SWEDEN 2016




Gotland

    
I flew to Stockholm then to Gotland to visit Scott and Birgit and son at their summer house. It was June 1. Birgit went to buy eggs from a local farmer, and was told that her potato crop had frozen last night. Didn't see the aurora borealis, though. You have to go much further north for that. My last bucket list item, unfulfilled.
The house and vicinity. There are now Swedish troops on Gotland, since Putin has pointedly held naval invasion exercises in the Baltic sea. Sweden is considering joining NATO, but at this point, the prime minister is stalled at the thinking stage. I took many long walks here in the cold breeze. (Making oatmeal for breakfast sold me on induction ranges.)
 
Birgit's uncle Bose owns a large wholesale flower site. He had a TV show too until his co-star got caught in some kind of sex scandal and they canned the whole show. People can also buy flowers in retail quantities. The site has a cafe for visitors. The chef cooks a mean vegetarian Swedish-style lunch. I got their recipe book, but haven't made anything. Not only is it in Swedish, but everything's metric. I'd really like to go back there. The chef comped us dessert.
Stockholm    
Scott develops software at Erickson. I took a look around the software shop. There are four CIOs which explains why the guy across from Scott was writing his application in five different languages for the learning experience, and why when Scott inherited a project he got a single folder containing all the files. Now, he's auditing their cloud storage and tightening all the unattended permissions. Every company should take inspiration from that.

Stockholm is a tourist attration desert. there's the Vasa (see below), the ABBA museum, and Erwin Schroedinger's Nobel.
The ABBA museum and  Erwin Schroedinger's Nobel.
     
Tromp L'oeil at the National Museum. The perspective doesn't change because the guards are painted.
Harbor and Gamla Stan, the quaint tourist block. I almost bought a Ravenclaw shirt, but settled for ice cream instead. (A British writer wrote "Ice cream is America's national dish. Temperature has nothing to do with it."
The Vasa    

The showed me that government contracting hasn't changed since the 1600s. The ship was built at the order of King Gustavus Adolphs to support his attempt to conquer Poland (where he was located while the ship was being built). Shipwright Henrik Hybertsson died early in the project, and the design was handed off to Hein Jacobsson, who completed it. The king approved the design.

Shortly after, the king ordered 72 24-pound cannons for the ship. Upon completion, the ship was demonstrated to Vice Admiral Fleming, who saw the problem and ordered the test to stop immediately. But the King had sent letter after letter and the narrow V-shaped hull,designed for speed, could not hold sufficient ballast. It sank 32 meters in front of cheering crowds of citizens and foreign diplomats, with the loss of 30 lives.

A letter was sent to the King. His furious reply blamed "imprudence and negligence". He demanded an inquest with the guilty part to be severly punished (I don't know what he had in mind). The inquest was held. Everybody pointed the finger elsewhere, and nothing could be proven, so the dead shipwright was conviently held responsible. No one's carreer was affected.

For every part of this history, I could provide an example from my 35-year experience in government contracting.

The ship sunk in waters to cold for shipworms, so much of the wood survived. It was raised in 1961 and reconstructed. Shown here is one of the skeletons found below decks. The museum has used the skulls to create likely faces for the dead. (Ths ship photo is a stock photo because the museum displays it in dimness with dramatic lighting, so in my photo you can't make out much detail.

The funny stuff

    

Lamb shit candy (licorish). Did you know that licorish contains toxic glycyrrhizic acid? If you eat a whole bag, you get abdominal pain, vomiting, and potassium levels low enough to stop your heart. Don't feed it to dogs either, without obraining a liability waiver.

Also shown: edible glass, Brillo ice cream, lamb shit licorice and more!

    
   
"Born originals, how do we die as copies?"
    
     - Andrew Young

"We don't need more creativity in Japan. One creative mind in a thousand is perfectly sufficient. Any more and the country would collapse."

     -Yasunori Nishijima