Welcome to Straumen, the administrative centre of Inderøy municipality, Trøndelag county, Norway. It occupies 1.33 square kilometres (330 acres), and has a population of 1 642 people (2017).
Inderøy, and Straumen in particular, is known as the Pearl of Trondheim’s Fjord. Needless to say, it was the village’s 19th century residents who inflicted this title on the world.
A view of Straumen from the east.
Straumbru, Straumen Bridge, crosses Børgin Fjord at its narrowest point.Most residents in Straumen have a view of the sea.
Old Sakshaug church
Old Sakshaug Church dates from 1150-60, and is one of two medieval churches in the municipality.Straumen, from the museum which is beside Old Sakshaug Church. New Sakshaug Church, from 1881, is to the right in the photograph. A new organ has been recently installed. While the sound quality has not been commented on, local residents are keen to report that this is the largest organ in old Nord-Trøndelag county.
Shopping
A pathway goes under highway 755. This building complex has a shopping mall on the lowest level, and apartments on the two upper stories.E@ internet cafe, Marens bakeri and Jostu’, a shop featuring locally made products, are all part of Flyndra, the inter-municipal organization started in Inderøy that provides employment for those who otherwise would have difficulty finding it.Euronics sells electrical appliances. One of two local banks is located to its left.Sodd, a meat soup served on special occasions has been made in Inderøy since 1938. It is currently made in this building.The local vet, a second bank, an electrical installation company all operate from this building. It was originally build in Steinkjer (20 km away) but was de-constructed and re-erected in Straumen. This required a bylaw change. Prior to this all building were required to have gabled roofs.Shell is still selling diesel and gasoline. Here one can see the only gabled roof Shell station in Norway. Built to conform with local bylaws.This mural is on the rear of the local Co-op grocery store. On the right is Reodor, yet another operational unit of Flyndra, for people with special needs. The name comes from Kjell Aukrust’s idiosyncratic character , Reodor Felgen (English: Theodore Rimspoke), who has become synonymous in Norway with Rube Goldberg type contraptions. The reason this is being mentioned, is that I won the naming contest with that name.
Services
The municipal medical centre, complete with non-standard light pole. The upper story is a gym.The municipal hall, previously the medical centre, before the new one was built.A combined junior and senior secondary school with cultural centre. The most unusual aspect of it, is that while Inderøy municipality is responsible for the junior secondary schools, Trøndelag county is responsible for the senior secondary school.
The new recycling station at Utøy in Inderøy municipality was opened for waste delivery on 18 September 2018. At the same time, the two older centers in Røra and Mosvik were shut down.
The recycling station is open Tuesday and Thursday from 12:00 to 19:00.
Site map
Inderøy Recycling Station is a state-of-the-art facility with ample space, efficient land use and easy and safe waste delivery. Hazardous waste and electrical/ electronic waste are delivered and stored under roof. Outside the recycling station, a 24-hour return point has been established, so cottage owners can deposit their waste when the facility is closed.
The official opening was Monday, September 17 from 11:00 to 14:00. Trish and I attended.
Program:
11:00 Opening with Mayor, Director of Innherred Renovation and students from Utøy School 11:30 Serving hot dogs, coffee and cake. Tours. 12:30 “Round and Round” a theatrical performance of Scenekompaniet. Kick off-theater against resource wastage, and for recycling! The recycling station is located at Røvika in Utøy, Utøyvegen 500. The address numbering system indicates that it is located 5 kilometers from the start of the road in Straumen.
Bins for various product groupsInside (Hot dogs provided on opening day).Window recycling, used as a stage during the opening.Waste containersSignage. In this case for appliances.Outside the entrance, “Nothing is Garbage”, in the Trønder dialectContainers for different categories of waste, for cottage ownersReturn point for cottage owners.
‘If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere.’ Theresa May, 2016
Unlike Facebook, I am not “stockpiling and mining user information”. As far as I am aware, neither Cambridge Analytics, nor their lackey, AggregateIQ, are scraping posts. Yet, this blog is another incarnation of social media with an agenda (of attempting) to influence reader opinion.
Bill Blunden notes, “Social media is a form of mass surveillance and a tool of elite control. Buy product X, vote for candidate Y, support regime change movement Z. Pay no attention to the CEO behind the curtain.”
Dear reader, rest assured, I am not a member of any elite group. This includes Elite Singles, from whom I regularly receive invitations to join.
Yet, Blunden is correct when he states that messaging reinforces existing beliefs, and is part of a “divide and conquer strategy which the power elite have traditionally wielded to hobble the proles.” In fact, I see wisdom in his conclusion that “Readers should be wary of social media bubbles, safe spaces, and the like. …instituting societal change means reaching out to other folks. Some of whom may have different ways of viewing the world. Resist the temptation to write them off and have the humility to accept the limits of your own understanding.”
Currently, this blog only reaches a very narrow market. An optimist would be exaggerating by saying that it was somewhere between ten and twenty people, limited to family members and a few real friends. Its sphere of influence could be expanded to perhaps a hundred people – a few more (former) friends, Facebook acquaintances as well as others who have currently escaped Facebook attention, mainly Somewherians who lived in New Westminster in my formative years.
The market could be expanded more, if I chose to focus exclusively on an educational mission, ignoring family history and my blatant political, philosophical and other biases. Unfortunately, that isn’t me.
Blunden writes, “Take personal responsibility for your own social life. Go back to engaging flesh and blood people without tech companies serving as an intermediary. Eschew the narcissistic impulse to broadcast the excruciating minutiae of your life to the world. Refuse to accept the mandate that you must participate in social media in order to participate in society. Reclaim your autonomy.”
Birdhouses and beyond
The Inderøy birdhouse, a workshop project with a social and environmental profile.
One of the purposes of Hastighet (= Velocity) techno-garage, a local maker-space start-up, is to encourage the development of real-world Somewherian relationships with others from Inderøy. It is in the workshop world that people can make manifest their social and environmental ideals.
On Saturday, 2018-04-14, at E@ Internet Cafe, Inderøy, anyone could build themselves a birdhouse. Their only cost was an investment of time, during which they transformed 6 pre-cut, pre-drilled boards, 14 screws and a length of wire into a functioning house for a homeless member of the Paridae (tit) family, of which seven species live in Norway.
Almost 60 building sets were made, including one prototype. In the end, 14 bird houses were assembled and given away to specific people, for their contribution to the environmental movement in Inderøy. Currently, there are 17 kits left over. That means that more than 25 kits were assembled, or taken home for later assembly, by people attending the event.
Common birds, especially farmland birds, are in sharp decline in Europe.
As the graph above shows, common birds, especially farmland birds, are in sharp decline in Europe. Giving a child their own personal birdhouse, can foster an interest in the environment that may last a lifetime. With Workshop activism a focus for some members, the Inderøy Friends of the Earth is considering inviting all pupils of a particular grade, yet to be determined, to the Hastighet workshop in 2019 to build yet more bird houses. The real purpose is not to teach woodworking, but environmentalism. However, before this is done, a plan has to be made so that all school children are given regular opportunities to experience practical environmentalism, through woodworking. Additional plans also include a Repair Cafe, which would focus on rehabilitating rather than discarding products. It should also be noted that while some people were making birdhouses, others were working at the annual clothing exchange, making sure that inappropriately sized clothing received new owners.
Thus, my considered reply to Blunden is that I do take personal responsibility for my own social life. I am engaging with flesh and blood people, but I am also engaging with people who are geographically more distant, but emotionally closer. These are typically Nowherians living in places as diverse as Bergen, Prince Rupert and San Francisco. It is to keep in close contact with these that I have now turned to my blog. I dream of using Diaspora, but no critical mass has emerged there. I have applied to have an account with hello.com when it becomes available in Norway. It is a social networking service founded by Orkut Büyükkökten, the creator of Orkut.
The first is more optimistic (as seen from Plenty’s perspective) than the second.
Here is what I’ve learned.
Upstart (or is it startup?) Plenty is a knowledge based enterprise.
Artificial intelligence is its most fundamental tool.
Hiring people is not a high priority.
Plenty has USD 200 million in owner equity.
Investment target, every city with a population over 1 million. (500 farms)
One key technology is LED lighting.
Primary farming method is hydroponics.
Primary investment object is a 10 000 m2 vertical farm.
Each farm will produce 2 000 tons of food, annually.
Each farm will be 350 times more efficient than land based farms, for some products.
Water consumption is 1% of land based farms per kg prodused.
Major savings coming from reduced transportation costs.
It takes 30 days from construction start, until a farm is ready to produce.
Spring is in the air. I could tell because the common gulls, Laurus canus (L. 1758) were making a lot of noise on their return from Portugal.
The common gull Larus canus, in Stavern (Photo: Arnstein Rønning, 2010)
While noisy, they were unable to compete with a motorcyclist exercizing his right to pollute the landscape with noise as well as fossil fuels, and leaving in his wake unnecessary carbon dioxide, that upcoming generations will have to deal with. I estimate I could hear this one motorcyclist for four minutes as he approached then drove across Skarnsund Bridge, then continued his meaningless journey almost to Mosvik village, where he became inaudible. I dream of a day when fossil-fueled motorcycles will be replaced by silent electrified variants, autonomously driven – for good measure.
Having made yet another unnecessary trip to our own municipal centre yesterday, with a fossil fueled vehicle, I can be perceived as the hypocrite I am. It is at times like these that a quote from the Bible comes in handy, and is so easy. No need to actually read or own a Bible because Google can find anything: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7) https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/John%208%3A7 (Here, 59 different versions of the Bible are provided, so it is just to find the first and the best that suit your needs.)
We are living in stressful times, and it is necessary for everyone to take back control. I may be so addicted to digital media and Duolingo points, that I am unable to keep my hands off a keyboard one day a week. However, I can reduce, if not eliminate, the noise I produce on Sundays.
The choice of Sunday has already been made for me, since I live in a nominally Christian society.
The Unit One workshop is a major source of noise. Rather than just turning off power to the entire shop, I have decided to re-enact my own first industrial job, working cleanup on Saturdays at the Brownlee sawmill in North Surrey, I will use Sundays for workshop cleanup.
Brownlee specialized in making red alder (Alnus rubra) products. These have a unique but attractive odor. It “… comprises 60 percent of the total hardwood volume in the Pacific Northwest, and is by far the most valuable hardwood in term of diversity of products, commercial value, and manufacturing employment.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alnus_rubra
Temperate rainforest with Picea sitchensis (tall trees), Alnus rubra and Salix spp., Kitlope, British Columbia. (Photo: Sam Beebe-John, 2009)
Rather than taking my breaks with the stationary engineer providing steam to the mill’s drying kilns, I could take my breaks with my long-suffering wife, Trish, who might have a few milliseconds to spare from baking.
Once the workshop has been cleaned, there are other areas that could benefit from attention. In particular, I think of my desk, that uses magnetic forces to attract clutter.
Tomorrow is Sunday, and I will be able to put these principles into practice. It will be a low-key affair, without brass bands or ribbon cutting ceremonies. Hopefully, nobody will even notice the changes.
It looks like my winter exercise program will continue to consist of moving increasing amounts of fresh snow. Skiing to the local store in Mosvik (7 km) or Straumen (13 km) is another option.
The reason for this prediction is that the Gulf Stream aka Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), carries warm water north-eastwards towards Europe and beyond. In the arctic it cools, becomes denser and sinks, and then flows back southwards, along the Atlantic coast of North America. Now, global warming is reducing the cooling effect, while melting Greenland ice is diluting and weakening the current.
New research (see sources below) shows the current is now 15% weaker than around 400AD, with human-caused global warming being a major contributor to this. Human-caused global warming? That is a polite term for the burning of fossil-fuels, which increases the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. The consequences of more CO2 could be disastrous. During the last ice age, changes in AMOC led to 5-10C winter temperature reductions in as short a time as one to three years. This had major consequences then and could have major consequences now.
Recent (black) and maximum (grey) glaciation of the northern hemisphere during the Quaternary climatic cycles. (Illustration: Hannes Grobes, 2008)
I live in a country without residential building inspectors. Many people unfamiliar with Scandinavia will find that unbelievable. What happens, is that people with appropriate trade qualifications are allowed to police themselves, and private individuals are not permitted to undertake work covered by that protected trade. The challenge is that there is no independent third party who can inspect, and thereby determine if satisfactory work has been done or not. If there are flaws, home owners have five years to discover and voice complaints. After that, a statute of limitations sets in.
Incident #1
I invite you to look at the photograph below. It has been haunting me all day, bringing back memories of a situation that happened more than twenty-five years ago. The black charcoal is several millimeters thick. I estimate that if I had not discovered this smouldering fire when I did, disaster would have been only a few minutes away for a baby daughter, a young son and my wife and me. Confronting this fire was a pivotal moment in my life, and has shaped many of my attitudes.
Fire damage from the early 1990s caused by incorrect use of copper and aluminum wiring.
Our house was wired indiscriminately with both aluminum and copper wires, undoubtedly by so-called professionals. In the junction box, both types of wire were joined together. One reason this could happen is that there were no electrical inspectors who could reject hazardous work like this. When I studied electricity and electronics in the mid-1960s, these dangers were already known, and we were informed in no uncertain terms never to mix them.
It was mainly in the period mid 1960s to mid 1970s that aluminum was used as an electrical conductor, mainly because it was relatively inexpensive but also because it was lighter, compared to copper wire. Unfortunately, aluminum deteriorates faster than copper, and develops more defects over time. However, the most important problems associated with mixing aluminum and copper wires is its electrical fire hazard.
Copper and aluminum can live harmoniously together, but they require special connectors to join them together. When two dissimilar metals meet they oxidize. Oxidation creates a connection with high levels of electrical resistance (lots of ohms, Ω) resulting in an unwanted voltage drop across the connection. This voltage drop can lead to three problems. First, low voltage can result in equipment failure. Second, energy can be wasted. Third, a connection can heat up and start fires.
Aluminum and copper do not expand and contract at the same rates as they heat up and cool down. This difference can cause connections to work loose, causing arcing (arc faults, arc flashes and electrical fires.)
Copper and aluminum wires can be spliced together using special copper-aluminum splices, that contain chemicals to prohibit oxidation. Unfortunately, many of these require special tools and expert knowledge.
Incident #2
Fast forward at least ten years to 2004. We decide to upgrade our fuse box to the latest in circuit breakers. We used the county-owned electrical company to do this work. At the time, the foreman who costed the job explained that we would not only be replacing fuses with circuit breakers, but the entire house would be re-balanced so that circuits that currently were overloaded, would have some of their work handled by circuits with available capacity.
This re-balancing never happened. We ended up with precisely the same circuits as before, admittedly with somewhat better circuit protection. Thus, the kitchen including all appliances with the exception of the stove, the living room and two bedrooms were on one 10 A circuit. In contrast, a second circuit serviced a single 60 W light bulb.
Talking about balancing circuits can be a great way to increase sales, but unless it is followed up, it can become just another empty promise. An electrical inspector can be a great aid at ensuring that circuits are not overloaded. The great advantage of an electrical inspector is that s/he is not overly burdened with worrying about work hours, but concerned with the quality and suitability of work actually performed. Since s/he is not selling his services, s/he is able to use her/his professional judgment and a standardized code to determine suitability.
Building Inspectors
There are several advantages with having building inspectors, including electrical inspectors. First, it would ensure that buildings are safe. This is the primary purpose of having building inspectors! Second, it would encourage ordinary people to build up their competence in construction related areas such as framing, plumbing and electricity. Young people, especially, could try out these areas to see if they are appealing for careers. Third, home owners would have assurance that tradespeople are using best practices, and that the work meets code requirements. Fourth, tradespeople would have a more level playing field, with all companies required to meet the same standards. There will be no incentives to take shortcuts. Fifth, companies will need to spend less time micro-managing employees. Building inspections are an easy way for employers to determine objectively, who is and who isn’t making mistakes on a construction site.
At the present time, the trades in Norway, experience an exodus of qualified practitioners, while some upgrade their competencies, many leave the trades entirely. Having building inspectors would be one way to ensure that tradespeople would be able to continue working in an area of competence, even after physical problems prevent them from doing the actual construction.
Building inspection could be a win-win-win-win-win situation for everyone involved in construction: house owners/ contractors/ tradespeople/ local authorities/ the community.
This weblog post was updated 2021/12/21. to eliminate Needs from the title. This post formed part of a Needs, Seeds and Weeds website that belonged to my daughter, Shelagh. In addition, other things are also out of date, or my opinions have changed. Apart from the title, updating the text to a block format and other minor formatting changes, the text above this paragraph remains as it was before. Any significant content changes are found below this paragraph.
