A new book / Another bicycle adventure / Tough new law on drugs

Yourself Today cannot make a binding agreement with Yourself Tomorrow. Thomas Schelling

A new book

Again, a free book from the Economist Intelligence Unit and published by the Profile books: How to read a novel by professor emeritus John Sutherland. Given the avalanche of new books, how to go about in selecting what to read and once a book in hand, how to read it. A well written book, at least based on the 70 pages I have now read.

Another bicycle adventure

I had not been to Hyvinkää since 1991. So, I decided it would make a good destination for a short ride. It was a good destination indeed, a bit further away from Helsinki than I had thought. I also made it a bit more difficult for myself to get there: I decided to follow the train tracks as closely as possible. It turned out to be much harder than I anticipated: the bikelane disappears every now and then, there are no sings. I even had to ask for directions a few times and still I found myself cycling in the middle of a forest, by the backyards of suburban houses, in the middle of road construction, and sometimes a bit lost. Fortunately, I knew that just heading north is OK, and it was sunny enough that I knew where north was all the time.
By train the distance would be 59km, I assume that I cycled some 10 km extra in the forests and suburbs. It took 3 hours 17 minutes. Average speed about 21 km/h, which is not fast at all.

Tough new law on drugs

The Finnish parliament is about to pass a new law on (non-taxed) drugs. According to the new law, even an attempt at preparing for production of drugs will be illegal. For example, producing a flower pot will be illegal, if the pot can be used for producing drugs, e.g. by growing hemp. I assume that all fertilizers become illegal as well, as well all laboratory equipment.
I just hope they will set up a website for informing on attempts at preparing for production of drugs. I would inform on everyone, who dares to own flower pots, or whom I see buying fertilizers from a gardening store. I also hope that they will pay for informing. Only with 2 euros per case, I could easily quit my day job.
What a bright and drugs-free future awaits Finland!

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs July to September 2006".