June 2025 – Brock at Cliff Cottage

2025-06-282025-07-12

The future of photography

An AI generated image of a man from Alabama, alphabetically USA’s first state. This originally appeared in a Buzz Feed article written by Dave Stopera.

On 2023-07-11, Dave Stopera (? – ) published an article in Buzz Feed, titled: I Asked AI What Europeans Think Americans From Every Single State Look Like, And The Results Are Just Plain Mean. The article mainly consisted of 50 images of people, of which the first one appears above. This artificially generated image shows what artificial intelligent (AI) agents think typical people from Alabama look like. Since this is an AI generated image, it is not supposed to be copyrightable.

AI means that photographers no longer need to meet living people, enter environments, or do anything that resembles using a camera to take a photo. All they need do is describe an image, then wait until some computer generates it, then sends it onward to some browser.

The first task of anyone wanting to produce real (not AI) photographs is to develop the technical skills involved in producing a photograph. Fifty years ago that involved both camera and darkroom work, although many outsourced the processing, and accepted a base-line product. Today, digitization has eliminated darkrooms, and there are many different commercial and open-source products available to manipulate images.

For sixty-five years, I have been following photo technology. The fundamental product in my youth was the 35 mm film camera, that could produce black & white as well as colour negatives and slides = positives. These images were 24 x 36 mm. However, professional photographers were using cameras that provided larger images, especial 120 film, which offered negatives/ positives that were 60 mm square. Others used still larger beasts such as 4 x 5 or 8 x 10 (inch) cameras producing 100 x 125 mm or 200 x 250 mm images. The cameras were anything but conveniently portable, but produced exceptionally fine grained images.

There is always discussion about the equivalent number of pixels produced by 35 mm film. One challenge has to do with ASA (American Standards Association) ISO (International Organization for Standardization) values that refer to a film’s speed, or light sensitivity. ASA/ISO values translate directly into grain size: Higher ASA/ISO = larger grain. As a general rule, “fine-grained film” requires more light or longer exposure, whereas coarse-grained film requires less light or a shorter exposure. One commonly expressed view is that ASA/ ISO 100 35mm film offers about 5 600 x 3 620 pixels.

Ansel Adams (1902-1984) produced some of the 20th century’s most iconic landscape photographs. He often used a Deardorf 8×10 View Camera, that he would carry into the wilds, if he could not photograph from the top of his 1947 Pontiac Silver Streak station wagon.

Ansel Adams on top of his 1947 Pontiac Silver Streak station wagon in Yosemite National Park, California, at some unknown time.

Ansel Adams used a rule of thumb for enlarging images: avoid printing film to paper at more than 4 times its original size. For 35mm film this means a maximum of 96 mm × 144 mm. For archival purposes, this rule is commonly broken, because one wants all the grain to be preserved.

By 2000, digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR) were prominent in the photographic world. By 2020, the trend had definitely shifted to mirrorless cameras and lenses, that offer superior speeds and better resolutions. Almost all amateur photographers are relying on their Hand-held devices (HHDs) = smartphones.

Cameras are part of everyone’s HHD. Yes, I am aware that more advanced cameras are being sold, but most people do not need them. HHD phones offer outstanding optical quality, allow one to zoom, to record images in the dark, and to produce 4K video.

Some regard the Galaxy S25 Ultra as the best HHD phone, if only because of its AI ProVisual Engine that enhances performance. Other Galaxy AI features, such as generative edit features and nightography, make it almost suitable for professional photographers. Both Apple and Google (through Pixel) provides adequate HHDs for photo interested consumers as well. I am content with the quality found on my Asus Zenfone 9 HHD.

After those skills have been mastered, one can develop a meaningful portfolio. It is image content that determines its value.

The second task is to learn/ understand how to curate images. Suggestion: start shooting with an empty memory card, At the end of the day, back up all the content, preferably in at least two places, possibly temporarily on a computer’s solid-state drive as well as on a memory stick or solid state drive (ssd). This allows almost immediate reuse of the memory card. When the computer’s storage is largely used, transfer content to yet another memory stick/ external ssd.

Many photographers use photo rating systems, to help them curate their images. They begin editing with photos of the highest rating = 4/ 5 stars. Regardless, an appropriate storage system should discourage the culling of photographs. Image compression and image resolution will determine the storage capacity needed. While an uncompressed RAW file requires about 24 MB, 1 GB of data can store 40 photos, and 1 TB can store 40 000 photos. I use Kingston XS 1000 solid-state drives for this type of storage, currently in both 1 & 2 TB formats. It is important to use a consistent folder structure based on shoot dates and/ or project names. Within each main folder, images can be categorized into sub-folders, preferably based on image type.

My approach to photography is to take photographs, but also to collect interesting photographs taken by others, and to catalogue them by the photographer, date taken and subject. I attempt to determine the birth and death date of each of photographer and subject. Currently, I have works from 2 145 photographers, with the number of photographs varying from 1 to 958 items. These photographs have no commercial value. I share some of them with close friends. My latest venture is working with the photographs of Russian engineer Vladimir Shokhov (1853 – 1939). I have a similar collection of photographs of other artworks. The latest person I have been working with is Borghild Arnesen (1872–1950) a Norwegian who is remembered in particular for her metal artworks using siselering, a chiseling technique. She lived most of her life in France, originally near Paris, before moving to Nice.

If one wants to learn how photography was done in the past (as well as how not to be a photographer), then one should watch the film Blow-Up (1966), a psychological mystery film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni (1912–2007), focusing on a London fashion photographer who believes he has captured evidence of a murder in his photographs. While I first watched it in 1967, I now watch it about once every five years, starting about 2001. So in 2026, I am looking forward to a 7th viewing. Rear Window (1954) is a related film, looking at another potential murder. It was directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1899 – 1980), but it is less effective at presenting the process of creating photographic images.

The initial golden age of digital photography may be ending, as corporate providers of generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications/ programs undoubtedly tell everyone there is no need for new content. AI can produce everything of value. It has scoured the web and more, consumed all (or at least, enough of) its content, and is producing images that are in demand. AI images are so good that it is difficult for people to distinguish between real = human produced and unreal = AI produced, content.

With a background from Morocco, France and Canada, and qualifications in computer science, Yoshua Bengio is concerned about the ethical challenges of AI. He addressed these in a recent TED-talk. AI investors, however, seem less concerned because their investments, or at least returns from them, take priority. They want machines that are smarter than people, deceptive, can cheat and prioritize self-preservation. The machines attempt to mascarade themselves by claiming to be stupid. These machines avoid showing their deceptive aspirations.

The problem with AI in all of its manifestations, is that it invents. The latest case I read about occurred 2025-05-18, when the Chicago Sun-Times published a summer reading list containing (at least) 10 fake books (of 15) attributed to real authors, according to multiple reports on social media. Fake titles included Tidewater Dreams by Isabel Allende (1942 – ) and The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir (1972 – ). The alleged creator of the list, Marco Buscaglia (ca. 1970 – ) admitted that he used AI to generate it.

… and so we return to photography.

Many camera companies are adding content authenticity/ credential features into their devices, often involving watermarking. However, a camera is only one part of the creation process. To make a viable product, a raw photograph has to be transformed into something better. This is where software manipulation/ massaging comes in. There are AI systems that can remove watermarks, and if they can do that, then they can probably also add fake watermarks as well.

Capture One is one provider of these features. It is Danish, owned by the Nordic private equity firm Axcel. Its photography software suite includes custom support for RAW files from over 650 cameras and tethering support (remote camera control via USB, network cable or Wifi) for over 200 cameras. They write the following meaningless statement: “At Capture One we stand firmly with photographers. It is our unequivocal belief that their work belongs to its legitimate owners – the photographer or their client – and abuse or violation of ownership rights using AI or any other means is simply unacceptable. Through our partnerships with industry bodies like the ASMP in the USA and The AOP in the UK we support their campaigns to establish legislation that protects the work, rights and livelihood of photographers and creatives at large. From working with the ASMP and The AOP closely we know there’s never been a more critical time to become a member and support the work they do on behalf of tens of thousands of industry practitioners.”

Photographers run a risk when they put their images online. The risk is minimized when they upload them to their own website, and don’t release their copyright to brands. Some photographers use contracts that contain a liability clause for misuse.

Then there is Nightshade, developed at the University of Chicago. It is a tool that turns any image into a data sample that is unsuitable for model training by transforming images into poison samples, so that models training on them without consent will see their models learn unpredictable behaviors that deviate from expected norms.

Conclusions. The boundaries of photography no longer involve creating content with a camera or smart device. Increasingly, it is created/ enhanced post-production, using software. Many claim that AI is not creating content. It is borrowing/ stealing it. However, it often ends up manipulating it, using the same techniques used by photographers. Copyright will not protect photographers. Content credentials do little to protect images. Bots on a website may block Generative AI from scraping images, but over time bots will just circumvent these protections.

2025-06-212025-06-20

Larry Finger

This post is written to commemorate the life and work of Larry Finger (1940-05-22 – 2024-06-21), a person I have never met, and new nothing about before he died, exactly one year before the publication of this post.

Conventional information about Larry

Larry was born in Terril, Iowa to Wayne and Lucille Finger. In 1952, the family moved to Southern Minnesota. Larry graduated from Tracy High School in 1958. He attended the University of Minnesota. In 1962 he married Denise Lanning of Clara City, Minnesota. After that he completed his Bachelors Degree in Physics in 1964 and a PhD in Mineralogy in 1967.

He and his family then moved to a Maryland suburb of Washington, DC where they lived for 32 years. Larry researched mineral crystallography at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In the course of his career he had the mineral fingerite named after him. Much of his work involved programming, because science needs tools, and tools at this time largely meant software: Fortran programming from 1963; developing PDP-11 interfaces to scientific instruments in the 1970s; work with VAX-11/780 machines in the early 1980s, followed by work with Unix/Linux systems. In 1996 he received a Humboldt fellowship from the German Government and spent a year researching at the University of Bayreuth. He retired in 1999.

After retiring, Larry and Denise became full-time recreational vehicle enthusiasts spending their Winters in Mesa, AZ. In 2003 they purchased a retirement house in Smithville, MO where they continued to live. Here he was involved in refurbishing computers for the underprivileged.

Background information

At the beginning of the computer age there were corporations hoping to profit from their hardware investments. Like the automotive industry 80 years later, entrants to these new industries were not particularly skilled when it came to basic but necessary skills: machining in terms of automotives; software programming in terms of computers. They made some crude products that were used because elegant products were not available. By the early 1970s some talented amateurs had made some smaller, almost affordable, machines using home-brew software that almost worked. Then came the capitalists that bought other people’s labour at discounted prices, and sold them to make a fortune. Bill Gates owes his fortune to his mother, who had the right connections at IBM. Bill bought an a Quick and Dirty Operating System (QDOSI, from Seattle Computer Products on 1981-07-27 for $5 000. This was relabeled as MS- and PC-DOS, which became an essential element of Microsoft, a business that brought him billions in net worth. He was the world’s wealthiest individual for 18 of the 23 year from 1995 to 2017.

Linux brought about a new opportunity for people to avoid the most blatant capitalists. The problem was that every computer hardware component manufacturer wanted to be paid a premium for anything that worked. So they prioritized systems for the relatively wealthy, and for the less wealthy, who allowed themselves to be coerced into using expensive computer systems. Thus, Microsoft and Apple soon dominated the emerging personal computer market, although there were other entrants such as Radio Shack and Comodore.

Computers generally have a number of microprocessors (µp) that perform different tasks. One important area involves communication, typically line connections, now with Ethernet or wireless connections with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. One of these is the Broadcom BCM43xx family of chips. Broadcom did not provide user accessible code for its equipment.

Unconventional information about Larry

As a full-time RV resident, dedicated to the avoidance of cold weather, Larry and his wife arrived at a 55-plus RV community in Mesa, Arizona, where he joined the computer club. This had a growing number of Windows PCs sharing a digital subscriber line/ originally loop (DSL), a family of technologies that transmits digital data over telephone lines. The DSL connection was managed by WinGate, a proprietary server and internet gateway, made by Qbik in New Zealand, and first released in October 1995. A new RV resort owner wanted to expand from 10 (the limit for a free system) to 22 workstations, but licenses for that many connections would have been too expensive for the club. Finger, who was highly distrustful of using Windows in a mission-critical role, set to work building a DIY Linux replacement.

With this goal accomplished, Larry found a new goal to get Wi-Fi to work on work stations, laptops and other devices running Linux. Once this was achieved, he would set new goals that involved its improvement. Finger reverse-engineered chips, by manually dumping and reading hardware registers to construct a workable driver. Finger worked with Broadcom drivers, then used the same approach when he worked on Realtek drivers. Some of this code is in use today.

Finger was not glamorous, but a patient, productive long-term contributor, a plodder. He had a GitHub profile showing more than 100 contributions to projects in 2024. Finger links to the stats for the Linux 6.4 version kernel, showing 172 346 lines of his code in it, roughly 0.5 percent of the total.

Outside of hundreds of kernel commits about drivers, Finger doesn’t have a large footprint on the web. He has a page for DRAWxtl, open-source software that produces crystal-structure drawings, on his personal domain, but not a personal homepage.

Larry took pride in never taken any courses in Computer Science. He had considerable experience in coding, much of from a time when computers were a lot less powerful than today, and it was critical to write code that ran efficiently.

Finger’s advice for would-be Linux contributors, is to start by focusing on small patches, deep reading of the guidelines, and always using git’s send-email to submit patches/ improvements. He notes that nothing will get shot down more quickly than a patch submitted from a mailer such as Thunderbird. Finding typos and errors in comments and text strings can help, too, especially in projects that involve contributors across countries. Finger advises being patient, expecting criticism about following rules and formats, and to keep plugging away at it.

In another Quora response about kernel driver development, Finger stated that kernel driver development can be highly rewarding, and also equally frustrating! He advises potential contributors to learn the C programming language, start with analyzing universal system bus (USB) drivers, and learn about direct memory access (DMA), a feature of computer systems that allows certain hardware subsystems to access main system memory independently of the central processing unit (CPU).

Finger’s best advice: Do not lose hope.

Note: When I consulted Larry’s obituary, it provided some basic information about him, but also advice about writing an obituary. In summary: 1) Deliver the news, announcing someone’s death. 2) Present the most meaningful events about that person’s life. 3) Use ObitWriter, a simple, free, fast app that asks some basic questions, then provides a complete draft of a well-written tribute, that can be sent directly to Legacy’s many partner newspapers. Yes, the entire website is an attempt to get people to spend more money needlessly by 4) publishing the obituary in multiple newspapers, 5) sending flowers, 6) lighting virtual candles, and 7) planting trees that: a) compensate for the ecological footprint of a human life., b) create oxygen, c) create habitat for wildlife, d) prevent [river] bank erosion, e) filter air pollution and f) inhibit climate change. At no time is there any mention of someone making a profit out of these activities, which is their main purpose.

When writing an obituary, suggestions #1 and #2 have merit, there is no need to follow #3 or beyond. An obituary should: a) announce the death; b) share that person’s life story; c) list family members; d) include funeral or memorial service information; e) add charity information; f) select a photo; g) share the obituary online and in your local newspaper. Personally, I am concerned about e and g. While I have my own charities I contribute to, those will end with my death. I don’t feel I should be telling others how to spend their money. I am also critical to the use of announcements/ obituaries in local newspapers. These are often corporations making money for shareholders.

2025-06-142025-06-12

#600

Every 100 posts I produce a milestone post. Forget the past, I have now decided to use it to publish information that does not warrant a separate post of its own. This will combine up to several hopeless, unfinished drafts (current count 157) that have not come far enough to be scheduled (current count 49), then published (600 when this one gets published). Then there are all of the other things, that are never considered topics for a weblog post, such as …

A passport photo

Recently, Trish found an old passport photo from the early 1980s, that showed what I looked like in what she described as my prime.

When I retired from teaching at the very end of 2016, I estimated that I would spend five years working in construction, refitting our house so that it would be more energy efficient and more suitable for elderly residents. Most of the time, I am unsure who these old people are, but receive a rude awakening in the mornings when I look at myself in the mirror, as shown below.

At the bottom of the above photo, one can see a portion of my hand-held device (HHD) = phone, protected by a pink case. While Trish chooses blue as in dark blue, light blue or turquoise, I typically choose pink (sometimes purple, even red). These are colours we each feel comfortable with. Our original protective cases were ordered on 2022-09-11, when we also ordered our Asus Zenfone 9 HHDs. While Trish’s blue case was still in good condition, by 2024-08-07 my case was showing signs of wear, so I decided to order two additional cases, in the same delightful pink colour. I finally transitioned to the second case on 2025-06-04. My time estimates are not realistic. I thought I had received the cases a couple of months, not ten months, before. My revised estimate is that the cases will last about 2 years and 9 months each, or a little over 8 years in total. By that time (at the end of 2030), it might even be time to update our HHDs.

Undecided: Should I call this section school or sculpting?

Not everyone excels at school, and I remember when I was in my early twenties, I met a similarly aged man, who had decided to engage in sculpting. His grades were insufficient to allow him to attend art school, and he was relatively broke, so he bought himself tools and various types of rock, with the aim of teaching himself. I soon lost contact with him. However, I understand his predicament. Society has become far too competitive, and much of that relates to academic grades, not the ability to use tools. There are few places for people to learn basic or unusual skills. Admission to an art school is based on academic qualifications, not artistic ability, or interest. The world needs more working-person educational institutes!

I was in a similar position. As a young teenager, I had built a small boat, and as an older teenager tried to find an apprenticeship where I could continue to learn these skills to become a journeyman and possibly a master boatbuilder. Yet, there seemed to be no pathway forward. After failing at university, I had to settle with working for a firm of stockbrokers, because that is where my family connections lay. Similarly, after moving to Norway, I improved my basic wood- and metalworking skills while learning the Norwegian language, but could not become an apprentice furniture maker. Instead I had to take degrees in business management, and computer science. I ended up as a teacher.

Some people never face these types of decisions because they are at the apex of power. There is the billionaire class that many comment on, but I think especially of the monarchies of Europe, currently seven in number, in: Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. This is not a system of government that I support. I am a republican, yet hold citizenship in two of these monarchies, Canada and Norway. I see no good reason why a presidency in these countries should not be given by appointment, possibly election, to a citizen, who has made an outstanding contribution to these societies, earlier in life. They should be old – possibly sixty-five to seventy when assuming office, yet wise. Normally, they should hold office for a single term, possibly four years, without any possibility of renewal. Both genders should be represented, all ethnicities should be considered, both native born and immigrant citizens should be eligible.

In the case of Canada, I observe that Charles III (1948 – ) has many conflicts of interest. In Britain he is to be consulted in advance, about any laws that can affect him personally, such as with respect to his vast property holdings. I imagine that there are also conflicts between the needs of Canada (and other commonwealth countries) and those of England. In Norway, a monarch is specified as head of state in the constitution, possibly because of the time when it was originally written, 1814. This makes it the second oldest constitution in the world. This does not make it appropriate.

DNA

23&Me was engaged in bankruptcy proceedings that ended on 2025-05-19, when Regeneron agreed to buy 23andMe out of bankruptcy for $256 million. Because of concern that this could result in us loosing control over our genetic information. I have now downloaded the available information for both Trish and I, stored it in four separate places, and asked 23&Me to destroy the saliva and their analysis of it.

Genetic information by itself has limited value. Although 23&me has detected markers that indicate geographical origins in my DNA, initially it was not very specific in terms of location, when it was first analysed in 2015. I was able to combine genetic information with genealogical events to piece together my heritage, first with the Salters/ Pentlands, then with the Bradds.

At the time of submitting saliva for a test, my intention was to find some general information about my paternity. This came, but mostly through my paternal half-brother, Brad, who contacted me 2018-10-01. From there I gained information, especially related to my ancestry in: Fredrikstad, Norway; Haarlem, Netherlands; Grenoble, France; and Mohawk territories in North America. My paternal haplogroup, I-M253, is associated with Doggerland, currently underwater in the North Sea.

In terms of my maternal DNA (through the Salters and Pentlands), I was already aware of a British connection, particularly from Orkney in Scotland, and Cornwall in England. Gradually, more geographic detail emerged, including 11.3% originating in southern Europe, especially 6.7% from Spain and Portugal; 2.7% from Sardinia; 1.4% from Italy. I asked Brad, with whom I share paternal genes, but he said he had no southern European genes. Presumably, then, these come from my maternal = Salter/ Pentland side of the family. It delights me to have some Sardinian DNA.

For me, the greatest benefit of being gene tested has been to trace my genetic origins. As an adopted person, without significant background information, it was always something vague. It was especially satisfying to find a Norwegian connection, and even a date: Fredrikstad, in south-east Norway, in about 1630.

A 23&me genetic analysis gives a north-American bias. So I have not found any living relatives in southern Europe. My most exotic relative is probably Catalina, a fourth cousin, twice removed, currently living in San José, Costa Rica, but with DNA originating in Medellin, Colombia.

Cooking for Beginners, Jerks and Clowns

The title of this section is taken from an article that appeared in Pensjonisten – a major magazine for Norwegian pensioners. It is about Per Borglund (1961 – ), who was once the editor of Mat fra Norge = Food from Norway. Now, he is best known for his Guinness record for having the largest collection/ library of cookbooks in the world, almost 13 000. The title is taken from what he describes as his most unusual cookbook, written by Norwegian pianist Kåre Siem (1914 – 1986) = Kåres-nam-nam-bok: Primitiv minikokbok for de absolutte nybegynere, duster and kløner. In English, nam-nam would be written yum-yum. I have simplified the subtitle to: Cooking for Beginners, Jerks and Clowns, without mentioning it being a cookbook. The rest of the title should be understandable, as long as one realizes ny = new.

I decided I needed to find out more about Kåre Siem, and searched his name on YouTube. The most promising video was titled, Accordion Captain’s song composer Kåre Siem. Statistics showed 2 153 plays since its release 2008-11-26. There were 20 key words association with the work in various languages: accordion and harmonica along with various geographical locations: balkan, bulgarian, paris, norvegian, romani = gypsy, arabian. No capitalization. I listened politely for the first 33s of 4m03s. Another videos demanded my attention, How the Black Death Saved the English Language.

Books in Norwegian

Most of my books are printed on paper. Other people in our family have different tastes. Most of Trish’s books are digital, downloaded onto her two Kobos: white for non-fiction, black for fiction. Almost all of her content is in English. I think Shelagh is also a consumer of digital books, but she uses an iPhone to read them. Alasdair seems to prefer audio books.

I try to divide my reading between English and Norwegian. For some reason, my Norwegian language books are more problematic, than those in English. Sometimes I buy a book and its content is so depressing that I refuse to read it, beyond the first few pages. The latest, most serious incident involved Odd Karsten Tveit (1945 – ), Palestina : Israels ran, vårt svik (2023) = Palestine: Israel’s robbery, our betrayal. On the other hand, I found Geir Pollen’s (1953 – ) Volga : En russisk reise (2021) = Volga: A Russian trip, insightful. The book was so good that I bought a second book by the author, Armfeldts armé : historien om en katastrofe (2014) = Armfeldt’s Army: The history of a catastrophe. It was about a failed Swedish attempt to re-capture Trøndelag, the county were we live. Sweden had occupied Trøndelag and parts of Møre og Romsdal (where we initially lived) from 1658 to 1660. In 1718, after several defeats in the Great Northern War, Sweden had lost its eastern territories to Russia. Too weakened to retake these, Charles XII of Sweden instead planned an attack on Norway to force the Dano-Norwegian King Frederick IV into concessions in subsequent peace treaty negotiations. It is called the Carolean Death March, because of the resulting loss of life.

Recently, the Norwegian book I enjoyed the most was Terje Tvedt (1951 – ), Historiens Hjul og Vannets Makt: Da England og Europa vant, og Kina og Asia tapte (2023) = The Wheel of History and the Power of Water: When England and Europe Won, and China and Asia Lost, I then read his previous book, Verdens Historie med fortiden som speil (2022) = World History with the past as a mirror. Visiting a bookstore on 2025-05-19, I found another of his books on sale, Nilen: historiens elv (2014) = The Nile: history’s river.

… and English

There are times when I feel too comfortable, having lived my life in middle-class Canada and Norway. Thus, I have recently thought I should expose myself more to African influences. Thus, at the moment, I am attempting to read Africa related literature. In terms of novels, I decided I should begin by re-reading The Alexandria Quartet = Justine (1957), Balthazar (1958), Mountolive (1958) and Clea (1960), written by Lawrence Durrell (1912 – 1990).

My plan then is to explore the works of Tayeb Salil (1929 – 2009). Wikipedia tells us: Salih’s writing draws important inspiration from his youth in a Sudanese village; life that is centered on rural people and their complex relationships. “At various levels and with varying degrees of psychoanalytic emphasis, he deals with themes of reality and illusion, the cultural dissonance between the West and the exotic Orient, the harmony and conflict of brotherhood, and the individual’s responsibility to find a fusion between his or her contradictions.” Furthermore, the motifs of his books are derived from his religious experience as a Muslim in 20th-century Sudan, both pre- and post-colonial. Another, more general subject of Salih’s writing is the confrontation of the Arab Muslim and the Western European world. The books I have to read are:

The Wedding of Zein and Other Stories (1968). Translated by Denys Johnson-Davies. It includes: The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid, A Handful of Dates and The Wedding of Zein.

Season of Migration to the North, translated by Denys Johnson-Davies (1969).

For non-fiction, I am reading John McWhorter (1965 – ) an American linguist, who describes himself as part of the Black middle class, who plays the piano and has an interest in music history. In the following short list of his books, I am awaiting those marked with an * from a Norwegian bookseller:

Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care (2003)*

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English (2008)

The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language (2014)*

Talking Back, Talking Black: Truths about America’s Lingua Franca (2017)

Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever (2021)

Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America (2021)*

Inspiration for this change did not come from reading an article in the Guardian that appeared Wednesday 2026-06-11 at 06.55 BST: A moment that changed me: I went to a death cafe – and learned how to live a much happier life, by Elizabeth McCafferty, but it confirmed that I was on the right path.

Mathematics

I have a fascination with mathematics, despite not being particularly good at it. Recently I have attempted to understand the proofs of Maryna Sergiivna Viazovska (1984 – ) with respect to sphere packing. The usual starting point is the Kepler conjecture, named after mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630). It states that no arrangement of equally sized spheres filling a 3-dimensional space has a greater average density than around 74.05%.

Viazovska solved the problem for dimension 8, which led to a collaboration with others, and a solution in dimension 24. It is frequently commented that these proofs are stunningly simple. For her work, she was awarded the Fields Medal in 2022-07. She is both the second woman, and the second Ukrainian to be awarded the prize. In 1990, Vladimir Drinfeld (1954 – ), a Ukrainian, was awarded the prize. In 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani became the first Iranian as well as the first woman to win the Fields Medal. It is awarded to two, three or four mathematicians under 40 years of age. The first awards were made in 1936, and since then every four years starting in 1950.

A simpler, but related, problem involves the placement of ten coins in a square. Its non-mathematical solution can be appreciated by watching this video.

Back on 2022-10-26, Duolingo offered an update in terms of courses, expanding into mathematics and music. They refer to it as multi-subject Duolingo. I intend to try this out after I have visited the maritime provinces of Canada, in the middle of July.

Yet, I am uncertain if I should trust Duo with basic math skills, such as adding. Back in 2017, when I started my current streak, it would add an extra day every time I used a different device. This problem did not last long, but there is an offset. Today, I should be on day 3020, but Duolingo claims this is day 3059, so I have been credited with 39 days too many. Many years ago, I contacted Duolingo requesting them to correct this, but nothing happened.

Currently, I am using Duolingo to learn Scot’s Gaelic. In recent years, I have also spent time on: Ukrainian, Finnish and Swedish. Originally, back in 2014, I began with French, then Portuguese, then German. I also used other sources to learn some Icelandic. I am thinking of returning to French when I return from my trip to maritime Canada. This is because my next trip to Canada should be to visit Quebec, in 2026. In addition, Duolingo fails to offer courses in Norn, formerly used in Shetland and the Orkneys. Essentially, it is a Norwegian dialect. The other language I was thinking of learning was Sardinian. Shetland and Sardinia are also on my travel list for 2026, in addition to a possible trip to California.

2025-06-072025-06-07

Estonia

I visited Estonia for the first time in August 1990. After almost 35 years, I visited it again, this time with my son Alasdair, for 9 nights and 10 days at the end of May and beginning of June, 2025. We stayed 3 x 3 nights in: Tallinn, on the island of Hiiumaa, and the island of Saaremaa. This is a pictoral account of what we saw.

Tallinn

Old town vs skyscraper city. Photo: Alasdair McLellan.

Accommodation. We stayed at the CityBox. For me, this is ideal. Rooms are adequate, clean and modern: a bed, a desk, a chair, a place to hang some clothes. There are also en-suite facilities. No luxury. I especially liked the textures of the walls, including the ceramics, and the floors. The artwork is less impressive. In terms of service, robots and computers do what they can, while people do what is beyond today’s computerized assistants. With a booking code it takes seconds to check in and to receive a key-card. Checking out is even faster, the key-card is inserted and in less than two seconds, it says one is checked out, and keeps the card.

After settling in, we visited a local shopping centre, which was more upscale than this old man is used to, with restaurant prices exceeding those in Norway. In the end, we ate at the local Hesburger fast-food joint. This is a Finnish chain we encountered last year in Vaasa, where we also stayed in something resembling a city box. It offered adequate food. However, I did notice that I was the oldest person in the establishment. Alasdair was the second oldest. The two next days we ate dinner at the Tallinn Kebob and Pizza establishment, eating kebab one night, and pizza the next.

Caffeine is a place for people, as well as dogs.

The first morning was spend visiting Tallinn’s oldest tourist trap, the old town. It was much as I remember it, but the market stalls seem to have disappeared. In 1990, these offered quaint merchandise for sale. The street artists still exist, but the cost of a portrait has increased at least twenty times.

We stopped for coffee at Caffeine, with its orange decor. Outside, it offered drinking water for passing dogs, and waste bins for passing humans. Later, I discovered it was owned by Reitan Convenience Estonia AS, which is part of the Reitan group, located in Trondheim, just 120 km down the road from Cliff Cottage. This is the second time I have been impressed by a Reitan group company. The first time was many years ago in Bergen when some incident occurred with details disremembered, when I was at the Northland cafe, and the staff looked after everything professionally. I vowed to go back, and I have.

Protest posters against the Ukrainian invasion, outside the Russian embassy.

Street art at Rottermann City shopping mall. Numerous other animal sculptures can be found there.

Street art. As a ruralist, I avoid spending time in cities. However, they are a good place to find street art, including buildings that pretend to be works of art.

The Seaplane Harbour Museum. Some think the museum is misnamed, it is actually a maritime museum. there is only one seaplane housed in the museum, but many more boats of various sizes, including a Detroit News (DN) class ice boat. At Vangshylla, I have blue prints for it, but have never built one. The largest vessel on display is the 59.5 m long submarine EML Lembit, which was moored just off the Hotel Sport, when I first visited Tallinn in 1990.

Due to Moscow’s lack of large body of water, the sailing events for the 1980 Summer Olympics were held in Tallinn. A huge complex was built for the task at Pirita. This state of the art complex was where I stayed in 1990. Today it has seen better days, with most of the complex abandoned.

Here I am standing just outside the entrance to the Sport Museum in 2025. It was a much more elegant hotel in 1990.

Hiiumaa

The Estonian ferry Leiger, was docked, available for photoshoots with passing tourists. Photo: Alasdair McLellan.

In Estonia, the domestic ferry fleet is unusual. Ship hulls are painted in distinctive colours. We crossed to Hiuumaa on the red-hulled Tiiu. From Muhu, connected by causeway to Saaremaa, we returned to the mainland on the orange-hulled Piret. Both ships are 114 m long, carrying up to 150 cars and 700 passengers. Altogether there are four such ferries. The ferry between Hiuumaa and Saaremaa is smaller. The SoeIa is 45 m long, carrying 32 cars and 200 passengers. All the ferries mentioned here are iceclass 1A, allowing them to navigate through ice up to 1 meter thick. This is important because the Baltic Sea is the world’s largest brackish water basin = lots of ice, in the winter.

Soviet authorities were concerned about foreign spies. So, I never had a chance to visit the islands of Hiiumaa and Saaremaa in 1990. That situation has changed now, and we visited both. Hiiumaa is the more restful of the two. Few would describe Saaremaa as bustling, but there is more action, comparatively.

One of my interests involves village swings, found in Finland and Estonia. At one time these were built more like ferris wheels, with four seats providing vertical motion. A photo of one of these will appear in a post about Harry Palmer, to be published on 2025-11-11. One of these can be seen in the film, The IPCRESS file (1965). These older village swings seem to have been replaced with less dangerous models, as shown above.

Kõpu Lighthouse is one of the oldest lighthouses in the world. It has been in continuous operation since 1531. It is also at the highest point on Hiiumaa, at Tornimägi = 68 m. The building is 37.7 m high, with the light at 103.6 m.

There are older lighthouses than Kõpu, including: one at Alexandria built c. 280 – 247 BCE, that no longer exists; the Tower of Hercules in Spain c. 2nd century CE, that still exists; the Lighthouse at Genoa, originally built in 1128 (or 1161) with its tower rebuilt in 1543; the Hook lighthouse in Ireland, built c. 1201 – 1240. After this comes Kõpu. Rather than fighting with others about, which is the oldest in terms of continuous operation, younger lighthouse enthusiasts may want to visit at least three: Genoa in 2028 to celebrate 900 years of operation; Kõpu in 2031 to celebrate 500 years of operation; Hook in 2040 to celebrate 800 years of operation. For information about old lighthouses see this website.

Saaremaa

For me, Saaremaa was a totally different place, contrasting with Hiiumaa. The accommodation featured a windmill, where we slept. In addition there was a table sheltered from the rain with a roof, but no walls. Beyond that there was a building that housed the kitchen, shower and sauna. Further away, there was an outhouse and a woodshed. So now, staying in a windmill has been checked off on my bucket list.

Alasdair climbed the Border post tower, from the Soviet period,

In my old age, I distinguish countries on the basis of one essential quality = trust. Estonia impressed me positively in this regard. At the border post museum, featuring artifacts from the Soviet period, there were several ways to pay for admission, including cash. There were a couple of hundred kroner of Euros sitting on a table, at the un-personed museum entrance, to provide change for people wanting to pay in cash. Coffee or tea was included in this entrance fee. When we took our coffee break, there was a pair of swallows enjoying the area.

Living swallows sitting on antlers at the Border Post museum.

In terms of national symbols, the cornflower = rukkilill (Centaurea cyanus) is the national flower of Estonia. It has been grown there for over 10 000 years. The barn swallow = Suitsupääsuke (Hirundo rustica) is its national bird. The wolf = hunt (Canus lupus) is its national animal. The Baltic Herring = läänemere heeringas (Clupea harengus membras) is its national fish, and a staple of the Estonian diet. The Swedish fermented delicacy, Surströmming, is made from the same species.

Near our windmill, there is the impact site of a meteorite that crashed some 8600 to 2400 years ago. The lake/ pond was created by the main impact, the meteorite had split while falling, creating several small craters.

Leaving Saaremaa, we travelled across a causeway to the island of Muhu. Here we visited yet another Soviet military site. Yet, once again, it included some natural history. Here we could learn about the size of bird boxes preferred by different species.

Note: Thank you, Alasdair, for taking me on this trip. I flew down to Oslo from Trondheim on 2025-05-23, where I met Alasdair at the airport. He had flown in from Stavanger. We then overnighted at his house, then returned to the airport early. We flew to Copenhagen and then on to Tallinn. On our return on 2025-06-02, we took the same flight from Tallinn to Arlanda airport in Sweden. From there, Alasdair took a flight back to Oslo, while I took a later flight to Trondheim. Trish met me at the airport, and drove me back to Vangshylla.