they find some suspicious coiled rectangular shapes in my backpack. Backpack is searched, lightbulbs found, turned over and over while creases in foreheads turn deeper and deeper. The superior is being paged again. But this time it's another one, who also develops forehead creases. But for crying out loud, people! I already asked. I agree, I would probably be cautious about poisonous lightbulbs myself, but what else could I have done? Well, they eventually approve them and I'm through.

Now, I'm all for following regulations. But are these regulations completely sane? I could have brought with me 3 times as much yoghurt, as long as it was divided up into 3 containers of 1 dl or less each. Personally, I'd have turned down the lightbulbs and let the yoghurt pass. I really would like to find out now - just how much harm can you do with 120 ml yoghurt (urhm, or really, with the container thereof)? It's certainly an adventure to fly, with all the excitement taking place on the ground...

Tomorrow it's time again. A trip, which at time of booking consisted of 2 quick legs to AMS (leaving at lunch time), but after no less than 4 changes (!!) now goes via both Chicago and Washington with a departure at 6 am. Granted, American customs have improved the last yeara, but I really expect anything to happen.

3D movies and awesomeness

I had high expectations, mixed with a few low ones, due to some reviews I had read. But nothing was even close to the experience I just had, watching Avatar!

I'll confess - I'm a 3D fantast, and ever since I saw the adventures of Antoine de St Exupery at Fututoscope in Poitiers about 15 years ago, I've been waiting for 3D movies to hit the theatres. And finally it's here! The two movies I've seen so far, were both among the best I've ever seen. I don't know if it's only due to the 3D technique - I doubt it actually, but I guess I can't prove it. The first one was Up. What a piece of geniousness. The big bird was of course my favourite - you can't get much closer to a Lunicrax than that!!!

The second one I just finished watching, all 2h and 45 minutes of it. Not a minute too long... I know there are lots of cynical comments out there, but in my book, it's a piece of art. The message might be old and used, but judging from behaviour of humanity, we're in constant need of reminders. Oooh, there was just so much I loved in it - visually, it's simply astonishing. The nature, the ideas behind it, the flying scenes, all the little details. A favourite was the dialogue between the scientist (Sigourney Weaver) and the man behind the operations (whatever his name was) when she's trying to describe the research they've done and what amazing indications they've found. The guy doesn't understand what she's talking about, and obviously thinks the scientist is nuts. It's funny how often that happens, eh? Why should I try to learn something new, when I already know everything worth knowing? Down with the trees. Go on polluting the atmosphere. Scientists just follow their own agenda, and do it for the money (?! mighty wrong career to pursue if it's for the money, I'd say...). Well, I digress slightly... :) That's really for another post, if I ever get around to writing it.

Anyways, do go and see the movie, and let me know what you think...

The music was awesome too... I'm still totally in heaven!

And tomorrow is julafton! I wonder whether there's time to make a card... While the rest of the world is getting dumped upon, there's a minimal amount of snow in Winnipeg, despite forecasts promising the opposite.

Light

Yey! Here's a cool text written in one of the blogs I follow. I think it would be interesting to everyone - for those not religiously minded for its poetic-ness and for those that are - just for all of it.

Read - slowly - the words are so beautiful... :)

'What is light?' Grandy's The speed of light - constancy and cosmos

Horror indeed

Perhaps I should go as a physicist this halloween...
I just attended a colloquium of three graduate students giving talks on their research in magnetism. Two of them were brilliant Chinese students, and the last speaker talked on the Hall effect, which with the accent came out as "Horror" effect. This student had just handed in a draft of his thesis (PhD) to his proud supervisor, who introduced him - after 2.5 years. He had also published 11 papers. The effect on my already fragile self esteem was pretty horrendous...
Other halloweenish features were invented in my dreams of last night. Imagine mutated bedbugs, taking on the characteristics of ticks, in very detailed and credible dreams. Yep. I didn't have a hard time jumping out of my bed this morning. After the fumigation, life has been glorious for a few weeks, but the morning David jumped the ocean to surprise his mum on her birthday, I accidentally created a bridge to the bed by leaning the backpack to it, allowing a small bedbug to get a last supper off of my finger, before being trapped in a trap and killed with a hairdryer (no, I'm not evil, that is the quickest way of killing them!). Hence the nightmares...
Now going back to face the first horror. I don't know which is worse - finishing a PhD or bedbugs, but right now the PhD wins. IF my nightmare turns true, it might change later on...

(good thing the rest of my life is so beautiful... :)

Thesis update

My life, as most of you know, has one major component, which has grown bigger and bigger the last year. I don't want to be as asocial as I am, I'd like to have people over for dinners etc (the latter has another reason though - upstairs neighbour saw fit to acquire "new" furniture, that apparently was bedbug infested. Gravity and the nature of bedbugs did its thing and yes - we got a few new pets as well. We barely had noticed it until our truly sweet and awesome caretaker called us about a spraying, but since it was just precautionary, I'm not sure if they were as thorough as they could have been. We had an intense week of vacuuming, freezing bedding, scratching, sleeplessness, and searching, combined with finding the darn bugs a little here and a little there as they were affected by the poison along the walls. Then I discovered that despite the metal bedframe, some bugs had managed to make themselves comfortable in the bed slats (wood underneath mattress). 2 rolls of duct tape later, we're now bite free, and haven't seen a bug for quite some time. van Vliets vs bed bugs 2-0 (as far as we know...). One thing is for sure - we have the most spacey bed slats I've ever seen... end of longest parenthesis I've ever written).

The thesis is getting substance, and substantial as well. I've written an introduction draft, a chapter on classification (chapter 5) and a chapter on modelling (chapter 4). I've received feedback on chapter 5, and am now back to it. But today, I started writing the data and reductions chapter (2) for some reason. Might as well, as long as I get stuff done. With these 2.5 chapters I'm already at 100 pages. I am however about 1 week behind schedule (a schedule that has already been revised twice). Some tension is the result of that, I can assure you. I am so much looking forward to the weekend's general conference to relieve some of that tension. It would be so much nicer if all the research and analysis was already done, but there is SO much to do in parallel with the writing. Some days I wonder if I'm ever going to get done. And other days I'm sure I'm going to go nuts...

At the time of writing, the smell of a banana cake, Swedish version, is filling the apartment. It smells rather divine (a new recipe I had never tried before). If it tastes half as good as it smells it's going on the recipe blog.

Now dear readers, I would like to invite you to make comments on my previous entry. I am intrigued and really would want to know what people feel about the topics presented therein. Be frank. Write anonymously if that feels better.

Eating habits

When I was little, I observed my grand parents farming. They had a little farm, with cows on the fields, roaming the rocky landscape of the Swedish island Tjörn, chicken running around and hiding their eggs in some cases, making my grandmother go and look for them. She had fake eggs though, so she could trick the chicken to lay their eggs in certain spots. Being naïve (at age 12 or so), I thought that's how all farming was being done in the world. Then I grew up, realising that theirs was what was later to be classified as (very) ecological farming.

The last few years, I've taken an interest in what I eat. Especially since I live in this location, where lots of meat is being imported from the US, a place where hormonal treatment of livestock seems to be a normal thing. During this my extra-curricular research, many a disturbing story has reached my ears/eyes, and I've decided that I do not feel comfortable eating meat from a host animal that has been treated in a way with which I do not agree - i.e. a way I would not treat it. Question to readers - what are your feelings about this? And how do you justify them? I'm not asking this in a confrontational way, I am just interested.

One of my biggest issues, familiar to those who've ever discussed this with me, are eggs. The sacrifice involved in choosing a package of eggs from free-roaming chicken (a.k.a. "free roaming eggs" :) is in most cases negligible - most people can afford the extra few dollars a month, to get eggs from happi(er) birds. They are available in all stores, you don't have to go looking for them, and they have stronger shells (a sign of healthier hens laying them). So this is a case where I tend to be pretty firm - buy free-roaming eggs, people! (Question #2: do you buy free-roaming eggs, why/why not, and could you consider starting, why/why not?) (this question I'll freely admit, is more confrontational* in its nature, but please don't refrain from answering, I'll love you anyways...)

(*I am a big opponent of contention due to confrontation otherwise. It just never works. The free-roaming eggs issue is the one "luxury" I allow myself, due to the above reason - the lack of sacrifice involved. This doesn't mean I never fall for the temptation to be confrontational in other matters. It is however not endorsed by myself, and I try not to - because it never works.)

I recently came across an article about a movie taken by an employee/spy at a hatchery, i.e. a farm where incredible amounts of chicken are being hatched, to be sold on to egg-farms. Obviously only female chicken can do the job. The story's scary part is that what happens to the male chickens is rather gruesome: they are being ground alive. For the not-so-fainthearted, the story and the movie are available in links (click the word) (no, I could not watch. I love birds, the mere thought gives me nightmares)

Actually, what bugs me the most is not the main reason for the story, but what lies behind it, and here's where I'm faced again with my own naïveté: I always thought male chicken were grown to be slaughtered for food. Why are they then being killed as little yellow fuzzballs? The reason is mentioned in the article: They don't grow fast enough. Is there anyone else that finds this just slightly disturbing..? Ok, so I've heard about how chicken have been selectively bred to be as big as possible in as short a time as possible (it takes 50% less time today compared to 1950 for a chicken to reach 2 kg, which I personally find disturbing). But killing all these male chicken, because they are male and because they don't grow fast enough, is to me, a sign that the society's need for cheap meat fast has gone a bit too far (opinions?). I guess it is too expensive and unfeasible to ship them to starving countries?

(Yes, I'm obviously disturbed about the way they are being killed as well. I'm not going to go into that topic though, because that is entirely based on feelings, and is nothing I can logically argue about - everyone dies at some point, and there will in most cases be discomfort involved. It is obscene if we as humans don't choose the most "humane" way of killing animals so they would not have to suffer needlessly due to barbaric methods, when there are other options available to us, unlike the case for an eagle snatching the chick from the ground for instance - but my main issue in this particular text is that they should have had acceptable - calm and happy - lives before getting it ended.)

In all my research on this topic - diets, common sicknesses in developed countries, handling of animals, etc etc, I've come to the conclusion that people eat way too much meat. Mind you, since my own topic of research is astrophysics, I don't claim to be an expert on this. My findings are based upon research of other people, thoughts and opinions of other people, mixed with my own view of life, and attempts to see this from all different angles (the Word of Wisdom might have something to do with it as well). Thus, I don't expect you to immediately agree with all that I write. I would however love it if you do your own research (trying to see and understand all different angles available), mix with your own understanding of life, and come to your own conclusions (feel free to share those here))

I'm not arguing for complete vegetarianism, even though I'm getting closer and closer to it myself. I do however argue for a healthy lifestyle of flexitarianism, Theresa-version. This includes: Eat well, not too much and mainly vegetables**. Eat meat perhaps once a week (I try to do it even less at times, and the meat I choose is mainly fish), and choose organic/ecological meat from farms in the neighbourhood if possible (bringing down unnecessary transporting is another issue I'm not going into this time, but I think that most people would agree with that somewhat). Make your own bread (a bread machine is a wonderful tool for this) (this advice is mainly for people in north america, whose bread at best is edible, at worst is filled with unnecessary preservatives and sugar) - and avoid sugar! (Chocolate exempt of course...) .

But organic meat is so expensive you might argue. It is. Thus you will automatically diminish your meat consumption. Win-win situation accomplished.

But I don't like eating only veggies, you might say. (How do you know, I ask.) One very nice thing about the internet is the law of recipe posting: in most cases, most people don't post recipes not worth posting (unless they have a lousy taste I guess). Thus, I've never found a recipe that didn't do the trick. There's a neverending supply of amazing flexitarian recipes around. I will shamelessly advertise mine and my best friend's phenomenal site Sofias och Theresas fenomenala recept. Don't get fooled by the seemingly Swedish title and text - Our tireless translator Steve is doing a great job translating most of them, and google translate does the trick rather nicely in other cases. If not, just send us a line, and we'll tend to it. This site includes recipes of every different kind, in fact, the number of vegetarian ones is not yet so large (but they are great), so just try to get meat from nicely treated animals for the other recipes.

I challenge you to try one (1) new vegetarian recipe this week! Let me know how it goes. Let me know if you'd like me to send you one.

I was going to post a few links to good articles and blog entries in the end here, but of course I can't find most of them. Until then, here is an excerpt:

** very long article, but very much worth reading (start it up, and skip to the end if out of time): Unhappy meals

education=socialist ideology=bad?

This story on bbc makes me both roll my eyes and feel uncomfortable at the same time. A few questions come to mind: Are the conservatives concerned about a) the message itself or b) the fact that the president is delivering it? If a), does this mean conservatives are against people getting an education? if b) why would it matter *who* delivers an awesome message, as long as it is good? Shoudn't both "sides" have the same goal, work for a better future, and thus embrace what the other side does, as long as it is good? Isn't in fact the president a perfect person to deliver such a message?

I do realise that a newspaper rarely delivers a full version of a story, but generally, bbc does a very good job at being rather unbiased, compared to all other media I follow. So far, the ideology of Obama seems to be sane, fair, and balanced, in my opinion (still based on newspaper reports of course) (and then again, I was once called a communist by an american while discussing health care! good memory :)). When a call for doing a good job in learning and educating oneself is seen as a step in a socialistic agenda, it seems to me that the paranoia is going a little bit too far.

The day has apparently come when I start writing about politics. I think the day is near when I will start writing about faith as well :)

update: there's a link to the actual talk in the article, and I just read it. I really fail to see what is bothersome in that talk. It's a good peptalk for not giving up, for working hard, for repenting when having done badly "... you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time.", and not expecting anything to come for free. It might even help me doing a better job today!

Return of the Lunicrax Lumbago

UGH! so it's time again, for my (seemingly) annually reccurring bout of lumbago. This time it came slower, and hit me as I took off cycling to the university, and had reached full power by the time I rose up from my chair about an hour later. I really should record the date. Perhaps it's the same time of the year? The same spot in earth's orbit around the sun? We enter a personalised lumbago dust cloud and the result is a few meteors and Theresa needing a cane to get out of a chair. I'd like to think that's how it works at least...

For all those worried about my fil-withdrawals, I made some kefir from a powder (not nearly as yummy as a-fil of course, but it's still fil), and will re-attempt using the yoghurt maker for making new. Buying the powder is rather expensive. I will also make yoghurt, and report on the results.

Fil - culinary experiment with unexpected results...

There is a lot of foods I miss from Sweden, that I used to take for granted. All the different kinds of cheese, bread, and things there's no really good equivalent to. One of those is fil. Not any kind of fil, but a-fil (with lactobacillus acidophilus bacteria, very good for the stomach, very mild and awesome taste). Fil is milk with bacteria, with a consistency of (stirred) yoghurt, and a taste that vaguely reminds of buttermilk. My friend Steve got converted to it as well, and imported some to Scotland where he managed to reproduce it in his yoghurt maker. Encouraged by his success, I thought I'd do the same. I had, previously, gotten my hands on dried kefir culture and successfully made kefir (similar, but somewhat different taste - there is a plethora of different kinds of fil! ), so I thought it should be a simple thing to reproduce some non-dried fil!

Steve was kind enough to bring me a yoghurt maker from Scotland when he stopped by Winnipeg on his Canada tour earlier this summer, to increase my chances for success! And so, during D's and mine 2 week sejour in Sweden in August, we filled our bags with stuff to bring home. One of them: A whole litre of a-fil.

The first attempt I did with UHT milk, so as to not have to sterilize the milk myself. I mixed the appropriate amount of my fil with the milk, and added the hot water to the thermos, surrounding the container with the mixture, and waited. Nothing. Added more water, waited double the amount of time. (we're talking ca 8-12 hours normally, now turning into 24). Still nothing.

After some consultation with the expert, I started Attempt two. I used normal milk, heated it to 82 degrees, let it cool down to 24, added culture (more this time), etc etc, and waited. If this didn't work, surely my a-fil was dead. And, nothing, 12 and 16 hours later. Added the remainder of my a-fil in case some bacteria might still be alive. waited more. Worked far too long on my thesis chapter at school, came home late, and opened the thermos 24 hours after the refill, and voìla (the picure shows a 1 litre container filled with...):

Cheese!!! A-fil-cheese. So the bacteria now worked with a vengeance! What am I supposed to do with a-fil cheese? I love cheese, but I'm not sure about this one... For now, it's in the fridge, until someone can come up with some good ideas. And I'm all out of a-fil now, sob.

2 year anniversary

Today I've been married to my flying Dutchman for 731 days. 18 of August 2007 feels so recent still, it's hard to realise that so much time has passed. When I was little, I used to be very scared of time passing, and felt as if I kept losing it, and never was able to catch up. Then I changed my way of thinking and started imagining that I was collecting memories instead of visualizing myself dangling on a thread behind the ever-elusive now, trying to catch it. That took away a lot of unnecessary anguish! With a deficient memory like my own, it's necessary to document this passing time in an efficient manner. So it's easier to believe the past 2 years watching photos. However, my diary writing has been lacking compared to earlier, and I really need to be better at it.

One would think that 2 years should be enough time to finish the wedding webalbum. That is not the case however. Perhaps that will take place once I've survived my defence. So, next anniversary I could link to that one. For now, 1 photo from each year will suffice. It's been two very good years.

August 18 2007: Kyrkans ängar (church meadows), Onsala

18 August 2008, somewhere above St Andrews, Manitoba

August 2009, Onsala again (I didn't manage to take a picture today)

"A home worthy of careful stewardship"

Read the story behind this picture here - it's a very nice article! This is the kind of perspective we should aim for (I should!). Doesn't life seem so much more beautiful and amazing this way?

A very quick update

I guess I need to update on what's going on to keep my credibility here. Deadline 1 (the poster): Finished 1 day before! The joy I thereby experienced gave me some thoughts on the value of this... (I WISH I had been able to feel this say 4 years ago, and I might have been able to keep the years leading up to this point less painful... Then again it's hard to make timelines when the work incorporated is totally exploratory, and you have no concept whatsoever on how long time it's going to take).
This joy made me very motivated to be able to finish the second deadline asap. I gave myself 1 week to write 2 chapters. Once I realised that this might not be entirely feasible (after 2 days), I also checked my timelines (I have 2, one including all the the work, and one for the writing only), and noticed that I had given ambiguous deadlines for one of the chapters. I.e. I could finish 1 chapter (the first one), and still be on track.

I also had to push the deadline forward 1 day, since I worked on research a full day. Flexibility is necessary, but I have to make sure that I do fair exchanges of the days rather than take out loans from the future - that won't go well.

Results so far: I managed the 2nd deadline, although it was a bit more on the limit (writing does that, you can keep changing things around forever...). Now I'm 3 days into my 2 weeks of pure research. And, it's going well so far! I'm very happy. The code is half done, and the immense amounts of data will be painful to extract, but I know how, and it's all ready to go. Deadline: June 15.

Now that I'm in writing mode, there are so many topics not related to my research that I'd like to write about. Gah.

The last year

This is the last year, as in the final year. The year it is going to happen.

I just had my annual review. The LAST annual review before the defense (that, according to my current timeline, will take place April 10 next year. Hm. I think I might have to change that since that is a Saturday... April 9th is the new date!)

A good friend of mine has been reviewing her thesis writing progress on her blog, and it's been very inspiring to read. So, I think I am going to do that myself! After all, the thesis is what I spend about 90% of my time on. The first deadlines I have are:
May 23: A poster (second author) for a conference (that I will not attend, but I'm really just happy about that..).
May 30: Draft of chapter 1: the Introduction, including background and motivation. Also chapter 4, describing pretty much what will be on the poster - galaxy modelling with an awesome new software (not mine, I'm the user), and testing of said program with artificial galaxies. 

I will keep you posted... 

Live long and prosper

Premiere night. And the new star trek movie is a w e s o m e!!! Although the silly black holes made me giggle somewhat... And what is it with J.J. Abrams' (the director) fascination with hovering liquid red orbs? Just a cheap way to explain the ease with which to... no. That's all the spoilers you'll get out of me. Excellent cast/special effects, and of course it doesn't hurt that Simon Pegg plays Scotty, even though all that is resembling between the two would be the accent. There was even a moment in the first few scenes, where space did not have sound. But alas, that was all that could be given. I don't mind though, this movie experience was one of the better ones I'll see this year, I'm sure. 

Less impressive was the audience. Only one person was dressed up (not me, although I did bring spock ears), there was no lineup, the theatre was far from full, and where a swedish audience on the premiere day (which undoubtedly would have consisted of real trekkies) would have cheered and applauded (mainly Spock related events), nothing of the kind occurred here. Bizarre. 

Another bizarre thing was that as we were leaving the theatre, 2 guys muttered "trekkies" as we walked by in the parking lot. I didn't even wear my ears! I'm quite happy to be a trekkie, so I'm not bothered, just wondering how they would have known (for the record, we were wearing winter coats, since the temperature plummeted from 22 yesterday to 1 today. Ugh.)

Climate change part 1

heeheehee

File sharing and the case of the Pirate Bay

I tend to not write about political stuff (or any stuff at all for that matter, judging from the amount of entries lately). But this court case is an as interesting political issue as it can become, and since my awesome brother never starts up his political blog (which he should, since he has the best political PoVs I've ever seen in anyone), I guess I'll just write some, in my limited manner (I'm not a politician!).

Wow. I never thought the court would give them such a harsh conviction. (30 million kr and 1 year each in prison) esp. compared to what real criminals get - often 1% of that sum, at most. I might surprise a few of my readers when I write that I think the judgment is insane - many seem to equalize that with agreeing that stealing is ok. Do I? No. But a) I think i can be discussed if it really should be classified as stealing, and b) I think the world is a bizarre place (which we already knew it is) when the fines go to the companies Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony BMG and EMI - companies that don't seem to be in such a need to survive, while there are people without access to education, starving or living under insane circumstances everywhere in the world. It seems to me this political issue is a fight for market economy rather than justice.

I noted quite some distinction of bias in media btw - if you read an article covering the case on CNN, there's a strong bias in favour of the accusers (the movie companies), with lots of bad commenting about the owners of PB, quotations without context etc. If you read Swedish newspapers, for once it seems to be more unbiased, or even sometimes on the side of the defendants. BBC's story was (as usual) to the point and not choosing sides. (one of these days I'd like to write about media and their methods...).

Question: Can file sharing really be equalled with stealing? Services such as Last.fm, Spotify etc are legal - the difference is a file on your computer versus accessing it online (I know there are some finer differences in the details, esp for last.fm, but for this particular user, this difference really doesn't matter).

Here are some of my thoughts, in no particular order:

• The crime these guys are being conviced for is really providing infrastructure. How is that different from e.g. Google? What is the result going to be, more than getting 4 scape goats?
• History: Think back on the reaction of music at cinemas (rather than musicians playing for silent film), radio (huge issue), recording capabilities available in the homes, cassette tapes (that was a big one), and then recordable cd's, the mp3 industry, etc etc. The protests from the same kind of companies were enormous in each case. Is this so different? Still infrastructure for the same crime? or not?
• The technology used in file sharing is ingenious. I showed my wonderful spouse yesterday how it works, and he was genuinely impressed. It's something that should be used and explored.
• If so much energy was spent at fighting pornography on the internet, wonders might happen. Instead a technology is being fought, in the interest of the already rich (uhoh, I see why I in the country in the south sometimes get accused of being a communist...)
• Are really 83% (I think this number, denoting how many that disagree with the court ruling, is even higher now) of the Swedish population so deprived (well, perhaps they are, but in this particular question?)?
• 50 000 kr in fines is the result of murdering children (actual case in Sweden). 30 million for linking to ones and zeros...
• There is research that shows that filesharers spend their money to a greater deal on concerts (where the money hopefully goes more directly towards the artists rather than passing through the pockets of the big companies), going to the cinema, etc. In other words, it's not even proven that money is actually being lost. Many people buy what they like (to get better quality). Many artists get the attention they would otherwise not get. It's not all bad.

Proposed solution: As this is not a matter of life and death, but rather economics, it seems the best (and really, only) solution, would be for the $$-companies to change strategy in how to gain money. That's what all the photography stores had to do at the advent of digital cameras - they had to totally change, follow the technical development, or perish. It's an opportunity for learning and change, a challenge. Perhaps a new try at 3D movies in theatres (I'd be very interested!) Because - I'm not so sure the opinion of the people will change, regardless of it being right or wrong.

One unexected(?) and interesting outcome of this court ruling is the extreme growth of the Pirate Party just in time for the upcoming EU election. I'm quite fascinated..

If I had time, I would spend some of it on language and structure of blog entries. That will be a project for the future.

Wind chill!

There might be a risk of me sounding slightly obnoxious in this entry, so for all residents of Winnipeg - no offence! (at least not so very much ;)

The concept of what temperature is, seems to be getting a bit distorted in cold places like Winnipeg, since people tend to refer to wind chill number as the actual temperature. So, let us look at a few case studies:

- It's -20 outside, and no wind. You stand in the shadow, dressed in a parka, feeling comfortable. Why? Well, the heat of the body warms up a layer of air closest to your skin, and you're thus slightly insulated by this. Thus it actually feels warmer than it is and you don't feel the full -20.

- it's -20 outside, and a stern wind from the north is blowing. You complain, and pull the scarf tighter over your face, since you feel colder. Why? The wind is removing the layer of air closest to your skin, which makes the skin lose heat at a quicker rate, and thus you experience the cold stronger.

- You're submerged into a liquid that's chilled to -20 (obviously not water). Byebye.

All cases have a difference in pressure of the medium around you towards your skin. What changes is the rate in which you lose heat, not the actual temperature. You'll never get colder than -20 in any of these cases (which in all cases is pretty bad for the health, because -20 is pretty yuckily cold...)

- Common winnipeg misconception: It's -20 tonight but the wind chill is -40, I REALLY need to plug in my car! Well, yes, probably, because it's -20. It won't get chilled down to -40 though. It will however lose heat at a slightly quicker rate than if it wasn't windy, i.e. it might take 1 hour instead of 2 hours for the car to get cold after it was driven (never below -20 though!). Since you're probably staying in bed for longer than that during the night, it won't make a difference at all to you.
Thus, if it's -10, and a really nasty wind, your car will most likely start in the morning anyways, regardless of if it's plugged in or not (but you will still be complaining as you fight your way through the wind to the car, struggling with the keys to unlock it and rightly so, because it's MARCH and should be SPRING ugh...)

I had an interesting experience a few weeks ago, waiting for the train in Sydney. It was +41 outside. Sitting still, my body kept me chilled, but when the wind blew at me, it got really hot. the "wind heat" dried up my chilling sweat layer, and made me feel the real temperature (+41 is really hot...), but it didn't make it any hotter than +41, just as the wind chill doesn't make it colder. It's just your perception that changes due to the rate with which your body is being affected to the surrounding temperature.

(Then we have the extra wind chill you can add on someone who's spent 5 weeks in Australia, and comes back to Winnipeg - take off at least anouther 10 degrees! It took me about a week to get used to the cold again, and the time inbetween was terrrrible, I've never had so much pain walking to the bus in my life!!)

I can understand that it is important to know how quickly you will chill off in the wind, and I can agree that using an "equivalent temperature" gives a pretty good idea. What I don't like is how easy it is for people to misunderstand it, and think that it actually is colder than it is. The meteorological sites purposely don't use units on their wind chill estimates, to emphasize that it's not a real temperature.

Bring it on...

Feeling fresh in an airport

YES! That would be the most luxurious feeling - and something I rarely encounter, since most my flights are longhaul things with eternities spent between flights. I don't complain about that too much, since I really love airports. However, following the 14 hours flights from Sydney, including complete inability to sleep, with a 12 hours layover in Vancouver, wasn't my idea of having a good time. An amazing Air Canada lady took pity upon me when I enquired about possibilities to catch an earlier flight to Winnipeg (impossible when bags are already checked in, and in most cases rather hard anyways, if dealing with anyone else but this awesoem person, unless you open up the wallet..), and came by my carefully selected resting area to give me a voucher to enter the maple leaf lounge with the "elite". YES! Free food! Comfy chairs! Feeling VIP! YVR already has free internet, which is a trademark for agreeable airport, so that part was already taken care of. And in the end of my long wait, in an awesomely comfy chair, feeling the layer of muck on my outer appearance getting thicker and thicker (why is that? what is it about flying and airports that makes a person feel yuckier than going on a 3-day hike?) my eye caught the word "shower" on a sign. In Sydney, they have showers at the airport for the "common" people as well, but I suspect they might not have towels and all conveniences. So, while writing this I feel like born-again. I feel like I match the luxurious interiour of this lounge. Yeeha! 

Siding Spring Observatory

The above photo is taken just after sunset from the walkway around the 3.9 m AAT (the Anglo-Australian Telescope). I arrived here yesterday to observe observations in the purpose of learning alittle about optical observing. The location is beautiful. It's close to Coonabarabran, and I didn't realise the nature would look like a tahitian island. To get here, I took a train from Canberra, to Sydney, spent a night in a hostel, and then took a train and bus (in total about 7 hours) to Coonabarabran. 

The AAT is located in a huge dome - the biggest one I've seen, I think - it is very high above the ground, and thus the distance up to the walkway is equivalent to a 9-storey building. Walking on this metal-grid that constitutes the "floor" is thus an experience, at least for people with vertigo, like myself. It has to be done though, in order to experience beauty of unexpected magnitude (I'll post more photos in an album). The mountains and hills are green, but seem blue in the haze and due to all the eucalypts. I have no pictures of the night-time beauty, since my tripod would just fall through the mesh. I can try to describe it though: The Milky way stretches up in a band from the south, and the southern cross is very distinct. Just beneath it, is the Coalsack, a dark area that constitutes the head of the Emu. As the night progresses, more of the emu is visible, and is, albeit a rather thin emu, distinguished by the dark parts of the Milky Way. It's interesting that the aboriginals used the lack of stars (or hidden, I should say), to depict pictures, that actually look like what they say. I can't even try to describe how beautiful it is to see the nightsky from the southern hemsiphere, with such low amounts of light pollution so it's almost hard to see Orion due to all the weaker stars appearing everywhere around it. We went out several times during the night, and I'm sure we managed to stay out at least half an hour each time, just admiring this, the greatest piece of art I've ever seen. 

40 degrees and Madama Butterfly

Seeing an opera in the Sydney opera house seemed like a thing I needed to do. 

Puccini's Madama Butterfly was playing, and I've never heard or seen it, just heard good things about it, so I got tickets with my Italian flatmate Marta, who was keen on the idea as well. And WOW! The story seems simplistic at a glance, but the experience was amazing. I was in tears several times. The singers were great, and their acting extraordinary, the acoustics awesome, and the setting of the scene was extremely beautiful. I'm running out of adjectives. All this pulled me in, and I was spellbound. Wow. It didn't hurt either, that despite our "cheap" tickets for seats where the surtitles were covered by the seats on the floor above, I was able to see the text by sitting on the floor, because the seat in front of me was empty. This might not sound so glamorous, but it was an amazing view of the entire scene, and I was very happy about the arrangement, and that the people next to the empty seat didn't move in (which I would have done). Marta of course didn't really need any subtitles since they were singing in her mother tongue... 

It was so good, that afterwards I even had trouble speaking. Then we left the opera house, and had to do some photography: 

It was a fairly warm day, especially in Epping (where I stay), which is west of the city and thus not cooled down by the Pacific as much. It was 39.9 at the time I walked to the bus, and waited for the train to head downtown, which is a new record for me. The wind was hot! (winnipeggers would probably claim that it was at least 60 due to the "windheat" :P) To me, it was exotic and wonderful, and I had my water bottle, so it didn't bother me, but apparently I have an excellent built-in cooling system compared to most people, so it probably just didn't affect me as much. As predicted, downtown was cooler, and I got a quick cockatoo sighting before heading to the opera house, which in itself would have made my day. 

Flexibility

Some days you need to accept things and learn flexibility more than others. For instance: There is a person in my life I cherish more than most. He had managed to get 8 days off in a row, and was going to try to hop on a southbound plane. But so tried many others (about 30 or so), and he didn't even manage to leave Winnipeg. Thus my weekend looked very different than I had planned. It's weird to think I won't see him for yet another 3 weeks, but I know people who have it much worse in that respect. This is a case when heartache is a good sign, and something to be very happy about. 

Of course, my location makes it easy to deal with it. For instance: I planned to go to the temple, since I knew that would make me happy and widen my horizon a few loops, and connect stronger with that cute person so far away. How about booking an opera at the Sydney opera house? The Magic Flute is playing right now. Cockatoo watching is great as well. All this would of course be even greater if shared, but on its own, it adds so much essence to my life, that I can't stop smiling. Now, I ended up visiting a synagogue for the first time in my life (very cool!), and spend 2 hours in the Apple store instead (how's that for flexibility?) (see this link for photos), but I intend to get all the rest done as well. 

Update: I did finally visit the temple, and go to the opera house, but for another opera. More on that in the next note. 

On a completely different note, I wish this didn't feel so accurate: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1129

Narrabri & Kangaroos

Yesterday, I arrived to Narrabri, a little town about 550 km from Sydney. We flew there in a Dash-8, and got a taxi to the telescope. The lady driving the taxi had an astonishing dialect. I wish I had recorded some... I could barely understand a word! 

As we got closer to ATCA, the telescope area, I was keeping my eyes open for kangaroos. I had already seen two Galahs (rosenkakduor) by the roadside. Then they appeared. About 10 at a time, standing by the road, watching us, jumping away if we got too close for comfort. The closer we got to our destination, the more of them there were. The sun was setting, and the CB cloud that had made our landing bumpy and fun, gave a great background to one of the telescopes (there are 6) as I took a fair amount of photos. I'm just adding one right now (showing some of the kangaroos, hence the washed out colours of the sky), but more will come to a webalbum at a close location hopefully soon. 

After dinner and setting up the observations, I was the first one to get some sleep, which would be 4 hours - and then I mightily surprised woke up in the middle of my deep sleep. Walking outside to the control room soon cured the sleepiness - The Milky Way was clearer than I'd ever seen - and since it's the sky of the southern hemisphere, the Magellanic clouds were visible too. I took my time walking... Now I'm monitoring monitors, hoping that nothing goes wrong, since I probably wouldn't know what to do about it :P

A walk in botanical garden

After 4 days, I finally got to see my first parrots, on a grey cloudy, and very comfortable (temperature wise) Sunday evening, as I was walking through the Domain and the Botanical Garden. 

The first one was a rainbow lorikeet, who patiently waited for me while I searched for my camera, but, I still wasn't quick enough. He had a very sweet and mild chirp. Just after that, a disney-bird caught my eye - a kookaburra! (kookaburras are not parrots, but they are still birds worth all respect due to their looks, style and personality, not to mention the laughter...) He was not laughing, just watching me and blinking while I chatted with him... The locals enjoyed watching me and all had nice comments as they were passing by. A bit further away, walking towards Mrs McQuaries chair, I heard a loud WAAAAK, tightly followed by more very insistant WAAKs. My suspicions were correct: High up in a gumtree a sulphurcrested cockatoo was purched on a branch! And then another one came, and another one, until the tree top was filled with awesome birds, and WAAAAKs, and I was in heaven. Obviously the camera wasn't resting either. 

 

WAAK!

My Kookaburra-friend

A sulphurcrested cockatoo posing nicely for me (sorry about the darkness, haven't had a chance to work on the photos yet..)

Kookaburras, cockatoos & astronomy

Well, I haven't seen either of the first two yet... But I am sure I am about to. So far, I have experienced warmth in wonderful amounts (i.e. all the time), ocean, friendly people, the most beautiful city, awesome accent, inspirational locations for work (ATNF contains a  large amount of astronomers, which all of a sudden makes your work seem more interesting and of use), and fun times with my superfun supervisor. 

Some pictures from the first few days: 

A sign of heat. Notice how the birds line up in the shadow of the palm tree... 

Flying foxes (flygande hundar) - these bats have a wingspan of 1 m

Taking the ferry out to Watson bay

And, yesterday, Jayanne and I took the ferry back to the city instead of the train. The light was excellent. Sydney harbour bridge was impressive. 

Approaching circular quay

Companions (so far):

Moi-meme, by a beach in Watson bay

Luuk (cousin-in-law) was my guide the first day when I rebooted my brain in the sunshine

Jayanne, demonstrating the funky chairs on the sydney trains :)

I did it!

Tonight, David and I attended the kick-off IYA (international year of astronomy), which was held a the Forks. And we skated there! I decided when I moved to my apartment that I would skate to the Forks at some point, and now it has finally taken place! This wouldn't be such an amazing thing if not taking into account that I'm a very shaky skater :) But after having fallen once, I became more daring. The nervousness also had the unexpected bonus that it kept me very warm. The quality of the ice deteriorated closer to the Forks though, due to more skaters, so next time I think we'll go the other direction, towards Assiniboine park. 

On another note: We watched Australia at the cheap seats last night (something I just had to do before heading there in a week). This is a movie I realised people would either hate or love. I loved it. Finally a movie that is a real movie! An epic, long (2.5 hrs), beautiful piece, that reminds me a lot of really old movies. Best was the intro - never has a murder been presented in such an artistic manner (this sounds wrong - it was not glorified in any way, but it definitely caught interest). Worst was getting used to the totally unnecessary enhancement of the upper lip of the female main actress. Easiest was to enjoy the male main actor (Hugh Jackman, need I say more... ;) Try to get a chance to watch this movie, without any expectations either direction, and just enjoy it, without being critical (as if those critics could to a better job than Baz Luhrmann anyways!!)

First entry of 2009

It's the Thirteenth Day - which is a holiday in Sweden, but doesn't seem to be recognized here (the day the 3 wise men reached Bethlehem, and also apparently the origin of the starboys, who later on were moved to Lucia celebration). The eve of the 13th day, I did stay home. All inspired for the new year (or at least made to believe so), I woke up with headache, which escalated into a migraine, which lasted all day long. Today is however my "new day with new chances", so I'm up early (combination of jetlag, and D getting up at 4.30), and intend to get lots done today! 

Following here is our Christmas greeting card. It should later be a clickable link to a webalbum of our Swedish jul-och nyår adventure. 

(En kvick personlig års-berättelse följer här:

Det var ett bra resår (dock ej så bra som min mors, men det går förstås inte att tävla med). January 2008, ett återbesök till Hawaii, där D och jag hade firat smekmånad 2 veckor tidigare, och mitt första beök på Mauna Kea. Sen var det dags för 1 vecka i Sverige på egen hand i Februari. Konferens i Victoria i maj, och konferens i London, Ontario i juni. Sommar i Winnipeg, med mkt badande. Sommarsemestern sköts på till September, då vi åkte till Holland i 9 dagar, och jag lärde känna mina svärföräldrar lite bättre (äntligen! :). Men först var vi en weekend i Calgary för Alyssas bröllop, och hälsade på Candia. I november: Tillbaka till Hawaii, för 7 nätters observationer på Mauna Kea. David kom för tidernas kortaste HI-semester, 4 dagar, efter jag var färdig, vilket vi tillbringade på stranden i Kona. Suveränt. Winterpeg i 1.5 månad med rejält låga temperaturer, under -20 i ca 2 veckor, innan vi åkte till Sverige på juldagen, med ankomst annandagen. En helt underbar vecka tillbringades i Onsala, och nu saknar jag Cassie... )