Lars Björkström

356’2023 (2023-12-22) – Friday

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Today, I learned about:

There are so many wonderful places in this world. Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting one of them. It is called Inhotim, located in the municipality of Brumadinho, 60 km south of Belo Horizonte, capital of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. I took the following header photo there on 342’2023 (2023-12-08). In a future post, I will tell you more.

Photo of one of the beautiful scenic views in Inhotim, taken by me on 342’2023 (2023-12-08).

But for now, here comes an update to modularity, subject of my post last month, 334’2023 (2023-11-30):

In the reference about the Ericsson central office AXE is said “Modular design may appear self-evident. After all, wasn’t that the key to Scania’s success as a relatively small truck manufacturer?”

So, here comes more information about Scania’s approach. Scania is a Swedish company with headquarters in Södertälje, immediately south of Stockholm. The name Scania is latin for the Swedish southernmost province, Skåne. It was there in Malmö, Sweden’s third biggest city, that Scania was founded in 1900. Today it is part of the German Volkswagen group, but it is still considered an important Swedish company.

In 1980, Scania introduced its 2-series of heavy trucks. It is a very good example of how the various modules of chassis and engines can be combined to configure the needs of a customer. It was very succesful and paved its way for future generations. More about the 2-series can be found in reference #1 below.

But, as most of you probably know, there is also another major truck manufacturer in Sweden, Volvo. Of course, Volvo is also heavily invested in modularity. An example of this can be found in their EDC (Electronic Diesel Control). Reference #2 gives all the details.

Finally, I would like to show you two different kinds of photos I took during the year 2023. The first one comes from a presentation at the Swedish-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce on 172’2023 (2023-06-21). I was very fortunate to integrate a group of athletes who together have won three olympic gold medals.

The golden trio, from right to left: Lars Björkström, olympic champion in yachting, tornado, in 1980; Giovane Gávio, twice olympic champion in men’s volleyball, in 1992 and 2004; and myself, no gold.

The second one was a photo that I had tried to take for a very long time, but the object always found a way to vanish before I could succeed. Then, finally, four days ago, I hit the jackpot. When a humming bird came to refresh itself with the sugary water I had waiting for him, then I was lucky enough to catch, not the humming bird, but more importantly, this fascinating picture of him. More about hummingbirds can be found in refrence #3 below.

This little bird is called beija-flor in Portuguese, a name that literally means flower kisser. It is always so fascinating to see it coming for a pit stop of sugary water on a sunny day, but it is so quick in its action that it is very difficult to catch it on film. Photo taken by me on 352’2023 (2023-12-18).

I wish all of my faithful readers and followers a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

That’s what I learned in school today!

Ref.:

1: Scania 2-series

2: Volvo EDC

3: Hummingbird

*: What did you learn in school today?

2016-08-03 (Onsdag)

Posted on by What did you learn in School today ?

Idag lärde jag mig, att:

OS börjar redan idag och kommer att drabba oss alla under 19 dagar, tyvärr i ett klimat (inte det meteorologiska) som är långt ifrån det bästa, i ett land som varken är ekonomiskt, moraliskt eller hygieniskt det minsta förberett för ett sådant åtagande.

Här följer några personliga tankar kring OS:

Men nog tycker man att någon från det internationellt hyllade Sverige skulle kunna uttala sig bättre än vad veteranen Lotta Schelin gjorde till Sveriges Television igår:
“Det är helt sjukt. När jag får frågan om att det är mitt fjärde så känner jag bara att shit, det är ju för fasen helt galet, säger Lotta Schelin som mästerskapsdebuterade i OS 2004.” Nog tycker man att en sådan ikon borde vara ett föredöme för eventuella beundrarskaror.

Turligt nog så kommer dock spelen inte att pågå i Curitiba, som såg fyra matcher i fotbolls-VM 2014. Där har det nämligen förklarats begränsningar i rätten att förflytta sig, enligt dagens Folha de S. Paulo, som syftar på att de federala utredningarna om den stora muthärvan, Biltvätten (Lava Jato), leds därifrån:

Curitiba

NEW UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS:
– As of today, the rights to come and go in Curitiba are hereby revoked.

Förhoppningsvis kommer också den ännu levande legendaren Pelé att hålla sig borta från OS-facklan för att göra det han kan bäst, fotboll.

Slutligen, jag kan mycket väl förstå att det här är den stora chansen i livet för många europeiska idrottare att kunna tävla i Sydamerika, som ju mycket sällan anordnar några större mästerskap. Annars kan man ju göra som svensken Lars Björkström, som flyttat från Sverige, att till OS 1980 byta nationalitet och vinna guld i segling för Brasilien! Om du inte känner till den historien, kolla in den bifogade artikeln i referens nummer 1 nedan, från den svensk-brasilianska handelskammarens tidskrift, Nordic Light. Tack Jonas för att jag fick publicera den!

… Tack för idag, slut för idag!

(This post in Swedish contains my personal opinion about the waste of time and money to arrange the Olympic Games in a country that has no conditions to do so.)

Refs.:

1: Årets svensk 2016

+: What did you learn in school today ?