Author: What did you learn in School today ?

120’2026 (2026-04-30) – Sköna maj välkommen! *

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Today, I learned about:

As I promised one month ago, this post will be all about pride, the feeling one has when someone near and dear deserves to be recognized for their deed.

First in chronological order is the entire Brazilian population, that finally could be proud and see a Brazilian citizen in the highest place of the prize tribune in an event belonging to an Olympic Winter Game. Here is a photo of Lucas Pinheiro Braathen and his colleague medalists at the ceremony after the alpine giant slalom skiing event. For more about Lucas, see also my earlier posts 91’2024 (2024-03-31) and 320’2025 (2025-11-16).

The first ever gold medal won by a tropical country in the history of the Winter Olympic Games. The Brazilian Norwegian Lucas Pinheiro Braathen on the podium of the men’s giant slalom on 45’2026 (2026-02-14).

Still in February, my niece, Ylva, showed her muscles and determination and concluded one of the events during the week of Vasaloppet, named Tjejvasan (the girls’ Vasalopp), making of course her family and my brother with family so proud of her feat. More about Vasaloppet can be found in my posts 66’2016 (2016-03-06) and 87’2021 (2021-03-28).

Ylva Norlin relaxing after arriving in Mora. on 52’2026 (2026-02-21). Photos taken by Reino Johansson.

Now during the month of April, I can also be proud of announcing that the number of my Swedish language students already has reached a gold jubilee, 50! Welcome Vitória and Milienne to that exclusive group!

But there is so much more to be proud of, I can already foresee some interesting things that will happen in May. See my upcoming post.

Finally, today’s header photo was taken by my friend Ana Maria, who travelled in good company to the southern tip of South America, the region of Patagonia and Terra del Fuego with Antarctica. Here are some more photos from her delightful trip. Thank you, Ana Maria, for sharing them with us!

Photos taken by Ana Maria Diniz in April 2026, while visting the region between South America and Antarctica.

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

*: English translation: Welcome, ye merry month of May!

**: What did you learn in school today?

90’2026 (2026-03-31) – Fotbolls-VM räkna med Sverige!*

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Today, I learned about:

I had planned on writing about pride in this month’s post, of which I have collected many examples during the months of February and March, 2026. But the time does not permit me, I promise that I will give you various examples in my April post.

However, I will anticipate one pride today:

I am so proud of the male Swedish national football squad that was so utterly inefficient in the first qualification phase for FIFA World Cup 2026, came back in phase 2, beating both Ukraine and Poland. GRATTIS!

That’s what I learned in school today! 

Ref.:

*: English translation: FIFA World Cup, you can count on Sweden!

**: What did you learn in school today?

40’2026 (2026-02-09) – Ärans och hjältarnas språk! *

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Today, I learned about:

Exactly 10 years ago today, I gave my first lesson as a teacher of the Swedish language, although I already had had a temporary assignment during my first ex-patriate year (1986) in Brazil, teaching English and German to Brazilian students.

My first student of Swedish was Dina Giltinan, and ever since that moment, she is still my dearest friend. More about Dina can be found in my post 243’2025 (2025-08-31). Dina was living in Ireland at the time, but now you can find her mostly in Portugal.

And from that point on, here are my other 47 students of Swedish, in alphabetical order: Adriana, Amanda, Ana, Andressa, Andrew, Anne, Arthur, Brenda, Brianne, Cecilia, Davi, Debora, Edgar, Elena, Elias, Gabriel, Geancarlo, Giovana, Giulia, Graziela, Guilherme, Gustavo F, Gustavo R, Gustavo W, Helen, Isa, Jhessyca, John, Joice, Juliane, Karina, Katherine, Kieran, Lacey, Laura, Luciana, Luisa, Patricia, Paula, Paulo, Raphael, Rodrigo, Seth, Sheila, Slavica, Victoria, and Yohannes. They represent Australia, Brazil, Croatia, England, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, and USA.

Some of them can be seen and/or mentioned in my posts 255’2016 (2016-09-11), 107’2017 (2017-04-21), 181’2022 (2022-06-30), 151’2023 (2023-05-31), 366’2024 (2024-12-31), 58’2025 (2025-02-27), 151’2025 (2025-05-31), and 304’2025 (2025-10-31).

Thank you very much, all my 48 students of Swedish! You have been like an oasis to me in the occasional dull desert of translations!

That’s what I learned in school today! 

Ref.:

*: English translation: Language of honor and heroes! (Esaias Tegnér, 1817)

**: What did you learn in school today?

19’2026 (2026-01-19) – First day of the week

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Today, I learned about:

Have you ever thought about why the week contains seven days, at least in Western cultures? In Western cultures, it seems that 7 is a holy number used in many contexts, although Asians many times consider it a number that brings bad luck. More about that can be found in reference #1, under the heading History.

As I told you in my 10-year post on 9’2026 (2026-01-09) , during the upcoming posts I will review some of the older posts, and in fact, in the very second post on 10’2016 (2016-01-10), I mentioned that according to the international standard ISO 8601:2004, there is a normalized manner of writing dates in the format of “YYYY-MM-DD”.

But there are many more things to be considered in that standard, e.g. it states that the first day of a week is a Monday. However, you may live in a country that has the tradition of using Sunday as the first day of the week. Where I live, in Brazil, that is the normal way of thinking. And as a consequence, the days in Portuguese are named as Domingo, Segunda-feira, Terça-feira, Quarta-feira, Quinta-feira, Sexta-feira, and Sábado. You probably understand the meaning of what Monday through Friday is in Portuguese, but where does it come from? The Portuguese word “feira” means a sort of street market, where you can go and buy fruits, vegetables etc. In ancient Portugal, Sunday was the first day of the week with such a market, Monday was the second day, thus Segunda-feira, etc.!

A photo of the magnificent castle of Schwerin, taken by Alfredo Acosta on 10’2026 (2026-01-10).

This photo was taken in Schwerin, Northern Germany, by my friend Alfredo Acosta. It shows the castle built in the 12th century, replacing the ruins of a former slavic fortress and that is also the birth date of the city of Schwerin. More about Schwerin can be found in reference #2. (Alfredo’s wife, Laura Ponce, contributed with a photo from another German city, Greifswald, in my post 151’2025 (2025-05-31). Thank you both for your valuable contributions!

That’s what I learned in school today! 

Ref.:

1: Week history

2: Schwerin

*: What did you learn in school today?

9’2026 (2026-01-09) – 10 YEARS/ÅR/ANOS

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Today, I learned about:

Today has passed exactly 10 years since I started this blog, 9’2016 (2016-01-09) , and of course I am very grateful to all of those who have followed me this far! If you are a recent follower, then I suggest that you look at this post, 14’2017 (2017-01-14) , where I describe how my friend Tereza Vieira gave me the idea. Once more, Tereza, I am much obliged to you!

During the upcoming posts I will also give everyone the chance of discovering which posts and their respective contents that have been most appreciated during these years and now can join Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, and me for this Tin Anniversary! (See reference * below)


That’s what I learned in school today! 

Ref.:

*: What did you learn in school today?

363’2025 (2025-12-29) – END OF 2025

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Today, I learned about:

One can never wait too long to experience, even indirectly, the sensation of being to a totally different, very interesting place on this globe. In 1975, I had the pleasure of taking a round-trip by train in Europe and as such I left the Greek Island of Corfu after some marvellous days and took a ferryboat to Italy, arriving at Bari, on the Southeast coast. Unfortunately, I did not have time to explore that part of Italy, the regions of Basilicata and Puglia, but now 50 years later, my friend Adriana went there with her siblings to discover further about its enchantements, as well as meeting some distant relatives.

In the following photo you can see typical houses in the village of Alberobello, famous for their trullo houses, named as World Heritage by Unesco in 1996.

This photo with typical houses in Alborello, Puglia, Italy was taken by Adriana Bizzotto in November 2025.

And below are some more photos from Basilicata and Puglia, the first ones from Matera, well known for the caves in the mountains which served as human settlings in the very early days of Italy.

These pictures from the Southeast corner of Italy, regions of Basilicata and Puglia, were taken by Adriana Bizzotto during the first half of November, 2025.

More about these interesting places can be found in references # 1 and 2 below.

I wish all of my faithful followers a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

1: Alberobello

2: Matera

*: What did you learn in school today?

320’2025 (2025-11-16) – SPECIAL EDITION

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Today, I learned about:

For the first time ever, a Brazilian wins a World Cup event in alpine skiing. It was Lucas Braathen who made the feat in the season’s first competition in Levi, Finland. Here are two images from the exciting turnout:

Lucas Braathen celebrating his first World Cup victory for Brazil in Levi, Finland on 320’2025 (2025-11-16). Image by ESPN.
The final result of the World Cup event in slalom. Image by ESPN.

More about Lucas can be found in my blog post 2024-03-31

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

*: What did you learn in school today?

304’2025 (2025-10-31) – Friday

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Today, I learned about:

The month of October, 2025, was the month when I got to learn more about the UAV, unmanned aerial vehicle. What, you say, is that? It is the formal name for what colloquially is named a drone. Then most of you at least know what I am talking about.

I signed up for a course to learn more about drones in São Carlos, state of São Paulo, Brazil. São Carlos is a great university city, with two well known public universities, UFSCar (Federal University of São Carlos) and USP (State University of São Paulo), besides other private ones. It is said to be the city in Brazil that has the highest rate of academic doctors per capita. More about São Carlos can be found in reference #1 below.

But of course there are also other schools beyond the universities. One of them is a federal technical school called IFSP São Carlos (Federal Institute in the state of São Paulo) and the city also has an educational foundation called FESC. IFSP and FESC have partnered up to offer a course named “Drones in action”, where 10 intensive classes of 2 to 3 hours each teach everything a layman needs to know about projecting, developing and deploying a drone, including not only technical details, but also legal regulations and security aspects. Right now, we are exactly in the middle of this course and I must say that it really has broadened my mind immensely. Here is an illustration from the course material:

This is the title page of the first class in the series about Drones in action: project, development and deployment. The course is presented by four enthusiastic persons (Guilherme Zonta, João Teodoro, Rafael Bastos, and Thiago Carvalho) from Instituto Federal de São Paulo in São Carlos, and is coordinated by Rogéria Kapp from Fundação Educacional São Carlos.

I got interested about finding out more on the subject and was lucky to retrieve an article from Nature in 2015, where the researches discuss how insects can fly and inspire developers of drones in their quest for light-weight, yet fast and powerful drones. I urge you to read the article which also gives very basic facts about why objects can fly. See reference #2 below.

Update 348’2025 (2025-12-14)

On 338’2025 (2025-12-04) was held the last class in the series Drones in action: project, development and deployment, with practical experience on how to navigate a drone. Today, I also obtained an e-book presenting a summary of the course, you can find it in reference #3, below.

And since I had participated in all activitities from the start, I also obtained a certificate for that, see the following photo:

Here you can see a photo taken on 338’2025 (2025-12-04) of me (guess who?) in the center with the following persons, from left to right: Thiago Carvalho Nogueira, Rafael Bastos Arantes, João Pedro Teodoro Batista , Guilherme Leonel Zonta Avi, and Rogéria Kapp.

Today’s header photo and also the following ones were taken by my friend Juliane Vianna who recently had some marvellous days on the Spanish island of Mallorca. More about Mallorca can be found in reference # 4 below.

Pictures from Sa Coma and Porto Cristo on the Spanish island of Mallorca. Photos taken by Juliane Vianna on 303’2025 (2025-10-30).

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

1: São Carlos

2: Aerodynamics, vortices and robobees

3: Fundamentos de VANTs – Projeto, construção e operação

4: Mallorca

*: What did you learn in school today?

273’2025 (2025-09-30) – Tuesday

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Today, I learned about:

Nikola Tesla would be extremely proud if he knew what the current scientists are on the way to realize. Once of his projects dealt with transmitting electric energy wirelessly over a distance.

The US projects agency DARPA, well known among other things for creating the first steps of the internet and automatic vehicle guidance systems, recently published the results of a series of tests in the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, USA, where their program POWER (Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay) set a new record for transmitting power over distance. The team recorded more than 800 W of power delivered during a 30-second transmission from a laser 8,6 km away. Over the course of the test series, more than 1 MJ of energy was transferred.

An artist’s view of how electrical energy could be relayed from a source to the necessary area by way of aircraft.
A photo taken at the test site the day that the record was obtained.

More about Nikola Tesla and the DARPA program can be found in References #1 and #2 below.

The following photos were taken by a faithful follower of my blog, who recently visited the South of Italy. From Cabo do Vaticano, he had a breathtaking view of the island of Stromboli with its still active volcano. Thank you, my friend, for your continued support of my blog!

More about Stromboli can be found in Reference #3 below.

The sun setting on the Mediterranean Sea with the Stromboli volcano shown in the horizon. Photo taken on 257’2025 (2025-09-14).

The sun has already set on the Mediterranean Sea with the Stromboli volcano shown in the horizon. Photo taken on 257’2025 (2025-09-14).

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

1: Nikola Tesla

2: DARPA program sets distance record for power beaming

3: Stromboli

*: What did you learn in school today?

243’2025 (2025-08-31) – Sunday

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Today, I learned about:

Following my story from last month’s blog, here is yet another interesting place on this earth. This time we have moved eastwords into the Old World, specifically the birthplace of Portugal, named Guimarães. It is located in a mountainous region in the North, not very far from the cities of Braga and Porto. Reference #1 tells you more about Guimarães and its region.

The following photos were taken by my friend Dina Giltinan, who varies living with her family in Guimarães and Limerick, Republic of Ireland. Thank you Dina for yet another contribution!

Earlier publications originated by Dina are 2016-02-24 , 2016-03-17 , 2016-08-28 , 120’2022-04-30, and 11’2024-01-11.

Cable car in the região of Guimarães, North of Portugal, going from the city up into the mountians. Photo taken by Dina Giltinan in August, 2025.

Forest with granite rocks in the region of Guimarães, North of Portugal. Photos taken by Dina Giltinan in August, 2025.

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

1: Guimarães

*: What did you learn in school today?