Daily crono / Camara phones may be dangerous for your freedom

The previous king of Bhutan has coined the term "Gross National Happiness", or GNH. GNH should somehow describe the amount of happiness in a society. If the results goes down, the king can then change some parameters of his kingdom, and, as a result, people would live happily ever after. I find this idea rather fascinating. I have not yet read the whole article from the Economist, and will discuss this idea at lenght later. For now, however, consider whether adding still one measurement, "Gross National Unhappiness" would make sense. At first, masuring unhappiness appears easier (number of suicides, sales of Prozak, number of cases of domestic violence). But is happiness the same as absense of unhappiness? Go figure, I go for a Christmas lunch.

Daily crono

None of these last days in Finland (for a while, not for good) is ordinary. Yesterday evening, we had a walk around the Töölönlahti-bay. It was dark, but not depressing. There were other couples walking hand in hand, and it was romantic. The new Hesperia has granite walls instead of the old marble ones. Now it looks dirty or concrete. Not nice. Next to the Finlandia hall ducks (mallards) were drinking or eating something tine from the water. They made funny gurgling sound. We also had our regular stress reduction session in the Akateeminen-bookstore. S were looking for some presents (Christmas is coming), I spent ten minutes reading the collected poems of Rakel Liehu. I have never read any poems of her, and was surprised that I like some of them quite a lot. Especially this one:

Ovikello soi
Koko maailman hätä seisoo ovella,
     käsi ojentuneena
ja valehtelee

In English (my own translation)

The doorbell rings
The anxiety of the entire world stands at the door,
    holding out
and telling lies

I think I should read more poetry. It might increase my GPH (gross personal happiness).

Camara phones may be dangerous for your freedom

In Delhi, India, one 17-year old schoolboy used his new mobile phone for videoing his girlfriend giving him a blowjob. Then somehow a friend of his posted this video to some India eBay-lookalike. And then the whole hell broke loose. The 17-year old was promptly arrested and put in the most infamous jail in small cell with 70 other inmates. But he is, surprisinly, an US-citizen, too. So, Ms. Rice, the secretary of state, called her Indian counterparts and told that there is no reason to jail the teenager. Funny, conservatives defending porn or freedom of expression. Read the article and find out all dirty details.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs December 2004".