Update!

Now there is an update of the old Biochemical Pathways poster at SABiosciences. Not a complete view, alas, but chunks of pathways with diagrams, explanations, and references.

How do they do it?

We went and saw Toy Story 3 and much to our surprise we found that it was a threequel that had lost none of the ability to spin a new story on the old theme. I don’t remember the last time I saw a film where I was so genuinely fearful for the characters when they were in the ultimate pickle. Of course I’m also terribly sentimental and had to blink quite a lot on several occasions; hardnosed Honeybuns enjoyed the jokes and didn’t register the theme of loss of childhood at all, so from quite different perspectives we still thought it was a great film. I got a flashback to Tin Toy, where apparently some of the elements of the story were already present.

Of course Toy Story is in 3D, as is required of all new film these days, but that doesn’t make much of a difference for the film. In contrast, the introductory short: Night & Day makes brilliant and innovative use of 3D—by combining it with 2D graphics.

Veckans ord: musarm

Vem har det värst: den som är fattig som en kyrkråtta eller den som är musarm?

Bad harvest

In spite of the good start the crop has failed. This is it:

Birka

Ulf suggested we go to Birka. The weather forecast didn’t look too promising, but once we were on our way in M/S Mälar-Victoria the clouds started to scatter and when we arrived at Birka the sun was shining very nicely, offset by a little breeze.

We tagged on a guided tour. Marika the guide was very good, deeply knowledgeable about the subject matter, able to make her voice heard a long distance without visible effort and going off at high speed across the island in her non-period trainers. The audience was also well-prepared, with relevant questions about what’s known about Birka’s time. After some final questions about gender issues in the late Viking age we let Marika off to her next group and pick-nicked on the side of the hill fort with a beautiful view over Björköfjärden.

We then had just a little time to try on archery and discuss Viking age metallurgy in the smithy before the boat left for the city again. As we left, the clouds gathered again, but stayed aloft.

This used to be a bustling merchant city with a thousand inhabitants. Now it’s sheep pasture. Across the bay, the church at Adelsö is faintly visible, by the site of the then royal compound.