The Setra S516 HD bus, used to take 49 pensionists to Selbu. Shown here parked at the Radio and Television museum.
On Tuesday, 2026-09-02, Trish and I took a bus trip organized by the local retired persons’ association, to the Norwegian Radio and Television Museum in Selbu, located 139 km almost directly south of us, and officially = according to Google maps, takes about 2h16m to drive there. I have wanted to visit the museum before, but on those several occasions it was never open. The rest of the trip was not worth the effort, and will not be mentioned. I don’t think I will take any more trips with the organization again. Altogether, we were away from home 12 hours!
The owners of the museum are Jan Erik Steen and Anne Helene Steen. Photo: Unknown photographer, but dated 2025-03-29.
The museum is owned by Anne Helene Steen née Kruse (1945 – ) and Jan Erik Steen (1946 – ). They bought a farm in Selbu in 2005 to provide them with sufficient space for a radio museum that opened in 2006. This was because Jan Erik’s collector mania ran out of space in their Trondheim house. The television museum opened in 2015. Originally, the farm buildings occupied about 900 m² of space. In 2025 they occupy about 3 000 m².
Arriving in the museum, on of the first things one encounters are artworks and photographs. The subject matter varies, from a photograph of the recently deceased king and his wife, with two small children, one of which is the current king, Haakon VIII (1973 – ). to unknown people.
The visit consisted of:
Coffee and … on arrival
Tour of the radio section of the museum
Lunch with coffee
Tour of the television section of the museum
The museum houses:
A record collection with 24 000 records and 20 jukeboxes.
Radio- and television equipment, including a tower of equipment.
Radio equipment from World War II.
The world’s largest radio, an enlarged Radionette Symphoni 3D radio occupying about 5m2 of floor space. Build during the Covid pandemic of 2020, when the museum was not open to visitors.
Object- and photo collection of the Accordion and Gammeldans (a form of traditional Norwegian folk dance) Hall of Fame. To understand what this is, here is a link to 1h30m of agonising music and dance from 2010, sent on Norwegian television.
Norway’s largest collection of notes, books and recordings of Alf Prøysen (1914 – 1970), born Alf Olafsen: author, poet, playwright, songwriter and musician, often with children as his target audience.
Business records for the Edda radio factory, Trondheim from 1939 to 1964. It managed to permanently delay radio equipment for German occupying forces during World War II, but managed to build emergency safety devices and repaired illegal radios for the Norwegian resistance. A transition to television killed off the company.
Bicycle exhibition. Totally unrelated to television, but Steen was at one time a competition cyclist, with a need to collect things.
Awards exhibit for cross-country skier Oddvar Brå (1951 – ).
Amphitheatre for outdoor concerts.
Some of the guitars the museum has collected. Vogue picture records are on the wall to the right, below the guitars.A tower of radio and television equipment. In the background are medals and cups, some belonging to Oddvar Brå. Photo: Trish McLellan
In the summer of 2025 a 6m 84 cm high tower , 3m 18 cm in diameter, was constructed. It consists of about 700 radios and television receivers. Steen was inspired by a similar installation at the Tate Modern gallery in London. The Brasilian conceptual artist Cildo Meireles (1948 – ) built his own tower, Babel, in 2001. It has been confirmed that the radio tower in Selbu is higher than the one in London.
In one part of the Television section of the museum, a video camera is capturing some of the activities in the room. Photo: Trish McLellanIn this photo, Trish has captured herself on the screen being projected on the back wall of the room shown in the previous photo. If I can complement her, she seldom follows the crowd, but goes her own way, often alone. Photo: Trish McLellanA player piano that also plays an accordion. Photo: Trish McLellan
Steen tells the story of how he acquired two computer controlled modern playback machines, one with a piano and accordion, the second with stringed instruments, including at least one guitar and a banjo. These were ordered new, and made in the USA. He forgot to ask the price when he ordered them (and we were not told what it was). We did get to listen to the music from both machines for several minutes.
On several walls of the museum there are Vogue picture records, possibly the entire collection of 74 titles, released between 1946-05 and 1947-04 on 10-inch Vogue picture discs. They have illustrations embedded in the transparent vinyl on both sides of a 78 rpm record. Tom Saffady (1917 – 1954) produced them at Sav-Way Industries of Detroit, Michigan.
The illustrations on each side of the record are usually related to the title of the song on that side. The production process involved a central core aluminum disc was sandwiched between the paper illustrations and vinyl.
The cycle collection, in a museum attic. Photo: Trish McLellanA Tandberg loudspeaker in bright red.This was the first truck used by NRK for non-studio recording of events. It is a 1958 Chevrolet. The Norwegian Television Museum building is in the background. Photo: Trish McLellan
Kringkastingsselskapet A/S, a privately owned company and the predecessor of Norsk Rikskringkasting AS (NRK) = The Norwegian Broadcasting corporation, started regular radio broadcasts in Norway in 1925. NRK itself was founded in 1933. In 1954, NRK started broadcasting television shows, on a trial basis. Regular broadcasts started in 1960.
I found two works of art in the dining room, both of cars, including the one above, by Hariton Pushwagner (artistic name) = Terje Brofos (1940 – 2018), world famous in Norway for his pop art.
At the museum were four vehicles, in chronological order: A 1924 Buick, a 1933 Fordon tractor, a 1965 Ford Mustang, and a newish Hongqi E-HS9 SUV wagon, often compared to a Rolls-Royce Cullinan by the automotive press, since both cars were designed by Giles Taylor (1968 – ). The E-HS9 sells new in Norway for NOK 1.3 million or more. That means it is almost affordable, in comparison the Cullinan costs about three times more NOK 4 million before taxes, or US$ 400 000.
Steen is educated as a civil engineer. Despite having made a fortune with cement, often in the form of oil platforms, Steen is eager to receive support from the Norwegian government, for his museum. In 2023, Trøndelag county gave him NOK 500 000, which he used to register 303 of the 32 000 + objects in his museum collection. That means that the museum would need about NOK 50 million to register everything. After that initial payment, the county has not provided additional funding.
One of the characteristics I appreciated with the museum was the use of bright colours in the 1960s. I still am fascinated by bright colours.
For those interested, the museums’ erotic art collection is housed in the toilet facilities. I am told that artworks with naked males occupy the women’s facilities, while I have experienced that artwork of naked females are in the male’s facilities. Sorry, none of these works are reproduced in this post. To compensate, I have attached a photo from near the museum entrance, of Audrey Hepburn with bubblegum.
Audrey Hepburn with Bubblegum.
My impression is that this museum represents an epoch that has already passed away. I do not listen to a radio or watch television programs. I have a collection of music, films and documentaries on assorted hard drives, that I can access when needed. These include most of the cultural content I consumed in my youth, such as about 130 episodes from The Avengers. For current affairs, there is YouTube, although I wish Mastodon would attract a larger audience. I still miss Ello, my all-time favourite social media site, that closed 2023-06.
Note 1: In the 1950s, the McLellan household listened to New Westminster’s own radio station, CKNW. There are four things I remember from it. 1) Commercials for Woodward Stores $1.49 day, possibly the first Tuesday in the month when selected items were on sale for that price. 2) Commercials for Valley Lumber, where I bought essential items for the first boat I constructed, such as dimensioned lumber, plywood and screws. 3) Jack Webster (1918-1999) a Glasgow-born Canadian journalist, radio and television personality complaining about something, anything on a daily basis. 4) Hagen’s Scandinavia, a one hour long program of Scandinavian accordion music on Saturday mornings, complete with ads encouraging people to visit their ancestral homes in Norway and Sweden, using the Hagen travel agency. After I moved out of home, I never listened to CKNW again!
Note 2: This is the first weblog blog post being written on my newly acquired Mac Mini, a gift from my daughter, Shelagh. It is not a new machine, but 12 years old making it from 2026-12 = 2014. With this computer, I am also using a new to me Logitech MX keys mini keyboard (purchased used 2023-05-13) and a MX Anywhere 3 mouse (purchased new 2023-06-06), both in pink. I am using the same AOC Q27P2Q monitor (bought new 2020-10-08) as before, but it is equipped with a Logitech C270 HD Webcam (purchased new 2018-08-02, and never used until now), which provides 720 p and 30 frames/s. You may notice that not everything is bought for immediate use. Trish also has an AOC monitor, bought 2025-09-05, with the same model number, but hers uses only 1/3 the energy. I may yet change my mouse and keyboard to a Logitech K380 (described in the linked article as my favourite keyboard) and mouse to an M535. On my previous desktop computer, Eerie, I used a Logitech Ergo K860 keyboard, and a Logitech MX Vertical mouse. Unfortunately, the keyboard has been misbehaving, often refusing to write c/C and s/S.
Trish has already made the transition to a Mac, having purchased a yellow MacBook Neo on 2026-05-11. It has 8 GB RAM and has a 512 GB solid-state drive for storage. It is called Lemon. I have also ordered a MacBook Neo on 2026-08-30, with the same characteristics, but in pink. It has not arrived yet. It will be called Coral. The Mac Mini has been named Ray, after the reef mantra ray. All of my new computers will be named after reef creatures, until I decide to change to a different theme.
I had to check my weblog posts to ensure that I had not written about All Power Labs (APL). In 2007 its premises were called The Shipyard. It was an art collective in the center of Berkeley. Here much of the pyrotechnic art for the Burning Man festival was produced.
While rites of passage typically apply to individuals and groups, they can also apply to processes, possibly even things. A rite of passage involves three phases: Separation, where the person/ group/ process/ thing wanting to undergo the rite of passage is isolated; transition, often characterized by danger and uncertainty; incorporation, where those completing the rite of passage accept their new status and responsibilities, and re-enter society. Gasifiers endured a rite of passage during World War Two, when one million vehicles were repowered with gasifiers in less than five years.
For processes, that initial isolation involves experimentation, resulting in prospective solutions to a problem. The transition phase is an arrangement to operationalize the most promising solution. This often involves the building of a suitable infrastructure. Incorporation takes place when the process is taken into use.
When I first tried to investigate the process, I came across an unusual unit of mass: 1 Gt = 1 gigaton, close enough to 1 giga tonne. My first task was to recalculate a ton/ tonne into grams: 1 000 000 g = 106 g = 1 Mg. Then, I had to multiply this by the factor for Giga = 109. Combining them gives a value of 1015 = 1 Petagram (Pg). I find it irritating that people do not use metric prefixes consistently. For example, people mention driving 1 000 km, which should be written as 1 Mm = 1 Megameter.
All Power Labs (APL) is located in Berkeley, California. When I first read about them, almost 20 years ago, they described themselves as making electrical generators using biomass as a fuel. Now, they regard themselves as a company manufacturing gasifiers, with their goal to move CO2 from the atmosphere to soil. They tell the following story: every year, in some ideal world, 1 Pg of biomass = 10% of the available residue biomass on the planet = ~0.8% of terrestrial plant production could be processed through a gasifier. This process could continue for the next century. A carbon/climate calculator can be used to explain how a gasifier’s energy actions will impact CO2 in the atmosphere. The implication is that a 20-80ppm COe atmospheric adjustment can be achieved over the next century, using technology that is already operational. Existing industries related to composting, agriculture and forestry will benefit from using gasifier equipment.
There are many terms used in the combustion industry. One is the concept of combustibles for detecting the onset of incomplete combustion for safety and for fuel efficiency. Three components are needed to ignite a fire and generate combustion: oxygen, fuel and some form of initial energy, such as a spark. Under ideal conditions, hydrocarbon fuels, such as methane (CH4), react to form carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). In a perfect world, this could be written: CH₄[gas] + 2O₂[gas] → CO₂[gas] + 2H₂O[steam] + 891kJ. However, in practice, there is always a small amount of incomplete combustion present, often taking the form of ppm-levels of combustibles carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2). The term combustibles originated in the mid-1900s in the gas detection industry. During the 1970s and 1980s, the technology used for combustible gas detection was adapted to make industrial measurements to detect process upset conditions for safety and later for fuel efficiency.
In the combustion industry, the abbreviation COe stands for Carbon Monoxide equivalent. As the name suggests, COe measures all combustibles relative to (or equivalent to) the reactivity of CO. COe and combustibles are similar in that they both refer to incomplete combustion. H2 is much more reactive compared to CO. A COe detector might overestimate the levels of H2 in the sample gas due to its much higher reactivity compared to CO.
In reading about APL, I have noticed a change in how they describe themselves.
APL designs and manufactures various forms of the carbon sequestration tractors that makes this drawdown work possible. The “1GT/year Earthshot” scenario expects other startups and large OEM ag/engine/heavy equipment companies to ultimately form a new industry around these solution processes. The need and opportunity will exceed what one single company can do. The critical work for APL is to pioneer the technical innovation and productization refinements that make this an easy to use, highly profitable solution for customer driven growth. Therefore APL has been laser focused on developing new types of compact and integrated biomass thermal conversion products, ones that can be delivered as ready-to-work boxed appliances, at price points reduced 2-3x previous comparable equipment.
A Carbon/Climate Calculator
The climate impact scenario above is derived from APL’s testing and modeling of biomass thermal conversion systems, and more recently biochar co-composting and soils systems, and specifically connecting these flows and sinks to the larger climate system. This work is progressively being structured into an integrated framework enabling us to answer (or debate with formalism) the results in atmosphere of actions on the ground with APL systems, in terms of both delta carbon loading and delta ppm of CO2e.
Publication of this post has been delayed until Monday, 2026-08-24. That is the date the Isle of Skye has an official community flag unveiled in 2020. It was designed by a 9-year-old local resident, Calum Alasdair Munro, then approved by the The Flag Institute and Scotland’s heraldic authority. The flag combines a Nordic cross, with a Celtic circle. In addition in the canton = the top inner most corner of a flag, there is a five-oars-a-side berlinn = a wooden vessel propelled by sail and oar, used extensively in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland from the Middle Ages on. See below.
The Isle of Skye flag
This is the third part of a story about visiting Scotland in 2026. This post is mainly about the Isle of Skye (and our stay at Tarskevaig) and a visit to Morar on the mainland. It also includes our trip to Inverness, a flight from there to Amsterdam (AMS) and onwards to Trondheim (TRD).
Originally our plan was to leave Tarbert on Harris by ferry and to arrive at Uig on Skye. Unfortunately, that ferry was not running when we needed it, so we took the ferry from Stornaway to Ullapool. On the ferry trip we were escorted by dolphins. I had an internal discussion with myself if the species was Lagenorhynchus (from lagenos, Latin for “bottle” or “flask”; rhynchos, “beak” or “snout”) albirostris = white beak or Delphinus delphis, the common dolphin, the type species. Since 2007, the white beak dolphin has been declining in the Minch = the strait in north-west Scotland that separates the mainland from Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides, while the common dolphin has been increasing. Thus, I am presuming the escort was a white beaked dolphin. It is shown in the photo below.
The Lock Seaforth ferry was protected by White-beak dolphins between Stornaway and Ullapool. Photo: Alasdair McLellan.
Then we had to drive from Ullapool to Tarskevaig on Skye. For me it was a long drive on narrowish roads. Naturally, we had to stop at the Achnasheen and Strathcarron railway stations along our route. We later stopped at the rail terminus at Kyle of Lochalsh.
An overpass at the Achnasheen Railway Station, along our route from Ullapool to Skye. The station at Strathcarron. Photo: Alasdair McLellan.At Kyle of Lochalsh, some of the trains are smaller than others, and more decorative. Here is a particularly charming train. Photo: Alasdair McLellan.The end of the line for the railway that runs from Inverness to the Kyle of Lochalsh. Photo: Alasdair McLellan
After leaving Kyle of Lockalsh, we crossed onto Skye over the Skye bridge.
Tarskavaig is located on the Sleat peninsula of Skye. The first Norwegian settlers arrived on Skye around 875 AD and inter-married with the Celtic population. The village name is derived from Old Norse: þorskavágr or þorskavík = Torskavåg or Torskavik (modern Norwegian ) = Cod Bay (English). Yes, any Norwegian speaker can appreciate its origins, even an immigrant like myself.
I always appreciate handicrafts and works of art. Here are some items that have been turned on a lathe. This was at the croft where we stayed on Skye.
Irn-Bru was originally Iron Brew, a Scottish carbonated soft drink, introduced in 1901. It is produced in Westfield, Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, by A.G. Barr of Glasgow. The name change was necessitated by a truth in advertising law because the drink contains almost no iron, and it is not brewed. We bought several tins of it while in Scotland. I drank the type with Sugar, while Alasdair drank one with artificial sweetener. I enjoyed the taste, but it is not something I will crave, unlike root beer. The photo was taken in the Co-op store at Broadford = An t-Àth Leathann (Scottish Gaelic), which was originally Norse = Breiðafjorðr = the wide bay. This place was originally settled by Vikings.
Throughout the 1800s, marble was extracted from a quarry at the foot of Beinn na Caillich = Hill of the Old Woman. In 1904 the Skye Marble Railway was built to carry the marble to the new pier at Broadford. In December 1910 a steam locomotive named the Skylark was in use on the line until the work ceased in 1914. The line was 4 mi (6 km) long, with a 3 ft (914 mm) gauge.
For those unfamiliar with it, Flash Gordon is the protagonist of an American space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond (1909 – 1956). First published January 7, 1934-01-07, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip. Buck Rogers is a science fiction adventure hero and feature comic strip created by Philip Francis Nowlan (1888 – 1940) and illustrated by Dick Calkins (1892 – 1962). It first appeared on January 7, 1929-01-07 in daily newspapers, subsequently appearing in Sunday newspapers, international newspapers, books and multiple media with adaptations including radio, a serial film, a television series, and other formats. Another strip created by Alex Raymond and Ward Greene (1892 – 1956) was Rip Kirby, an ex-Marine who returns from World War II and goes to work as a private detective, sometimes accompanied by his girlfriend, fashion model Judith Lynne Honey Dorian, whose given name and nickname were borrowed from the names of Raymond’s three daughters. This strip ran from 1946 to 1999 and was in the hands of artist John Prentice (1920 – 1999) for more than 40 years.
One of the worst films made, but now with a cult following, is Flash Gordon (1980). After the opening credits, the opening scene appears. It was filmed on Skye at the Broadford Airport/ Airfield/ Aerodrome = Ashaig Airstrip. The scene lasts for a few minutes. If you watch just that, you have seen the most logically cohesive part of the film. Note: It is necessary to watch the credits first, because the action there explains some of the action in the opening scene.
Inside a de Havilland DH104 – Dove, made between 1946 and 1967, Melody Anderson (1955 – ) an actress from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada played the role of travel agent/ galactic warrior Dale Arden, while former football player Sam J. Jones (1957 – ) played Flash Gordon. The scene ends with a crash sequence that was filmed using a 76 cm long model Dove diving into a miniature landscape.
Inside a real DH Dove plane at Broadford airstrip, sat actors portraying Dale Arden and Flash Gordon. Still from the film Flash Gordon (1980)
In addition to experiencing South Uist, which was one of the places my McLellan ancestors came from, I also wanted to visit Swordlands on Loch Morar. We travelled by taxi from Mallaig, about 10 km to the end of the road about mid-way along the loch. It is the fifth-largest loch by surface area in Scotland, at 26.7 km2, and the deepest freshwater body in the British Isles, or any island in Europe, with a maximum depth of 310 m. We then walked along the loch, stopping at Swordlands. We then followed the pathway to Tarbet, on the shore of saltwater Loch Nevis. From there we took the passenger ferry Western Isle back to Mallaig.
Loch Morar, near the end of the road where the trail begins. Photo: Alasdair McLellan.Swordlands, on Loch Morar, where the McLellan family originally came from before heading off to Cape Breton Island, in Canada. Photo: Alasdair McLellan.The quay at Tarbet. The water is too shallow for the Western Isles to moor, so all of the passengers are freighted by boat to the ferry. It took four trips to accommodate everyone. Photo: Alasdair McLellan.The Western Isles at Mallaig, at the end of the journey. We then took a car ferry back to the ferry terminal at Armadale on the Isle of Skye. Photo: Alasdair McLellan.
After five days overnighting on the Isle of Skye, we drove our rental car to Inverness airport, where we parked it. We then walked to our hotel, where we stayed the night. We then walked 200 m from the hotel to the airport terminal. After going through security, we visited the lounge, where we ate breakfast. We departed Scotland, landed at Amsterdam, before heading off to Trondheim airport. Trish met us there with Buzz.
Our last moments in Scotland were spent at the Inverness Airport Lounge, where we ate breakfast. So far, it is the smallest airport lounge I have experienced.
This is the second weblog post about a trip to Scotland undertaken by Alasdair and I in 2026-07. The focus here is mainly on the Hebrides: Barra, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, Harris and Lewis. A third post will discuss Skye and Morar as well as our departure from Inverness.
One of the goals of trip was to fly from GLA = Glasgow airport to BRR = the beach on Barra in the far south of the Outer Hebrides. Alasdair had tried to land there three years ago, but he had his trips cancelled. This time, he and I made it, despite trips being cancelled the two previous days.
The Loganair Twin Otter G-HIAL, after landing on the beach at Barra.
Context: Because I am the father of a transportation historian, it is never enough to say that I took a plane. Here is the detail that is required. Loganair is an independent Scottish regional airline based in Glasgow. On its route Glasgow – Barra and return, it operates two Viking Air DHC-6 Series 400 Twin Otter aircraft: G-HIAL (the aircraft we took) and G-SGTS. We took the flight to Barra on 2026-06-10.
In 1928, The British de Havilland Aircraft Company established a subsidiary in Canada, de Havilland Aircraft Company of Canada (DHC). In the 1980s, the government of Canada under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney privatized DHC and in 1986 sold it to Boeing. DHC was eventually acquired by Montreal-based Bombardier Aerospace in 1992 after cumulative losses of US$636 million over five years under Boeing.
In 2006, Viking Air of Victoria, British Columbia, purchased the type certificates for all the original out-of-production de Havilland Canada designs (DHC-1 to DHC-7). These certificates gave it the right to manufacture these aircraft. While Viking Air, has its headquarters at Patricia Bay Airport, near Victoria, British Columbia, it constructed new production facilities in Calgary, Alberta for the manufacture of these DHC legacy aircraft. In 2018-11, Viking Air’s holding company, Longview Aviation Capital, announced the acquisition of the Dash 8 and Q400 program, the last DHC designs still held by Bombardier, along with the rights to the DHC name and trademark. This deal closed on 2019-06-03 following regulatory approval. For the first time since 2006 the entire Canadian de Havilland product line was under the same banner, that of a new holding company named De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited. Note: the initial D in the new name is upper case, in contrast to the lower case used previously. They currently produce the DHC-6 Twin Otter, DHC-8 Dash 8 and the DHC-515 Firefighter turboprop aircraft.
Even though these turboprops are slower than many jet aircraft, I often prioritize flying onboard D/de Havilland Aircraft when given the opportunity. In Norway, this means flying with Widerøe’s Flyveselskap AS, founded by Viggo Widerøe (1904 – 2002), Arild Widerøe (1908 – 1937) and four others, on 1934-02-19. It is the largest regional carrier in the Nordic countries. Since 2024-01, it has been part of Norwegian Air Shuttle. In addition to its Dash 8 (Q-400) turboprops, it also flies Embraer E190-E2 jets.
Back to the Hebrides
From north to south, the inhabited islands of the Outer Hebrides/ Western Isles consist of: Lewis, Harris (probably more correctly a peninsula attached to Lewis), North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay, Barra and Vatersay. From Benbecula and south, there are large Roman Catholic majorities (ca. 80%). They are historic strongholds of native, pre-Reformation Scottish Catholicism. Barra is called the island the Reformation did not reach. The northern part of the Western Isles/ Hebrides, Lewis and Harris and North Uist, are strictly Protestant and known for strong Presbyterian traditions.
I had always wondered how my Baptist ancestors had managed to survive in an overwhelmingly Catholic South Uist. My sister-in-law Aileen helped me understand it, through her genealogy studies. My original ancestor’s brother (on the paternal side of my paternal = McLellan ancestors) was the Catholic priest who accompanied the islanders to Cape Breton Island. The maternal side also presented me with a similar situation. The Ellis family were Catholic when they left Mohill, in County Leitrim, Ireland and arrived in Pakenham, Ontario, Canada. At some point between their arrival there and homesteading in the Jumping Pound of Alberta, then their arrival in Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, they too had become Protestants. I was an adult before I understood that this side of my family was Irish and not Scottish. I was in my 70s before I understood that this side of my family was originally Catholic.
Kisimul Castle at Castlebay, on Barra.
We took delivery of a rental car at the airport. Then took a circle tour of Barra, stopping at Castlebay, in the south. Here we visited the community hub/ shop for coffee as well as iron-on Barra flags. Unfortunately, there were no larger flags to buy. From there we were also able to see Kisimul Castle.
The sign on Bùth Bharraigh, the Barra shop, at Castlebay.
The MacNeils headquartered themselves at Kisimul Castle, shown above, making use of Birlinns, essentially Viking cargo ships, with rudders rather than a stearing oars, to engage in piracy, especially attacking English ships during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603). They were summoned by James VI (1566 – 1625) to answer for their behaviour. Ruari the Tatar/ Rory the Turbulent, politely known as Roderick (1569 – 1594), chief of clan MacNeil , argued that he thought James would be pleased, since Elizabeth had beheaded his mother Mary (1542 – 1587). James was pleased, and released him.
The Western Isles/ Outer Hebrides have the oldest rocks in Britain, 2.9 billion years old. That is about the age of Norway’s oldest bedrock, located outside of Kirkenes, about as far north as one can go on mainland Norway, which is about 3 billion years old. The bedrock where we live in Trøndelag is a mere 1.0 to 1.5 billion years old.
We continued our drive around the island on Highway 888, ending up at the ferry terminal. We had booked a ferry for the next day, and had to line up in the queue for vehicles without a secured place. However, space was found for us, and we were able to travel to Uibhist a Deas = South Uist.
We took the Caledonian MacBrayne vehicular ferry travels between Ardmore in Barra and Eriskay. The crossing took around 40 minutes.
At the 2022 census South Uist had a population of 1 650, a decrease of 104 since 2011. The island, in common with the rest of the Hebrides, is one of the last remaining strongholds of the Gaelic language in Scotland. South Uist’s inhabitants are known in Gaelic as Deasaich = Southerners.
When we disembarked from the ferry at Braehead, Lochboisdale, on South Uist, one of the first things we noticed was the Pitstop Gift Spot, established in 2007 as an alternative/gothic online store. We visited it, buying a couple of cups labeled Arsenic and Poison. Arsenic is Alasdair’s nickname, using the Norwegian spelling Arsenikk, so it was appropriate. In Norwegian, gift means poison (as a noun), as well as married (as an adjective). Pronunciation = IPA: jˈɪft, Phonetic spelling: y-ift.
One of the highlights of South Uist was visiting its museum. The museum has a cash only policy. However when we explained our plight (of not carrying cash) to the attendant, she let us in without paying. Thank you.
At the South Uist museum, much of the display was devoted to the daily life of islanders, with clothes being a common item on display. In addition, there were many tools on display, including those for the weaving of textiles.A birlinn in a separate building at the South Uist museum. The rudder distinguishes this vessel from a Viking ship.
Eriskay = Èirisgeigh (Scottish Gaelic), from Eric’s Isle in Old Nose, is an island with a population of 160. It lies between South Uist and Barra. It is connected to South Uist by a causeway which was opened in 2001. In the same year Ceann a’ Ghàraidh (Scottish Gaelic) = Head of the Garden (English translation) in Eriskay became the ferry terminal.
We stayed two nights on Benbecula. Here we were able to trade Alasdair’s Norwegian flag, for a flag of South Uist.
Our rental Vauxhall car at our accommodation on Benbecula. The Norwegian flag was traded for a South Uist flag, and flown for the FIFA World up match between England and Norway, that ended 2 – 1 for the wrong team, after overtime. The Benbecula water tower is an iconic structure built in the early 1970s to service the RAF station in Balivanich. It is no longer in use. It is near, but not adjacent to the Benbecula airport. While local opinion is divided on its merits, local support saved it from demolition. Its height makes it a notable landmark in the flat Benbecula landscape. I am also very fond of Nissen/ Quonset huts, one is shown to the left of the water tower.
North Uist is an island defined by its landscape. Its many lochans (small lakes) attract a vast array of wildlife. Some 9 000 seal pups are born on the nearby Monach Isles each year, Europe’s biggest breeding colony. Historic places on North Uist include: Barpa Langass, a 5 000-year-old burial chamber, and Pobull Finn, an ancient stone circle.
Stornoway and other places on Harris and Lewis
From North Uist, we crossed over a causeway to Berneray. As before, the name is derived from Old Norse Bjarnar-øy which means either Bjorn’s island or bear island = Beàrnaraigh Uibhist (Gaelic) = Berneray of Uist (Modern English) = Beàrnaraigh na Hearadh (older Gaelic) = Berneray of Harris (older English) used to distinguish it from Beàrnaraigh Cheann = Bharraigh (modern Gaelic) = Berneray of Barra Head = Barra Head (modern English) = Beàrnaraigh Leòdhais (older Gaelic) = Great Bernera. Yes, names can be difficult.
For us, the importance of this place was the ferry terminal and the ferry that would allow us to travel to Harris, that southern peninsula attached to Lewis, in the north of the outer Hebrides.
Arriving on Harris, we noticed a more mountainous environment with trees! We continued our drive across the peninsula, and then arrived at Lewis, the larger portion of the island. This is the largest island in Great Britain, at 2 179 square kilometers, and a population of 19 680 souls. We drove through the landscape to Stornoway, population 4 578 in 2021. Compared to everything else on the outer Hebrides, it resembled a city, but referred to itself as a town. Our accommodation was easy to find, and there was parking (almost) immediately outside of it. Inside, we found the self-service desk with our keys, and retreated to our rooms.
A viking guarding flowers on the walkway into downtown Stornoway.The headquarters of the Harris Tweed Authority, formerly Stornoway’s townl hall.
We missed the 10:00 tour of the Harris Tweed Authority, but used the hour to visit Gordon Macdonald, a weaver located in Stornaway. He used his garage as a workspace, in accordance with the rules. He is shown in the photo below. He weaves two sets simultaneously, one on the right and one on the left. Equipped with a two meter wide reed, resembles a comb or a frame with many vertical slits, that determines product spacing, the loom can be pedaled at a rate of 80 picks per minute. A pick is a single pass of the weft yarn in a shuttle, across the stationary warp threads.
Gordon uses a pedal driven Bonas Griffith Harris Tweed Loom, the world’s only rapier hand Loom. This loom is the work-horse of the Harris Tweed industry , being used by the majority of the 140 weavers currently working in the Outer Hebrides. All Harris tweed looms are human powered, most using pedals. No electricity is allowed to be used in the weaving process. I left with a scarf, while Alasdair left with a smaller pieces for holding cards.
Floor space of the loom, without operator seat or weft creel is 3100mm wide by 1500mm deep. The weight of the machine is about 475 kg. The loom is built in Washington, Tyne and Wear, in England. Washington is located between Chester-le-Street, Gateshead and South Tyneside. I had relatives living in the middle two of the four places mentioned.
The scarf, handwoven in Stornoway by Gordon Macdonald.
At 11:00 we were back to the Harris Tweed Authority, to attend the second of the day’s official tours, to learn more about the weaving of Harri Tweed. The most interesting part was about the dyeing of wool, which is done before the wool is made into yarn. I knew almost everything about the carding and weaving of the cloth, being married to a weaver. I left with a book about the history of Harris tweed in the outer Hebrides.
We ate a hinee meal at the Golden Oean retaurant.
We ate dinner at the Golden Ocean Restaurant, in downtown Stornoway. Before entering, I noted that one of the municipal worker was wearing a pair of yellow gumboots (as I all them in my dialect). I asked him where he had bought them. He pointed down the street and said: The Stornoway Fishermans Chandler.
The restaurant was more crowded than I had expected. Soon after we had been seated, two other tables were filled up, with the people divided by gender, four men at one table next to us, and somewhat further away, four women at another. Norwegians!
After breakfast, but still early the next morning, I walked down to the chandlery, and bought myself a pair. For years I have tried to buy yellow gumboots, without success. These are so professional, that they have protective steel toes included in the £60 price.
My new gumboots, waiting for work, at the front door.
We soon packed, and were off to the Stornoway ferry quay in the centre of town. We waited in the queue until it was time to board the Loch Seaforth. The ferry has been in service since 2015. It is named for a fjord at the southern end of Lewis and Harris, near the ferry terminal at Tarbert. Soon we were off on our next adventure, across the Minch = A’ Mhaoil (Scottish Gaelic) = Skotlandsfjörð (Old Norse) meaning Scotland’s firth/ fjord. It is a strait in north-west Scotland that separates Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides from the mainland.
Here is our ferry, The Loch Seaforth, which entered service in 2015.
Flags
Flag of the Outer Hebrides, or more correctly the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar = Council of the Western Isles.An alternative flag for the Hebrides/ Western Isles/ Eilean Siar. This is more for the people of the Western Isles, rather than its council.Flag of Barra, in official use since 2017.Flag of South Uist since 2017. This is almost identical to the Norwegian flag, with the substitution of green for red. We tried to buy these flags when in Scotland, but were unsuccessful. In the end Alasdair traded a Norwegian flag for one, with our landlord on Benbecula.The proposed flag for Benbecula. Adoption of it was postponed in 2019-11 due to administrative issues, whatever that means.A new proposed flag then appeared, with a mermaid theme. The black background represents the common nickname for the Isle of Benbecula as the Dark Island whilst the yellow stripes recall the sand of the island’s beaches. A mermaid was supposedly discovered in 1830 by islanders who accidentally killed her. Her body washed ashore 2 days later. My guess is that someone thought that this design was so unacceptable that they would quickly accept the previous design. For those obsessed with mermaid flags, other places that have them include: Anguilla (from 1967-07-23 until 1967-09-29); Israeli micronation of Akhzivland (מדינת אכזיב) between the Israeli town of Nahariya and the Lebanese border on the Mediterranean coast; Dutch municipality of Eemsmond (from 1991-06-27 until 2019-01-01); Karlovac, Croatia; Finnish region of Päijät-Häme; Schouwen-Duiveland; Netherlands; Waasmunster, Belgium; Westerdeichstrich, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Proposed flag for North Uist.
This is a travelogue about the first part of a Trip Alasdair and I took to Scotland, between 2026-07-06 and 2026-07-20. This includes our landing in Edinburgh. It covers Lowland locations including: Glasgow airport located in Paisley, Renfrewshire, The Trossachs in Stirling, Lanark and New Lanark in South Lanarkshire, Canonbie, Kirkcudbright and Wigtown in Dumfries and Galloway. Originally, it was intended to include Newburgh and Kirkcaldy in Fife, but an incident with a deflated tire near Loch Lubnaig, from the Gaelic Lùbnaig, meaning crooked, resulted in us having to cancel that part of our trip.
Glasgow
This Scottie was located on the first floor of Buchanan Galleries shopping centre, in Glasgow. We had ventured here for a meal.
The Scottish Terrier, Abhag Albannach, in Gaelic, with the noun first, followed by the adjective, popularly called the Scottie, is a dog breed that originated in Scotland, along with four other breeds: Skye, Cairn, Dandie Dinmont, and West Highland White terriers. They are independent and rugged, originally bred to hunt vermin on farms. They are a small with a distinctive shape. In terms of health they have some serious issues. They are a playing piece in the board game Monopoly. Two former American presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and George W. Bush have owned them.
This Scottie was located on the first floor (one floor above the ground floor) of Buchanan Galleries shopping centre, in Glasgow, where we had ventured for a meal. This was the first photo I had taken after landing in Scotland. There was a trail linking 40 Scottie Dog sculptures in the city of Glasgow and surrounding suburbs for eight weeks in the summer of 2026. We did not encounter any others. Note: Milou or Snowy in the Tintin books is a fox terrier, named after a dog Hergé (1907 – 1983), the cartoonist, had in real life.
One of the most popular Glasgow cartoonists was Bud Neill (1911 – 1970). In the above sculpture by: Tony Morrow (1954 – 2021) and Nick Gillon (1967 – ), we meet Sheriff Lobey Dosser, and villain Rank Bajin, sitting on El Fideldo, possibly the only two legged and, occasionally, talking horse that ever existed. Rank’s name refers to rank bad yin, where: rank is a Glaswegian term for rotten, while yin is Glaswegian for one. Bajin is the only main character in the strip who speaks with a standard middle-class English accent, while the other cartoon characters have a Glaswegian dialect, as they are all immigrants to Calton Creek, Arizona, from the Glasgow subburb of Calton, north of the River Clyde and the Glasgow Green.
G.I. Bride, world famous in Glasgow for trying to hitch-hike from Calton Creek, Arizona, to Partek, a Glasgow suburb. Sculpture by Ranald MacColl (1949 – ). Photo: Dave Souza.
The G.I. Bride appears in numerous cartoons by Neill. She is invariable shown with her wean in her arms (prophetically, her baby is called Ned), trying to thumb a ride with plaintive cries like Ony o’ youse blokes goin’ the length o’ Pertick? A bronze statue of the G.I. Bride is now in Partick Rail and Underground Station, located in what some have described as a colourful district east of Glasgow centre. The character was inspired by Tommy Morgan’s (1898 – 1958) popular stage character, Big Beenie, the G.I. War Bride.
The Tom Weir (1914 – 2006) sculpture at Balmaha on Loch Lomond. The subject was described as a mountain man, writer and broadcaster. It was sculpted by Sean Hedges-Quinn (1968 – ).
We overnighted at a hotel near Glasgow airport (GLA) then rented a Skoda the next day to investigate areas to the north of Glasgow. Our next accommodation was set for New Lanark, which is south of Glasgow. Our first stop was at Balmaha on Loch Lomond. The highland boundary fault passes through islands on the lake, that can be seen from there. It is a major fault zone that traverses Scotland from Arran and Helensburgh on the west coast to Stonehaven in the east. It separates two different geological terranes that give rise to two distinct physiographic terrains: the Highlands and the Lowlands.
Leaving Loch Lomond, we headed towards the village of Saint Fillans. Unfortunately, a flat tire delayed our journey by three hours at the Cabin on Loch Lubnaig = The crooked lake. After the tire was replaced we continued our journey on to Saint Fillans, at the eastern end of Loch Earn. In terms of the highland divide, Saint Fillans is in the Highlands.
Saint Fillans was important because, of the origins of the name MacLellan. In the 1960s various books about Scottish clans, claimed that MacLellan was a sept of Clan MacDonald, located in the Hebrides. No mention of Kirkcudbright, at all. There was a Gaelic reference to it meaning the son of the servant (i.e. devotee) of (Saint) Fillan. There was also a reference to derived from Mac-a-ghille-dhiolan which means son of the bastard, and appears originally in the 1273 charter as McGillolane. By the 2020s, that name had been transformed into an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gille Fhaolain (Scottish Gaelic) and Mac Giolla Fhaoláin (Irish), where Faolán’ a personal name representing a diminutive of faol = wolf. In the 1960s, there were no maps that I could find showing the location of Clan MacLellan. In the 2020s, they are shown as a far south lowland clan, as shown below. For further details about the MacLellan clan see this Wikipedia article.
In junior high school we had to read Walter Scott’s (1771 – 1832) Lady of the Lake (1810), I was fascinated that it began with a reference to Saint Fillans Spring. I learned that Saint Fillans was a village. The Lady of the Lake is Ellen Douglas. A prominent location in the poem is Ellen’s Isle (Gaelic: Eilean Molach = shaggy island) on Loch Katrine. It was a stronghold of Clan McGregor.
Those less inclined to read long poems may prefer Classics Illustrated #75, Lady of the Lake, which has 44 pages devoted to the story, and 1 page to its author. It was edited by Helene Lecar (? – ?) and illustrated by Henry Kiefer (1890 – 1957).
Other places in the poem, such as Ben Vorlic = Benvoirlich in Lady of the Lake, the mountain, are located near the village of Saint Fillans. Cill Fhaolain translates as The cell (dwelling) of Fillan. It is located at the east end of Loch Long, in Lochalsh, near the Isle of Skye.
Still, or Mirror Man, as it i popularly called, was sculpted by Ron Mullholland (1962 – ). The work stands 2.7m tall, and consists of more than over 800 hand-cut pieces of marine grade mirrored stainless steel. It was originally sold to the owners of the Four Seasons Hotel at Saint Fillans and set in place in 2014. The hotel owners sold the hotel, but took the sculpture with them in 2017. The people of Saint Fillans repurchased, repaired and repatriated the work, so that it was again back in the loch in 2025.
There are two other art works of note in the village. These are the Saint Fillans Dragon (shown above) and the Saint Fillans Toad (not shown).
New Lanark
My awareness of Lanark began with reading Alasdair Grey’s novel, Lanark, in the following reading order: Book 3, Prologue, Book 1, Book 2, Interlude, Book 4, Epilogue, Tailpiece. Wikipedia claims it contains an Appendix. This is not found in my 40th anniversary (2021) edition, but that could be just another name for the Tailpiece.
The main reason I wanted to visit the World Heritage site at New Lanark was to better understand the cotton weaving industry. We stayed on site at the Mill hotel, which was comfortable.
The view from my room at New Lanark.
However, my mind was troubled by the posters at the site proclaiming that Britain led the world… This was followed by “… in developing steam power in the 18th and 19th centuries. My mind was unable to process this second half of the statement. It was angered by a Britain that had: waged war against Scotland to create a united kingdom in 1707, and exiled 92% of its highland population. The monied classes prospered. The clan chiefs sold out their clans. This was followed by an artificial tour of the factory led by a synthetic Annie MacLeod, a 10 year old girl working a 65 hour week in a dangerous factory, towards the end of the 19th century. Later, Scottish working class soldiers were used as canon fodder for the English in two world wars.
While I did not learn much, if anything, about cotton weaving, there was one part of New Lanark I appreciated, the rooftop garden, especially its sculptures. The smallest piece was of a frog. There were also assorted sculptured birds, rabbits and a larger than life butterfly. On the pathway to the Clyde Falls, and elsewhere, there were numerous dinosaur models, the most dangerous of which is shown below. The pathway was signposted using a badger.
After New Lanark, we were on the road again, stopping at the village of Canonbie. This is where my adoptive maternal grandfather’s family, The Andisons, originally came from. Below, is a photo of the multipurpose mail box, which appears to have its mail picked up on Wednesdays.
After visiting the village, we were soon on the road again. About 2 km south of the village, we entered England, and were there for about 10 km, possibly 10 minutes, before re-entering Scotland. The next night we had our most luxurious overnighting, but not the most expensive one, at Cally Palace Hotel.
I like this photo shown on the Cally Palace Hotel’s website, because it avoids all of the cars parked in front of the hotel.
At the hotel we ate breakfast adjacent to Steve and Liz (née Quinn) Marr. If I remember correctly, Liz is a pharmacist, while Steve had a degree in bio-chemistry, but works as the pastor of the United Free Church of Scotland, at Chryston, a village in North Lanarkshire, about 11 km east of Glasgow. They could tell us that Wigtown was a book town, located only a couple of hours away.
The first destination of the day was not Wigtown, but Kirkcudbright, with Castle MacLellan. At the giftshop, we were able to buy numerous MacLellan artifacts, including ties and key chains. The person running the gift shop was from some unknown rural area. His real occupation was that of bowyer, a craftsperson making bows.
We then toured part of the castle, which was undergoing an extensive restoration.
The MacLellan castle giftshop, through the closest window, adjacent to MacLellan castle.
The Kirkcudbright war memorial is situated in front of the 16th-century MacLellan’s Castle and shows a seated warrior with sword and shield with a sleeping child on his knee. The sculpture was made by George Henry Paulin (1888 – 1962), known as Harry, with sculpting insignia GHP, erected in 1921.
We then drove to Wigtown where we were able to buy a number of books at two different bookstores. We then had dinner at the dining room of a local pub.
Alasdair posing in front of the signs welcoming us to … lets see, not much on the sign to indicate that this is Wigtown.
The rest of the day was spent driving back to Glasgow Airport, where we would overnight, before continuing our journey into the Hebrides.
Flags
Flag of Edinburgh (1732)Flag of Glasgow (from 1866)Official flag of South Lanarkshire since 2022-12-10.Flag of Kirkcudbrightshire (2016). The town and county of Kirkcudbright were named after Saint Cuthbert, with an early rendition of the location name being Kilcudbrit, from the Scots Gaelic Cille Chuithbeirt = Chapel of Cuthbert. Kirkcudbright is the location of MacLellans Castle.
The City One electric vehicle, for a better world. Photo: City One
It is almost the end of July in 2026. I had intended to write a weblog post about travels in the Lowlands of Scotland, undertaken between 2026-07-06 and 2026-07-10. While the post was started, in was not completed. Instead, I had to search through my 169 drafts, and 35 scheduled posts, to find one that could be used.
Much of this weblog post was written on Monday, 2022-05-16, with some later modifications, the last of which was on 2024-07-29 at 12:00. It was about a city car made by Adaptive City Mobility of Munich, Germany. Reading about it, I had to check to ensure the vehicle still existed. Unfortunately, there are conflicting opinions. However, one hour before this post was scheduled to be published, a website confirmed that the company had filed for insolvency on 2022-03-28. It was too late to change direction.
At the time of my initial writing, Trish and I were still in the process of finding an electric vehicle (EV) to replace our (almost) ten year old Mazda 5 internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. It was not going well. Then I come across City One.
Several webites claimed that City One is the name of a vehicle soon to be manufactured in Germany by ACM = Adaptive City Mobility, the winner of the German Design Award for 2022, in in the category Excellent Product Design – Conceptional Transportation for its innovative, flexible and energy-efficient vehicle concept.
Reading about the vehicle was a frustrating process because the materials from ACM are steeped in propaganda. For example, it was extremely difficult to find vehicle specifications in website documents. Instead, I stopped a video so that I could transfer on-screen dimensions to an appropriate place in this document.
Just two days before initially writing this, Patricia, my dear wife, had commented that our neighbouring municipality, Indre Fossen, was on its second shared vehicle, for people who don’t want to invest in a private vehicle of their own, and who have a minimal need to drive. We are not in that demographic group, living 13 km from the municipal centre, Straumen.
City One had the potential to become an ideal car for me. I feel no need to depress my neighbour by owning a bigger vehicle than she has. I am not in the business of transporting a soccer squad, and my days of transporting building supplies on a utility trailer are over. Looking at statistics for 2021, our car could rack up 14 000 km a year, divided between two residents and one or more guests. Currently, after 3.5 years, Buzz has almost 30 000 km in total. In the future 8 000 km a year will be about all we drive. Most of the time, Buzz transports one or two people on short excursions. The City One could handle that. Unfortunately, it is unable to handle our most common extreme situation, transporting up to five people, and luggage. For me, the one obvious minus of the City One is its lack of sliding doors!
ACM’s mission statement reads: “Our mission is to provide universal access to affordable electric vehicles in cities across the world. Thereby, we want to address the issue of climate change and overall improvement of quality of life.”
Yet, when I look at photographs, and struggle reading through documents, City One has a serious constraint, in its apparent lack of safety equipment. Thus, I wonder just how seriously ACM is focusing on Europeans and North Americans. My conclusion is that these areas are probably not the target market for this vehicle, which has a focus on Africa and Asia. This is despite the fact the China is closer to these markets than Munich. Depite this, my feeling is that Europeans and North Americans are precisely the people who should be considering such a vehicle, in order to reduce their oversized carbon footprints.
Exercises
In order to appreciate the specifications of a City One vehicle, it is probably best to compare it with something you know, such as your own vehicle. Wikipedia often provides articles about specific vehicles and years, that should allow you to obtain this data. Vehicle length, width (including and excluding mirrors), height, wheelbase and ground clearance (in areas that experience snow or potholed roads) are important dimensions, along with the curb weight.
The dimensions (in mm) of the City One are 3 600 (length) x 1650 (width) x 1670 (height), all constructed on a 2 500 wheelbase, with a mass of 950 kg. I have been unable to find its ground clearance. With one exception, these specifications are very close to those of the first vehicle we owned in Norway, a Subaru Justy that was 3 700 x 1 530 x 1 360 on a 2 300 wheelbase, with a mass of 855 kg. The big difference is in terms of height. This 310 mm difference means that the City One is much more spacious.
The price that I have seen for the City One is €11 000. Yes, I would be willing to pay this for the basic car, but I would also be willing to pay an additional €10 000 (or more) for augmented safety equipment. I am not quite sure what the City One comes with, but as an older driver, I have ticked boxes for the following equipment on other vehicles: airbags; AEBS = automatic emergency braking system; adaptive cruise control and speed limiter; LED-lighting (headlights, fog lights, running lights, brake lights, turn signals); automatic light dimming; heated and retractable electric mirrors; warning systems for active lane management, blind zone, fatigue, traffic sign reading; front, back and side parking sensors, rear-view camera with parking assistance; rain sensors.
In addition, I would also like to have a heat pump, air conditioning with effective heating and ventilation (remembering that I live in a climate with long winters). Since driving up hills is a integral part of living in Norway, the motor should have sufficient torque to accelerate to 80 km/h, a typical speed limit, going uphill. Regenerative brakes should effectively decelerate and stop the vehicle even going downhill. A maximum speed of 100 km/h is acceptable. The speed limit on the fastest road I take is 90 km/h, although in the future this may increase.
What I do not need are luxury items.
Sixteen years after the purchase of the Justy, I thought we had found an ideal vehicle, the Citroën Berlingo Multispace, launched in 1996: 4 140 x 1 720 x 1 810 on a 2 690 wheelbase, 140 (suboptimal) ground clearance, and a mass of 1 163 kg. The adults in the family, found it a suitable roundabout. Not all of our offspring were equally enthusiastic about it.
We purchased a second MPV, used, in 2006. It was a Citroën Evasion = Eurovan: 4 448 x 1808 x 1709 on a 2819 wheelbase, with 130 ground clearance. Its mass was 1420 kg. It was fitted as a seven-seater. This was used for weekly commuting between Inderøy and Molde, usually involving about 350 km in each direction, taking about six hours.
Yet, when it came time to replace the Berlingo, the next generation had become larger and more luxurious. Its critical dimensions were: 4 384 x 1 810 x 1 805 on a 2 728 wheelbase, with the same 140 ground clearance. The electric version with a mass of 1 604 kg had 22.5 kWh of battery capacity, giving it a range of 170 km, on a good day. With a curb weight of 1 407 kg, the 1.6 litre diesel version was the most common variant. Not everyone appreciated its large size.
In some markets, such as Italy and even in Sweden, when the Berlingo inflated itself, a smaller model became available, the Citroën Nemo Multispace: 3 860 x 1 710 x 1 720 on a 2 513 wheelbase, with a mass of 1 165 kg. Even its ground clearance was better at 150 mm. In theory, this vehicle or its sister brands Peugeot Bipper and Fiat Qubo would have suited our needs. However, they were not noted for their reliability, or safety rating.
We ended up with a Hyundai Matrix, not to be confused with the totally different Toyota Matrix. Its dimensions were 4020 x 1740 x 1640 with a wheelbase of 2 600, a mass of 1 270 kg, and a more acceptable ground clearance of 160 mm, and our highest so far.
I contacted City One by email. More than a year later, I was still awaiting a reply. Soon, the goal of purchasing a City One, was unrealistic. There is no infrastructure for the vehicle in Norway, so one is reliant on the existing infrastructure. Besides, we are the happy owners of a Volkswagen ID. Buzz, ordered 2022-05-23, and delivered 2023-02-13.
Anno 2026, for less than half the price of a Buzz, (NOK 300 k or < USD 30 k) one can purchase a new but basic Renault 4 E-Tech. The specifications are: l = 4143, w = 1796/ 2020 (without/ with mirrors), h = 1552, wheelbase = 2624, ground clearance = 200 mm, weight (net) = 1537 kg, gross = 1980 kg. Battery = 52 kWh = 315 km real range, 475 max range, power = 110 kW, torque = 245 Nm. Top speed = 150 km/h, acceleration = 8.2 s. The worst problem with the Renault 4 is its safety score = 4/5 stars.
For me, there is no need to look at either the City One or the Renault 4 E-Tech. Buzz will be our last vehicle.
Left, the Renault 4, produced from 1961 – 1994. Right, the Renault 4 E-Tech, produced from 2025.
Of course, I did not use the same title as the Chris Miller’s (c. 1988 – ) book, Chip War (2022). Why? Because this post was not going to be about his book, but a continuation of the previous post, where I admit that subject matter is developed from something. This time it is my own cantankerous understanding of how consumers have to interact with the manufacturers of integrated-circuits. Despite this, I spent the first half hour searching for Miller’s birth year and place of origin, without success. He completed his B.A. from Harvard in 2009, so I estimated at that time he would be about 21 years old. 2009 – 21 = 1988, with a c. placed in front of it to indicate that the date chosen was a wild guess. Yes, a more honest person would write it (wg 1988 – ). While I don’t often use it in my writings, I also like to know an author’s place of origin, because I feel those origins influence his/ her life. Personally, I am less interested in the name of the specific location, and more of its type: Is it wilderness, rural, exurban, suburban or densely populated urban environment? Was that area known for its wildlife, specific crops, industrial products or services?
Chip is slang, and can be confused with potato products. The polite term is integrated circuit, abbreviated to IC. Wikipedia tells us an IC is a compact assembly of electronic circuits formed from various electronic components — such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors — and their interconnections. These components are fabricated onto a thin, flat piece (“chip”) of semiconductor material, most commonly silicon. Integrated circuits are integral to a wide variety of electronic devices.
Metrics related to semi-conductor manufacturing include: number of facilities, revenue, profit, workforce and more. This allows a minimum of at least four different rankings. In the world, East Asian countries accounts for about 66% of manufacturing facilities at 292 sites. The region holds three-fourths of global chip production. Japan has 96 facilities producing a variety of products. Taiwan manufactures 60% of semiconductors in 79 facilities, accounting for 90% of the most advanced semiconductors. There are 16 South and 1 North Korean facilities, where only the south plays a dominant role in the memory chip market with more than 60% share. China has 77 facilities while India has 4. This means there are an additional 19 facilities elsewhere in East Asia, unless someone got the 292 site number wrong.
Xiaomi
Content on this weblog post will be suspended while I mention Xiaomi, the third-largest hand-held device = smartphone seller in the world as of 2025, immediately behind Apple and Samsung. No, the term manufacurer cannot be used, because much of the production is outsourced. We acquired two Xiaomi Pocophone F1 models in 2018-12, migrating from Huawai 9 Lite and 10 Lite.
Here is a quotation I sent to family members on 2018-12-30: I am feeling overwhelmed by digital technology at this moment in time. In the past two months I feel I have aged by five years. Currently there are a number of technological changes being undertaken that are demanding attention: 1) Repositioning media centre [Equivalent to a television] in living room; 2) Transition from Telenor/ ADSL to NTE/ Fiber for internet; 3) Transition from Telenor/ landline to ICE/ cell phone [No more landline!]; 4) Transition from Telenor/ SIM & Mycall/ SIM to ICE/ SIM [Cell phone service provider]; 5) Transition from Huawei/ P9 & Huawei/ P10 to Xiaomi/ Pocophone [HHDs or smartphones]; 6) Transition from Epson/ inkjet to Canon/ laser printer; 7) Transition from Asustor/ NAS to Alasdair/ NAS [servers]; 8) Transition from WD/ Red to Toshiba/ N300 [server hard drives]; 9) Transition from Asus laptop to Acer Chromebook [A temporary move that lasted one year]; 10) New CAT 6A cabling throughout the house; 11) New Ethernet (RJ-45) wall sockets throughout the house; 12) New equipment for Alasdair/ NAS [the server].
There are other things to be done, including the replacement of the Tinker Board as the media centre. At some point an Intel or AMD box will be found. However, this will not be happening during the next few months, as the entire computing budget for 2019 has been used up, before we even enter the year.
Some of these transitions feel minor, some feel less so.
What I can handle:
1) New downloaded materials…; 2) The transition to NTE/ Fiber actually went OK…; 3)De-comissioning of Telenor/ landline equipment; 4)Decommisioning landline equipment; 5) Installing SIM cards on the new phones; 6) Operating the Canon laser printer…;7) Physically installing Toshiba/ N300 hard drives onto the [server].
Every day, Xiaomi would ask permission to track us, and every day we refused. At one point in 2022, we decided we would not play their game any more, and bought a pair of Asus Zenfone 9 smartphones = hand-held devices (HHDs). After 4 years, we have not encountered a single request to track us. We expect the phones will last ten years.
Back to ICs
In the Americas, US has 78 IC production facilities. Facilities by state: Texas = 13; California = 12; Arizona = 9; Oregon = 9; These four states embrace more than half of semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. I attempted to find the number of facilities by state, but using one data set ended up with a total of 70 facilities. With a different data set, that increased the number of California facilities to 38, the total was 96. So rather than being specific there is consensus that the US shows a decreasing trend of chip manufacturing from 37% in 1990 to 12% in current times. Micron Technology is the largest manufacturer of ICs specializing in memory and data storage products, employing 12 300 people, headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Thus, Idaho ranks 6th with 4% of the American semi-conductor workforce.
In Europe, Germany has 20 facilities; Russia has 15; France has 4; Ireland and the Netherlands have 3 each; Austria and Czechia have 2 each; Belarus, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Spain have one each. That creates a total of 55 facilities.
It is now time to look at the anomaly of Israel, which is the only country with a semiconductor ecosystem in the Middle East. Note: Because the Baha’i Faith has its world headquarters in Haifa, Israel, I have visited it three times in 1979, 2005 and 2012. I will not be visiting it again. The IC industry is characterized by its relations with Asian, American and European companies, often involving joint projects. Israel has 4 facilities. Many years ago now, I read Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle (2009), written by two journalists, American Dan Senor (1971 – ) and Israeli Saul Singer (1965 – ). From reading this book, I learned: Israel has the highest concentration of startups in the world. Doubt, assertiveness and informality are the character traits of Israeli innovators. Even if a location is disadvantageous, it can be turned into an economic advantage.
At the Coop in Straumen, I usually check the produce labels, to ensure I am not bringing Israeli (brand name Jaffa) food home. I am also concerned about technology products. I specifically look for labels to show me where something is made: Made in Taiwan, most often indicates an acceptable product, although I am willing to buy products made in other places, especially in Europe and Asia, but not Israel.
Long term impact of boycotts. In 1984, Mary Manning (1963 – ), an Irish shopworker, refused to sell grapefruits from apartheid South Africa. This protest sparked a historic three year long strike that led to Ireland banning trade with South Africa. Since 2025, Manning is encouraging Ireland to stop trading with Israel.
In the late 1980s and onwards, Shell has been boycotted in Norway. Some say the boycott is because of Shell’s exploitation of South Africa. Please do not ask for the details because they are difficult to divine. In addition it is difficult to know how much the boycott related to the Brent Spar controversy.
Systematic racial segregation was adopted after South Africa’s 1948 general election, but had roots which extended back to the 17th century Dutch colonists in the country. In 1960, the Sharpeville massacre resulted in 69 black people being killed by the police. The victims were taking part in a demonstration against new pass laws which would greatly increase restrictions on black freedom of movement. There was a new massacre in 1976 following an uprising in Soweto. The Soweto uprising is regarded as a turning point in the fight against apartheid, both nationally and internationally. While more than 2 000 foreign companies were represented in South Africa, Royal Dutch/Shell, heavily involved in local mining, was perceived to be a suitable target for a boycott. In Norway, Storting (parliament) passed an Act imposing an economic boycott of South Africa in 1987.
Because of this presence, the group was among the enterprises which came in for heavy criticism. A number of organisations launched a campaign in the early 1970s against what they saw as Shell’s support for the apartheid regime. But the real explosion in the world’s media came in the mid-1980s, with an international consumer boycott of Royal Dutch/Shell launched in 1985.
Shell was also wanting to participate in the Norwegian offshore oil adventure. Brent Spar, was a North Sea oil storage and tanker loading buoy in the Brent oilfield, operated by Shell UK. It was constructed i 1976, installed in 1977, but by 1991 its economic life was over. Shell wanted to dispose of it, and the cheapest way of doing this was to sink it into the depths of the Atlantic. Early in 1995, Greenpeace became aware of this plan, and opposed it. At the end of 1995-04, Greenpeace activists occupied the Brent Spar rig in the North Sea while Shell ships attacked them with water canons. Towards the end of 1995-05, the activists were removed. In 1995-06, Shell withdrew their plan to sink Brent Spar. In early 1995-07, the Norwegian government gave Shell permission to mothball Brent Spar in Erfjorden, a remote location in the south-west of Norway. It remained there for several years while other options for disposal were considered.
By 1998, it was decided that Brent Spar would be disposed of on land and used as foundations for a new Norwegian ferry terminal. Later that year, The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) member states announce agreement on onshore disposal of oil facilities in the future.
In mid-Norway, where we live, there was even more controversy. Shell wanted to build facilities to allow it to exploit Norwegian oil deposits. Three places competing for these facilities: Stjørdal (in North Trøndelag, furthest north, 80 km south of Cliff Cottage), Trondheim (in South Trøndelag, in the middle, about 110 km south of Cliff Cottage) and Kristiansund (in Møre og Romsdal, furthest south, about 300 km south of Cliff Cottage). In the end the facilities ended up in Kristiansund.
For Shell, the dispute leading to a boycott may have ended when Apartheid in South Africa officially ended 1994-05-10 with the country’s first multiracial democratic elections, which led to the inauguration of Nelson Mandela (1918 – 2013) as the nation’s first Black president. In terms of oil, the OSPAR agreement, essentially ended any controversy, makes the date 1998-07-23.
For many people living in Norway, including myself, the boycott never ended. Except when emergencies dictated the use of Shell fuel, I always avoided them. Much of the time we bought fuel for our vehicles at Filialen = the Branch, the local name for the Co-operative store, located about 6 km from Cliff Cottage. After 2008, I often bought fuel from Trønder Oil, a local company that had existed since 2001. In 2023, it changed its name to Driv Energi. While the term looks like drive, the usual Norwegian term for that activity is kjøre. Driv is closer to drift = to be carried slowly by a current of air or water, or to move aimlessly without a specific destination.
The Finnish energy company, St1, originally acquired most of Shell’s Finnish and Swedish fuel station businesses in 2010, and its 420 Norwegian fuel stations in 2015. However, they continued to use the Shell name, until 2025.
Supercomputers
One of the challenges with Miller’s writing, is that he is an enthusiastic American. This chauvanism is especially problematic when a Chinese supercomputer outranks everything else in the world, including USA. For the first time since 2017, a Chinese computer has topped a list sometimes viewed as a measure of a nation’s technological prowess. The LineShine computer in Shenzhen displaced top-ranked US computer El Capitan in the Top500 rankings released on Tuesday, 2026-06-22. It was LineShine’s debut on the list.
LineShine runs entirely on conventional computer chips (CPUs), instead of the graphics processors (GPUs). It uses about 42.2 megawatts of electricity to operate. LineShine operates at a speed of 2.198 exaflops = 2 quintillion calculations per second.
Meanwhile, in California, El Capitan, at the US government’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory now ranks second at 1.808 exaflops, This is followed by Frontier, at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, with a speed of 1.353 exaflops. In third place is Aurora at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, with 1.012 exaflops. In fifth place is the Jupiter supercomputer at the Jülich Supercomputing centre in Germany. It works at 1.000 exaflops. These five are the only publicly verified exascale computers in the world. Other countries with machines in the top 10 include Italy, Switzerland and Japan.
In 2025, the EU revealed a €20bn plan to build sites equipped with vast supercomputers to develop the next generation of AI models, as Europe attempts to overtake US and Chinese computers. The main challenge with supercomputers is their need for electrical power, followed by the vast amounts of water needed to cool them. Cooling is not a trivial issue. As I write this sentence, several places in Europe are reporting 45 C = 113 F temperatures. While the world has increased its temperature by 1.4 C (2.5 F) since pre-industrial times, Europe is at 2.4 C (4.3 F). It is currently 23 C = 73.4 F at Cliff Cottage, as this is being written.
Let us examine the Panda in the room: Chinese memory manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies = CXMT, has signed a long-term supply agreement with Tencent Holdings worth 20 billion yuan = US$2.94 billion. The agreement covers several years of DRAM chip supply for servers over somewhere between three and five years. This is ahead of CXMT’s stock market debut.
At the same time, Apple is feeling price increases for RAM. To pay for it, it has increased the up-rounded base price of its MacBook Neo, from US$ 600 to US$ 700 = NOK 9 000 in Norway. The Norwegian price includes 25% Value Added Tax (VAT). Other models experience even larger price increases. Apple is looking to reduce prices by seeking an exception from the Trump administration, allowing it to buy RAM chips from CXMT at discounted prices.
In April, I decided not to buy a pink MacBook Neo first edition, and wait for a replacement with 12 GB of RAM.
Water
Water is important for cooling of data centres, because the electricity used to process data heats up equipment. Water usage has to be planned. There are many different alternative uses to cooling data centres. It competes with water for irrigating lawns and crops, providing drinking water for both humans and livestock, providing washing water, production of cars, clothes or computers, to name three products beginning with c. It is not that any one use is particularly bad, but where water is used for one use, it is most often unavailable for other uses. Water that is used for one purpose typically ends up at a different place than that used for some other purpose. It is often argued that gray water can be used in toilets or for irrigating lawns, but that means that gray water has to be stored in separate facilities from the original colourless variant. That storage introduces a cost.
The chip war people are experiencing now involves random-access memory (RAM) prices. Consumers are experiencing price increases for desktop, laptop, mobile and server DRAM (with D meaning dynamic). Prices have surged since late 2024 and show no signs of abating in 2026. This price increase is attributed to an unprecedented memory demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. This follows a period of price declines in 2022–2023. The most significant factor is the explosion in AI server deployments. Training and running large AI models in data centers requires massive amounts of memory, both high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for accelerators and large pools of DDR4/DDR5 in servers. Major cloud giants, including Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and others, collectively spent about USD 400 billion on AI infrastructure in 2023, much of this is for DRAM.
Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron together control about 70% of the DRAM market. To focus on DDR5 and HBM, Samsung and Micron halted most DDR4 output in 2025, while SK Hynix reduced its DDR4 output share to 20%. This created a supply crunch for DDR4 in 2025, despite many customers relying on it. In fact, spot prices for DDR4 chips cost roughly the same as DDR5. Chinese DRAM maker CXMT flooded the market with cheap DDR4 in 2024, briefly causing an oversupply. then abruptly pivoted to DDR5, leaving a sudden void in DDR4 and resulting in a sharp price hike.
In early 2023, DRAM suppliers had 31 weeks of stock on hand. By late 2024, manufacturers slashed output and worked down those inventories. By Q4 2025, the average inventory of DRAM had fallen to 8 weeks. In other words, the excess stock has been largely absorbed, so buyers can no longer rely on warehouses of unsold chips to meet demand. Some device makers began over-ordering and strategically stockpiling memory in 2025, either to hedge against future shortages or to avoid potential tariffs announced by the US.
After a weak 2022–2023, global PC and server upgrade cycles are kicking in. New CPUs from Intel and AMD in 2024–25 have driven an industry shift to DDR5 memory for PCs and servers, increasing average memory capacity per device. Even smartphone sales were better than expected in 2023–24, which helped soak up mobile DRAM (LPDDR) supply. In short, while AI is the poster child, the broader electronics market is also no longer in a slump – so baseline demand for RAM has risen just as supply tightened.
All memory is in short supply, not just DDR4/DDR5 Modules. NAND flash (storage) and even hard drives are now difficult to obtain. As AI data centers consume hardware, they need fast storage (enterprise SSDs) and vast data capacity, leading to hard disk drive (HDD) shortages. For the first time in decades, all three major memory/storage categories – DRAM, NAND, and HDD – have been constrained simultaneously. This means PC makers and consumers feel pain on multiple fronts, with different technologies unable to become lower cost substitutes. Everything is becoming increasingly expensive at once.
In downturns, memory makers typically cut prices to move inventory, while in upturns they use their oligopoly power to make windfall profits. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have reportedly demanded 30% higher contract prices for DRAM (and NAND) from Q4 2025 from their customers. Samsung delayed finalizing its Q4 DRAM contract quotes by a few weeks, to gain a 25% priceincrease. open-market DDR prices in just one week as buyers panicked. Similarly, major memory module brands (ADATA, Crucial, Corsair, G.Skill, etc.) temporarily halted new orders in late 2025 because they were unable to obtain sufficient chips, and some retailers even suspended sales of RAM and SSDs to prevent stock shortages. All of this suggests that the supply side is effectively rationing output to the highest bidders. Memory producers are enjoying a profit windfall: SK Hynix, for example, just reported its highest-ever quarterly revenue in Q3 2025, crediting the “full-scale rise in prices of DRAM and NAND” and booming sales of high-performance AI memory. Even formerly low-margin commodity chips are now lucrative – Samsung’s operating profit margin on standard DRAM jumped to ~40% in Q3 2025 (versus 60% margin on its HBM chips).
In summary, the current RAM price spike is being driven by a mix of surging demand and deliberate supply constraints. Standard PC, mobile, and server memory – previously considered abundant – has become a highly sought-after commodity. Buyers from cloud giants to gadget makers are competing for scraps, sending prices through the roof. This leads to the question: how long can this last?
Industry experts and market researchers are now trying to gauge whether relief is in sight in the next year, or if the memory market will stay tight. Some analysts argue the current shortage cycle could last much longer than past booms, possibly for 3–4 years. This view is opposed by others.
Personal strategy
Consumers do not need to worry about world supply situations. They have to be concerned about themselves, probably other family members, possibly a few close friends. Most consumers do not have any influence over the prices they have to pay for components, either when they buy a configured computer, or assemble it themselves from components.
In 2025-10 we bought 2 new tower computers to replace 2 Asus PN mini desktop machines.
By 2026-03, these new machines had both failed, despite the replacement of their motherboard and CPU. Their RAM did not need replacement. We then took the PN mini machines in use again. Trish thought this was temporary, as she obtained a MacBook Neo in 2026-04-15. However, her bank does approve of her browser software, so I am relocating her PN mini machine to allow her to bank! About the same time, I started to use a 2023 Asus Zenbook laptop with Cachy Linux, as well an Asus PN-50 mini desktop machine with Linux Mint. I need two, because the Signal messaging system refuses to work on the PN-50 machine, but everything else worked better on it. I also have a third PC, an Asus AiO (all-in-one) machine with Linux Mint in the playshop.
On 2026-07-01, Signal on my laptop Violet failed, and I was advised to update all of the applications on the laptop. This I did. When I restarted the machine, the error message told me that it was entering an emergency mode. It didn’t, the computer was effectively dead. So now I use an Asus Zenfone for Signal.
At this point, it is appropriate to cite two computing laws: (Gordon) Moore’s (1929 – 2023) law from 1965, is the empirical observation that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles roughly every two years, while the cost of computers is halved. The corollary is (Niklaus)Wirth’s (1934 – 2024) law from 1995, in A Plea for Lean Software, an adage on computer performance which states that software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware is becoming faster.
What does this mean? For most people this means that the Windows Operating System is sub-optimal, because it uses too many resources. Solutions: 1) The OS should be replaced with a Linux (or other open-source) distro, or 2) An old Windows based computer should be replaced with an Apple computer. There is not much one can do with Android or iOS when it comes to hand-held devices.
Currently, Trish is using an Apple MacBook Neo. It has 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of Solid State storage. She has named her Lemon. I have accepted an offer of an Apple Mini Machine from 2014. It has 8 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of Hard disk space. I have named her Lily. Do I need a more advanced machine than this? I would like to think so, but to be truthful, probably not. At least 90% of my computer activities include: a) writing weblog posts; b) reading and writing messages as emails and Signals; c) reading news posts and watching videos.
People who currently use a Windows operating system (especially one that has expired or is about to expire), will probably find it economically beneficial to migrate to Linux. There are still many Windows users with XP and 7 variants. This is fine, as long as they are not used online. There are countless Linux distros, but the ones that are closest to Windows are Mint and Zorin. Because I began my Linux career with Mandrake, developed by Gaël Duval in 1997-8, as well as his current phone project /e/ started about 2018. I have a theoretical preference for its Mandrake’s successor, Mageia for computers and /e/ for hand-held devices. These use less resources (read in this case RAM) than those demanded by Windows. Younger people will have their own preferences. My young (42 yo) son prefers Cachy Linux, because programs get updated faster than with Mint. It is also better for gaming.
Apple can avoid the challenges facing Windows because it is responsible for both hardware and software in the same machine. Thus, both of these are optimized when products are released.
Most of my posts are developed from something. However, this post is specifically developed from two sources. The first is an article by Eleanor Drage. For me, she is of unknown age, but looks under 40, putting her birth year to sometime after 1986. She is a senior research fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, author of What If We Got AI Right?: How to Stop Catastrophising and Build an Ethical Future (2026) and co-author with Kerry McInerney of The Good Robot: Why Technology Needs Feminism (2024). The second source is a video by Andreas Spieß, who admitted to being 61, eight years ago. That would make him 69 now, which indicates a birth year of about 1957.
Canadian technologist and engineer Ursula Franklin (1921 – 2016) said, fantasies of technology would have it that innovation is always “investment-driven, shiny, lab-born, experimental, exciting”. In the real world, it is often “needs-driven, scrappy, on location, iterative, practical, mundane”. Pioneering technologies are usually useful systems = frugal tech, brought to life by people doing more with less. They don’t impose top-down solutions that complicate lives while making a few people very rich. Genuinely innovative technology set people free.
On 2025-08-02, Eleanor Drage wrote in the Guardian about The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) at Berlin’s once hippy, now increasingly corporatised Re:publica conference. There, she met researchers who are using technologies such as software-defined radios and spectrum sensing to allow people in low-resource environments to stay connected despite limited bandwidth, power, hardware and communication infrastructure. These technologies are the basis of the local community networks that supply coverage to the 2.5 billion people globally who lack internet access. In the Niger Delta, which suffers from toxic levels of air pollution from its oil industry, APC is setting up connections and deploying low-cost sensors that monitor the environment. These play a crucial role in how locals can advise children when to stay inside and which areas to avoid playing in. This infrastructure is managed for and by the municipality, serves a pressing need and can be installed and built by the people who deploy it.
Google Gemini and GPT are irrelevant to those who don’t have enough internet bandwidth to use them. The new digital divide is the gap between the top end of the global population that includes all readers of this weblog post – who have access to these power-intensive technologies – and those at the bottom, with little or no internet access. That is why people have to work out how to manage the trade-off between internet range and bandwidth, taking into consideration obstacles such as mountains and foliage.
Good innovation also often involves lobbying for good. Big Tech works in the opposite way, attempting to water down legislation, such as the EU AI Act, that are designed to improve the internet for everyone. Good technology improves governance and social welfare. Big Tech? Does that term include Alphabet (Google) and Apple, where our only grandchild’s parents work?
At Re:publica’s “maker space”, Eleanor fiddled around with DIY solar-powered sensors that can be built using a Raspberry Pi computer and off-the-shelf components such as humidity sensors. Her partner, an engineer by training, investigated a microscope designed by the OpenFlexure project that was made from 3D printed materials. Microscopes are crucial for diagnosing infections but can cost serious money, making them inaccessible for the poor. This one is lightweight, costs next to nothing and is open source, meaning that anyone can reproduce the design by 3D printing parts and cobbling them together with shop-bought motors and circuit boards.
Even in a prosperous country like Norway, it is important to have components available for everyone to use. This applies to many different categories of devices, including OpenFlexure’s designs to give people everywhere access to low-source microscopy. Increasingly, open-source is a necessary solution, as is a right to repair, for proprietary products.
Drage asks: Why does technology create new problems for each one it solves? She mentions that farmer Chris Conder dug her own fibreoptic cables on her property in Lancashire, “to prove that ordinary people could do it … it wasn’t rocket science”. By demonstrating that fast internet could be connected with fibre-optic cable, a digger and the desire to just get on and do it, she spawned an organisation called B4RN, which promotes community fibre partnerships.
Here at Vangshylla, in Inderøy, Norway, property owners were required to dig their own trenches when we were connected to fibre-optic cables. Optical fibres are widely used for communication because they permit transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data transfer rates) than electrical cables. Signals travel along fibre with less loss and are immune to electromagnetic interference. Digging between the houses involved the use of machines and trained operators. Fusian splicing was done by professionals. All of the houses in the community had basic wiring installed to the outer wall of the house, although those who opted out from connection, did not have it installed inside. This was an attempt at future-proofing the community. For the first five years, those who opted in were required to use the services of a single provider. After that there was competition between several providers.
I took a pause from writing to walk down to the library to find a book written by William Kamkwamba (1987 – ) and Bryan Mealer (1974 – ), The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2009). The cover explains Kamkwamba’s situation in 2002. Malawi was stricken with famine. He set out to provide his family with electricity and water. He did this by building a primitive windmill, that provided electricity that powered, in addition to other things, a water pump. Of all of the courses I have taken in my life, I am most thankful for industrial arts, which taught me basic skills in electricity and electronics, woodworking and metalworking. Even the draughting was probably useful. Computer-aided design (CAD) emerged in 1959. The best known products emerged in the 1990s: SolidWorks (1995), SolidEdge (1996) and Autodesk Inventor (1999). Open Source/ free varieties, such as FreeCAD (2001) became available in the 2000s.
The most outstanding feature of frugal innovation is that it shows people that tech can be developed locally. Technological innovation is more about collaboration than it is about competition. The enemy of innovation is passive acceptance of technology. Instead one must ask what kind of world we want to live in? Then determine how to create it.
The following content originates with Andreas Spieß, Why AI Agents Replaced the Arduino IDE in My ESP32 Projects (Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Codex), published on YouTube 2026-01-11. In terms of pure micro-controllers, my favourite YouTube channel involves Andreas Spieß or Spiess, from Basel, Switzerland. His amateur radio callsign is: HB9BLA. In the above post, he stated: The transition from “coder” to “architect” is the biggest productivity jump I’ve experienced in 40 years of electronics.
A course in microprocessor (µp) technology was part of my basic computer science education. Except, while it might have been called that, it involved the use of micro-controllers: expensive and delicate but reusable devices. Ultraviolet light was used to erase content, and reset the device. One had to use protective glasses to prevent eye damage. The course involved programming traffic lights at an intersection, with increasing sophistication. In 2025, micro controllers are inexpensive, and less invasive methods can be used to erase content.
It is time to distinguish microprocessors from micro-controllers. A micro-controller integrates the CPU, memory (RAM/ROM), and input/output peripherals onto a single chip. They are best for: Embedded systems, remote controls, sensors, and battery-powered applications. Their key advantages include: Highly energy-efficient, cheaper overall board cost, fast boot-up times, and suitability for real-time hardware control. Their limitations include: Limited memory and processing speed; cannot run full, modern operating systems.
In contrast, a microprocessor only acts as the central processing unit (CPU). It requires external chips (RAM, ROM, and I/O devices) to function. They are best for: Computers, including desktop and laptop machines, smartphones, gaming consoles, and heavy computational or graphical tasks. Their key advantages include : High processing power (often GHz range), robust multitasking, and ability to support rich user interfaces. Their limitations include: Consume much more power, requires a stable external power supply, and needs a much more expensive, complex circuit board.
I regularly have to thank my daughter, Shelagh, for enlightening me about Arduino micro-controllers. She used them while a student at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, probably starting in 2006. I started using them in 2008, and stopped close to my retirement at the end of 2016. After I retired I used Raspberry Pi devices. I have asked Derek, my son in law, to buy a couple of Teensy micro controllers, so that I can experience them as well.
Then there is ESP 32. ESP32 is a family of low-cost, energy-efficient microcontrollers that integrate both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities. I have not used them yet. These are made by Espressif Systems, which has its head office in Shanghai, China.
Not included, level 0: Vibe coding = ask a chat program to solve a problem, then copy/ paste the result, test and hope. Vibe coding is a software development workflow where one describes the goals = vibe of an application in natural language, and an AI assistant generates the code. The human’s role is to guide the AI through an iterative loop of prompting, observing results, and refining. The term was coined by the Slovak-Canadian AI researcher Andrej Karpathy (1986 – ) in 2025.
The ten levels are: 1) Spec driven development: Write specifications and allow the AI to write the code. If something doesn’t work, update the specification. Yes, one still has to copy and paste the code, while the compiler’s messages have to be given to the AI system being used. One may have to ask the AI system to provide the entire code, if only part of it is given. This works, but the chat window becomes messy. 2) Functional Specification Document (FSD): Create a file with specifications. Suggestion – use Markdown. Markdown is a lightweight markup language for creating formatted text using a plain-text editor. It was created by American technologist John Gruber (1973 – ) in 2004. Markdown uses annotations for headings. AIs can read and write such texts. Unfortunately, humans are not fond of the results. To reformat the results for humans, Speiß recommends the use of Typora (about $17 for 3 computers), and refers to the reformatted result as a FSD. He always includes FSD in the file name. EtherPad stands out as a leading open-source alternative to Typora. It is especially useful when working on collaborative documents. 3) Agents: AI chatbots are examples of Large Language Models (LLMs). An agent is any mechanism used to connect with LLMs. Anthropic (Claude Code), Google (Gemini CLI) and OpenAI (Codex) have agents specifically designed for programming, with the names shown in parentheses. These can be used in terminals or integrated into Integrated Development Environments (IDEs). Programming agents are designed to work with folders rather than files. They can read, write and edit individual lines. According to Andreas, Claude Code works best for programming. Since my daughter Shelagh works for Google, I may use Gemini.
4) Git Hub. This offers protection against accidental file corruption, and provides history tracking. Type instructions into a text window, and the LLM responds. The real work is done behind the scenes, not in the chat window. 5) The Boss vs the worker. All agents ask for permission to execute commands, then, if it is given, execute them in the terminal. Some systems only operate in a sandbox, reducing potential damage. 6) Virtual Machine. Speiß grants full access to the agent on his server. This means it can do everything it wants, but is in an isolated environment. Human tasks = writing tasks in plain English, supervising progress, verifying results, discussing approaches with the agent. This is not free, it costs Speiß about US$ 20/ month. Speiß noes not use an IDE, only a terminal window
At this point only a basic summary will be given of the levels. 7) Many parallel projects. 8) Command Line Interface. 9) Datasheets. 10) Some technical things here, related especially to Arduinos and ESP32 micro controllers. The main takeaway is that programming agents can handle this. They can also write documentation.
Hallucinations: These are not an issue in embedded software development. Compilers do not tolerate hallucinations, because they are errors. Humans are still needed for testing. However, since time is not wasted coding, there is time available for testing.
Anne Stina and Helge Ingstad, both responsible for discovering Viking remains in North America at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. There is a similar sculpture of them both at the Viking Museum, near Oslo in Norway.
This weblog post contains many stories, united and divided by geography. Consider these to be minor entertainments that embellish the tales, but with further comments that serve to connect the dots.
In much of the world, including Canada, Helge Ingstad (1899 – 2001) is famous for discovering a Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows at the northernmost tip of Newfoundland in Canada, along with his wife Anna Stine (1918 – 1997). For many, Helge is mentioned first because of his ability to gain the trust of ordinary people. Yes, his education was mainly about speaking. He trained as a lawyer, and worked as a fur trader. His conversations led the couple to potential Viking sites. Anna Stine was the professional archaeologist. Alasdair and I visited this location in 2024, and I wrote about it in a blog post. In Norway, Helge is so famous, that a Norwegian navy frigate of the Fridtjof Nansen class, was named after him, KNM Helge Ingstad (F 313). KNM is an abbreviation for Kongelig Norske Marine = The Royal Norwegian Navy, equivalent to the use of HMCS = His Majesty’s Canadian Ship, in Canada, or USS = United States (navy) ship, in USA. The vessel was delivered from the Navantia shipyard in Spain in 2009. The frigate sank in Hjeltefjorden in 2018 after a ship collision with the tanker MT Sola TS. KNM Helge Ingstad was subsequently raised and emergency repairs were made. The ship was then docked at Hanøytangen on Askøy, where it was finally cut up in 2022-02. The Ministry of Defense and the watch commander on the frigate were punished for negligently causing damage at sea.
Hjeltefjord is a 46-kilometer-long fjord in Vestland county. It is an important shipping route into Bergen. The most likely name for the fjorden is related to the old Norwegian name for Shetland = Hjaltland. The sea route to Shetland uses Hjeltefjorden. Askøy = Ash Island, is an island and a municipality adjacent to this fjord. Ash refers to the name of a farm on that island, which refers to the name of a tree = Fraxinus excelsior. In Norse mythology, the ash tree is the ancestor and the elm the ancestress of all humans. I grew up in Pi house at 314 Ash Street, in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.
I only own one book written by Ingstad, Pelsjegerliv – blant Nord-Canadas indianere (1931) or The Land of Feast or Famine, when it was republished by McGill University Press, in 1992. The book begins: For sekstifem år siden, solgte jeg min advokatforretning i Levanger og dro ut av landet. = Sixty-five years ago, I sold my law practice in Levanger and exited the country. Ingstad graduated as a lawyer in 1922, immediately opened a practice in Levanger. He sold it in 1926. The city centre in Levanger is 40 km/ 40 minutes south of Cliff Cottage.
Trondhjems amt = Trondheim county in 1804 was divided into southern and northern counties called Søndre/ Nordre Trondhjems amt, which, from 1919 were called Sør-/ Nord-Trøndelag fylke, respectively. Ingstad was born in Meråker, known for its mines, the most south-easterly municipality of the former Northern county.
The first county governor, Danish born Caspar Conrad Rafn (1763 – 1830), had his seat in Verdal, according to the royal instructions. Today, Verdal is best known for its jackets = parts of steel truss platforms, used as the basis for most oil wells. An oil platform consists of a deck supported by the jacket. The jacket is in turn attached to the seabed with pilings or suction anchors. They are permanently attached to the seabed and are designed for long-term use. These platforms typically have between three and eight legs. The jacket holds up the deck and provides support for risers, drill pipes, cables and other equipment. It transfers loads on the deck and the substructure to the piles. Plaforms, normally without jackets, are also used for wind turbines.
His successor governor, another Danish born administrator, Christen Elster (1763 – 1833) settled in Inderøy, and from 1818 to 1894 Sund farm in Inderøy was the county’s administrative center.
At this point, it is necessary to mention Sund Folkehøgskole = Folk High School, established in 1868 and is the oldest still operating such school in Norway, after Sagatun, in Hamar, opened in 1864, but closed in 1891 and Vonheim, established in 1867 in Sel, then Gausdal in 1875, closed in 1896. In its early years, Sund was an itinerant school that had locations in places such as Re, Husby and Kvithammer in Stjørdal, Frosta, Ytterøy, Skogn, Frol, Levanger and Meråker before it was established at the county manor house in Inderøy in 1900. From 1926, the school has had its current location at Sund farm.
The next county administrator, Ole Anton Qvam (1834 – 1904) was born in Molde. He took over as county governor in 1894, he lived on the farm Gjævran in Egge (now in Steinkjer). That farm then became the county administrative office. Trish and I first lived in Molde when we moved to Norway, in 1980.
Anton Qvam’s wife, Fredrikke Marie, née Gram, (1843 – 1938) should be mentioned. Her parents, David Andreas Gram (1812–1858) and Louise Augusta Bing (1808–1900), belonged to the merchant class in Trondheim, where Fredrikke spent her early childhood. Her father became the owner of Helge-By-Rein farm, near Steinkjer, in 1849, and the family moved there. His interest in music, art, literature and politics made their house a cultural center. Among the guests were: author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832 – 1910) , virtuoso violinist and composer Ole Bull (1810 – 1880), poet and journalist Aasmund Olavsson Vinje (1818 – 1870) and fairy tale collector Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812 – 1885 ).
Fredrikke Qvam was one of the founders of Norsk Kvinnesaksforening (NKF) = The Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights, Norway’s oldest and preeminent women’s rights organization that works “to promote gender equality and all women’s and girls’ human rights through political and legal reform within the framework of liberal democracy.” It was founded in 1884, making it Norway’s second oldest political organization after the Liberal Party. NKF stands for an inclusive, intersectional and progressive mainstream liberal feminism and has always been open to everyone regardless of gender. Qvam was its leader from 1899 – 1903. From my perspective, I have often wondered if her engagement with this organization had to do with the premature death of four of her five children, three of them from tuberculosis. Her remaining child and daughter, Louise Qvam (1866 – 1944), was one of Norway¨s first four woman physicians, they all graduated together.
Fredrikke Qvam is directly connected with Norske Kvinners Sanitetsforening (NKS) = The Norwegian Women’s Public Health Association, the largest women’s organisation in Norway, founded in 1885, although membership is also open to men. Their magazine, Fredrikke, is named after her. She was the first president of the organization from 1896 to 1933.
In 1919, the county governor’s residence Eggeli was both an official residence and offices until 1945. From 1945, the county governor had offices in the center of Steinkjer. The work of moving the official premises from a rural farm to an urban centre can be seen as part of a larger urbanization process in Norwegian society.
Fredrikke’s mother had an unusual education for her time and was concerned that her daughters should receive an education and be hardened through sports on an equal footing with boys. Fredrikke grew up in an environment with a lot of knowledge and culture, and received a freer upbringing than most girls of her time. She was good at riding, skiing and ice skating. In retrospect, she herself described how it came as a surprise to her that she did not have the same opportunities and rights as men.
Fredrikke Qvam herself placed great emphasis on how childhood and upbringing determined the direction of her political involvement. In 1884, the year after she had given her first public speech, she referred to herself, in a letter to her husband, as “(a) child of unusually good abilities.” She pointed out that she had been “raised among gifted men, […] with knowledge of a number of gifted, warm-hearted and practical women who in both knowledge and interests […] stood next to, and for the most part above, men,” and asked gender-consciously: “How could I understand that society would not treat me equally with men, when I demanded it?”
The county councils in the two counties decided in 2016 to merge again into one county with effect from 2018. Except, that merger does not apply to national elections. In that situation, the north and south counties are separate electoral districts. As a naturalized Norwegian citizen, I vote in the North Trøndelag electoral district.
Tore Bjørn Skjølsvik’s bust of Fredrikke Qvam, outside of Steinkjer church, unveiled in 1996-09-29. in connection with the 100-th anniversary of Norske Kvinners Sanitetsforening = The Norwegian Women’s Public Health Association. Photo: Morten Stene, 2006.
Boris Claudio Schifrin, was known as Lalo, the standard Argentinian diminutive of Claudio. He was noted for composing film music that incorporated jazz and Latin American musical elements. He also worked as a pianist, arranger and conductor. His themes included: T.H.E. Cat (1966), Mission: Impossible (1966), Mannix (1967), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Bullitt (1968), Dirty Harry (1971), THX 1138 (1971), Charlie Varrick (|1973), Magnum Force (1973), Enter the Dragon (1973), The Four Musketeers (1974), The Enforcer (1976), Voyage of the Damned (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Telefon (1977), The Amityville Horror (1979) Sudden Impact (1983), The Dead Pool (1988), Rush Hour (1998), Rush Hour 2 (2001) and Rush Hour 3 (2007). He composed the Paramount Pictures fanfare used from 1976 to 2004.
Schifrin collected awards: Four Emmies for television work; five Grammies for recorded music; six Oscar nominations for Best Original Score and one nomination for Best Original Song. As compensation for never winning, in 2019 he received an Honorary Academy Award.
Schifrin was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. When he immigrated to the United States, he legally changed his first name to Lalo. His Jewish father, Luis, was a violinist for the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra. His Catholic mother, exposing him early to both kinds of worship. At the age of six, Schifrin began a six-year course of study on piano with Enrique Barenboim (1912 – 1998). After that he began studying piano with the Greek-Russian expatriate Andrea Karalin (? – 1961), the onetime head of the Kiev Conservatory. He also studied harmony with Argentinian composer Juan Carlos Paz (1897 – 1972). During this time, Schifrin also became interested in jazz.
Schifrin studied sociology and law at the University of Buenos Aires, but became increasingly interested in music. In 1952, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris under composer Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992) and composer and mucicologist Charles Koechlin (1867 – 1950). His musical interests also included African drumming and more jazz. In 1955 Schifrin played piano with composer and bandoneon player Ástor Piazzolla (1921 – 1992). A bandoeon is a type of concertina = a free reed musical instrument, popular in Argentina and Uruguay, used in tango ensembles.
Schifrin returned to Argentina in in 1956. He formed a jazz big band with 16 players that became part of a popular weekly variety show on Buenos Aires TV. He also began accepting film, television and radio assignments. That year he met Dizzy Gillespie (1917 – 1993). By 1958 Schifrin had completed an extended work, Gillespiana, for Gillespie’s big band. It was recorded in 1960.
Schifrin married Sylvia Schon (? – ?) in Buenos Aires in 1958; they had two children: a daughter Frances (1959 – ) and a son William (1960 – ). At some date, for me unknown, the marriage ended in divorce.
While in New York City in 1960, Schifrin again met Gillespie, who had transitioned from big band to quintet, for financial reasons. Schifrin filled the quintet’s vacant piano position, and moved to New York City. Schifrin wrote The New Continent, a second extended composition for Gillespie. This was recorded in 1962. In 1963, Schifrin recorded another album, Buenos Aires Blues, with Duke Ellington’s alto saxophonist, Johnny Hodges (1907 – 1970). Schifrin wrote two compositions for the album: the title track, B. A. Blues, and Dreary Blues.
In 1963, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which had Schifrin under contract, offered the composer his first Hollywood film assignment with the African adventure Rhino! (1964), directed by the Jewish Hungarian playwright Ivan Tors (1916 – 1983). Schifrin moved to Los Angeles to work on this. In 1966, Schifrin began working on one of his most recognizable compositions, the theme music for the Mission: Impossible television series (1966 – 1973). One distinctive feature is its 5/4 time signature. This mimics the dash dash, dot dot Morse code, signalling the letters M and I. In 1967, Schifrin’s produced a theme for Mannix, a private detective TV show shown from 1967 – 1975. This composition involved a jazz waltz. At about the same time, Schifrin’s 6/4 Tar Sequence from Cool Hand Luke became the theme for the Eyewitness News broadcasts on New York station WABC-TV and other ABC affiliates, as well as Nine News in Australia.
In 1968, Schifrin began association with actor Clint Eastwood (1930 – ) and director Don Siegel (1912 – 1991). This initially resulted in a score for Coogan’s Bluff. Similar scores were developed for Bullitt and Dirty Harry. Schifrin became a naturalized US citizen in 1969.
In 1971, Schifrin married Donna Cockrell, that resulted in a son, Ryan, being born in 1973. Donna managed his business and record label.
In 1973, Schifrin incorporated funk and traditional film score elements into soundtrack for the Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon. The score was composed by sampling sounds from China, Korea and Japan. The soundtrack has sold more than 500 000 copies. Schifrin’s working score for The Exorcist (1973) was rejected by the film’s director, William Friedkin (1935 – 2023). Schifrin had written six minutes of music for the initial film trailer, but audiences were reportedly frightened by it. Allegedly, Warner Brothers executives told Friedkin to instruct Schifrin to tone it down with softer music, but this message did not reach the composer. Schifrin said that working on the film was one of the most unpleasant experiences in his life. In the end, Jack Nitzsche (1937 – 2000) produced the film score, while Schifrin reused the compositions in other projects. In 1976, Schifrin released a single called Jaws, a version of the John Williams theme from the Universal Pictures film directed by Stephen Spielberg, Jaws (1975), on CTI = Creed Taylor Incorporated records.
Shifrin also composed the 1976 fanfare for Paramount Pictures, mainly used for their home video label, but adapted for their television division in 1987, until it was renamed CBS Paramount Television in 2006.
In 1981 he wrote the music for the slapstick comedy film Caveman. From 1982 to 1995, he collaborated with composer Gary Stockdale (1952 – ) on many films including: Sam Peckinpah’s (1925 – 1984) final film The Osterman Weekend (1983), Michael Pressman’s (1950 – ) Doctor Detroit (1983) , Eastwood’s Sudden Impact (the Fourth Dirty Harry film), the Harley Cokeliss (1948 – ) directed science fiction/ action thriller Black Moon Rising (1986), with a screenplay written by John Carpenter (1948 – ).
In the 1990s, Schifrin composed music for Australian director Richard Franklin’s (1945 – ) action thriller F/X2 (1991), and Two Billion Hearts (Portuguese: Todos os Corações do Mundo), the official documentary film of the 1994 FIFA World Cup held in the United States, directed by Murilo Salles (1950 – ). From 1990–2025 Schifrin wrote many of the arrangements for The Three Tenors = Italian Luciano Pavarotti (1935 – 2007) and Spaniards Plácido Domingo (1941 – ) and José Carreras (1946 – ). Their concerts began with their first concert in Rome in 1990 on the eve of the FIFA World Cup final won by West Germany, for the third time. They beat defending champions Argentina 1–0 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. In Tango (1998) Schifirin returned to tango music, with which he had grown familiar while working as Piazzolla’s pianist in the mid-1950s. He brought traditional tango songs to the film, as well as introducing compositions of his own, where tango is fused with jazz.
Schifrin has been widely sampled in hip-hop and trip-hop songs including Helta(h) Skeltah, a Brooklyn, New York duo with Jahmal “Rock” Bush (1973 – ) and Sean “Ruck” Price (1972 – 2015) and their track Prowl on their Nocturnal (1996) album is one example. The Bristol, England band Portishead comprises Beth Gibbons (1965 – , vocals), Geoff Barrow (1971 – , multiple instruments, production), Adrian Utley (1957 – , guitar), along with audio engineer Dave McDonald (? – ?). Their track Sour Times (1994) is a second example. Both songs sample Schifrin’s Danube Incident, from the More Mission Impossible (1997) album.
In 2003, Qaboos bin Said commissioned Schifrin to compose Symphonic Impressions of Oman. In 2004, he wrote the main theme for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, a stealth game published by Ubisoft.
In2007, Schifrin presented a concert of film music for the Festival du Film Jules Verne Aventures = Festival Jules Verne, at Europe’s biggest movie theater = Le Grand Rex theatre in Paris. This resulted in a CD = Lalo Schifrin: Le Concert à Paris. In 2010, a fictionalized account of Lalo Schifrin’s creation of the Theme from Mission: Impossible was featured in a Lipton Tea commercial.
After Rod Schejtman (ca. 1985 – ) won the 2024 Vienna WorldVision Composers Contest. Schifrin invited him to jointly compose a symphony dedicated to Argentina. They composed a 35-minute symphony in three movements, subtitled Long Live Freedom = Viva la Libertad. This tribute to Argentina drew inspiration from the nation’s history since democracy re-emerged in 1983, following the National Reorganization Process, a neo-fascist military dictatorship that began in 1976. The symphony fused cinematic and classical elements, and premiered at the Teatro Colón, in Buenos Aires on 2025-04-05. American acoustician Leo Beranek (1914 – 2016) regards this as the best acoustic space for opera and the second best for concerts, in the world.
In 2008 Schifrin wrote an autobiography, Mission Impossible: My Life in Music. He said: In music, the choices are infinite. The possibilities of sound combinations with the acoustic instruments of a symphony orchestra, a jazz band or a chamber ensemble have not yet been exhausted. What has been done in the field of electronic music so far has not even scratched the surface of a vast continent to be explored. Schifrin died from pneumonia complications in Los Angeles, at the age of 93, in 2025.
Notes:
Because of Schifrin’s use of Morse code in Mission Impossible, I thought I would add some notes about signalling codes. I have attempted to learn two of them in my life: Semaphore and Morse. I am not competent at either.
To communicate in semaphore, flags are not required but they make the alphabet’s characters (letters and numbers) clearer. At sea, Oscar (O) = red and yellow flags, are used. Its main use alone refers to man overboard. On land, Papa (P) = white and blue flags, are standard. This flag is commonly known as the Blue Peter. On a ship it means that the ship is about to sail. These flags are shown below.
Swallows and Amazons is a series of 12 children’s adventure novels published between 1930 and 1947, written by Arthur Ransome (1884 – 1967). These are my favourite children’s books. In the series, characters often use flag semaphore to exchange messages. Sometimes, these appear as concealed messages in drawings, often included in the books. The semaphore alphabet is included, as an illustration, in both Winter Holiday (1933) and Secret Water (1939).
Left: Later American Morse code from 1844. Center: The modified and rationalized version used by Friedrich Gerke (1801 – 1888) on German railways, from 1865. Right: Current International Telecommunications Union standard.
As shown above, other languages supplement Morse code with additional letters: ·-·- is used for Ä or Æ, —· for Ö or Ø, and ·–·- for Å, where applicable in German, Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian.
Radio amateurs refer to Morse code as CW = continuous wave, in which a radio signal sounds (key pressed) or is disrupted (key released) according to a set of four rules. These are: 1) A dash is equal to three dots. 2) The space between the signals forming the same letter is equal to one dot. 3) The space between two letters is equal to three dots. 4) The space between two words is equal to seven dots.
In the early 1980s, I coded a Morse Code simulator in Pascal. It followed the above rules. It could read any text and convert it into a sound at a pitch specified by the user. Despite this, I did not manage to pass the Morse code test for my radio amateur certificate in the mid-1980s.
The Peace Symbol
A purple on white peace symbol, involving a super-imposition of the flag semaphore for the characters N and D = nuclear disarmament, was designed by conscientious objector artist/ designer Gerald Holtom (1914–1985), who presented it to Direct Action Committee on 1958-02-21. It was first used for a 80 km march from Trafalgar Square, in London, to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Aldermaston, Berkshire on 1958-04.04. Holtom’s design was adapted by Eric Austen (1922–1999) to create ceramic lapel badges. The original design is in the Peace Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
The original sketches by Gerald Holtom, for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, that formed the basis of the Peace Symbol, in 1958.
One final comment: I have an interest in Dizzy Gillespie, because we both are/ were members of the Baha’i Faith.
