July Pieces Of My Mind #1

A Vaisala RS92 probe has dropped onto Landsjö Castle in the past year. No mark of ownership, but it probably originates with the Swedish Weather Service in nearby Norrköping.

• I tried to call my son. No reply. I tried to call my boss. No reply. This must mean that I have no responsibilities until they call me.
• Learned from Melvyn Bragg’s programme today that Frederick the Great of Prussia was most likely gay and his brother, the exceptionally successful general Prince Henry, was openly so.
• Never noticed before that “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” has this really basic drum machine.
• There’s a guitar solo towards the end of Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights”.
• Would anybody except Greece’s creditors care about the country’s financial situation if it weren’t for the EU and the euro?
• I’ve got two Wikipedia apps on my phone’s start screen. One for Swedish and one for English.
• Why isn’t Swedish pölsa as notorious as Scottish haggis? The only important difference is that the Scots use oats and we use barley. Scottish friends, try some pickled beetroot and a fried egg with your haggis next time!
• Joan Jett’s 1982 hit version of “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” was released when she was 23. This makes the power balance of the situation described in the song kind of interesting, where she picks up a guy of “about seventeen” and takes him home. (Yes, this song has been playing constantly in my head for the past week.)
• Listening to Little Atoms about The Utopia Experiment, a post-apocalyptic commune, and thinking about the parallels with my fieldwork project.
• Found an extremely heavy, pitted, dark little ball of rock that doesn’t register on the metal detector. Tim suggests meteorite. I’ll check with the Museum of Nat Hist.