Random thoughts, football and history.

History has it's place anywhere and anytime. I you don't know about any history you don't know about any thing. History icludes all the people from Ceasar, Alexander and Columbus to Henrik Larsson, Harald Schmidt and Mother Theresa. It doesn't matter if you're famous or not. It doesn't matter if people remember your name. It doesn't matter if you're an office clerk, a chemist experimentitian or the prime minister. As soon as you're born, you are a part of history in the making!!

History includes the people you heard of, and the people you will never hear of. We are all part of history, from the day we are born until the day we die, and in some cases much later than that. In a few cases, people were a part of history even before their birth. Even such a thing as this blog is a part of history at the moment you read it.

The point is, that you will make a difference. It's up to you which kind of difference...

"The judgement of popular culture is merciless. There is nothing more nerdy than a technician. Who has the patience to work on foundation research to get a pat on the back in 20 years, when a docu-soap gives instant fame."
- Niklas Ekdal (translated from editorial in a swedish newspaper)

I made some progress in my programming today - now I just have to apply the stuff I already know. If I can just get some small details from M... Since those details are his biggest challenge, I'm not expecting to be done with it tonight.

The history of high heels may be a bit surprising to some. It all began with noblemen who wanted to sit secure when on horseback about 400 years ago. The first documented woman to use took 50 years, and then said "I want to walk better" - well, then please don't run with those shoes ;p

I'm both happy and surprised that my brother had only positive comments about my paintings. In a way, I shouldn't be surprised, since I've really noticed the positive change he's gone through since meeting, and moving in with, his girlfriend L :)

It seems like a TV channel will actually show "The Hulk". As a nerd, I feel quite obliged to watch it.

So, I'll leave you with some history. Did you know:

• Napoleon was extremely jealous when married to Josephine - he actually sent a letter to her just a few month after the wedding, to say that "he knew she was cheating and had never loved him". They did divorce in 1809 - 13 years after the recently discovered letter.
• Archeologists (spelling?) have found an asian Pompeji. An entire asian civilization was buriedunder a volcano on the indonesian island of Sumbawa, in the year of 1815. Now, it's being dug out...
• Dutch scientists believe that the plague caused a "short" european ice age starting in the 14th century. In short, the deaths of a third of the european population caused a drastic downturn in agriculture. This in turn led to the lands turning into woodland/forests. The trees took so much oxygen that it became like a reversed greenhouse effect.
• In the late 19th century, "wild humans" were put in zoos. One of those was an eskimoe, who had learnt to read and write. He wrote a diary while in the "animal park". It's called "The diary of Abraham Ulrikab".
• As you may or may not know, the Germanians stopped the Romans from going further north. Their main tactics was guerrilla warfare - which worked with inferior numbers in at least three attacks in the years 9-16 a.d. After those attacks, the romans gave up any major attempts to conquer the north.
• Even though the molotov cocktail was named after the Soviet foreign minister in 1939-40, when Soviet was trying to ("friendly"?) invade Finland, the idea comes from the spanish civil war, were the fascist nationalists used it against Soviet (yes, again..) tanks.
• The red carpet used to be a carpet for the gods. This is due to the fact that red color was extremely expensive to reproduce in the old days. Industry found a way in 1897, and since then we can use the color whenever we feel like it. Long live Capitalism ;p
• The canopener was invented in 1810, 15 years after the can itself. The can was invented as a result from a french competition, to find the best way to store food. In the 15 years between tin can and can opener, they used hammers and chisels.
• 1947, the biggest plane so far lifted for the first, and last, time. It was just one of those american inventions which didn't matter in the long run of history....
• The solar king, Louis XIV (I think that's the english for Ludvig XIV), had such an extreme daily schedule that he "had to" let people talk to him while "doing the toiletry". On the other hand, L XIV was the most fashionable person in Europe (and of course the world), so there was no shame from either side. Noblemen found it an honour to be part of a human chain which gave him shoes or other clothes. L XIV also decided fashions for Europe such as wigs and shoes. I have for example seen pictures of him and other men playing pool while wearing high heels....
• The Da Vinci Code book has many errors. For example, they have corrected a few in the french version, since the original contained a car chase that was impossible in reality - the street names and buildings were mentioned in an order which would make the followed car follow the follower. Does that make sense? There are many other 'facts' in the Da Vinci Code which have no roots according to historians and other experts..
• The series 'Shogun' has its root in reality. Around the year 1600, a british captain of a dutch ship finally came to Japan. William Adams was one of the 24 survivors, and one of the six people still being able to walk and talk, after an extreme journey. Many parts of the series are true, since Adams was the first white Samurai, and also helped the Shogun build western style sea faring ships for the ability to go over more than the local waters. Adams was however forced to stay in Japan for the rest of his life, and was never able to return to his wife and child (he did send money and other things home though, and the wife and child were in no other harm - according to the mag/history).
• Ceasar was extremely lucky to survive and conquer France/Gallien/The Gaulles (not sure about how to write that). He luckily (for himself and his army) saw that gallic reinforcements were attacking at a weak spot in his double walls - while being attacked in many places at once. 52 BC Alesia fell, and eight year the recently crowned dictator was murdered.
  

Going on to viking history, and focusing on Gotland, we find that:

• Gotland (biggest island of the baltic sea) gave us two thirds of swedish viking treasures so far, even though the land mass is less than one percent.
• The great days of this northern european center of trade ended in 1361, when the danish king Valdemar invaded. Only the peasants stood as defenders, while the wealthy germans hid inside the city walls.
• In a few cities, most of the coins found were of arabic origin - they can be traced back to for example Iraq, Iran, Syria and Egypt. The rest of the found treasures were mostly from scandinavia, France, England, Spain and Istanbul.
• The island lost its influence when new technology in seafare was invented. This of course needs no explanation, since every "superpower" in history has lost their power when someone lese invented something better (flight, faster ships which don't sink after 20 days on sea), more threatening (bow, nuclear w*ap*n) or just the better trick (war/battle tactics, use of intelligence to stop killing).

The history parts of this post have been taken from a swedish history magazine. If you want to know more, please read it (if you don't understand enough swedish, it's easy to learn - or you could ask me

Football and random thoughts? Well, that's short and easy :)
Arsenal took fourth place - replacing Hotten-Botten-Bam-Ham for qualifiers place to CL :)
Bayern won the German league - and cup - of course not surprisingly, but extremely happily!
Barca won La Liga - and will soon meet Arsenal in Champions League Final.
No, I don't know who I want to win... Henke is part of the current Barca dream team, but Arsenal never had a CL final. Henke deserves a gigantic title before coming home. OK, I'll be a little bit partial toward Barca that evening, since there's a Ghod from the neighbourhood in the team....