Birdsong in Space

The biggest news story in Sweden will soon come to a close. I'm not talking about the reduction in a-kassan unemployment benefits, the raising of tobacco taxes, the residents of the town Fjukby wanting to change their name, the conviction of a swede for war crimes during the war Yugoslavia (interestingly a dark skinned man who had neonazi sympathies(!) and who killed 2 Swedish policeman after being released on parole in for previous crimes), or even why the queen-mother equivalent didn't go to the Nobel prize ball.

No, the biggest news is that there is/was a Swede in Space: Christofer Fugelsang, with a doctorate in physics, after 14 years of training and waiting took a trip on the space shuttle to become a glorified handiman on the international space station.

Swedish coverage has been intense, and detailed, and basically as patriotic as it can be. They report on his every move - how many screws he unbolted, how many meters from the shuttle did he spacewalk, and how many words of Swedish did he speak. Seriously. The last spacewalk (or rymd-promenad) was proudly described as providing "another chance for Fugelsang to speak Swedish". My question thoush is, did they make a special spacesuit helmet to deal with his horns...

You can see a link to DagensNyheter's space section here.


And whenever I start to groan and roll my eyes about the one-eyed coverage (should I roll just one? Can I roll just one...) I have to remember what it would be like if Aus had a person up there. Remember "Australian-Born-Astronoaut-Andy-Thomas", and the reportage of every one of his moves?" And how long did he live in Australia - 4 months or something as a newborn? Now imagine if he actually spoke with an Australian accent, promised to take up Vegemite and a boomerang on his trip, and then spent half his time singing "waltzing matilda". It would probably be worse.

I must admit it's kinda funny, but not as funny as Gästrik-land...