Sweden in New York

There is actually a lot of Sweden in New York, if you just know where to look. For example, they are now selling the 1970's progressive hippies most loved attribute, the backpack Kånken for $110. I had two when I grew up, both were used so much that they fell apart after years of use. Now they are in fashion on 5th Avenue (and AREA has one, green of course). The company Fjällräven (= the arctic fox) has opened its first store on Manhattan.  Unfortunately their fantastic pants are just too expensive for normal people.  Do you think any millionaires would wear Fjällräven pants?  Maybe. 

There is the cafe called FIKA, which we should check out sometime. But, didn't someone tell these guys that white text on devilblack background is very hard to read and doesn't look good? And guys, you are in the US, how about having American spelling and not British?  And fix your grammar, it isn't even Swenglish sounding.  Whoever made their website gets an F grade in user friendliness, design, and text. Oh, and there is no way to get back to the main menu when you have clicked on About... embarrassing.  Oh, their coffee is Löfbergs Lila, which I do not like, it is in my opinion the most overrated Swedish coffee.  Tastes burnt.  OK, maybe I will go someone else instead, like the NewsBar. 

There is even a Swedish bonfire party on April 30 to welcome the sun back (this is called the Valborg festivities in Sweden - a great excuse for lots of college students to get drunk and for many to sing old traditional songs). 

And if you read this blog, know Swedish, and have an ipod, I highly recommend that you download free podcasts from the Swedish public radio.  Sommar i P1 and Tankar för dagen are my favorites so far.

Finally, it seems like the intra-Atlantic mail is working again, after being stopped due to diabolical ash clouds from the mid-Atlantic ridge island...

Swedish news in America

You don't often hear news about Sweden on American radio, but a few days ago there were not just one story but two about Sweden. The first one was about a Swedish cartoonist that has drawn the ire of islamic fundamentalists. The second was about the new movie based on Stieg Larsson's book The girl with the dragon tattoo (which has a better name in Swedish, "Men that hate women", but I bet that wasn't marketable in America). Stieg Larsson's book trilogy is great, gory and violent, but smart and a really, really good read. A new Swedish movie is out and has won lots of awards. I haven't seen it yet, but plan to. Of course the movies that are made in Sweden have to be remade in Hollywood, sigh, since some people don't like subtitles. Can you imagine Brad Pitt as a Swedish journalist? Not me.

Otherwise, everyday Sweden in our American household is mostly Kalles Kaviar and knäckebröd, a blacksmith beer opener, Swedish matches (but we are out!), and sometimes pytt-i-panna for lunch.

Stamp of the day: Power tower

Not that many stamps have radio towers on them...
"The VLF transmitter Grimeton was used until the 1950's for transatlantic radio telegraphy to Radio Central in Long Island, New York, USA. From the 1960's until 1996 it was used for transmitting orders to submarines in the Swedish Navy." read more here...

Ketchup quote

Another food quote, which I am sure some in this world will not like:

Americans will eat garbage provided you sprinkle it liberally with ketchup. - Henry Miller

There is a lot to be said about ketchup. That Reagan himself tried to classify it as a vegetable in the school lunches is not true, it was someone down in the administration that came up with that idea which never passed as a rule. But the rumor exist, and I bet there are people that think ketchup is really nutritious (but check the sugar and sodium in this table). After all, it is a mellowing agent (listen to Prairie Home Companion and you will find out more). In the stores right now they sell purple and green ketchup to the kid crowd and stressed out parents that give in to wishes from kids that have seen too many ketchup TV ads... "Heinz Ez Squirt Funky Purple Makes Kids want to eat their dinner!"

I used to eat a lot more ketchup than now. As a poor college student I often had cooked spaghetti with ketchup and grated cheese for dinner, that is all I could afford. Ketchup is a must on fried egg sandwiches and hot dogs, but on burgers I like BBQ sauce better. Not that BBQ sauce has better nutrients, it is just more tasty and not so sweet. Ketchup is among the most American and widespread food I can think of. Hot dogs and French fries were imported here, but ketchup was innovated in the USA.

Ode to a triode

Following up on the theme of craft videos posted earlier, here is an amazing one.

The french radio amateur Claude Perrier decided to celebrate the 100 years anniversary of the invention of the triode vacuum tube in 1906 by De Forest, by making his own tubes based on a design from 1915. And yes, he also built all the necessary tools, including the vacuum pump.

/O.K.
(Listening to while posting:Brian Eno - Dead finks don't talk)

Swedish file-sharing in 1985

I found an audio file yesterday, a recording of a radio show almost 23 years old. The show was called "Datorernas värld" (World of computers), and was broadcast on the swedish national public radio.

The home computers of 1985 stored programs by recording audio signals with ordinary tape recorders , not a very reliable way of storing data. Adjusting the azimuth angle of the playback head by ear was an important skill for the computer amateur, but unfortunately didn't help to save your data after the occasional, dreaded, tape salad...



The concept of the show was pretty straightforward: Create a program on your computer, save it on a compact cassette that you mail to the public radio and they'll broadcast it nationwide. Presumably amateur hackers en masse recorded the show, and loaded the programs into their computers. Although BBS's were around and FidoNet was starting up around this time, the potential bandwidth of radio broadcasts was hard to beat. And modems were both slow and expensive.

You can listen to the show here, but beware: The computer data signal is loud.

I just love how dry the hosts are. I get an image of them standing in the studio dressed in lab coats, holding their clipboards. And I have a hard time deciding whether the fact that I can identify the typical sounds of both the Commodore 128 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum computers is a good thing...

/O.K.
(Listening to while posting: Beeeeeeooprrrrscriiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeoiesssh...)

Tape picture from Found Tapes.