You can find my public key ring here always. Use this if you wish to communicate securely with me over email please.
Give it up
Akismet has protected your site from 1,598 spam comments already, but there’s nothing in your spam queue at the moment.
That is the greeting as I log in to my content management system. Does spammer really get around these things and make money from it.
It hink the answer must be that they do – otherwise they would not do it. Or at least – they believe that they make money from it…
Ye Olde Theatre | Den gamla teatern
Here is finally some results from a wonderful photo shoot in the studio together with Karin who is the model in all these pictures. We were aiming for getting that feeling of old French postcards á la 1920ies or so – and here is the first set on display, there will be at least one more set later on since we got so many nice pictures from this session.
Till sist här är en del av resultatet från en mycket trevlig session i studion tillsammans med Karin som är modellen i alla bilderna. Vi försökte få till känslan i gamla franska vykort från säg 1920-tal ungefär. Det kommer minst ett set till efter detta eftersom vi fick ihop en hel del trevliga bilder.
En hämnd mot rättsväsendet
JO-anmälningarna strömmade in efter avslöjandet om att det finns misttanke om jäv i rättegången mot männen bakom torrent-sajten ”The Pirate Bay”. Några är förvånade över detta, en del applåderar det som nu sker, personligen tycker jag det är en sorts tragik för jag ser många vanliga människor som är upprörda över de grymt hårda domarna som utdömdes och nu ser en chans att ta hämd på rättsväsendet.
Någonting är inte bra när en dom faller som strider mot vad det stora flertalet människor anser vara rätt och riktigt. Människan har en sorts kollektiv känsla för vad som är rimligt i sådana här fall och när det nu visade sig att det fanns en chans att ge sig på domslutet genom jävmisstanke så tar man den.
Om rättssystemet fjärmar sig för mycket från vad allmänheten anser vara rätt och riktigt, moraliskt och etiskt så uppstår en klyfta som kan leda till stora samhällsproblem. Redan idag finns ett uttalat förakt mot rättsväsendet i landet vilket börjar med polisen själv och vidare genom domstolarnas utslag som i vissa fall upprör och tycks märkliga för en inte insatt allmänhet till ett uttalat politikerförakt – även om just detta verkar lite bättre nu för tiden med den sittande regeringen eftersom Fru förutvarande Stadsrådet Sahlin verkar dra till sig det mesta av föraktet just nu. Men hos många (särskilt ungdomar har jag en känsla av) byggs det vidare på en ilska och förakt för ett rättsväsende som kan döma våldtäktsmän till 30 dagar öppen anstalt och skadestånd på några tio-tusen-lappar.
Är det konstigt egentligen?
- Huvudmännen bakom The Pirate Bay fick 1 år och 30 miljoner kronor i skadestånd.
- Englas mördare fick 100 000 i skadestånd (men skakar galler betydligt längre)
Eller som någon uttryckte det, skadeståndet gällde sju filmer och att piratkopiera en film skulle då skadeståndsmässigt vara värt ungefär 12 barnmord.
Det är inte konstigt att Piratpartiet snabbt avancerade till att idag i opinionsundersökningarna faktiskt klara 4-procentspärren och få platser i Riksdagen. Att partiet sedan är ett enfrågesparti som egentligen inte har några andra idéer än att man skall ha rätt att kopiera spelar i sammanhanget ingen roll, folk är arga och upprörda och vill visa det.
The Swine Pest
The scare of the Influenza A/H1N1 type that goes around the world is parallelled only by the scare in 2004 about the avian flu. That time the situation was actually scarier because of the aggressiveness and severity of the infection in humans in those cases that got infected. The fear that H5N1 would cross with another strain, say the ordinary Hong Kong flu and create something potent and lethal that easily transmits between people was real however.
But this time it is a little bit different. Out of 77 deaths in Mexico health officials have found only 2 deaths related to the actual Influenza A/H1N1 strain. In countries outside Mexico the infections does not seem to be that severe and although influenza is always a nasty business people are recovering and in many cases it seems to be no workse than the yearly influenza that hits us, usually from Asia and the type that the elderly and infirm is recommended to get influenza inoculation shots for.
The swine flu name is actually a misnomer since the current strain that everyone is watching is not normally found among pigs (but pigs may become infected just like humans may). It is a new strain and right now it is thought that ”patient zero” has been found in Mexico a small boy who apparently got infected with more than one flu at the same time and the new hybrid was born, infecting people around him and so on.
People in different parts of the world are responding in different ways most of these more drastic actions are based in religious superstition and fear. In the Islamic faith the pig is viewed as an unclean animal. Most Muslims do therefore not eat pork in any form and even in the old testament it is written that pigs are not fit as food for people.
Recently in Egypt, a predominately Muslim country where 90% of the population are osbserving and confessing Sunni Muslims and the remaining population mainly Coptic Christians (and many observes the prohibition against eating the flesh of swine) and what happens?
The government decided to cull some 250 000 pigs as a response in an insane strike against – you guessed it – swine flu. It was not until WHO came out in the open and recommended everyone to stop using the name ”swine flu” that officials in Egypt came forward and said they only used the swine flu as an excuse to rid the country of ”disorderly pig rearing”.
Here in Sweden we see other responses equally based in fear and superstition as the Egyptian decision to cull all pigs, one is to spend money on starting to build vaccine factories and similar. The point here is that it takes between 3-9 months to find a effective vaccine and normally we have that kind of warning before influenza strikes, but this time a strain like this may be far more complex to beat and the influenza would be over us already before the vaccine could have been developed. And there are no ”fit all” vaccines, they have to be tailored specifically for each strain. By the time the vaccine is out this scare is probably over already.
Sweden has a contract with one of the biggest makersof vaccine, Glaxo Smithkline that allow us access to 18 million doses of flu vaccine in case a world wide outbreak should hit us in the coming years.
The Bonfire Night
Here in Sweden we still have remnants of the old norse celebrations of the four seasons. We have the Walpurgis or Valborg celebration in the spring time (great drinking time especially for the young people and students) then there is the midsummer celebration around the summer solstice in June (great drinking time for everyone) and so on. They autumn celebration has more or less died out though some people claim there is a remnant of it in the curious celebration of the Italian saint Lucia on December 13th and then of course there is Christmas by the end of December and just a couple of days from the midwinter solstice.
In Sweden, Walpurgis (Valborgsmässoafton or Valborg) is one of the de facto public holidays during the year. The forms of celebration in Sweden vary in different parts of the country and between different cities. Sir James George Frazer in The Golden Bough writes that ”The first of May is a great popular festival in the more midland and southern parts of Sweden. On the eve of the festival, huge bonfires, which should be lighted by striking two flints together, blaze on all the hills and knolls”. One of the main traditions in Sweden is to light large bonfires, a custom which is most firmly established in Svealand, and which began in Uppland during the 18th century. An older tradition from Southern Sweden was for the younger people to collect greenery and branches from the woods at twilight, which were used to adorn the houses of the village. The expected reward for this task is to be paid in eggs.
The tradition which is most widespread throughout the country is probably singing songs of spring. Most of the songs are from the 19th century and were spread by students’ spring festivities. The strongest and most traditional spring festivities are also found in the old university cities, like Uppsala and Lund where both current and graduated students gather at events that take up most of the day from early morning to late night on April 30, or ”sista april” (”The last day of April”) as it is called in Uppsala. There are also newer student traditions like the carnival parade, The Cortège, which has been held since 1909 by the students at Chalmers in Gothenburg.
Kungsträdgården | The King’s Garden
Om det är någon tid på året man skall besöka Kungsan är det just nu. Sakura-träden blommar och folk har kommit fram ur sina hålor och njuter av en glass, en sushi eller varför inte en pizza direkt från kartongen sittandes njutandes av de härliga blommande träden.
If there is any time of the year to visit the Kungsträdgården it is now. The Sakura cherry trees are in full bloom and it will soon be over. People have come out from their winter hidings and are having ice creams, sushis to go or why not a pizza straight from the carton sitting around enjoying the scenery and the lovely blooming trees.
En svart dag
I dag röstade EU-parlamentet igenom att upphovsrätten inom EU ökas till 70 år efter i stället för som tidigare 50.
Det betyder att litterära och musikaliska verk nu skyddas ännu längre än tidigare och projekt som Project Gutenberg och Projekt Runeberg måste städa undan ytterligare ett antal böcker eftersom förlängningen gäller retroaktivt.
Fy fan.
My Rings
The Ring
This is my fiancee Jeanette working on a new ring. I was around to take some pictures and I am always impressed with what she can do with some tools and a bit of metal :)
