Spring has sprung! It’s a relief to finally see more colours in Copenhagen – I hope you enjoy this update :-)
A Spring to your step
Foråret er kommet (spring has come) to Copenhagen. Growing up in New Zealand and Australia, spring never seemed like a particularly special time of the year to me. Perhaps it’s the fact that most of the native trees are evergreen, and that we see flowering throughout much of the year (as well as winter not being so harsh). Since moving to Copenhagen, however, I’ve been blown away with how remarkable spring is here. Flowers of all shapes, shades, and sizes spring out from slumber – as do the Danes, who emerge from their hyggelige (cosy) apartments and flock to the local parks to soak in the rays. Not to mention it’s now light when you wake up in the morning AND when you get home from work in the evening! I guess there’s a few factors at play here – the winter being so much darker and colder here, coupled with the trees being bare and seemingly lifeless. Scent may also play another important role; just the other day I was walking through the local park and realised that I can smell plants now! Regardless, spring is something I’ve come to really relish since moving to Denmark.
© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0
© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0
© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0
It was a nice excuse to dust off my Tokina 100m Macro lens and take some photos in our local park!
© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0
© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0
© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0
© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0
© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0
© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0
© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0
© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0
© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0
Visit Carlsberg
While Matilda’s parents were around in early April, we took a trip to ‘Visit Carlsberg’, an exhibition in Carlsberg’s original brewery. You’ve probably heard of Carlsberg. Founded in 1847, it has become an internationally known beer. Did you know that scientists at the Carlsberg Research Laboratory invented the pH scale? The founder, J.C. Jacobsen, believed that science was the key to unlocking consistent and high-quality beer. The Carlsberg Foundation (the not-for-profit organisation that controls the majority voting rights for Carlsberg A/S) continues to invest into science and society today.
In 2008, Carlsberg moved their beer production to Jutland (in Denmark), and in its place, the Carlsberg City District is being developed. (I’ll cover this in a future article, as it’s quite interesting, and a great example of how high-density living can be done well.) Overall, I’d say it’s well worth a visit if you’re in Copenhagen. I think they did a great job with the exhibition – it’s engaging, interesting, and well put together. That the exhibition runs through the old brewery gives it a great historical feel, and I think they nailed the design of modern meets historical.
While I always support local independent breweries, if I had to drink a ‘macro’ beer, it’d be Carlsberg. That it’s governed by a not-for-profit foundation that actually invests back into Denmark (and science in general) is clear. I’ll also admit that it tastes pretty damn good, and it’s clear to me that they continue to be driven by a desire to produce quality beer.
An honourable mention to Til’s highlight of the visit – the small fleet of Carlsberg horses and ponies, the former of which still draw the traditional Carlsberg beer wagon around the neighbourhood a few times a week. The rest of the time, they all seem to have a pretty relaxing life acting as Carlsberg brand ambassadors.
Lunch of the month?
Just a nice excuse to promote Auren’s Deli in Frederiksberg – thanks Tiff for the suggestion!
Photo of the month
Nothing says spring like these trees at the Copenhagen Sakura Festival near Kastellet.
© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC 4.0
Interesting things I’ve read/watched
Someone made a graph of Wikipedia – really nicely put together video with amazing visualisations, well worth a watch if you have 20 minutes!
Can wombats really run at 40 km/hour? An excellent article that touches on the question of ‘when is a scientific fact a scientific fact?’. It features quotes from David Taggart, a colleague and good friend from Adelaide who’s also the leading Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat expert – shout out to Tags! From my own personal experience catching wombats for many years for research, they can run bloody fast! I plan to write a blog post about wombats in the coming months, so stay tuned :-)
An area the size of 5 USAs is what humans use for agriculture today. 77% of this area is used for meat/dairy production, and this not just for grazing (half of the world cropland is fed to animals for meat/dairy). Our World in Data provide us with another engaging article on this topic.
Banks in Australia are making a killing with surcharges, surprise surprise.
I also watched an Australian senate hearing about the issues with Australia’s supermarket duopoly. Lower competition = higher prices, who’d have thunk it? Greg and Matt from the Australian Institute do a great job highlighting these issues in plain English.
Finally, I highly recommend this talk and discussion from Yanis Varoufakis. A very compelling look at the consolidation in big tech, and what this will mean for our futures.
