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We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. Martin luther King, Jr. Great music In the POTLATCH LOVES LE CLUB ABSINTHE D'HIDRIA -club (sic!) toning, I saw and heard Circle for the first time. I was definitely blown away with their fierce intensity and utterly original sound and way of presenting the music. The music is some kind of space-rock, with some influences from heavy-metal, mexican music and who knows where. Just amazing, one of the best bands I have ever seen. Hopefully I have another opportunity to see them live later. There were two other bands. First Pasilian Savut played Sonic Youth-type atonal musical masturbation. Jolly good, but a bit too loose, songs not very compact, somehow they did not know what to play sometimes. Boris Morgana was a totally experimental band with two drummers, a saxophonist, and a few nerds playing some magical instruments. The band did not have any songs, the whole gig was just one long experimental improvisa...

Engineering is not simply applied science; know-how often preceeds know-why. Thomas Hudges NEF — new economics foundation A very interesting foundation called the New economics foundation has recently published a very interesting report. The report tells that Britain starts eating the planet on Sunday 16 April ( pdf ), whereas it takes the USA until late June to use more than it can produce. Also other reports by NEF seem worth reading and pondering: Crude designs: the rip off of Iraq's oil wealth and well-being and the environment: achieving one planet living and quality of life . Yep, it starts to be about time to cut back waste and excessive use of natural resources also here in Finland, in our everyday life. Maybe just cycling to work, buying local food, and cutting down (or stopping) flying would be a start (I did not fly until I was 27-years old, so maybe I could stop it now or soon). More money from coffee Selling coffee is not the best way to make a lot of money. ...

The intellect does not grasp itself as longs as it remains isolated in itself. Ernst Cassirer On hobbies I have some hobbies. Writing this blog. For your enjoyment, for my memory. Reading. Playing pinball. It is cheaper than snooker, does not require (but benefits from) company, requires total concentration, and alertness. Just like, e.g., shooting. Cycling, but my bike is in Boston. Pity. Traveling , for which I do not have enough money right now. Pity. Some links Some articles I read today. John Brown has written 11 questions to Mr. Bush . In vain, of course, for Mr. Bush famously does not even read CIA briefings. Good and relevant questions though. Juan Cole writes also bitterly on Mr. Bush and Mr. Laden. In another reminder that George W. Bush has still not caught the man responsible for September 11, while he has mired tends of thousands of US troops in an unrelated Iraq quagmire, the murderous lunatic Usamah Bin Laden spoke again on Sunday. I don't know how...

Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle. Lewis Carroll Pinball Soon, I will walk to the Kinopalatsi movie theater, where they still keep a few pinball machines. Ville and Lemmy will came there and we will have a very friendly mini-tournament. Oil or peak oil A short article this week told us that the OPEC is not able to increase production . Of course, this has sent prices soaring. Have we now reached the peak of oil production, after which supply will fall ever behind demand and prices will stay up? It may well be, and the nuclear posturing of USA and Iran, will certainly make for even higher prices. A wise administration, in any country, would do its utmost for curbing the demand and for finding new sources of energy, alternatives to oil. But not, not even in Finland. Here the government, lead by the agrarian party, decided to reduce taxes on oil used in agriculture. Such morons we have elected! Gas I read somewhere, that every person in Texas consumes 10.2 ga...

Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever. Aristophanes On the price of energy Energy is not cheap. Each source of energy has its own price. Nuclear energy, at least when not properly guarded, has a very ugly side-effects . But coal is not clean either: thousands lose their lives in mines every year. And oil, well, it has its price, $71 a barrel today and as the great game gathers speed, we will certainly more than enough humans sacrificed. Oil is the the main topic today in DC when Mr. Hu meets Mr. Bush. Here is then how they use oil in India by driving around in a funny way . Oh, I so much miss India, I so much would love to travel to India. (Thanks to S for the link) Ein neues Magazin Well, I can read German, but writing is harder. If you can read German, check out Cicero.de , a new magazine on politics and culture. I read it for 15 minutes and it does look good indeed. In EU, you can even order a free copy! I did, of course, I ...

Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think. Niels Bohr (Platonic) ideals and computer animations In ancient Greece, artists and sculptors strived to create perfect images of humans, heroes, and gods. The sculptures were close to the ideal of man: strong, no wrinkles, well-balanced muscles, nice features. Of course, the real Greeks were not such. They were potbellied, wrinkled, ugly bunch, as we all are. Today, celebrities has picked up the ancient strife. They use all available means to avoid wrinkling, lose shape, or just to look human. As a result, they all look similar: Cher, Madonna, Sharon Stone, etc. Still, in their paralysed faces they remain famous. Apparently, customers do not mind or even prefer the idealized appearance, the current god of the market. This opens a new possibility for replacing real actors with computer graphics. Namely, so far it has been too difficult to create realistic appearances (of faces), but now it does not matter any more. If...

He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing. Marcus Tullius Cicero More on SPO 2006 Lavonardo has written a rather comprehensive report on the pinball tournament . I will add more later. Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs March to June 2006".

If you cry 'forward', you must without fail make plain in what direction to go. Anton Chekhov Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change is a new report by the MET office of Britain. Seems to be a very interesting report. It just hope that the future leaders of USA, UK, China, India, and even small dear Finland will read these report and realize that spending all energy on war on terror or horror or drugs is just a distraction from the really important things. Enough, now I will read the report myself. A book At 5.15pm I got an urge to rush to the Acacemic bookstore and a some book or a magazine. It was very hard, I almost had to leave the store empty handed, which would have been very shameful indeed. Fortunately, I spotted a novel by Checkhov. Really lucky. It is a thin novel, only 100 pages or so, his first, called something like "Hope in vain". Sörkka pinball open 2006 Just a short note, more tomorrow. Today I participated in th...

Human nature yearns to see order and hierarchy in the world. It will invent it where it cannot find it. Benoit Mandelbrot Pagans A big group of pagans was celebrating the crucification in Rytmi. They were quite joyful, drinking their beers and coffees. We had only one pint per person and then left for home. Not that I would consider it inappropriate to party today, but the Sorkka Open pinball tournament tomorrow prevents drinking too many pints. eStupidity I was about to buy some tickets for a concert in the Finlandia Hall . I was redirected to Ticketservice (Lippupalvelu). Ticketservice has a rather standard sales application. One selects the event, the seats, and number of tickets. Then one has to select the delivery method. The first option is mail delivery (eLetter or something), which costs 4.5 euros. The other option is to print ticket by myself. That would cost 1 (one) euro. But, even before I can pay for my own work and use of my printer, I have to register and the Tick...

One always has time enough, if one will apply it well. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Wangst I recognized and could even name a recurrent feeling of mine. I called it wangst , from writer's angst. I is a feeling of panic, loss of confidence, low self-esteem, and an urge to just quit, call it a day and disappear. It always comes after several hours of inspiring and perspiring, when the first few lines have appeared on the screen. Then it comes, hits me, and I just cannot cope. But then I can, suddenly I know what to write, words just appear with no effort and everything is fine for a few hours. ATMs A few days back I read in Kauppalehti , a light version of FT, that some businessmen are trying to put up a new network of ATMs in Finland. The idea is very simple: put ATMs in places, where people need cash and which do not have ATMs now. Such places include sports venues, night clubs, etc. Of course, in USA this would not make sense, because there everyone pays with a credit card. In...

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 A day in life Not an ordinary one, luckily. In the morning, I visited the bank to deposit my rent deposit (?), then took a bus to the office, wrote a document, chatted with some friends and left for civilized city again. Later, I met Petja and other at their monthly meeting. Then, back home. Not too bad, actually rather good. Some links Why Saddam is Laughing all the Way to the Gallows is an interesting argument claiming that Saddam is getting more than he ever dreamt of. Who knows? An interesting speculation about what Bush did know and when he did . It seems that Mr. Bush was claiming that Saddam had WMDs when he knew that it was not the case. Finally, a long story about prisons as mental asylums . More on education and future of Finland I really do not believe, that more and further educatio...

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn. Gore Vidal BS-reward of the day Today's BS-reward goes to the CEO of the Union of Technology companies in Finland. When asked, what Finland (Finns) should do in order to avoid further outsourcing of technology business to China and India, he said that the only way is to invest more in education. Sure, it never hurts to learn more. I just cannot see how further education in Finland could help in averting outsourcing of manufacturing jobs. Or design jobs for that matter. It is not lack of education that is the reason for outsourcing now, I assume. It is something else, something that keeps productivity lower than it should and could be. My intuition and things I hear tell me that it definitely is not lack of education, which hurts Finnish business. It is lack of motivation, utterly demotivated workforce, absolutely depressing management practices, misplaced incentives, lack of trust, and poorly structured...

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power. Benjamin Franklin French dilemma The French have a dilemma at their hands. Their society dearly needs some reforms, but all reforms incite furious protests and the government is too weak to tell the protesters to screw themselves. Once again, the mob won by saying "non" , but the mob does not have any constructive proposal. Or at least I have not seen any such proposals. And it is not clear that it is democracy that won. See also what NY Times has to say on this issue. Externality In most cases, employees must pay an externality due to cost cutting and re-location of offices to cheaper parts of towns. It seems to be profitable for corporations to play cities against each other, get cheap lots for new office buildings and assume that employees will keep on coming. The employees must pay the cost of commuting, in cars and time. Not fair. Distances The distance from place A to place B is seldom same a...

Fool and his money are soon parted. Old saying Weekend Just for the record, I note the following. On Friday , I took the early flight back to Helsinki. It took less than 3.5 hours from wake-up to the office in Espoo, which makes the average speed about 300 km/hour. Not bad! On Friday evening, we (I and S ) went to see some old furniture in a shop called Timeless in Töölö. They have a certain chair, which I assume we just have to buy. It is way too cute. Later, we had dinner with Tuula , who by now has already left for Hangzhou to wrap up her degree in calligraphy. She is just incredible, a force of nature and totally fearless: one of the few Westerners ever to study calligraphy in the Art Institute in Hangzhou. Even later, we had a beer in the Exodus-bar in Kallio. Again, some customers had found the bar to smoky to smoke inside and had come outside for a smoke. Way strange. On Saturday , I first bought some books and then too the train to Tampere, where I spent the afternoon wit...

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Nelson Mandela Prices of houses The prices of home in Helsinki are still going up. According to some surveys, the average price per square meter of old apartment (in a block of flats) is now 3100 euros. If we assume an apartment of 50 sqm, rent of 2 euros per sqm, and return of investment of 5 percent, the rent should be 725 euros. Since the rents are already now lower, we can safely say that apartments are too expensive. War, now of civil type According World Peace Herald civil war is raging in Iraq . Of course, Mr. Bush cannot acknowledge this, because it would destroy the very last excuse for occupying Iraq: spreading democracy. Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs March to June 2006".

The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less. Vaclav Havel A dilemma I am an extrovert, but I hate being part of any group. I cannot even imagine doing team sports, or taking part in any mass movements. But I like to do group work, to reflect my ideas with other people. This is a hard dilemma for me. I want to be my own individual, extremely much, and to be with other people. Strange? Movie-plot threat competition Mr. Schneier has announced a movie-plot threath competition. . Participate and win a book. Still looking for a new home It takes time to find a new home. We have now visited two apartments. The other was in a suburb, the other was next to the worst bars in Kallio and in the ground floor. The risk of getting uninvited drunkards through the bedroom window was too high for us. So, we are still looking. There are free apartments, but there is also quite a mob looking for them. Again...

Weirdness always increases over time. A Honeywell system architect Weekend This was a relaxing weekend. Although I did not have any real reason to relax. On Saturday, we visited the gym together for the first time. It is nice to find thing we have not yet done together (we = I and S ). Before the gym, we went to see the local prison, which is close to our home. The visiting hour was just starting. Many visitors were heading towards the prison. It must be quite a burden to have the loved one behind the bars. In the evening, we visited Olli and Maritta . Also Mikael and Liisa were there. We had really nice time: delicious sushi, good drinks, nice discussion. The Finnish Social Forum, part 2 It is peculiar how much social movements (NGOs) define their identities, strategies and ideologies by what they stand against. Some are against EU, some are against a certain new legislation. By doing so, they let the others (governments, corporations, etc) define the agenda. I have to adm...

We need myths that help us to venerate the earth as sacred once again, instead of merely using it is a 'resource' Karen Armstrong in the A short history of Myth Vim for my Mac I just got Vim 7.0 from Macvim.org . Just great. Now I do not have to use any wimpy editors. I can even let my mouse rot in peace while editing. Book of lists Canongate has published a book of lists. It has, for example, a list of bizarre sports events . As a manic list maker, I would love to have the book, but I am obeying a temporary book buying moratorium. Granta is publishing a series books on different religions. So far they have covered Muslim, Christians, Buddhists, and Druids . In Finland It is surprisingly pleasant and enjoyable to stay in Finland. I have learned to appreciate the local food (we had an excellent dinner in Cella , a local artist and social scientist hang-out — delicious salmon-herring steaks); the quietness, honesty, and seriousness my fellow Finns; the changing weat...