Today, I learned that:

One year passes so fast, and the older one gets, the faster it seems! Someone said that our perception of time is inversely proportional to our physical age, e.g. one month for an 8-year old child seems to last as long as half a year for a person of 48 years. And one year ago, on 2016-01-08, I met with my old friend Tereza, lawyer and university professor, undoubtedly the leading Brazilian expert on the rights of certain minority populations, see reference # 1 below. She suggested to me to start a blog and thus disseminate my knowledge and ideas. I told her that I had no experience in blogs!

But then, during the following night, I had the most vivid dream, when what I believed to be a song by Tom Lehrer played over and over again in my head, ‘What did you in learn school today?’. I took it as a premunition for something special, and once awake I searched for the song on the internet. It proved to have been written by Tom Paxton, and I found the fabulous version interpreted by Pete Seeger, the main reference * below.

My very first, extremely timid post, was about the first podcast I had listened to in the morning of 2016-01-09, from the Science Show by Radio National in Australia, about potatoes and incas. Thank you, Tereza, for your excellent suggestion!

And now to the very best moment of all: Thank you, everyone, who have supported me during this very interesting year. Please bare with me and I will continue to produce also in 2017, when time so permits. And a special thank to all my friends who have sent me such marvellous pictures from their travels and allowed me to publish them.

Here is a partial list of posts with descriptions and photos of cities, as well as other posts with substantial contributions from my friends, from all around the world:

• Reykjavik, Iceland – 2016-01-17
• Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil – 2016-01-20
• São Paulo, SP, Brazil – 2016-01-25
• Atlanta, GA, USA – 2016-02-07
• Phoenix, AZ, USA – 2016-02-11
• Limerick, Ireland – 2016-02-24 and 2016-03-17
• Jukkasjärvi, Sweden – 2016-02-26
• Hollywood, CA, USA – 2016-02-28
• Österlen, Sweden – 2016-03-14
• Las Vegas, NV, USA – 2016-03-19
• New York, NY, USA – 2016-03-22
• Herrljunga, Sweden – 2016-04-01
• Shanghai, China – 2016-04-10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , and 14
• Beijing, China – 2016-04-15 and 16
• Tokyo, Japan – 2016-04-17 , 18 , and 19
• Montreal, Canada – 2016-04-21
• Stone Mountain, GA, USA – 2016-04-23
• More to follow

Today is no exception, as you can see further down in this post.

Today’s hint is once more from the Science Show. In 2016 was celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of HG Wells, who most of you know as the author of The Time Machine. But he was so much more, a very prolific author of a multitude of books, articles, etc., mostly science fiction, often with sinister forecasts. Did you know that he coined the term ‘atomic bomb’ and at an early stage warned about the disasterous effects the uncontrolled release of atomic energy could have on human kind. He lived to see the bombs which were thrown over Japan in 1945, and when he died in 1946, he had already written his epitaph. What did he write? Find out by listening to the podcast in reference # 2 below. Reference # 3 also contains plenty of information about him.

Photo taken downtown Havanna on 2016-12-06.

My guests of honor today are my friends Andrea and Carmen, both native from South America, but living in Sweden nowadays. One month ago, they went to visit a friend of theirs in Havana, the capital city of Cuba, and among other things took some amazing photos. One of those is today’s header photo. It was taken downtown old Havana in Parque Central, and it shows a typical scene from current traffic in Cuba, dominated by American cars from the 1950’s. Below are some more photos from their trip:

Photos taken in Havana, Cuba, in December/2016, by Andrea da Silva and Carmen Alarcon. The top row shows typical photos from the streets, including Hotel Sevilla, on the left. In the middle row, we can see American cars from the 1950’s, the middle photo is part of an impressive mural in Calle Mercaderes depicting 67 notable persons in Cuban arts and history, and the rightmost photo also shows the Capitol and El Gran Teatro de La Habana (aka Garcia Lorca). The left and center photos in the bottom row were taken in the Museo de la Revolution, housed in a former presidential palace, and the rightmost photo is of the police headquarters in Havana.

If you want to know more about Havana, one good start is reference # 4 below.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Do you need to TRANSLATE DOCUMENTS between ENGLISH, BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE, and the SCANDINAVIAN (SWEDISH / DANISH / NORWEGIAN) languages? Contact “Byrån / The Taskforce” here !!!