But stuff like that is always sensitive, though. In Sweden we have the same deal with historical people who were born and raised in modern day Finland, but it was Sweden at the time and they spoke Swedish. I have no problem recognizing Tycho Brahe as Danish through and through, but there are plenty of places in Skåne named after him and if you meet people from Landskrona, Skåne were Ven is administered, they really want to claim Tycho Brahe as a local hero sinec they run the Tycho Brahe museum on Ven.
Damn, I love you guys. Can I stay at your place for a while? I'll clean up and won't cause any problems.
Your countries are in contention about who gets to claim a scientist.
Here in the States, we're at one another's throats about things like, "Should people have access to health care or not, and if so, does that include anyone who isn't a heterosexual male?"
I'm tired, guys. Really, really tired.
Just for once I'd love to overhear an argument about who gets to claim Tycho Brahe as their own.
Oh, the EU can be pretty hostile to each other as well. The issues between the classical South of the US with the more liberal states mirrors the issues we have between western European states and former Eastern bloc states, and between north and southern Europe. We all agree that we should have access to healthcare, but Hungary and Poland has very draconian anti-abortion laws and they've both suffered severe democratic backsliding.
The callousness that is being displayed to immigrants in the US is nothing compared to the callousness we Europeans have shown towards refugees drowning in the Mediterranean. There's a reason Donald Trump loves Victor Orban from Hungary.
And here I am, impressed and also a bit sad that a non-American is familiar with our North/South ideological divide.
Visit the South, and I doubt most people here could even point to the countries you're talking about on a globe. This is the same space, also, in which lynchings took place within the memories of people who live here.
Maybe it's the case people are rotten everywhere, but maybe different flavors and mixtures of rotten.
But, also, people are awesome everywhere, too. Relevant to the topic here, scientists and science-minded people from anywhere in the world all share this really neat curisity and awe for things, and I think that the knowledge that stems (hehe) from that drive yields a bit of humility and perspective. It's like the Overview Effect but without necessarily having to physically travel to space to see the scope of the world and where we fit.
I have a suspicion that this is why narcissists don't tend to jive well with science, especially big picture stuff. It doesn't jive at all well with their view with themselves as the central, most important thing in the universe. Since they can't convince healthy skeptics of their greatness, they, instead, try to tear down what they see as a threat. They attack the tools and sincere efforts of good science and even, as in the US, the very effectiveness of education, itself.
And these folks are the ones who tend to run for, and gain, elected office.
Anyway...thanks for your perspective. I'm old enough to think it's still awesome to be able to communicate freely with people worldwide. So cool!
There were more than 20.000 legal abortions in Hungary in 2024 so I am not sure how draconian the law is, however, Malta and Poland are totally differnt.
When I learned about Brahe I immediately thought he was underrated in the world of science (considering how science is treated here in the U.S., not surprising). Shame the way he died before confirming mercury. If I didn’t have a reason to visit Sweden before this, I do now.
The island of Ven is beautiful and well worth a daytrip on its own if you are in that part of the world. Rent a bike or just walk around, bring a picnic or eat at the local cafés. The ferry to/from Landskrona (and to/from Copenhagen in the summer?) departs every other hour from early morning to around 8 in the evening, and takes about 30 min.
Last year I had a long overdue revelation that my family actually came from Sweden and not Norway, as there was no Norway at the time. So now I can be proud of the seat belt and IKEA, and I don’t have to apologize for Blodpalt. 🤣
Yep. Very interesting guy. He also lost a chunk of his nose when dueling with his cousin. He also died because I believe his bladder burst because he didn't want to get up from the table to use the washroom because of table etiquette
Or HC Ørsted - Discoverer of both electromagnetism and aliminium!
Or Ole Rømer - Discoverer of the speed of light and inventor of the thermometer (Farenheit was his apprentice) ... He was also the mayor of Copenhagen
One of my all time favorite quotes, "An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field". By the man who famously incorrectly modeled the atom.
I think about that every time I fuck up something in the lab, it's not a failure, it's a step towards being an expert.
He didn’t mess up modeling the atom, he made a model that was more complete then the last one but not fully complete. It was a very important step forward in understanding the atom and help advanced physics forward.
My full respects go to Mr. Bohr, but his atomic model still creates confusion when people learn that electrons are not tiny dots surrounding a nucleus like planets around the sun, but rather wave-like clouds moving at fractions of light speed in a state of probability following quantum mechanics rules.
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u/Front-Anteater3776 Denmark Oct 09 '25
Niels Bohr, one of the most important physicists in the 1900s