April 6–10: miscellaneous

Signs of spring. — Edit 4/6/2019: Several new photos added below, noted with *.

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Ducks foraging in the soggy ground, near our apartment. Do they eat worms or something? What are they even looking for?

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The TKK main quad, mud-season style.

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On the back way from TKK to Helsinki — northeast and then southeast around the bay — a glimpse of the Salmisaari power station.

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* Some interesting optical illusions happening in this photo and the next. This is the Akateeminen lääketiedekeskus Helsinki (Academic Medical Center Helsinki) as viewed from Tukholmankatu. Cool pergola in front with that seemingly single-piece glass curtain wall and a slightly concave curve, yes?

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* Huh, actually the pergola is convex over here, and still no joints to be seen in the curtain wall. — Psych! There's no curtain wall at all and the pergola is straight! The apparent curvatures are due to perspective distortions from my camera, and the curtain wall effect is due to reflections in the bus window of the windows on the opposite side of the bus, which just happen to be nearly visually aligned at the top with the front edge of the pergola. Interesting that that alignment is consistent between the photos even with the curvature effect changing.

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* Intense tower time at Suomen kansallismuseo (the National Museum of Finland). The museum, one of the largest National Romantic/Jugend buildings in Helsinki, was designed by Gesellius, Lindgren and Saarinen and built 1905–1910.

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* A stout-looking view of the main entrance to Rautatieasema.

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* Across Kaivokatu from there, one of downtown Helsinki's more polarizing buildings, the City-Center shopping center, nicknamed Makkaratalo (Sausage House) for its rounded bumper.

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Stuff getting all ripped up in front of City-Center.

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Tram going by Aleksi.

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Oh ho! The tables have turned. No more 18 hours of darkness. (This is PM, note. Otherwise the last sentence would have been nearly or actually a lie.)

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At the bus stop at TKK, the lane is visibly rutted by the weight of the buses.

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These crows will not hesitate.

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Soft spectrum cast on the bathroom wall. I think the red at top is from the brick buildings outside the window, and the blue is from the sky.

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Late sun, getting further to the north.

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* Bird speed limit.

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* Watchbird.