”Journalism”

Det finns en speciell journalistisk genre som går ut på att intervjua en person som är skicklig, eller åtminstone intresserad, inom något journalisten inte behärskar och som denne därför anser förtjänar att förlöjligas. I detta avsnitt av det saligen avsomnade Eldorado har Janne Ferm hittat en kvinnlig civilingenjör. Dubbelbonus!

Finished model 2023-III

A souvenir from a friend who visited St. Petersburg some years ago: The protected cruiser Aurora, known from the October revolution, as a snap-together carton model by Umbum. The scale seems to be 1:900-ish. I put this together in ten minutes or less – the sturdy carton is pre-cut and the fit of the pieces is almost good enough that the kit just falls together—but you must follow the instructions carefully. The printing is excellent, and results in a good-looking model with minimal effort.

Finished model 2023-II

I did use the photo-etch tool to bend the paper. It bent, but the results still look horrible. Then again, the design of the model, with those slits in the towers, did not help. The Liebfrauen-kirche of Munich.

Finished model 2023-I

This is originally a 3D model of the statue depicting Admiral Yi Sun-sin in Seoul, printed on an Ultimaker 2+ in some suitable resolution, and then brush painted in Vallejo colours. Yet another of those models that looks best at a distance, actually at some considerable distance.

Shameless

Because reasons, I was watching a radar plot of the airspace around Stockholm, when I noticed a small jet moving fast and high over the Baltic. Out of constant curiosity I googled it, and found that someone was commuting between Leer-Papenburg and Turku—out from Germany in the morning, back in the evening, a flight of less than two hours one way. Who could this be? The plane is registered to an unnamed private owner, but after a bit of discussion with a German colleague the connection became clear: Meyer Werft is located in Papenburg and they have since 2015 owned Meyer Turku, in Turku. Apparently the CEO of the latter, Tim Meyer, prefers to live in Germany and commute to his office in Finland every day. Meanwhile Stockholm public transport is struggling financially.

Intersectionality

The other day the Fame episode “Solo Song” popped up in my mind, for whatever reason. The story is that a blind teacher turns up at school and the moral is that he is not a pitiable cripple, but manages quite well on his own. In order to impress this on the students he spends the night before his first lesson training to toss a paper ball into a wastebasket across the classroom, a trick he executes to the amazement of the students in the morning. Now, to help him practice, he forces the school caretaker to stay up with him and bang the basket (and, presumably, clean away all the tossed papers afterwards). At the time, this was of course good and wholesome teaching, but now it struck me that one could see it as problematic that the White, higher-status, teacher forces the Black, lower-status, caretaker to work through the night—presumably for no overtime compensation. Being politically correct is a constant struggle.

Greenwashing

Ah, I don’t know. Single-use packaging for the type of soap which gets used once and then thrown away. The wrapper is made from fresh trees, rather than recycled pulp. It still claims to be intended for hotels committed to sustainability.