from Baghdad to Rotebro

-They’re still out there by Stockholmsvägen. Shall I drive the same way back again?

The bus driver is evidently shaken. Her bus has just been bombarded with stones by a gang of youngsters. One of the windows is merely a memory. The line ends at our commuter train station, she’s supposed to pick up passengers and drive the same route back. It’ll take about two minutes to reach the spot where the attack took place. Finally an answer on the radio:

-Drive the usual route. Call us if it happens again.

It’s a warm summer night, I might as well take a walk but if she has to go through this, so could I. During the two minute drive we talk about previous attacks, about how different windows in the bus are not equally resistant, about a passenger being injured on the same front seat where I'm sitting. When we reach the spot where stones were raining ten minutes ago the kids have fled or maybe they found another pastime.
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Random violence has become routine. From Baghdad to Rotebro, evil is all around is.

others on sollentuna risk

andra om folkhemmet våld

deadly cooperation

Remember that spider? Well, he’s still around. Nights are getting darker and he’s grown considerably during summer.

Quantum theory (at least the tiny portions I’ve been able to absorb) teaches us that one cannot observe the world without interfering with it. It turns out that my spider is a good illustration. Nights are getting darker and he knew exactly what he did establishing base camp outside my window. I turn on my lamp and the light attracts scores of flying-something’s out of which he usually grabs dinner as well as dessert. To be able to follow his activities better I turn on another lamp just beneath the net. And guess what? The light from this second lamp guides his dinner-to-be straight into the net. So it’s a deadly cooperation really. He provides the “entertainment” and I support his diet.

Incidentally, here are a couple of colleagues from last year.

others on spider

andra om kvantfysik

am I still here?

Yep, sure am.

I just don’t share the notion that bloggers have to keep writing constantly regardless of whether they have anything to say or not. Right now I’m happy writing, recording sound, snapping photos and editing our three blogs stockholm by... pixels, plenty and waves. Do check them out, won’t you?

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others on stockholm

andra om stockholm

prime-time violence

Something is flickering and spinning outside my window. I try to ignore it. After all, I’m terribly occupied Doing Something Important. The flickering and spinning continues. There’s a frenzy of activity in a spider’s web out there. Reluctantly I take a closer look. A semi-small flying-something (well, you know my expertise in the field of insects) is entangled but moving. His (?) antennae are flickering wildly. He’s not alone out there. The Systems Administrator for this particular Web 2.0 is busy preparing and packaging his catch. All of a sudden the flickering ends. The spider climbs upwards out of my view but still very much in control because soon enough the package is being lifted, also out of sight. The flying-something is now officially someone’s dinner, ending this episode of prime-time violence. [...and now, the weather forecast]

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others on uncensored

andra om våld

hooray … or something

They’re young. They’re good-looking. They’re noisy. Incredibly noisy, in fact. They own the streets or at least pretend they do. They’re celebrating. Did they pass any particular exam? Nope, those were abandoned decades ago. They’re celebrating that school’s out. In fact school’s out every year but now they’re done with the mandatory part. Ehm, well most kids celebrating were done with their mandatory studies two or three years earlier. Ok, so maybe they’re celebrating that they won’t be studying any more? Probably not - many will be heading directly to the University. So what’s the noise about really? I’m definitely getting old. Let’s just say it’s summer.

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others on stockholm noise

andra om stockholm student

What happened?

People change. We grow older, possibly slightly wiser although in many cases that’d be subject to debate. Our preferences change. What used to be a priority doesn’t even show up on the radar screen any more. What happened?

As an example, take yours truly and watching televised sports. A couple of decades ago I was totally absorbed by big sports events. I was even known to schedule vacations to fit the Olympics or Wimbledon. I spent hours upon hours watching those broadcasts, taking notes, speculating. I even rescheduled my daily life when there were time zone differences to handle.

In the early nineties I skipped most of the long live broadcasts and went directly for the daily summaries of what had taken place. Half an hour instead of several hours.

Then I stopped bothering about the early qualifying stages. But I still followed the finals; the most important stuff as long as it didn’t collide with other things.

And now? I might browse quickly through the sports pages in my daily paper. TV is off.

What happened?

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others on sports

andra om TV

April in Smygehuk

Smygehuk in Scania, that’s it mate. If you want to go further south you’d have to leave Sweden because this lovely but windy little harbor is The End. Go see.

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others on sweden go see
andra om skåne turism

unidentified flying comrade

I don’t care much for insects. They’re great bird food and they probably do a lot of useful work but we have sort of a mutual agreement. I ignore them and they’re perfectly busy so they ignore me as well.

However, there is one exception. The first flying insect is solid (well) confirmation that winter is gone. Minutes ago a flying something bumped twice against the outside of my window. I guess that makes it officially spring. Minutes earlier the final series of this year’s ice hockey championship ended as well. And those green-and-white fellows won today. Say no more!

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others on stockholm insect

andra om stockholm vår

March in Växjö

Go see.

The sun still a bit tentative, spring is in no hurry by Växjö Cathedral

others on växjö cathedral

leftists

I drive, therefore I am. Well, not necessarily.

But I do drive occasionally. In the right lane. Given good visibility and fair weather I’d set the cruise control to 70 km/h if that’s the limit on this particular road. Some fellow drivers find this pace a bit too modest and choose to overtake me in the left lane. Come to think of it, most of them do. Evidently they’re all important people with better things to do than respecting whatever laws apply to the rest of us and with a limited interest in road safety. The left lane, that’s where the action is.

others on driving speed

andra om hastighet