Large Lunch
I just saw this on Flickr. It’s cool how the web is almost invisible so that one could be fooled into believing the spider and the fly are falling together through the air.
I hope the spider has a healthy appetite – it’ll need it!
Børn, børn, børn…
Det ser ud til, hele verden er venter sig for tiden – min søster og min chef har jeg kendt til i et stykke tid, og i det fik jeg så at vide, at min fætter Henrik skal være far.
København
Jeg fik en sms fra Miriam om, at hun nu er flyttet til Bredgade i København. Jeg nåede aldrig at få hendes lejlighed i Odense at se indefra – nu får vi se, om jeg når at se den i Bredgade – det lyder, som om den er lidt lille til fem personer… 
Insektmatematiker
Insekter er sååå søde, når de prøver at forstå matematik!
Alternate pasts
Lying in bed this morning, I was trying to analyse the similarities between two of my favourite books, Between the Rivers and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.
Between the Rivers (by Harry Turtledove) takes place in Mesopotamia (hence the name) in antiquity. The basic idea is that gods are as real as people believe them to be, and the main plot is about a young man’s fight to liberate himself and his people from the gods. It has many similarities with the same author’s Thessalonica which takes place in Greece at the time when Christianity was replacing the Pantheon.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (by Douglas Adams) is mostly set in modern times in England, and it involves time-travel, aliens and Coleridge (both the man and two of his poems). The basic plot is that Coleridge had to be prevented from finishing Kubla Khan to save the world.
What seems common to these books is that they claim that the past was different from what we believe it to be. I’m not sure whether this is an insight of any great importance, though, and I definitely doubt I’d like any book fitting this description.
Statistik
Jeg har netop læst en artikel i Jyllands-Posten om, at Helmuth Nyborg fra Psykologi ved Aarhus Universitet er blevet fritstillet. Manden har jo kontroversielle holdninger, men hvad jeg fandt interessant, var, at JP har offentliggjort rapporten fra det sagkyndige udvalg (skrevet i LaTeX). Så vidt jeg kan se, er to af de tre sagkyndige statistikprofessorer, men Helmuth Nyborg er jo psykolog. Nu har jeg aldrig studeret psykologi, men hvis det minder om lingvistik, undrer det mig overhovedet ikke, at der er kludder i statistikken – det er ikke just det fag, der fylder mest i uddannelsen.
Det betyder naturligvis ikke, at deres kritik er uberettiget, men det forekommer mig at være unfair at pudse statistikprofessorer på Nyborg, blot fordi man ikke kan li’ hans resultater. Derimod ville det nok være en god idé at lade sagkyndige tværfaglige udvalg tjekke stikprøver af al forskning fra alle universiteter for at sikre, at standarden er lige høj på alle fag. Men dét vil helt sikkert vække modstand fra mange!
Christian the Great, King of the Incas
I posted the following to the soc.history.what-if newsgroup back in 2003. It didn’t attract any attention, though, so I’m reposting it here now, since I think it’s one of my better ATLs.
PoD ca. 1518. King Christian II of Kalmar decides that fighting the
Swedish rebellions will only harden their resistance. Instead, he
sees possibilities in the Americas, discovered only a few decades
earlier. He thus sends out exploration teams headed by the most able
Swedish noblemen. The remaining Swedish nobility is easily silenced.
Around 1523, a small strong force including Gustav Vasa, a young but
very determined nobleman, arrive in the Inca Empire, beating the
Spanish by a few years. In the following years, they manage to
conquer the empire. Gustav Vasa becomes the Governor of this new
Kalmar possession.
In the 1530s, King Christian II is convinced (i.a. because he wants to
divorce his wife and marry his long-time lover Dyveke instead) to
introduce Lutheranism in the Kalmar Union. The whole Bible is
translated (”Biblia, Det er All den Hellige Scrifft”), based on
Luther’s German translation, into one language which forms the basis
of the Kalmarian language to our days.
To deal with the American trade, a new city is founded in 1542 on the
mouth of the Göta River: Christiania. This also helps to keep the
Swedish nobility happy, since not all money now flows directly to
Copenhagen. The vast amounts of gold of silver flowing in from the
Inca lands helps finance more colonies while playing a strong role in
the European power game.
1559: Christian II (”The Great”), King of Denmark, Sweden and Norway,
of the Goths, Wends and Incas, duke of Sleswig and Holstein, dies,
mourned in all parts of his possessions. He is succeeded by his son,
Hans II.
Scorpions
I’ve always disliked scorpions (well, ever since Ötz found a scorpion crawling on his son’s duvet in his house in Italy very close to my parents’). That said, I’m in two minds whether I like them better roasted on a spit, like the seem to do in China. It has the advantage they’re dead, but on the other hand I’m not sure I’d really fancy putting one into my mouth. Oh well, I’m not planning any trips to China, so there’s no need to make a decision just yet…
Dentist at 9
My half-yearly dental check-up is due at 9 this morning. What a great way to start the day! :-/
The Grapple
I just finished reading Harry Turtledove’s Settling Accounts: The Grapple, taking place during World War II in an alternate world where the South won the American Civil war. As usual, the plot moves along at a snail’s pace, the dialogues are unimaginative, and the whole thing is totally predictable as soon as one realises that the Confederate States = Nazi Germany.
So why did I buy it as soon as it came out, not even waiting for the paperback? I guess it’s like watching a sitcom. I read and enjoyed How Few Remain, and after that I always just wanted to read the next book in the series. I had not in my wildest dream imagined Turtledove would write so many books (How Few Remain, American Front, Walk in Hell, Breakthroughs, Blood and Iron, The Center Cannot Hold, The Victorious Opposition, Return Engagement, Drive to the East and now The Grapple).
But by now I need to know how it goes on, so I’ll preorder In at the Death as soon as I can. :-/