Today, I learned about:

During the month of February, there have been some quite interesting things I have taken notice of. Here are two of those:

Railway on pillars

In my post of 33’2016 (2016-02-02) , I made a comparison between electric circuit theory and the then on-going process in Sweden on how to choose which routes would benefit from a planned high speed train network. That planning still goes on, but many people are scared about the costs involved and the time it will take until the network would be available for public transport.

Now there are rumours that the responsible authority for the project, Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration) finally has started to make calculations using not the conventional rail system on flat land, but thinking about the advantages of constructing an elevated system, using what they call landbroar (“land bridges”). So I ask, what is new with that concept? It has been used for more than a century around the world, think of the Loop in Chicago, the elevated railways around New York City, even on various places within Sweden, such as the Stockholm subway.

And as I wrote in my post of 101’2016 (2016-04-10), in April 2005 I spent almost a week in Shanghai on a business trip, where I also had the chance of doing quite some tourism. I did not show it in my blog then, but during those days Shanghai was also executing the final tests of a magnetic levitation train of German origin, called Transrapid. It was built to transport passengers between the Pudong international airport and downtown, a 30 km distance which takes only 7 minutes. Since the operating hours during the trial period were restricted to some hours during the day, I did not have the chance to ride the train, but in the following picture you can see it en route on its elevated railway.

See also references #1 and 2 below.

Your brain

You have probably heard about the Swedish physician Hans Rosling, who was a fabulous lecturer on matters that should interest every one. Together with his son and daughter-in-law, he wrote, among many other things, the book “Factfulness: Ten reasons we’re wrong about the world – and why things are better than you think”. If you have not read it, then you do not know what you are missing. Look up the book online and buy it immediately! It will be an experience you will never forget! Unfortunately, Hans Rosling died in cancer in 2017, but during this month, one of my students of the Swedish language sent me a link to a very interesting series published by the Swedish public service television SVT. Thank you Graziela for that hint! More about Hans Rosling and his amazing book can be found in references # 3 and 4 below.

So, in the wake of Hans Rosling, one person who has picked up his role is Anders Hansen, a Swedish physician and psychiatrist. He wrote and presented a series called “Your brain” which presents some mind (sic!) blowing facts about this organ, with the physical size of only two clenched fists, with an extraordinary capacity to control everything we see, hear, taste, feel and smell. SVT has now published two seasons, with a total of ten episodes, in their SVT Play online. Do not miss it, it will be removed in the beginning of the second half of 2021. The series is entirely narrated in Swedish, except for the various interviews in English that Anders Hansen performs with world famous specialists on site in San Francisco, San Diego, Oxford etc. But if you use the web browser Google Chrome and its function Google Translate, then you can enjoy the whole series with subtitles in the language of your choice. More about Anders Hansen in reference # 5 below. The URL of the series and detailed instructions about choosing the preferred language can be found in references # 6 and 7.

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

1: Pelarmetod kan pressa priset på nya höghastighetsbanor

2: Shanghai maglev train

3: Hans Rosling

4: Factfulness

5: Anders Hansen

6: Din hjärna

7: Instructions on how to change subtitles into English using Google Translate in Google Chrome

*: What did you learn in school today ?