Mane

It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood. Karl Popper Happy editing I have now written a few short documents with Vim. I have to say that it is much faster, easier, and more enjoyable to write with Vim than it is with, say, Word. Actually, I think that MS Office together with the way it is used by companies today, is decreasing productivity. It is too easy to write Word-docs, hide them somewhere in shared hard drives or databases. Or, write Word-docs, attach PowerPoint, which include Word-docs. All this instead of using the powers of HTML and such. Pity. Broken communication Mr. Bush sent a letter to Mr. Sistani. From JuanCole.com Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has blown off the president of the United States. Bush sent Sistani a letter asking him to intervene to help end the gridlock in the formation of a new Iraqi government. Asked about his response, an aide said that Sistani had not opened the letter and had put it aside in his office. Funny, ...

Wise men don't need to prove their point; men who need to prove their point aren't wise. Laozi Smoking and education The more one studies, the less likely to smoke one is. In Finland, after 9 years of education, about 50% smoke. After 12 years, about 35% smoke. After college, about 20% smoke. Having master's degree drops smoking to 10%. The survey does not tell what happens after PhD. A battle of wills Now, U.S. tells Shiite bloc it opposes Jafari as premier . Jafari himself warns U.S. to stop interfering . I cannot really make sense of this all, but somehow it seems that one should not take democracy light-heartedly. Arranging elections in the mid of a civil war, in a divided country, and then not accepting the results, is a recipe for confusion, if not worse. Bush also blames the current mess in Iraq on Saddam . Rather ingenious. Radiopuhelimet Radiopuhelimet (walkie-talkies), a punk-band from Oulu, plays today in the "Kuudes linja"-club. The earlier...

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Winston Churchill Curse of suburbia We went to check a cheap apartment in the suburbs. There were reasons for the cheap rent, reasons we could accept in Kallio, but not in the suburbs. It is too peaceful over there, so peaceful that it threatens peace in our family. I would go nuts in no time without drunkards, bars, noisy cafes, life in general. So, we decided not to rent the apartment. Instead, we took the 4-tram back to Kallio and went for a pint in the Exodus-bar. Half of the Afro-Finnish reggae-community were there. So calming after the trip to suburbs. The name of the suburb is Munkkiniemi. In the subway They say that we Finns are not talkative. Today, in the subway, four women were sitting next to each other. They were talking. Each on her own mobile phone. Parliament, here I come Now that I cannot get to MIT, I may as well try to get elected to the Finnish parliament. I wonder which ...

Every day we are forced to die to the self we have already achieved. Only by accepting our mortality we can have the courage to change and grow. Karen Armstrong in A short history of Myth Some clarity, thank you sir! The committee has convened, pored over my PhD-application, and decided that I am not the type of a person, who should pursue a PhD in MIT. Shit happens. Now I have to activate some other plans. I will apply to Berkeley and Stanford. And if they agree with MIT, I will try MIT again. Or something. But I will get a PhD in not too distant future. Just wait and see. And then I have still other plans, which are still at infant stage. Civil and other wars There are several parties waging several wars in Iraq. Juan Cole provides an excellent summary of current events. They are rather depressing. 60 people were killed on Sunday, 90 on Monday. Not even Mr. Cole can make any sense out it anymore. Some sources claim that the US Army attacked a group of civilians and killed sco...

I envy paranoids; they actually feel people are paying attention to them. Susan Sontag Test your brains and mouse Try the following game . Grab the red square and try to steer clear of blue ones and the walls. If you can do it for 18 second, good. The site claims that fighter pilots must be able to play for 2 minutes. Who knows. Great maps Dave sent me a link to a site of wonderful maps . The size of countries are relative to their population, number of incoming flights, etc. Fascinating and thought provoking. Mind and body Philosophers have struggled with the mind-body-problem for ages. What is the relationship between them? I have now found the answer. When I strain my mind a lot, I have no interest in straining my body that much. A little, maybe 40 minutes of walking a day, but not much, like I did a year ago in MIT. Now, in Finland, I seem to be having a lot of physical exercise and less interest in straining my mind. So, I walk a lot, visit the gym regularly, work using ...

Most of American [Finnish] life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went. John Updike Reading It seems that there would be a huge and ripe market for Photoreading (see below) in the USA. Today's NY Times runs a story on how thousand of schools are cutting back on anything but reading and basic mathematics . They should use Photoreading, the new silver bullet against the scourge of illiteracy. The new, maybe excessive, emphasis on reading and basic mathematics is due to the "No child left back" act, which mandates annual reading and math tests and couples funding of schools with the test results. I am sure, that the test results are improving. I am not sure how education in general fares. It is well know in management, that one gets what one measures and prises for. Too simple or one-sided incentives regularly yield bigger problems that the one they were supposed to solve. Finnish complaining choir The Edinburg complaini...

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons. Bertrand Russell Reading and walking I still have the skill to read while walking. I read 3 pages of Philosophische Untersuchungen , in German of course, while walking form the Leppävaara station to the office, in 12 minutes. Without reading, it takes only 10 minutes without reading, but the environment is so boring, hideous, that I simply have to read. And I may even learn something during the walk. Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs March to June 2006".

At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face. Albert Camus Characteristics of a city In a city, one does not have to worry about timetables of public transportation. One just walks to a bus or tram stop, reads some book for a few minutes, and some form of transportation arrives. In the countryside, one has to wait at home. In a real city, one does not have to travel by bus. Instead, one travels by trams, trains, or subways. Most of Helsinki is not real city. Pity. It takes about 50 minutes from my office to the nearest tram stop by foot. Such a deep countryside I spend my days in. What a lame fate for a urban man. Home of a homeless In the forest, by the highway, next to the sea, under birches, is the home of a homeless. It has two rooms. One is for sleeping and private things, has 4 walls. The other is for eating and drinking, has three walls. The rooms are separated by a narrow path, but connected by a roof, in case of rain. The owner was not a...

It takes a long time to become young. Pablo Picasso Tired I somehow got tired. I lost all energy and could not go the gym. Well, it does not matter. I had more time to read. I read a book on how to become a novelist or author in general. If all else fails, I can always make a modest living by writing this and that. I am quite sure about that. Work was fun today. I read hundreds of pages, too 10 pages of notes, and drank 6 cups of terrible coffee. Tomorrow, I am going to write tens of pages. The only problem is that the best time to write is after 6pm and I definitely will not spend my evenings in the countryside. Maybe I just have to learn to write in the afternoons. On patents Even though some of my patents are not that remarkable, I have to agree with NY Times's editorial on patents . The patent system has clearly got out of hand and needs to be fixed. Or maybe scrapped and replaced with something better. In that case, what would we do with millions of dubious patents alre...

No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. Samuel Beckett Pre-emptive strikes USA declared, that it will strike anywhere, anytime as it pleases, even when there is no real threat going on. Or something like this. Now, the other fanatics has followed the example set by the USA. North Korea has declared that it has nuclear weapons for the sole purpose of "countering U.S. nuclear threats". And North Korea also reserves its right to pre-emptive strikes. Somehow it seems that the current US administration is not making the world a safer place for anyone. A good collection on commentaries on the optimism of Mr. Bush , written by Dan Froomkin of Washington Post. Working I got a computer yesterday. Now I can start to work, to do something for my salary. I wrote a short document today, just to test the computer. I works as well as a Windows-machine can. Nothing special, a bit slow, a bit bad UI, strange features, but I manage. I have to be careful not to reboot the machi...

A clever man commits no minor blunders. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe New commuting alternatives I tried two new commuting alternatives today. In the morning, I took the bus number 17 to the Pasila railway station and then the A-train to work. This route takes 40 minutes — only 7 minutes less than walking to Pasila. In the afternoon, I took the bus number 106. Its route offers a nice tour of suburbs of suburbs, but takes only 26 minutes to Helsinki. So, this way takes the normal 40 minutes from office to home. All alternatives are as bad. I think it is best to continue walking until weather allows cycling. Three years of mindless killing Mindless killing in Iraq has continued for three years. Mr. Bush claim some progress, but the ex-primiminister of Iraq says Iraqis are waging civil war. I cannot see how a civil war can be called progress. For more commentary on this sad war, see Antiwar.com and JuanCole.com or any honest newspaper. I am too sad to write more. I should get anrgy,...

I don't wanna. I do not think so. Kim Gordon in Kool thing Ska and friends Yesterday, S and her friend Li occupied our home and threw me out at 9pm. No problem, because there was a ska-concert in Gloria-restaurant. It was part of the annual Russian popular music festival. 3 bands played. The first one was so bad, that I already forgot its name. Next the stage was for the Valkyrians. They were as good as always, although Gloria's acoustics are terrible. It is hard to make any sense of the noise. The last band, Skapel, was a good ska-band from St. Petersburg, but they began playing only after 1.30am and I have to call it a night and walk back home. I was luck to meet a group of friends. Most surprising, and very pleasantly so, was to meet Keto-Tokoi with his girlfriend Tanja . Keto-Tokoi is such a nice person. I have know him since late 1980s, when we used to frequent rock-venues in Tampere. Tanja, who is also very nice person, I have known for 7 or so years from Green pol...

War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. Thomas Mann Kuhn vs Popper I left for a 2-hour walk, but found myself reading Kuhn vs Popper by Steve Fuller in Akateeminen bookstore. It seems to be a books worth reading, a bit light in my taste, but having new insights, at least for me, a dilettante in philosophy. I read the introduction, the first one or two chapters and the conclusion. In the conclusion Fuller compares Kuhn and Heidegger claiming that Kuhn did not meet his responsibility as an intellectual. Kuhn was also, according to Fuller, too much authoritarian, justifying the status quo and telling scientist to obey, work on the normal science. I will return to Akateeminen and read the rest of the book next weekend. I definitely should refresh my knowledge on the philosophy of science. It would meant reading some books again, for I read them in early 1990s. Let's see. Eating fish The official recommendation, repeated ad nauseam in the Finnish press, is to ...

Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice. Spinoza I am a student again I just realised, that I am a student in the University of Helsinki. I have a right to pursue studies in mathematics. I got the right by accident, when the university changed their IT-systems (or, I had the right in late 1980s, but I got another in theoretical philosophy, graduated, and thought the original right in math was cancelled — apparently it was not). I do not mind: only thing I have to do is to pay a fee of some 60 euros per year. By paying the fee I am also entitled to all kinds of discounts. Today I subscribed to Helsingin sanomat at a student price. Rather funny to get an accidental/additional admission to the best university in Finland... If I am not accepted to the ESD PhD in MIT, I may begin studying political history/science in the University of Helsinki. If I have to stay in Finland, I may as well study something. ...

There is a diminishing sense of progress toward such ideals as peace of mind, peace on Earth, equality of opportunity, individual freedom and privacy, and the elimination of poverty. Russell Ackoff, 1971 Conan O'Brien in Finland — the show We watched the Conan O'Brien in Finland special show yesterday. It was very interesting. I just wonder whether we Finns give such an impression in real life. I think the Finns he met came across as quite original, a bit lunatic but honest. Still very beautiful It is still very beautiful weather today: no clouds, calm, 3C. I just have to take a walk from this place in the forest over the suburban boundary and back in the city itself. It is a nice walk, for I see lots of conifers, some strange people skiing on the frozen Baltic, quite a few birds, and finally I will reach the tram network and can take a tram back home. Not bad. Conspiracies Since 9/11 a wide range of conspiracy theories have tried to blame the US government for the at...

There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America. Otto von Bismarck New books Some of the books I have ordered from Amazon arrived yesterday. They are in a large box, and thus the customs seized them. I had to go to the custom and pay VAT for the books and also for the postage. Funny that I have to pay VAT for a postage used in USA. Well, it does not matter that much since the books are not available in Finland and even if they were, they would be much more expensive here. My new books are: Between human and machine – feedback, control, and computing before Cybernetics by David Mindell American Generis – a century of invention and technological enthusiasm, 1870-1970 by Thomas P. Hughes Networks of power – electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930 by Thomas P. Hughes Energy systems and sustainability – power for a sustainable future by Godfrey Boyle and others Sustainable Energy – choosing among option by Jefferson W. Tester...

When at the leading edge of technology and ploughing new ground ... if you do not have failure every now and then, you are not taking enough risks. Bernand Schiever, Altas- & Titan-projects Decent commute Commuting to work is not too bad, if I walk to Pasila. It takes 50 minutes, of which 35 minutes is walking. This gives me the minimal amount of exercise. The A-train at 8.37 from Pasila was 3 minutes late and packed. I could not write in the train. Pity. Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs March to June 2006".

Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise. Sigmund Freud Nokia's ex-CEO's worries on energy etc Kalle Isokallio, who used to be Nokia's CEO before Jorma Ollila, has since been writing absurd novels and columns to the local yellow press. He can afford such hobbies, for he cannot work or else he will not receive his sizeable lay-off salary from Nokia. Or, rather, he cannot afford to work... Today he writes on future: fiscal policy and energy problems . He claims that the US economy will crash and cause a worldwide depression in the next 3 to 5 years. Very plausible. He also has noted that we will run out of oil in the next decades. Very plausible. To prepare for the depression, Isokallio recommends paying off (as much as possible) of the loans the Finnish state has. I agree: we have too high unemployment already. We cannot handle a depression by increasing unemployment. We have to take loan and be Keynesian. To prepare for the end of oil, Isokallio recommend...

Go to some place like MIT, since they have a lot of screwball scientists, who will work on anything, and get a short study. Mervin J. Kelly , 1950, SAGE-project Drunkard's party I will soon capitalise my popularity among drunkards in Kallio. I will establish a new political party: Puliukkopuolue . It will have radical goals and unconventional means. There should be enough members for getting a sizeable group of parliamentarians. I have begun paying my constituency already. To start the campaign, I have been planning to write a picture-book about drunkards in Helsinki. They deserve their own history just like any other group. B&W picture, compassionate text. It will raise their human value. (There is a similar book on the homeless in New York &mdash no new ideas today ). Boring It is quite boring, that one cannot have coffee in a cafe here in Kallio at 8am on Sundays. I would like to. I also would like to shop indoor plants on Saturday evenings. Since I cannot, I had ...

What did Christ really do? He hung out with hard-drinking fishermen. Iggy Pop A great blue-collar evening Being hard-working office clerks, I and my friends sometimes want to make a (retro-)trip to the past of the blue-collar culture. Or just hang out and have a few beers. This time the group was: Olli, Mikael, Aaro, Mika, Ile, Jytky . One of best live museums of Helsinki, or maybe even the whole world, is the Kotiharjun sauna , one of few surviving public saunas in Finland. Certainly the biggest: the fireplace has 1500kg of stones, takes one cubic-meter birch-wood and 5 hours to heat up. The sauna can seat 30 bathers in the upper level, and few on the "Pipe shelf", which is even higher, and reserved for those wanting fierce heat. They also dictate when to let some more water from the firehose on the hot stones. It is really fun. One buys some beer (or other drinks) from nearby shops, rents a towel, and joins the crowd of men of all ages and of all runs of life. Discussi...

If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it. Dwight D. Eisenhower Missing a bird In 2004, when I worked here, a black woodpecker used to have its lunch in the forest. It is a beautiful bird to look at. This week I have not seen it yet. I am missing it, for being in the countryside but not seeing wildlife is boring. There are many signs of a lively population of rabbits around our office. Winter This is a strange winter, a winter from my childhood. The temperature stays below -10C most of the day, the sun shines, clouds are few. No wind, very calm and quiet. Days like these are superb for walking on the frozen sea. Maybe I have time tomorrow, on Saturday, for such a walk. The weather would be fine also for skiing and skating, but I do not own skis or skates. Poor me. Another fun thing would be to take some hot coffee in a thermos and have a quick picnic on ice. Maybe on Sunday. On cubicles Bill sent me a link to a very intersting article on the history of cubicles . It turns o...

I may not be better than other people, but at least I'm different. Jean-Jacques Rousseau Winter and the train It is -14C outside the train, +22C inside. The passengers hurry to train, sit down breathing heavily. They have strange clothes, for somehow they can keep their hats, gloves, scarves, and heavy overcoats on for the 15 minutes they spend with me in the train. They do not even break a sweat! I always take my coat and hat off while in train, as a gentleman must. I never use a scarf or gloves. A Finnish proverb has it right: "Meitä on joka junaan" ("We are enough to fill in all trains"). Paper-mills closing down A Finnish forestry and paper company, UPM, announced yesterday closures of a number of factories and un-employing up to 3000 people. The reason is simple: there are more paper-mills than needed in the world. The production capacity is 1.2 million tons larger than the current (and declining) demand. Thus, some factories must close down. Now, i...

A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one. Dimitri Shostakovich Today's reading If brains could fill up, I would have to find new things to do. I mostly read and stuff my brains with semi-useless information. Today, I have read Economist for 10 minutes, skimmed Kauppalehti and Helsingin Sanomat, studied 200-pages of a WCDMA-book (to refresh my knowledge about 3G &mdahs; what a boring book, almost put me in deep sleep several times), few tens of pages of "Rescuing Prometheus" (a history of large engineering projects), few tens of pages on the history of the Finnish social contract, and something else I am sure. I think I have to pick up my old habit of reading while walking. I still have my head-mountable lamp. Women's day Today is the international women's day. Happy women's day to all my women readers! Virtual roses and alcoholic drinks of choice to everyone of you! On energy I will start ...

I believe there is something out there watching us. Unfortunately, it's the government. Woody Allen The Tuesday-meeting, Lenin, history The new meeting place of our monthly Tuesday-meeting is full of history. The table we sit at is called the "Revolution table". A Finnish revolutionary/traitor (depends on the way one looks at the history) O-W. Kuusinen conspired at the very table before the Finnish civil war in 1917-1918. Also the revolutionary of all revolutionaries, V.I Lenin, visited the restaurant at the same time. It is not known, whether he sat at the very table, but it is possible. Remarkably, V.I. Lenin rented a room from S 's grandfather's family for a fortnight in Antrea, Finnish Carelia, in 1906. The grandfather and his family had their opportunity to change history, which they did not use. Kind of funny that the grandfather's family/friends fought against the communists during the civil war — had they known the future in 1906, the future might ...

The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds. John Maynard Keynes Commute Commuting from Kallio to Leppävaara is not as bad as I thought. The trains were not too full. Next week, I can take the bus and avoid the horrendous Sello-mall. It will make my commute much more tolerable. In any case, having to take any form of motorised transit/transport in the morning and in the afternoon is very bad for mood and soul. It leaves me too full of energy, and lowers my spirit. I would definitely work better if I could walk to the office. Cycling is OK as well, but I cycling in the mid of the Finnish winter is not my cup of tea. I need to find out whether I could tele-commute in the future. For one or two days in a week. I doubt I could, for the things I should do require a lot of personal meetings. Work? I have nothing against work as such, but I have quite much against of...

If you are afraid of loneliness, don't marry. Anton Chekhov In Tampere I spent the weekend by meeting my relatives (kin) and friends. Everyone just about the way I remembered. No dramatic changes, which I assume is a good thing, for the older we get, the greater the likelihood of changes to the worse. Or is it, am I just in a pessimistic mood. On Friday, I spent time with my brother and his friend Japi until 9pm. Then to Kössi's place for a good chat on Paris, work, and life. And maybe one or two drinks too much. For Saturday morning was on the slow side. I had a long walk, lunch, and then spent most of the rest of the day at my brother's garage with his friends Jäky, Hantta , and Kiili . Interesting men and good company, for a good time. On Sunday, early train to Helsinki for a visit to S 's mother's birthday. Good cake and very interesting coconut-salmon-soup. And some interesting stories about life in the Finnish countryside in the late 1950s. Now back at ...

Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going. Paul Theroux New social contract The current social contract (in Western countries) was architected in late 1960s and early 1970s. It is based on the assumptions of long term work contracts, full employment, and short duration of unemployment periods. Today, these assumptions are not valid anymore. The globalised, free-market economy does not offer long term employment for most people. Companies move their operations around the globe much faster than employees can move. Furthermore, companies do not want to employ any extra employees. Instead, they want to trim their workforces quarterly. In the new situation, the current social contract does not work anymore. When work-contracts are shorter, numerous, and partly overlapping, the old distinction of employed-unemployed is not meaningful anymore. We need to start over. We need to re-architect the social contract. Otherwise, we cannot l...

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac. George Orwell Envy I met a friend, who had just arrived from Liberia. She told me, that another friend of us was about to leave for Bangladesh. I became so envious of her. I want to travel and work abroad as well. Too unfair that I have already spent a week here, is it not. A new mall in Helsinki Kauppakeskus Kamppi , a new mall, transit terminal, and parking facility was inaugurated officially today. Of course, I had to be there. Visiting inaugurations of suburban malls in city centres is always a good way to reflect on the urban design, commercial trends, and civil architecture. It is common in anti-consumeristic discussion to draw an analogy between consumerism and religion, to say that as people used to worship gods they now worship material things. The new mall takes this worshipping a bit further. Its floor-plan has been copied from a cross-sh...

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned. Herbert Hoover Alkubaari We had a lunch in the Alkubaari . I had whitefish with egg-dill-sauce, S has game-stew or something like that. Or maybe it was fried moose. Both very quite OK, very Finnish, and have certainly enough butter in them. The bar/restaurant itself if small, very basic, at the border of authentic and artificial. It has all the elements of a 70s-bar, but somehow it feels a bit contrived, like stepping in an old movie. Maybe it tries to be too authentic. Anyway, very much worth a visit, but I still prefer Heippa's place in Kallio. Updating my head I would like to update my head about the recent political literature and discussion in Finland. I know of older books by Soininvaara, the new book by Penttilä and of some other books. But I have not been following the discussion for the last three years. As I am planning to write the books on the industrial policy of Finland, I...