Rawls & Me

Come sail away

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 17:58:00 +0000

This morning, I briefly escaped to the balcony with a cup of coffee and the escapist treat that I was able to pick up with some surplus cash at San Diego airport. Reading about the 16th-century Portuguese colony of “Paraty” on the Costa Verde, just south of Rio de Janeiro, the vibrant azulejo tiles and the intense greenery tell me that I am far from finished with the Lusophone world. For now, however, the only realms I will be sailing on are virtual ones, as I juggle a constant stream of student emails and Zoom meetings, topped off by the utter absurdism of watching the Swedish comedian Messiah Hallberg euthanize the Bolibompa dragon together with William.

Lucky

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:27:00 +0000

Only a few days after Johanna and I got back from the United States, the pilots and cabin crew of Lufthansa decided to celebrate the airline’s centenary in the most traditional way possible: by striking. With thousands of flights cancelled, customers have apparently spent up to six hours in line trying to be rebooked or found themselves stuck in endless loops with AI bots. Thinking back on our trip, with our double upgrade on the way over and our hike among rattlesnakes in the Cleveland National Forest, we certainly had our share of good fortune, and I even got a box of Lindt chocolate to bring home.

Sticking to the theme of luck, William went downhill skiing in Kiruna while I was in the US. Reviewing his Suunto app stats together, I got a bit of PTSD by proxy when seeing that his maximum speed had been 61 kilometres per hour and that he had made a couple of two-metre jumps. Happily, all went well, but I guess this is clearly one of those situations when the less I know, the better off I am.

Kongahälla

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 10:51:00 +0000

Taking the express bus north again for another tournament, this Sunday follows a now familiar pattern: me working and William playing chess, Picadeli lunches, and William’s friend Amos wearing his signature red bow tie.

The only break from the routine has been a visit to the nearby Nordic Wellness Kongahälla gym for the first ten of this month’s fifty kilometres, followed by a few more on the treadmill. After going without a quantitative running target for the first three months of the year, I have realised that having no target makes me just as stressed as having one. As such, I have decided to aim for 50 kilometres per week for the remainder of the year, for a total of 2,600 kilometres. Though significantly lower than in previous years, I hope that goal will help me stabilise my running at a sustainable level while still giving me time to be a present dad.

Birdsong

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 13:17:00 +0000

With Artemis II safely back on Earth despite some initial concerns about its heat shield, I am spending this weekend in Gothenburg making up for past sins by going to the gym with the kids, running thirty kilometres in the forest, and shopping at Lidl. Tomorrow, William and I are taking the bus up to Kungälv for the “Trekungamötet” chess tournament, where I hope to check out the indoor rowing machines at the nearby Nordic Wellness Kongahälla gym and finally stop feeling bad about that “Americone Dream” ice cream by Stephen Colbert ;-)

Running through the forest this morning, there was a lot of birdsong, which reminded me of Johanna’s fascinating Merlin Bird ID app, something that felt incredibly Star Trek. Developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the app provides a spectrogram and is capable of identifying numerous birds at the same time, as can be seen in the screenshot above from our hike to Three Sisters Falls last Monday.

Circadian reset

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 20:29:00 +0000

It was already dark by the time train 499 reached Halmstad last night, so after commenting on a few student papers and taking some melatonin, I fell into a dreamless sleep, only to be brutally awoken by my Suunto watch at 6 a.m. After an epic struggle to get out of bed, I had no choice but to cut my planned run to Jansa Brygga short and instead go for a quick bread run to the local Bärlin sourdough bakery.

Under beautiful blue skies, I then did my best to get as much sunlight as possible between classes, and back home the tinted glass cast beautiful reflections on the wall, a promise of what is to come. Still, with the jetlag monster never far away, I headed out for five more kilometres at sunset to help further reset my circadian rhythm.

Seeing the images coming in from the Artemis II mission, showing the Earth from the far side of the Moon, certainly puts my own jetlag struggles into perspective. Instead of the mere twenty-two thousand kilometres that I have travelled over the last week, the Artemis crew will have travelled more than half a million kilometres by the time they splash down in the waters outside San Diego tomorrow. Like so many times before, space exploration points to what humanity could become if we directed our energies outward, toward building rather than destroying.

Approval

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:29:00 +0000

Far from snowy, Munich was almost as sunny as Imperial Beach (above) when Johanna and I landed after eleven long hours in the air. Having been spoiled beyond words on the way over, Premium Economy on the A350-900 still felt like a substantial upgrade, with plenty of legroom, a brand-new cabin, and external cameras showing the red desert in all its grandeur. Sadly, Lufthansa once again proved a little hit and miss on the culinary front, reminding me just how much Turkish Airlines is in a class of its own.

Before leaving the Americas, Johanna’s and my application to the Swedish Ethical Review Authority was approved, which felt fantastic given that it is my first time as a PI. With the formal approval now in place, we will try to get the quantitative survey done before the end of the spring semester so that we can do some analysis over the summer holidays. As for the two months that remain until school is out, I will be splitting my time between Zoom classes in Gothenburg and computer lab sessions in Halmstad, with a fair amount of X2000 commuting in between. In terms of bigger trips, however, the only thing I have planned this year is a conference in Naples in mid-June, so after the recent global whirlwind, the blog will probably feature more lake runs and dog hikes going forward.

Rental car return

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:15:00 +0000

After 1,023 kilometres on the roads of California (and more than a couple stops at Chipotle), it was finally time to return our Genesis G70 to Hertz. As Hyundai’s premium brand, the white Genesis was a pleasure to drive on the mad highways of L.A., but slightly less suited to our desert adventures. In any case, we made it back without a scratch, and that is what counts at the end of the day.

Now checked in with Lufthansa to Munich, I wonder whether snow will await on the other side, as it did twenty years ago when my flight from Hong Kong landed in Bavaria. After the upgrade bonanza on the way over, I am still happy that Lufthansa accepted my upgrade bid to Premium Economy, which I think will be more than enough on the spiffy new Airbus A350-900.

3x San Diego

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:05:00 +0000

Washboarded

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:01:00 +0000

Driving along dirt roads into Cleveland National Forest, Johanna and I had ample reason to research the phenomenon known as “washboarding”: the series of regular transverse ripples that develop on unpaved roads and make them resemble laundry washboards. With squirrels constantly crossing the road and breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains, taking it slow was, in any case, the right approach.

Once at the trailhead, we started our hike down to Three Sisters Falls, which still had plenty of water after the winter rains. We saw lots of lizards, but the rattlesnakes, despite plenty of warning signs, were luckily nowhere to be seen. With a few other hikers around, we skipped a swim in the ponds, which was probably wise given the existence of brain-eating amoebae and other entertaining microorganisms in California’s waterways, though the risk, in all fairness, is extremely low.

As so many times before, California simply blows one’s mind with its natural scenery and wildlife. Leaving the mountains behind, we drove down to La Jolla for some beach time, which almost felt cruel after reading all the weather reports from Sweden. Jumping into the Pacific, we then finished the day, all salty, at our motel in Point Loma.

Ranchita

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:30:00 +0000

With Guy Clark singing “If I can just get off of this L.A. freeway / Without gettin’ killed or caught”, we checked out of The Fig and followed the I-10 into the Inland Empire. Stopping for an Impossible Burger and one more iced americano somewhere south of Riverside, the dizzying midday heat made the scene feel picture-perfect as the coastal mountains gave way to shrubland and then the salt flats of Borrego Springs.

Now in our A-frame house, waiting for the stars to come out, this trip has already exceeded our wildest expectations. With two more days left to explore Southern California, and with storm “Dave” ravaging southern Sweden, it has been worth every dollar, even if it means instant noodles for the rest of the month.

Breakfast at the Griffith Observatory

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 16:59:00 +0000

Hotel Figueroa

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 16:49:00 +0000

Colloquially known as The Fig, Hotel Figueroa first opened in 1926 as a space for professional women travelling alone. With its Mediterranean Revival architecture, I instantly fell in love with it when I discovered it a few months ago.

Staying for two nights on the twelfth floor, the hotel has truly been an oasis here in downtown LA. While the nightly rate itself was surprisingly affordable, the now familiar trend of adding arbitrary “resort fees” and prohibitive parking charges makes it less of a steal, to put it mildly. In any case, it was absolutely lovely to go for a refreshing swim in the saltwater pool after yesterday’s race, followed by a few more laps this morning under the fig tree.

Sky Duster

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:22:00 +0000

Jumping up at 3:30 a.m., Johanna and I hit the I-5 south, leaving the city behind as we made for the mountains and our long-awaited trail race. Unlike in 2023, when I ran the 50k Diablo Trails outside San Francisco, today’s race was only 27 kilometres, which felt more than enough as we drove into the imposing Silverado Canyon.

Running into the sunrise, we climbed “The Motorway” up to Bedford Peak which, at 3,760 ft, offered expansive views across Los Angeles, with the Santa Monica Pier clearly visible in one direction and the Inland Empire in the other. Just as on Gran Canaria, uphill running proved to be my true strength, and I soon found myself in the leading pack. With aid stations every five kilometres, the race felt superbly organized and, with the sun rising higher and higher, I needed every centilitre of water I could get.

Passing the half marathon mark in 2 hours and 35 minutes, I still felt strong, but the last fifth of the race turned into a true quad-buster, with hundreds of metres of descent for every kilometre. Ultimately, finishing fourth among the men, I was very happy with my performance, even if I was an unbelievable forty minutes behind the winner and twenty minutes off the podium.

Having forgotten my phone in the car, I was grateful that Johanna stopped to take photos along the course. Sadly, she did not happen to cross paths with the grey fox I had the good fortune to say hello to. Once we had both finished, we were shuttled back to our car in an iconic green 1974 Toyota Land Cruiser and, in no time at all, were back at Hotel Figueroa for a Sky Duster West Coast IPA by the pool.

WPSA 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 23:27:00 +0000

After a history of epic highs and lows, WPSA 2026 is off to a fantastic start as our morning panel on “Green thinking: Ideologies and Environmental Political Thought” went really well. Overlooking the Pacific from the 32nd floor of the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, I presented the chapter that Jon and I started drafting last summer when I was in Stockholm. Briefly mentioning nuclear energy in my presentation, it was fascinating to see how many in the audience were nodding along, and how fundamentally the discourse has shifted in favour of a more science-based approach.

Then, determined to defeat the jet lag monster head-on, I traded the conference lunch for kayaking with Johanna and dozens of sea lions in Mission Bay. With pelicans wheeling overhead, I got a lot of exposure to our nearest star, so I suspect I will look plenty guilty of mischief at tomorrow’s panel, where I will be presenting my aviation article.

Twice

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 20:11:00 +0000

Just as I had more or less given up on airline status, and with my Star Alliance Gold with Turkish Airlines about to expire later this year, I was upgraded not only once, but twice in the same day. Moments after I published my post from the lounge in Frankfurt, Johanna and I were given complimentary upgrades all the way to business class for our nine-hour flight to Chicago.

Considering that we bought these basic economy tickets for 4,500 SEK roundtrip and had only bid a couple of hundred euros to upgrade to Premium Economy, the value was obviously exceptional, briefly making me reconsider the wisdom of jumping off that infamous hamster wheel.

Anyway, walking up the stairs to the upper deck of the Queen of the Skies, for the third time in my life, we were treated to nuts and Larson Le Black Reserve champagne as this majestic aircraft prepared for its Atlantic crossing. Flying above the North Sea, the main service began with Grüner Veltliner “Hund” from Niederösterreich and tuna tataki, followed by halibut and prawn in shellfish sauce, before ending with cheese and port, as tradition has it.

After turning my seat into a bed, I fell asleep somewhere south of Iceland, only to wake up above Greenland as my internal body clock once again expressed its strong dislike for daytime naps. Ordering a cup of black coffee, I decided to turn my inability to sleep into some last-minute conference preparations, and with a couple of hours left until Chicago, I could not be more excited for the adventure ahead.

Der stille Amerikaner

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 19:11:00 +0000

Just as in Locarno, the idealism and foregone hopes of the past continue to pull me. I find myself returning to The Quiet American, fittingly in German translation, on the upper deck of Lufthansa’s Boeing 747-8 “Schleswig-Holstein”, as we leave Europe behind.

Torbjörn Elensky, writing in Svenska Dagbladet, put it well: in Greene’s novel, the old empire’s man is the British cynic – worn down, clear-eyed – while the new empire sends Pyle: Harvard-educated, crew-cut, catastrophically sincere. Pyle does not cause harm despite his good intentions. He causes it because of them. He is, as Elensky notes, the inverse of Mephistopheles: where Goethe’s devil does good through the evil he pursues, Pyle does evil through the good he strives for.

What reads differently now than it did in 1955 – is the endpoint of that trajectory.

A couple of weeks ago, Fareed Zakaria reminded his viewers of the Iraqi Revolt of 1920 – how an overextended Britain spent the equivalent of its entire education budget fighting a peripheral war, losing a thousand soldiers, to little long-term gain. Empires rarely fall in a single dramatic moment; more often, they dissipate through a long series of misallocated priorities – each perhaps defensible in isolation, each compounding the last. What is lost is not only blood and treasure, but the futures deferred – the social investments never made.

The pattern feels familiar now, as Trump’s “little excursion” into Iran unfolds and the familiar arguments circulate. What is striking is that these arguments are no longer even dressed in Pyle’s language. There is no talk of a mission, no third force, and no bright theory imported from a think tank. What has replaced the quiet American’s idealism is something Fowler, Greene’s narrator, might not have anticipated: war as entertainment, or even as rambling absurdity, with the White House publishing endless memes inspired by Call of Duty and Gladiator while promising different speculative timelines to satisfy the stock market.

Greene’s novel ends before Pyle fully understands what he has done. The reader understands before he does. Perhaps that is the most unsettling thing about rereading it now, flying west, the continent shrinking behind us: the sense that we are no longer at the beginning of the story, but that we may already be well past the point where understanding changes anything at all.

Back above the clouds

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 06:19:00 +0000

Passing the gate at Gothenburg Landvetter Airport, I was greeted by the characteristic “beep” and a new seat assignment in business class for the morning flight to Frankfurt. Having already been upgraded to Premium Economy for the transatlantic leg, the trip is off to the best possible start as Johanna and I fly out over Kattegat.

With an out-of-office reply in place, the coming days will include the annual conference of the Western Political Science Association in San Diego, a mountain trail race in Silverado, and a desert escape under the stars in Borrego Springs. Posting may be slightly delayed, but I will do my best to bring Rawls & Me along.

Reviewing

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 05:56:00 +0000

Being part of a new Routledge volume on ideology and environmental politics, we are currently doing rounds of internal peer review before the manuscript is sent out for external review. In my case, this means that I have read two chapters so far, one on eco-authoritarianism and another, more conceptual, for the introduction. Soon, I will receive a third chapter on eco-feminism, and with the train ride between Halmstad and Gothenburg being just one hour, I need every caffeine fix I can get to stay on top of it all.

At least yesterday was a blast, as I kicked off the thesis supervision process for the 12 + 3 theses I am supervising this semester. I remember back in Lund in the aughts, when supervising half that number was considered an unusually heavy load. With Halmstad University currently laying off staff, I fear this trend will only continue.

And as for worrying trends, I cannot help but note that Germany is now considering ramping up coal power to substitute for expensive gas in the wake of the Iran war. A week ago, the German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Katherina Reiche, told an oil conference in Texas that the EU’s net-zero target should be relaxed. In that sense, the chickens may finally be coming home to roost with regard to the Energiewende. Rather than expressing any Schadenfreude, I can only hope that its supporters will be willing to draw the right conclusions from this.

The Difference a Decade Makes

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:30:00 +0000

Daylight Saving Time

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 12:16:00 +0000

Wide awake long before dawn, I decided to sneak out for a harbour run while the kids were asleep, stopping for a morning coffee at the Preem gas station in Gårda and watching a waxing yellow Moon give way to a misty sunrise.

After 18 kilometres of quayside running, I started worrying about the kids, so I took the tram home. Yet, after dropping William off for his second day of math camp at Chalmers, I topped up with 10k of indoor rowing and 4k on the treadmill at Nordic Wellness Järntorget. With that, I at least made it to 60 kilometres this week, which makes me wonder how I ever managed to run twice or almost three times that in a single week. At least the rowing is good shit. I tend to think of it less as cardio and more as a form of muscular endurance training, and 50 km per month has really upped my game.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the war in Iran continues, and much as Trump had hoped for some kind of “Iranuary 6th” moment, domestic revolt does not seem to be forthcoming. As so many times before, violence only reinforces the sense of victimhood on which the regime feeds. After decades of failed regime change, from Libya to Iraq, one cannot help thinking that the pull factor of freedom, and the sympathy that followed 9/11, might once have inspired a generation had the US not responded as it did.

Halfway there

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 11:33:00 +0000

Having dropped William off at Chalmers University of Technology for another weekend of mathematical wizardry, I went down to Chalmersgatan where Nordic Wellness has just acquired a new and rather fancy gym. Rowing ten of the twenty kilometres I need to finish before heading to the US, I almost felt like being halfway there, a feeling that intensified over a bagel at Jimmy & Joan’s.

Listening to “Nåt som verkligen är bra” by Lars Winnerbäck, I realise I am clearly not the only one prone to seeing images. But with only two hours left until I have to pick William up again, I have to stop dreaming and return to work. If not before, I promise to start April with one of my signature mid-Atlantic blog entries.

Workaholics

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 21:08:00 +0000

With the rain intensifying outside, I curl up on the sofa after a tense day at work. Coming from a family of workaholics, I do not expect much sympathy, but this week will go down as one of the busiest on record, with eight hours of seminars both today and tomorrow.

Having less than a week left in Europe, logistics is a puzzle of its own, but for now it seems as if everything is where it should be. Hopefully, the rain will pass overnight so that I can repeat my Monday morning run to Jansa brygga, famous for its seal colony.

Over lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 12:04:00 +0000

Over lunch, my sister called me to share her fears about the world and the direction of AI development. As a software engineer in Stockholm, she is seeing first-hand how the industry is changing – how AI-generated, customized code is rapidly replacing open source and human intent.

Always the optimist, I try to stay sane by taking Caia to Tylösand. Yet, with companies like Anthropic having made AGI their explicit near-term target, I cannot deny that I am scared too. Even if we somehow avoid turning all of the solar system into “computronium”, the consequences of an intelligence explosion are, to a large extent, beyond human imagination.

For now, our best hope seems to be that human-level intelligence turns out to be a much harder problem than the past five years of AI development have given us reason to believe. Either that – or that something is in fact “wrong” with reality at a much more fundamental level (think Fermi’s paradox).

Row with a view

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 09:32:00 +0000

After seven hours of solid sleep on the white sofa from Önsvala, I was hoping to catch the last of the unusually strong solar storm, but dawn arrived before I got to see any northern lights. Running out to Kinbergsudde, just as I did in December, I was very tempted to jump right into Kalmarsund. Uncharacteristically, reason prevailed, and I continued to the waterfront Nordic Wellness for some rowing and strength training. With its large windows overlooking the guest harbour and the new Stordalen hotel under construction, the views certainly made my usual Örgryte gym blush.

A long winter later, there are once again flowers in my parents’ gardens, and keeping with tradition, I topped up my morning run with another jog around Stensö together with my mother. Having just turned 77, she remains remarkably enduring, and it is hard not to be impressed by her stamina over the decades. While I chase mileage targets and races, she simply keeps going.

Stopping service

noreply@blogger.com (Rasmus Karlsson) — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 09:34:00 +0000

Today, train 327 is making a large number of unusual stops on its way from Gothenburg to Kalmar. Among them, “Rävlanda” is my obvious favourite, bringing back memories of running the Borås Ultra Marathon in 2024, but also offering a subtle hint of what could be in store for this blog as Lufthansa is rolling out its "Future Onboard eXperience", or “FOX”, this spring – assuming that my upgrade request for the Airbus 350-900 return flight from San Diego to Munich clears.

Looking back on yesterday’s crisis simulation, I was so impressed by the students and their creativity, even using AI to generate logotypes and graphical profiles for the fictive municipality of “Långsdalen”. Next Friday, I will have another marathon session in front of Zoom with the same 30 students, as I attempt an oral exam with ten minutes allocated to each student.