Blogs July to September 2006

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A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.

(Goethe)

September 2006 

Saturday 06-09-30 

We can no longer afford a system that values profits over prosperity. Matt Harris 

Strange 

The Finnish government has decided to replace 5.75% of gasoline with ethanol in ten years or so. If the goal is to decrease dependency from imported energy, to cut down CO2-emissions, or something like that, it would be simple just to cut down our gasoline consumption by the said 5.75%. Not to speak of the fact that distilling ethanol from potatoes, as the government plans to do, is losing energy: it takes more energy than it gives. In fact, it may even take more oil than it replaces. 
In Sweden, on the contrary, they plan to distill methanol from wood, which is cheaper and produced heat and electricity as side products. I should calculate, how large a forest it would take to run, say, 50% of current traffic with methanol (provided that we would have enough oil to pave the roads and highways). Would we have enough forests for that and for some exporting paper industry? Interesting, I would say. 
I start to feel that I am ready to write some articles and maybe even books on energy and the future of my dear native country, Finland. 

Friday 06-09-29 
The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny; flattery to treachery; standing armies to arbitrary government; and the glory of God to the temporal interest of the clergy. David Hume 

Dark times 

In the USA, the country proud of its democracy, they have now decided, that torture is OK, secret evidence is OK, infinite&secret&&arbitrary imprisonment is possible if the president so wants (even outside USA, so maybe they come knocking my door at 4.30am tomorrow). USA used to blame other countries (e.g. Russia, China) for similar laws and practices. Now, they adopt the same methods. It really makes me sad. I cannot understand Americans anymore. Do they really think that they will win their war on terror with these new laws? How can they claim to be Christians (unless they adore the practices of the Catholic church in the previous dark ages). 
By the way, the normal lazy-ass excuse "I have nothing to be afraid of, for I am innocent and have not done anything wrong" does not apply. The new laws will allow the US president to throw you in secret jail and never tell anyone they did so, nor allow you to protest or know why you are in the secret jail, beaten, frozen, water-boarded. 
My American readers, please vote the GOP out. I still hope that the Democrats, given power, would undo this new insanity. 

New books 

• Suburban nation — the rise of sprawl and the decline of the American dream by Duany, Plater-Zyberk, Speck — how it all happened: how Americans chose to move outside cities, spend their time in cars, etc. 
• The Cairo Trilogy by Naquid Mahfouz — Nobel laureate's main work, recommended by Juan Cole for understanding the Islamic countries and the Middle-East. Formidably thick. 

I may have enough books for a while. 


Thursday 06-09-28 
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! 

Wednesday 06-09-27 
What is the most innocent place in any country? Is it not the insane asylum? These people drift through life truly innocent, unable to see into themselves at all. Arthur Miller 

Strange depression 

The cultural minister of Finland, Mrs. Saarela, just told in the television, that she is/was suffering from deep depression. She told that she went to work, for work place (ministry) was a good place for her to escape depression. This is a bit strange: usually a deeply depressed person is not able to leave home, not to speak of working as a minister. But miracles do happen! Maybe we should have a larger government so that more depressed persons could get this new miracle cure. 

Brompton — a test ride 

A beautiful morning, a bit foggy, 15C, calm. Nothing to do, no obligations, free to decide where to go, what to do. This time, I decided to cycle to Porvoo, one of the most charming towns in Finland, about 50km east of Helsinki. I wanted to visit Porvoo and I wanted to find out how good a bike my Brompton is for such a ride. 
Brompton turned out to be reasonably comfortable, enjoyable to ride and fast enough. It took me 135 minutes to Porvoo (average of 23.1 km/h), with the last 35 km with average speed of 25.1 km/h. Not bad at all, for I am not that fit right now. I assume that by a racing bike it would have takes some 115 minutes or so. 
In Porvoo, I ran into my old friends Roope and Aija. Not that surprising, for they live there, Porvoo is a small place and I happened to venture close to the town hall, where Roope works as a town layer. We had lunch in an extremely charming cafeteria. They seem to have nicer cafes in Porvoo than we have in Helsinki. Maybe I should consider moving to Porvoo? Another friend of mine is the vice-mayor of Porvoo, so I could even find some employment there. Let's see. 
I took a bus back to Helsinki, visited the market hall, had a beer in the Espresso Edge—cafeteria, cycled for 45 minutes around Helsinki. Not a bad day at all. I have also made some progress in my quest for meaning of my life, for a mission for the rest of my days. My current thinking tells me that the heyday heyday of so called information society is past now. We should start to think for the coming low-energy society. If we are lucky, clever, and work hard, we may be able to save some parts of our current way of life: advanced medical care, information networks, refrigeration, science, and our cultural heritage. For sure, there will be billions fewer of us in the world in 2050 or so, maybe there is only 1 billion left, if even that. Anyway, it is not that long ago that were fewer than 1 billion, some 200 years or so. More about that and much else later. Now it is time to cook some chanterelle risotto for S. 

Tuesday 06-09-26 
There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see. Leonardo da Vinci quote

Trains and Brompton 

After the conductor almost charged me some tens of euros for my Brompton in the train from Tampere, I decided to ask the railway company for its official policy. Today I got the reply: one has to pay for transporting bikes, even if they are small and light. Fortunately, I can put my Brompton in a bag. If the conductor cannot see it, he cannot charge for it. 
For some reason, I can transport almost any amount of other luggage than bicycles for free in trains. Bicycles are something almost evil - even though one would think that bicycles and trains have common interests. If cyclist can easily take their bicycles in the train, they are more likely to use train. If not, they will most likely drive or take a bus. 
Of course, in the coach I can transport my Brompton for free without the bag. The same applies to trams and busses. The train company is pathetic. 

New book 

Again, a free book from Economist Research: The Da Vinci Notebooks by the man himself. For example, Let the width of the streets be equal to the average height of the houses, which would be a good maxim even today, if only we would not have to worry about cars.

Monday 06-09-25 
Tough guys don't dance. You had better believe it. Norman Mailer 

Why the USA cannot win wars? 

It is not going so well for USA in Iraq or Afghanistan. It will not go well in Iran either, if we are to believe an article by Jon Utley. Utley links to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Imperialists. The USA does not possess the habit and neither does Finland. The Russians do and the Chinese are rather good as well. 

CANVAS 

CANVAS, or Centre for Applied NonViolent Action & Strategies, is a place for learning to make a stand and stand up for your rights. And not to get spanked by the police. Download handbook and start acting now! Or tomorrow!

Good new blogs 

• Finnsanity by Arhi Kuittinen — very biting cultural criticism. I would love to be able to write as well as Arhi. 
• Reason online — free minds and free markets. Sometimes food for thought. 
• Sic Semper Tyrannis — an old crumpy man writing and ranting - sometimes right to the point 
• Whimsley — by the writer of No One Makes You Shop At Wal-Mart. Interesting, as is the book. 

Bombay express 

A new Indian grocery store cum restaurant, Bombay express, has opened on Hämeentie (between 5. linja and 4. linja). Well stocked, with all necessary Indian groceries, drinks etc. The restaurant side of the business serves more than decent Indian food, just the way I like it: simple, unpretentious. Well worth repeated visits, just like I used to visit similar store in Cambridge with Kumar last year. 
They also sell fierce Jamaican ginger ale for less than one euro per can. Dangerous for my budget and my well being. 

Weekend 

Not bad at all. I took the morning commuter train to Tampere, attended my mother's birthday party with my aunt and her spouse, drank some cognac, ate the cake, and then we all took a nap. After the nap, I cycled to the other side of the city to meet an old fried of mine, sculptor Matti Kalkamo. We used to be punks and do punk things, especially drink beer and have fun, in early 1980s and ever since. It has been always fun around Mr. Kalkamo. He lives with his spouse, sculptor Heli Ryhänen in an art-studio apartment, which instantly made me think that I have made the wrong choice of career. After a lot of laughter, wine, tequila, and assorted drinks, I managed to make a wise decision and cycle back home, not to the nearest pub. 
On Sunday, I first cycled around the center of Tampere with Kössi, even visiting an excellent museum of media, and then visited Pia and Riksu. It was a nice visit, interesting discussions, freshly baked pulla, and good coffee. It seems that many other have problems with finding jobs and that many others dream of owning a second-hand bookstore, kiosk, cafe, etc. There is something wrong with the current working life, or life in general. Not that there is anything wrong with my hosts, on the contrary. Later, after cycling back to my mother's place to chat with my brother, who incredibly had burned his face in the sun while fishing, back to Helsinki. 
I had not remembered how nice and fulfilling it is to meet friends and relatives.

Friday 06-09-22 

Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. Salman Rushdie 

Car free day 

Today was the official, annual car free day. Since parts of the city center were close from private cars, the other parts were more congested than usually. Personally, I rode my bike and enjoyed the quiet, car free parts of the center. Little do they understand that such days will be the norm in the near future, except that the car free area will be much larger, the whole city. 

Miracles 

Quite a miracle has taken place. Or a surprise at least. Accidentally, doctors have found out that giving sleeping pills to people in persistent vegetative state wakes them up. So, someone hits his head, becomes a vegetable for years and more or less seems to sleep all the time. You give him sleeping pills, he wakes up and tells that nothing has changed! Quite strange. Read the article. By the way, after a while the effect of the pill wears off and the person becomes a vegetable again. Until you give him another pill. 

Tough question 

I again spent some time by reading book the Tokoi-bay park. Again, there were some drunkards, of which about 5 had already passed out. The police drove by in their van and decided to removed the passed-outs. I cycled closer to observe the happening. Later, when I was leaving the park, I stopped for a while to watch some drunkards pushing and fighting each other. A drunkard woman walks to me and asks: "Are you some park observer? You do look like one". (Ook sää joku puistotarkkailija, hä? Näytät siltä.). 

Cars and California 

The state of California has sued the car manufactures for contributing to the global warming. They use a "public nuisance" clause and claim that by not improving mileage of cars, the manufacturers are creating nuisance. 
It is sign of broken political system, that such court cases are necessary, or even imaginable. Car manufactures certainly have done evil things in the past. For example, GM and others conspired to destroy the 1600-mile railsystem in LA in 1920s. First, they replaced trains/trams by busses of their own manufacture. Later, the bus service was allowed to degrade and cars to take over. 
That was a evil deed indeed, but hardly something GM can be sued at the moment. Sueing car manufacturers for not improving mileage of their cars is plain hypocritical. No single manufacturer can raise the mileage, for doing so makes cars more expensive. Other manufacturers would simply outsell any stupid manufactures attempting to do so. In short, the other manufacturers would free-ride. 
The only realistic way to increase mileage is that the state mandates the increased mileage (or, raise gasoline taxes). This would remove possibilities for free-riding. 
For history of LA and trams, see Kunstler's "Home from nowhere". For free-riding and mandates, see "No one makes you shop at Wal-Mart" by Tom Slee. 

Thursday 06-09-21 

And that's why books are never going to die. It's impossible. It's the only time we really go into the mind of a stranger, and we find our common humanity doing this. So the book doesn't only belong to the writer, it belongs to the reader as well, and then together you make it what it is. Paul Auster 

Education in Finland 

Mr Vanhanen, our prime minister, received a study on the Finnish education system. The study found out, that it is not wise to train 70% of each generation in colleges and universities. 70% is the current goal. Some years ago, the Finnish government decided that 70% is the right percentage. They also made it happen almost overnight: just rename all vocational school as colleges of this or that and voila, 70% of each generation will get college level education. Thus, solving the problem of over-education is simple: just undo the renaming. 
Mr. Vanhanen also claimed, that it makes no sense to give higher education to the Finnish youth. He said that IT-work will anyway disappear to China and India, so it does not makes sense to try anything in that field. Vanhanen also noted that surgeons can operate from afar via real-time videophones etc, but nurses have to be present. He seemed to hint that for this reason it makes no sense to train surgeons either — but training nurses makes sense. 
I do not get this. If surgeons can operate from afar, why cannot they still be in Finland and operate patients abroad? Why should we be happy to have just nurses here? And if we have just the nurses and the Chinese will have the surgeons, how are we going to keep our standard of living? Of course, Mr. Vanhanen did not tell us. He never does. 

Misplaced joy 

Mr. Ahlbeck wrote in Helsingin sanomat about global warming. He is known for being quite sceptic about it. This time, he argued that there will not be any global warming, for there is simply not enough oil and coal and they will thus become excessively expensive before any global warming can happen. So, no need to worry. Mr. Ahlbeck just forgets that the life as we know it will disappear, when fossil fuels (oil especially) become expensive. 
I have been entertaining similar ideas, though. If oil would become much more expensive soon (e.g due to some wars and damage to the well or due mis-accounting of existing oil — every oil producing country and oil company is likely to over-estimate the resources), we could get rid off some nasty things, like over-population. Most likely we would have famine in Finland as well after a few years. But of course, the developing countries would suffer the most. The green revolution would be cancelled overnight, if irrigation pumps would stop due to too expensive oil. 
Ranting, rambling. I am just trying out some idea. I will write a more coherent argument/article soon. I just have to practice first. 

Lazy day 

In addition to the lecture, nothing much happened today. I woke up, wrote my blog, read newspaper, had coffee downstairs with S, cycled to see some cute European rabbits, but they were hiding in bushes at noon. I then cycled by the Tokoi-bay. There were about 40 people sitting by the bay, 27 of them drunkards. 3 of the drunkards had already passed out at 12.30 pm. What a waste of human life! Then the lecture, back home, reading, writing, talking on the phone with Maunu for a long time on energy policy and future of Finland (I am so patriotic currently), watching sumo on TV, etc. Not bad, but not much accomplished either. Should I care? Or worry?

Development projects 

Today, in the Sustainable technologies studio Paul Silfverberg talked about project planning. He was mainly talking about projects in the developing (3rd world) countries. He emphasized the need to define the goals together with the beneficiaries clearly and thoroughly in the beginning. He also emphasized the importance of seeing to that the results of the projects are sustainable. 
It occurred to me, that everything he was talking was similar to any project management in any industry or in any developed (industrialized, 1st world) country. The only difference is that the 3rd world beneficiaries cannot afford any failed projects. They do not have the luxury of social (societal, state funded) safety nets, so that when a project fails, it may jeopardize their future for good. 
Another difference is the amount and quality of energy available. The poor countries are not only poor in terms of money, they are poor also in energy. Without reliable and affordable energy development as we know it here in the Nordic countries is impossible.
Which again reminds me of the fact that we import most of the energy we use in Finland. When importing becomes more expensive and difficult, as it certainly will in the next few decades, we will be in deep trouble. For example, our splendid district heating in Helsinki burns coal and natural gas. With expensive oil and unreliable gas supplies, we will be in some trouble when temperature is below -20 centigrade. We should start planning right now and still we would have some trouble. I personally have begun to think that building yet another nuclear power plant would make sense. But we need to build it in Helsinki and it has to be large enough to replace the existing coal and gas powered plants. And since we already have 5 nuclear power plants, we would do well to have our own uranium supply and enrichment facilities. After all, if we use so much energy, it is just fair that we suffer from the consequences as well. 

Mysterious email 

I applied for a job. I got the reply:

Thank you for your application and your interest in working for the X . Due to the volume of applications please be informed that only applicants invited for interview will be contacted further.

So, have they already made up their minds and decided not to interview me? Or, are they just polite and point out the obvious? Strange. Not that I any more really think that I would be suitable/competent/interviewable for any job. It really seems that my experience and time in MIT automatically disqualifies me from all jobs I dare to apply. But I do not give up: I apply for two jobs each day. At some point some recruiter will see the light and understand, that by not hiring the best, they are not serving their company and its shareholders as they should. Or, they let off their guard and accidentally decide to interview me. 

Seriously, I cannot understand that getting job interview (not to speak of the jobs themselves) can be this hard. I am seriously considering self-employment, starting my own think-tank and consulting company. 

A great day 

I had a great Wednesday. I left home early with a book in my hand. I had no idea where to go, so I just walked, people watching, enjoying the autumn. As it was early, most adults were in the offices and shop, only unemployed and retired were out and about. And drunkards, many of them. I stepped in an old-fashioned cafe, which served inexpensive breakfast. It was full of retired and a bit alcoholic people. After breakfast, I walked my book (The Brooklyn Follies / Auster) until I found an Indian restaurant, where other lonely men were having their lunches. A bit sad place with decent food. Next, more random walking, riding trams, sitting in 5 parks, 2 cafeterias, reading, people watching (every 10 minutes an anorectic girls walks by when one observes the city in the center of Helsinki; every minute one or two obese pass by). Later in the evening, Mammu's farewell party (she is going to Wales for PhD) with a group of nice people, etc. 
Could a day be better? 

Tuesday 06-09-19 

It is not necessary that whilst I live I live happily; but it is necessary that so long as I live I should live honourably. Immanuel Kant 

The US budget as a graph 

Death and Taxes has an interesting graph on the US budget. It really seems that the USA is fighting wars and that all risks the USA are facing will be dealt with bombs, missiles and other explosive stuff. 
Someone should buy the graphs and post them everywhere in the USA. Maybe that would help the citizens to see the light and revolt! 

Supply chains 

A document Darwin's nightmare tells the story of Nile perch, guns, smuggling, poverty, and ecological catastrophe in the lake Victoria. Some time ago, Nile perch was introduced in the lake. It has done well, and there is now abundance of it, but not much of anything else, in the lake. So, the locals fish the perch, bring it to the airport. Some Russian pilots take the fish to Europe (I have eaten it in office cafeteria), but only after they have flown in some guns for the perpetual civil wars in the around the lake. 
This whole business causes all kinds of problems. See the document for more information about them. 
Quite a supply chain for fish. There must be maximum price of oil for the supply chain to make sense. When oil gets becomes expensive enough, the planes will stop flying. What will happen then? I assume there will be more fish for the locals to eat by the lake Victory, maybe fewer guns for killing each other. And no cheap fish for us in Scandinavia. 
Actually, it is totally insane to fly in fish from Africa. Cheap oil has made us all totally nuts. 

Foreign Policy on Empires 

Foreign Policy runs an interesting article on past and present empires. It seems that empires lasted longer in the past. In the 20th century they only lasted a few decades. 
The article claims that the American empire suffers from three deficits: troop, budget, and public attention. It does not have enough troops, because it is not willing to use draft. It is running out of money. Its public does not really want the wars the empire would require. And it seems that the wars are not economically feasible: running the empire costs more than it gives. So, the empire may well be short-living one. 
The article is well worth the 15 minutes it requires. There are other worthy articles as well. 

Fair trade in Finland 

I was positively surprised by professional attitude and quality of the Finnish fair trade movement. The movement had its annual fair last weekend in Jyväskylä. It seems that fair trade is as professional as any other trade. And that is a very good thing. 

New books 

Yesterday, two books joined our library:

• Ivan's war — the Red Army 1939-1945 by Catherine Merridale  telling the stores of the ordinary, but legendary Russian/Soviet soldiers, of which some 20 million died. An addition to my military history collection. I claim, that by reading on the history of the Eastern front of WWII one can learn more than by reading any collection of management hand-books. Reading both is, of course, even better. 
• The Brooklyn follies by Paul Auster  , who is our favourite novelist, or one of them. The book seems to be a good one. I have read some 30 pages already. 

Trains, cars, restaurants 

In the past, before the WWII, railway stations were important and respected parts of cities. Most people travelled by train and station were what they saw first and last in cities. The stations were great civic building, designed by the best architect and build to impress, last and serve. Usually there were some restaurants in the station, sometimes even good ones - it was a good place to have a great restaurant, for so many well-off people passed the stations daily. 
Not so anymore. Even in Europe, most wealthy are their own drivers, not rich enough to afford chauffeurs. And the poor who take the train are not worth decent restaurants. So it is in Tampere. The restaurant at the station is nowadays a karaoke bar serving very cheap beer. Cheap beer sells well, serves well, and causes trouble. There are more guards than servants in the restaurant at the station. 
All this will change in the near future. Only the very rich and stubborn can afford to be their own chauffeurs. They also need to have large SUVs, for the society cannot afford maintaining the highways — or those who cannot afford cars and gas anymore will not allow spending enough money on highway maintenance. And we all can take the train, wait for it in a decent restaurant in the station. Civic life will be fine again. 
Well, maybe I have to admit, that there are still great stations left. The Helsinki railway station is great, and has a decent cafe and an up-scale pub. No restaurant, though. In Europe, some stations are just marvellous: Budapest, Milan, some in Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin. In the US, the Grand Central in NYC is beyond my skills of flattery and has a great restaurant. I assume stations in London are great as well, but I cannot remember anymore. 
I also adore the Venice railway station, but it has more to do with Venice than with the real ugly station building. And when I want to remember Venice, I read the opening paragraph of Watermarks by Brodsky

Many moons ago the dollar was 870 lire and I was thirty-two. The globe, too, was lighter by two billion souls, and the bar at the stazione where I'd arrive on the cold December night was empty. I was standing there waiting for the only person I knew in that city to meet me. She was quite late.

and I will instantly be standing there, smelling the fog, utterly happy. 

Trains 

I visited my mother and brother in Tampere on Sunday. Nice to see them, should visit them more often. We all have only so many relatives and so much time together with them. Not too much. 
I took train to Tampere and back. To Tampere, I took a commuter train, which takes 119 minutes and costs 19.5 euros. Back to Helsinki, I took an intercity train, which take 99 minutes and costs 25.6 euros. Even a faster and more expensive train is available: the Pendolino with 78 minutes and 30.4 euros. So, one can save 41 minutes by spending additional 10.9 euros. Thus, time is worth 15.6 euros an hours. Quite much, even for a commuter with median salary - more than his hours net salary. If the Pendolinos would be supremely comfortable, I would not mind the extra cost, but they are not. The seats are too small, of airliner design and there is not enough leg room. Strange ways of running its business are those of the Finnish State Railways. 
From the Tampere station I cycled to my mother's place, which is 6 km away. It took only 21 minutes, which is not too much. So, if I took the Pendolino, I would make the whole trip in 4+78+21 or 103 minutes, which is certainly faster than I could make by car (legally). A bit academic, for I do not own a car. 

Names directory 

What is the purpose of the names directory? Is it some public good for the spamming community? Who pays for it? Or is it just someone's weird hobby? A billion people in the net means millions of odd pages. 

Zoo 

I visited the Helsinki Zoo (Korkeasaari) on Monday afternoon. I was surprised how good time it was to visit the zoo. There were only a few other visitors, and most of them very solemn. The animal offspring were cute and interesting to observe. Little bears ate their vegetable lunch eagerly, but did not know how to peel oranges. So they simply crushed them. Their 4-year father used his nails and peeled oranges in no time. The bears seems to save oranges for dessert, after potatoes, carrots, cabbages, etc. Bears are getting ready for their winter sleep and spend most of their time eating. They have no time for playing. 
Owls (great eagle owl, great grey owl, snowy owl) were alert and followed my movement thoughtfully. A lone gree peafowl walked around eating dead wasps. The camels were hugging each other. Parrots made their noises and fought each other lazily. Kangaroos were eating and did not mind emus in their quarters. The lone sloth was moving slowly and a pair of skunks were not much more agile. A quiet afternoon well spent. 

A new method 

The new Method Putkisto promises to teach how to exercise in three dimension, or 3D. I would be more interested, if it would tell me how to move in two dimension. I happen to have problems in narrow passages. 

Saturday 06-09-16 

Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end. Igor Stravinsky 

Autumn 

Autumn is coming. The wasps are getting slow. Their numbers are going down, which I assume means that the temperature has been close or even blow zero during the night. The young swans are almost ready for flying to their winter homes. I have to wear a jacket. Squirrels are storing nuts etc. Winter is coming. I hope we have enough energy to keep us warm over the winter. 

A letter to the editor 

My letter to editor of Helsingin sanomat was published today. Nice. I am waiting for responses. 

Wednesday 06-09-13 

We know not where we come from, still less where we are going, and to keep from going crazy while we are here, we want to feel that we truly belong to a specific part of the world. James Kunstler

Going off-line 

I will be off-line for a day or two. I have found that internet and email are just too addictive and quite useless time drains. So, I have decided to cut down the time I spend online. I find, that I learn much more by reading books than e.g browsing Wikipedia. 

What engineers know 

A good article on the epistemology of engineering by Citt: What engineers know. Even better would be to read Walter Vincenti's book What engineers know and how they know it, but I do not have it at hand right now. Maybe I will order it from Amazon. 

Wasps eating herring 

Some anonymous American does not believe that wasps eat herrings. Well, I took some photos to show that I am not hallucinating. See the picture on the right.

Tuesday 06-09-12 

The ideal engineer is a composite ... He is not a scientist, he is not a mathematician, he is not a sociologist or a writer; but he may use the knowledge and techniques of any or all of these disciplines in solving engineering problems. N. W. Dougherty

Plan for today 

After having morning coffee with S in the marketplace: finishing "The geography of nowhere" and "Powerdown", taking a look at my newest book No one makes you shop at Wal-Mart — the surprising deceptions of individual choice by Tom Slee, having some exercise by walking one the books (as in walking the dog), writing, and later cooking. As Conan M says: "We are going to have a great show today". 

At the market place 

A jackdaw proved his cleverness. He made quite a noise just to get everyone's attention for a while and then to lose it. Then he made sure that the vegetable seller turned her back and flew to get a pod of peas. He then ate the peas on a transformer, where pigeons could not land, and repeated the trick. We saw him stealing 4 pods. 
Wasps are getting more desperate. They had made the fish seller (merchant) desperate by buzzing on his fish. The seller had to put some herrings aside for the wasps. There were hundreds of wasp eating the herrings. Quite a buzz. 

Monday 06-09-11 

It is better to live than lie dead. A dead man gathers no goods. I saw warm fire at a wealthy man's house, himself dead at the door. Viking wisdom from the 8th century. 

A good day 

A good day was today. I woke early, walked to the market place for a cup of coffee and sunshine (it is a 10-minute walk through a bustling neighborhood full of shops, cafes, bars, restaurants). How luxurious it is to live in a city like this, to have all one needs withing 10-minute walking distance. So many people life in poorer places: most Americans do. Poor them. 
From the market place, I took a tram and rode it around the city for an hour. Very relaxing. 
Later, I cycled through parks to the Helsinki Institute of Technology to take part in a course on "Global sustainable technologies". Today's lecture was not remarkable for someone with my level of knowledge, but I am sure the rest of the series will be better. The lecturers seems to be some of the leading experts in Finland — I want to know what is the level of understanding of global problems and their effects on Finland before I start my campaign. 
Oh, but it was nice to realize, that I can continue studying various issues in Finnish universities now that I am back here, most likely for good. It feels good, and it feels excellent to realize that I have roots here, I belong to a community here. 3 years of living abroad has made me more conscious of my root, and my need for belonging. Nothing to be ashamed of, I would say. 
Even later, I had a few cups of coffee by the sea, in a park, then cycled back home, read for an hour, and went swimming for 30 minutes. Now, after a nice dinner, writing and reading. 

Intelligent houses 

Helsingin sanomat, the local newspaper, ran an article on intelligent houses on Sunday. The article complained that despite well-meant efforts and lots of attention there are not that many of those intelligent houses around. Some houses are able to automatically adjust their temperature depending on occupancy. Such things. 
In 1920s Le Corbusier famously claimed that house is a machine for living and designed accordingly. In 1920s, especially in Europe, architects were fascinated by machines, factories and the cultural forms they bred. Thus, even houses were seen and designed as machines, with form strictly following function etc (for more, see e.g. "Human-built world" by Hughes or "Experiencing architecture" by Rasmussen). 
The same thing is happening today, only on a smaller scale. The dominant new technology affects architecture and the way we all see buildings. If biotechnology ever becomes as big a business as IT is now, it will be very interesting what a bio-house will look like. "A house as a cell", "A house is a gene of culture". 

Sunday 06-09-10 

This communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects; for it redoubleth joy, and cutteth griefs in half. Francis Bacon

Shell on climate change 

Check this out: Shell says that climate is changing and governments should mandate conservation. They have understood, that it makes business changes not to try to fool the nature. It is better for Shell that changes in the business environment would come slowly or gradually. If the government drag their feet much longer, the necessary changes will be abrupt later. That would not be good for Shell either. Shell also thinks (quite correctly) that it will have good opportunities in any new energy systems. 
So, the first step would be to raise (gradually, in 3 years) the price of gasoline to 5 euros per liter and then 15% per year afterwards. We really need to understand, that energy resources are limited and we must make do with smaller amount of energy. Transportation is one of the easiest parts of the energy puzzle, for most movement of humans and things is not strictly necessary - the supply chains will adapt very fast - even commuting distances will shorten when gasoline becomes more expensive. And companies have to relocate offices to places where people live, which in Europe means in cities, not along highways. 
The other easy part is to insulate houses better and reduce the need of heating and cooling. It is very easy and most apartments would not have to be heated at all, not even in Finland for the most of the year. And when they are heated, some 18C would be quite enough. 
More later. As usual. This is my favourite subject. I need to get into energy business. Any ideas how I could get in there? Well, maybe starting my own engineering / consulting company would do. 

A short autumn 

We had a short autumn here in Helsinki yesterday. It was windy, 13C, overcast. Quite nive, I like autumns, the wind playing with my ponytail, leaves flying, people still smiling, but slowly withdrawing in winter. 
Today, it was again 19C, sunny, but still windy. We celebrated life by eating 10 dishes made from Baltic herring in the restaurant Musta Hevonen and by drinking coffee in Cafe Regatta. Again, I got to speak with many curious people after I folded my Brompton. Much better than a dog. 

Falun Gong/Dafa, fascism, and appeasers 

Supporters or members of Falun Gong/Dafa, a Chinese movemement, staged a demonstration yesterday in front of the hotel, in which the Chinese premier supposedly stayed. According to Falun Gong, the Chinese government their members arrests FG-members, tortures them, and sell their organs to the highest bidder. More information about this at some independent website.
If the allegation are true and the Chinese government is really selling the organs and killing the "donors", they are simply following the example of the Nazis. The Nazis did not use organs (for medicine was not advanced enough back then), but they used skin of their victims as lamp-shields etc. 
The appalling deeds of the Chinese government (current dictators) are nothing new. After all, they have killed some 70 million of their subjects during the last 60 years, or more than a million a year. 
On the other hand, Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Bush should redirect their war on fascism. Rumsfeld and Bush see fascism in Iraq (where there is no central government to speak of). The real fascism seems to thrive in China. The main appeasers of the Chinese are, well, all of us, for we cannot live without whatever cheap the Chinese produce for us. And I cannot lay the blame to anyone's door but mine, for I lived there and helped the fascists to thrive. 

Misc links 

Suicides by location on the Golden Gate bridge", a chilling story of human desperation. Secret fighter planes of the US air force tells about different sort of desperation. If the US government would use, say, 25% of its defence/offence budget on fighting the global warming, it would be kind of cool. 

History repeating itself 

One of the main lessons one can learn from the eastern front of WWII is that the political leaders would do well to listen to their general. In particular, it is not wise to fire (or threaten to fire, or even to execute) generals, who just give their professional views on the war, or planning of the war. 
Now it seems that Mr. Rumsfeld has not read his history. According to a retired general, Mr. Rumsfeld threatened to fire anyone who mentioned the need for post war planning. So, there were no planning. Unfortunately for the USA, Mr. Rumsfeld's authority does not extend outside the USA. The Iraqis and others in the Middle-East planned well. 
The other lesson from the WWII is that most generals are whining sissies. They only speak up from the safety of retirement. No general even stands or stood up to their political masters, for generals cannot give up their prestige voluntarily. Quite heroes! 
Some lesser officers are bigger heroes and have their spines made of moral steel. One just guit the UK-army because of the blunders the British army in Afghanistan. It seems that captains are not as corrupted by their power than generals are. 
LA Times runs a long article on whether the USA is winning its war on terror. Most likely not, the article seems to conclude. 

Understanding 

A local grocery store chain is looking for some mid-level managers. The first qualification is ymmärrät suomalaisen ruuan arvon (you understand the value of Finnish food). Quite strange, for I assume that they really want to applicant to agree on some part of their corporate culture. Understanding the value of food, well, maybe being a glutton would help. 

Fair trade of coffee 

Cafe Regata is a fair trader of brewed coffee. The first cup costs 1.9 euros. Each additional cup costs -0.05 euros. A place for a caffeine addict to spend several hours but not only for the coffee. The views over the Laajalahti-bay are nice. 

Game night 

Finally, the almost-monthly game night at Lemmy's with Kewl, Jytky, Ile, Janne, Teppo and my brother Make present. Make played well and scored 600 million in Indiana Jones. It took me 3 hours more to score 130 million in Adams Family. I also tried to play some computer games (car racing), but failed quite badly: my lap time was 6 minutes, while other completed the lap in 2 minutes or less. 
Somehow yesterday was not a good day for pinball. The balls drained in no time and did not go where I wanted them. Strange. 

Saturday 06-09-08 

If you don't do it excellently, don't do it at all. Because if it's not excellent, it won't be profitable or fun, and if you're not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there? Robert Townsend

Dog vs. Brompton 

It has been said, that buying a dog is a good way to get to know more people in the neighborhood. That may be, but dogs are messy, require a lot of attention. It is much better to buy a Brompton folding bike. Just riding it makes one an instant celebrity, but parking it makes friends. Most people cannot help but become curious when seeing how a Brompton (un)folds. 

Again, Cole on Iraq 

Juan Cole writes in Salon on how the Iraq is breaking in three parts and civil war is intensifying. Scary stuff for the whole world. Given the energy predicament we really do not need any indefinite (civil) wars on top of the oil fields. We would need some peace, an agreement to save some of the oil for medicines and other necessities. Not for just driving around in the search of the lost meaning of our lives. 

Absentmindedness 

I have been absentminded lately. Twice this week I was about to bake bread and went to buy yeast from the shop nearby. I remember that I took two packages of yeast from the shelf, paid it. Somehow the yeast got lost before I was home. Strange. Today, I bought a kalakukko in the market hall, then some rice from an Asian shop. After cycling some 500 meters, I stopped to rearrange my bag. The kalakukko was gone! After some confusion, I found it in the Asian store. 
Should I visit some doctor? Is this the beginning of the irreversible decline of my formidable mental powers? 

Important men 

Important men are always on the leading edge of technology. Currently, the most advanced thing is to wear a blue-tooth headset all the time. Now that even grandmothers have mobile phones, the important men wear those headsets even when having fun with their kids in an amusement park. How would we recognize their importance otherwise? Furthermore, the boss may call any time and the important men have to be ready to answer. Their working hours are flexible hours. Their is never off-duty nor off-line. 
Or maybe they are convicts with high-tech collars.

Friday 06-09-08 

I have no further use for America. I wouldn't go back there if Jesus Christ was President. Charlie Chaplin

Climate change and birth of civilization 

Some scientists claim, that the first civilization arose because of dried up climate. Before the climate change, people were happily hunting and gathering in small tribes. Then the climate got drier and they had to form larger groups, start agriculture, build cities in order to survive. 
We may be at the end of 10000 years on stable climate. What lies ahead is a mystery. If we would have abundant sources of energy (and some wisdom), I assume we would do well. It is just a bit unfortunate that we will run out of energy just as we would need it most. How stupid it was to spend most fossil fuel on cars and related infrastructure. How unfortunate it is, that we cannot even think 20 years ahead. And that we clearly do not possess any political wisdom. 

Scary state 

According to an article in the Guardian, a woman in persistent vegetative state (a.k.a. brain dead) is able both to understand when spoken to and to perform mental task when asked. This is a hugely important discovery, but I cannot but imagine the horror of being trapped in such a state. I do hope it does not happen to me. If it does, please read me some poetry, Russian novels, and daily newspapers. Thanks in advance. 

More swimming 

Not bad. Today I swam 750 meters in 23 minutes, of which I must have rested at leat 8. I just cannot swim slow enough for my fitness. I swam too fast 50 meters and then spend about as must time panting as swimming. Tomorrow, 1000 meters in less than 30 minutes — should be easy if I can slow down. 
After exercise, lunch at Weeruska (fried white fish and mashed potatoes), then something else. Later today, Moonlight swimming in the Olympic swimming stadion and maybe some ska in the Nosturi-club. 

Brokeback mountain 

We saw the movie "Brokeback mountain". I am no good as a movie critic. So I just fell through the movie and came out crying. I assume that was the intention of Ang Lee, the director. The moral of the movie is to screw the norms and live one's love, no matter who one loves. And not to go to the mountains to drink whisky in excess. One must not give Aphrodite too good an opportunity to strike. 
I also fell through the seat. For the second time, the seats in the Maxim-theater could not handle my intensive manner of watching movies. It is quite funny to find oneself on the floor in the middle of a fight scene. 

Thursday 06-09-07 

By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher. Socrates

Swimming 

Summer is over, thus it is just the right time for swimming in open air pools. There are tow of them in Helsinki, the bigger one built for the Helsinki Olympics in the 1940s. It is right next door, so I walked up the hill and swam some 500 meters. Not much, but I am not fit at all. Tomorrow, I will swim 750 meters and on Saturday a whole kilometer. I will be so fit and trim in the beginning of October. You may not even recognize me anymore...

Wednesday 06-09-06 

Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power of judgment. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller, and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and a lack of harmony or portion is more readily seen. Leonardo da Vinci

Ford gets help from Boeing 

A top executive from Boeing (how many do they have?) has become the CEO of Ford. He does not have any auto industry experience, which in case of Ford may actually be a good thing. In any case, auto industry is not the place to invest for any longer period, for its peak is well past. The same is true for the airliner industry as well, so the new nomination is right on the mark. Two dying industries getting together for the last mile. I just wonder how an executive from military/b2b industry will manage a consumer product company. Time will tell, but the omens are what they are. 

Soccer 

Somehow I developed an interest in soccer and ice hockey. I enjoy watching them in a bar with hundreds other fans. I do not know why, for I am usually not tempted to this kind of group activities. Is it just the beer or is there something more to it? Anyway, I, Petri and Mila wathed Finland against Portugal today in bar Mascot and bar Gothan City. Finland played well: 1-1. 

Cole on Bush 

Juan Cole has written a clever analysis on the Bush administration's "war on terror", which Cole thinks is just an excuse for getting US hand on the oil in the Middle-East and its vicinity. Cole concludes, somewhat arrogantly 

Bush is undermining our Republic, gutting our rights, spending us into penury, and smearing a great civilization, in order to get his grubby fingers on the Ellipse. You get to pay for it twice, once at the pump and once on your annual tax return.

My dear readers in the USA. Please vote for the other party in November and impeach Bush away. It is certainly in your, even short term and financial, interests. 

Baking 

When I was younger, I used to bake a lot. Sometimes I even baked 32 loaves of bread in one morning. Then I started to work and to buy bread from the grocery store. How stupid! I bake better bread and it is way cheaper. Baking is also fun. So, I baked some bread today. It was fun indeed. 

Trees of Finland, improved 

After returning from the monthly Tuesday-meeting, I improved my tree portal. Now it has links to USDA's PLANTS-database. Internet is amazing!

Tuesday 06-09-05 

Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind. Leonardo da Vinci 

Trees of Finland 

METLA, the Finnish forestry research institute, has published a new list of list of trees of Finland. I compiled another list with links to Google images, for I want to know what the trees look like. 

Nice weather 

The weather is very nice today. 17 C, sunny, no wind to mention. A perfect day for cycling. I think I will ride a bit longer, but very slow trip later today. 

New books 

Two new books today. 

• Democratic Politics Globally — elements for a dialogue on global political party formations by Katarina Sehm-Patomäki, Marko Ulvila — a collection of essay on the possibility and necessity of global political parties or something like parties. A very interesting book, of which I read 25 percent during the publication party yesterday. 
• Developing products in half the time by Preston G. Smith, Donald G. Reinertsen — another book full of make-shift silver bullets. I am planning my own book on similar topics, thus I need to read about the previous ones. And reading these books helps me to maintain my professional skills. 

Monday 06-09-04 

If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Free WLAN in a park 

I am writing these notes in the Esplanade-park in Helsinki. The city has provided the park with a free WLAN. Rather nice. I should have realized this earlier, for this is a fun place to read, write and observe people. 

Again books 

Some new books again: 

• The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel by Stephen Leeb, Glen Strathy
• Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape by James Howard Kunstler
• Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World by Richard Heinberg — an excellent summary of the situation, written with less passion than Kunstler's books on the same topic. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to meet our future now and can handle the truth, the fact that we are now richer than we will ever be. 
• Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the 21st Century by James Howard Kunstler

I think it is time not to order any new books for a while. I have now enough material for my series of articles on the interesting times ahead. It will be very hard for us in Finland to cut down our energy usage. We have no choice, though. Sometimes, I get anxious, almost borderline depressed when I think about these issues. I get better when I think that we, my generation and the next one or two, are the ones to decide how the human civlization will continue, or whether it will at all. Not that I would have a big say on these issues, but not trying would drive me over to the darkness of something I do not wish to explore. Thus, no matter what kind of a job I will have, I know what I will be devoting my efforts to. 

Confusing enough. I try to retain my sanity and continue to entertain you, my dear readers. And anyway, during the next few decades, there will be interesting and endless immensity of problems for us to solve. No time to get depressed. 
Thanks to S for the excellent quote of the day. It gives us a direction.

Linux: 15 years since it began 

It was 15 years ago, that Mr. Torvalds posted his famous letter and the first version of the kernel. Since that, Linux has spread and is now the market leader in super computing, and significant player (if not leader) in embedded systems. 
To celebrate, COSS and others had called for a celebration, or a series of talks at the University of Helsinki, where it all began. I enjoyed most Jon Maddog Hall's talk. He was entertaining and energetic. He emphasized how free SW frees us from SW slavery, gives us freedom to use SW as we please, to modify it, and to be independent from necessarily transient SW companies. I also agree with his motto: always fight against the work 'impossible'. 
See the website for videos of the talks. 

Sunday 06-09-03 

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. Samuel Beckett 

War on terror 

War on terror in the Bourne shell. Very accurate. 
Here, a great map of NYC subways to help terrorists and others to find their targets. I so miss NYC. 

Weekend 

Just to remember. On Friday, after a decent day in the office, a visit to the public "Kotiharjun sauna". It is always as fun as one can imagine to have a bath there. Someday, I will ask the old lady to give me a wash. So far, I have chickened out. Even without the old lady, I have to agree with Olli, who said: "Kotiharju sauna is Helsinki at its best". I hope many foreigners dare to visit as well. After Sauna, dinner in the restaurant Bullman and a pint in the cheapest watering hole around, the Roskapankki-pub. At that point, Lauri left leaving me, Olli, and Mikael to sort out the future of the telecom business. It is still a bit messy, for we got tired and left. 
On Saturday, morning coffee with S in the Hakaniemi-marketplace. A market is a place to see the whole span of human life from the sublime to the vulgar, the rich to the poor, the young to the old. By a entrance, a group of youth athletes were chatting, while a group of drunkards were warming in the morning sun. What a contrast of fortunes, but how long will it last. How many of the athletes will join the drunkards? 
We bought some quilts etc in Hemtex, a Swedish linen shop, which seems to run sales every other month. They are never cheap, but quality is decent. 
Kö paid us a visit, always welcome. We had a nice walk by the sea, Finnish fish-lunch at Kontan Möljä, etc, later we watched Finland beating Poland in soccer (in a pub) and then visited some other bars. On Sunday, Kössi and S literally forced me to the new ferris wheel in the Linnanmäki amusement park. I was very scared, but I have to admit that the views are nice. Later, napping and idling. 

Wasps 

Wasps are funny in the autumn. They do not have to feed the nest anymore, they feel their time is up, and they just want to party. Wasps' idea of good time seems to include eating meat and sugar as much as they can. They are fearless, buzz around and land on pizzas and pies. Funny creatures, making eating outside very entertaining. 
When oil will run out, or become very expensive, most humans will become wasps, trying to eke out a living on the expense of others. 

Fate of a beer drinker 

The fate, or course of life, of beer drinker goes: höpö, röhö, löhö, pöhö, möhö, in Finnish. After a wonderful weekend, I have progressed to the "löhö"-phase, just taking naps all day long. I hope my progress stops here. 

August 2006 

Thursday 06-08-31 

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. John Cage 

First rain 

Today the rain finally came and caught me cycling. It was quite nice rain, warm and light. I enjoyed my ride from our office to home, some 35 minutes. I did get wet but happy. More rain, please, tomorrow. Decent weather is not good for spirit, inclement weather is: it makes one feel alive, close to the elements. 

Normal days 

Not too bad, some bouts of stress and anxiety for not being able to work with full speed, force and intensity. I am so work dependent, cannot just take it easy. But when I just do something, I feel better. Thus, I will have to continue blogging daily. At least. 
On Tuesday, we went to listen to Ethiopian jazz. There was a band with one Ethiopian member, but they played some elevator jazz. Boring. Standard, not dangerous. Fortunately we did not pay anything for the music. We invested our money in drinks and food outside the venue (we equals to S, Pekka, Maritta, and Aaro) 
On Wednesday, Olli and Maritta invited us over for a dinner. A nice it dinner it turned out to be, indeed. Some superb pie and enough drinks to go with it plus pleasant conversations. 
Today S left for a funeral, I am alone at home writing, reading, listening to the Strokes etc. 

Stupid questions 

My Nokia E61-phone has an irritating habit of asking for confirmations. If I select "close application", it always ask "are you sure?". It does not make any sense. When I say I want to close an application, I mean it. Windows applications have similar habits. 
Imagine how fun it will be, when the engineers of stupid questions will design and build a house. You close a door, it pops open and asks you whether you really want to close it. Turning of lights when leaving a room will require repetitive flipping of the light switches. And when you try to get some snacks from the fridge, the door will shut down on you fingers while a nasty voice asks whether you really want to open the fridge. 

Some links 

If you are in a good mood, check Bush's fiascoes. You will either cry or laugh or both. Just hilarious to think of a nation entertaining such a person as the president. Begs understanding. 
A security engineering book is available for free. I know I should read it. So I have things to do at work for a while now. To be secure, use tor. I do not, for I like risks, I am too careless. 

A dream trip 

Check this out: round the world by a cargo vessel for only some 70 euros per day, all inclusive. Just too wonderful, something I definitely have to do sooner than later. What would be nicer: slightly rolling vessel, ocean, books, great food, enough drugs, and a computer to write books with. A reason to work and save some money, I assume. 

Monday 06-08-28 

iI think we have had a bad habit, as a species, of thinking of ourselves in our separate little pods. Now we have to think in terms of a global outlook. Maya Lin 

Interesting times coming 

The US housing market bubble is bursting. It is blowing forcefully enough to drive away the early hurricanes. It will be interesting to see, whether the floor really falls off from the market. If it does, Americans have to stop spending, for they cannot any more re-mortgage their houses. This could have some nasty consequences: maybe a refreshing period of recessions is just around the McMansion. 
According to Long emergency, the natural gas supply almost failed to meet the demand in the USA in the winter of 2003. The authorities had a clever plan: first shutting down some industries (plastics etc), then shutting down power plants, and only them cutting off heating of homes. The idea was that citizen would be happier while sitting in the warm darkness than in the illuminated cold. 
Accordign to the Guardian, similar problems of supply may come in the UK soon: British Gas owner says winter fuel supplies are uncertain". I wonder which kind of emergency plan the UK authorities have? 
Not that we would be that well of in Finland. We are running parts of our district heating with Russian natural gas. The gas many stop flowing. Lately, I have been wondering, whether a nuclear power plant in Helsinki would make a lot of sense. If it is safe etc enough to run such a plant in the countryside, it should be so in Helsinki. We could then use the heat for warming our houses instead of the ocean. I also tend to think, that Finland should develop full nuclear fuel cycle from mining to handling of the waste — we do have enough uranium in our bedrock anyway. 

Coaching 

Is it possible to coach someone, who refuses to try new things, clings to old ways even though they have not helped in the past? Is it not a sign of madness to insist on non-working ways of working? How large a difference can there be between the skills and knowledge of the coach and those of the coached? Can one teach someone, who have no idea, no interest, just contempt? 
I assume teachers in the elementary school know the answers. I do not. When confronted with too wide a difference, I cannot but fail. 
A mixture of ignorance and arrogance is a toxic brew in all fields of human endeavour. 

Saturday 06-08-26 

We are no longer, like Job, struggling with God, but struggling in a network of our own godlike powers that we have not mastered. Elting Morison, MIT

Some new books — again 

Life has been busy and good. Some new books have also joined our library. New books are always welcome. Since the last entry: 

• Jasenovac and the holocaust in Yugoslavia: analysis and survivor testimonies edited by Barry M. Lituchy — a very important book about the torturous past of the Balkans. Mr Lituchy, spouse of Riitta, has done a great favour both to the Balkan community and to the writing of history in general. I have read parts of the book and it is really interesting and shocking. There are two copies of the book in Finland. The other is in the Library of the University of Helsinki - check it out!
• Human-built world: how to think about technology and culture by Thomas P. Hughes — another great book by professor Hughes. The books tells how public intellectuals, engineers, scientist, philosophers, and novelists have understood and thought about technology. The attitudes have changed a lot as technology has progressed, some externalities have become threatening and so far solved. A book, which anyone puzzled about technology should read. A short one,quite easy reading. 
• Mao, the unknown story by Jung Chang, Jon Halliday — the new biography of Mao. This books tells all details of the tyranny of Mao, the mass-murderer of all times. Not read yet, not even started, but all reviews are full of praise. 
• Process for system architecture and requirements engineering by Hatley et all  — another book, which claims to show us how to do it fast, easy, and reliably. I bought it, since I want to become conversant in all architecting frameworks — I will then synthesise my own. 
• Managing the design factory by Donald G. Reinertsen — another book on how to speed up product development. Contains theories on organization, information, queues, etc and their applications. Well worth skimming; a decent reference. 
• IT architecture toolkit  by Jane A. Carbone — as above, just to become conversant in IT architecting. 

Observation bias 

For a long time I have thought that more women than men commute by bicycle. I thought that there would be at least two women per each man cycling to work. One day it occurred to me that I may suffer from observation bias. To test my observations, I counted the commuters. The result was shocking: 41 men, 40 woman. 
It really is necessary to verify apparent observations and be vary of selection bias. 

Daily entries 

Not that I remember what I have been up to lately. Days have been sunny, warm, similar to each other. Work has been work. My bike has been broken since last Saturday (me being too heavy and spokes being too fragile). Some notable days have been, though. Yesterday, we (me and Lavonardo) has an SIG at the U. Kaleva bar. I have not enjoyed beer that much for a long time. 
Last weekend, S had her birthday. We intended to celebrate it by the Kaitalampi-lake in Espoo, but my bicycle decided otherwise. We then celebrated by the Vantaankoski-rapids as long as some wedding party forced us away. Later, nice dinner at Weeruska. On Sunday, her relatives visited us. Even later, we visited the Lenin-park for some petanque. 
On Tuesday, I visited Tuusula/Hyrylä, a town some 30 kilometers north of Helsinki. To my surprise, there is a bus going 200 meters from our home to Tuusula making the trip easy. The trip back proved that pubic transit is excellent in the greater Helsinki. It took exactly 60 minutes from Hyrylä to my office in Espoo by bus. Not bad, as it is about 40 kilometers or more. 
We (I, Maunu, Heikki, Hannu and S) visited restaurant Bellevue on Tuesday. It is one of the oldest Russian restaurants outside Russia. Food was even better than I remembered, very close to perfect. I had monkfish with some kind of risotto and creme of almonds for dessert. 
Oh, it makes sense to read the U.S Survival Manual, for one can never know what is going to happen next. 
Also, checking what the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) thinks is going to happen is worth a few minutes. 

Wednesday 06-08-16 

He will sit here and he will say "Do this! Do that!". And nothing will happen. Harry S. Truman 

Hurricanes are coming 

The annual hurricane season is starting in the USA. According to NASA, there is an oppressive heat wave moving accross USA. As the wave moves, it will heat the surface water of the ocean. But the water is already warm enough for hurricanes. Brace yourself. The federal government is fully occupied by its wars of choice and by its obsession of hunting a few terrorists. The levees of New Orleans have not been repaired properly and will never be. 

Tuesday 06-08-15 

You can never plan the future by the past. Edmund Burke

Random links for wasting time 

Some links, just for wasting free time etc. 

• Thunder radar of Finland
• Rain, temperature, etc in the Southern Finland
• The biggest power plants 
• How to talk in California, dude
• Grizzly bears in their own webcam
• 100 best books - a list 
• 100 best books - another list 
• 100 best books - still another 
• 100 best books - 4th list 
• 100 best books - 5th list 
• Top-10 technoculture books for killing some extra time in a bar

Rain 

Today it rained for the first time in about 45 days. Quite a relief, the air is clearer now, one can smell the vegetation, grass is growing. Maybe we could even get mushrooms, if we get some more rain soon. 

Murders and their places 

As we can see the terrorists have mostly attacked other places than airliners. Do not tell this to the security theater manager at the airport though. He will not be too amused. 

No fun 

In a TV-shop advertisement of a new training machine, the host says: Nobody exercises because it is fun, one must see results as well. If having fun is not good enough a reason for having exercise, we have lost all hope. Life cannot be so benefit-driven, even adults must be able, without shame, to enjoy, to just have fun. 
But on the other hand, it is quite OK, even in the TV-shop world, to have fun in some commercial fun-place. How pathetic can people become? 

A new book 

On Saturday, I could not resist the lure of the Academic bookstore. I almost could and arrived there only 15 minutes before closing time. I bought The long emergency — surviving the converging catastrophes of the 21st century by James Howard Kunstler. The basic claim of the book is that when we will pass by the Hubbert peak of oil production and oil will become more and more expensive (while oil supply will become irregular), the our way of living will just simply implode. Our lifestyle depends almost totally on oil and gas - from mobility to pharmaceuticals to plastics to agriculture. Kunstler claims quite convincingly that we have to revert back to local communities, devote much more of our effort to producing food and other rather basic necessities. Also, a long period of anarchy and unrest may ensue as government lose their ability to govern when they do not have enough fuel. 
Kunstler claim is not original, of course. Many other authors (even in Finland: Paloheimo) have written about the same things, but not many have done so with as much clarity. So, even if we somehow manage to avoid the worst of the global warming, our civilization is at stake. 
Also Stephen Hawking has been wondering, whether the human race survive the next hundred years by posting the question on Yahoo. He does not know, neither do I, but I would like to be optimist. The human civilization is, as far we know, the only one, and it would be a great pity to destroy it. 

Check also Our final century by Sir Martin Rees. 

Something has happened 

Well, some terrorists (or actually murderers) apparently tried to pull of a 10-year old plot, but the ever vigilant Scotland Yard and MI5 caught them in time. At the same time, a new era of aviation began: more draconian restrictions, ridiculous restrictions. Well, maybe fewer people will fly, which would be just a very good thing. But, since the authorities (e.g. FAA, BAA, TSA) are always a bit late, they cannot even figure out what really motivates the terrorists. As long we do not want to deal with their motivations, their rather legitimate grievances, we will have these plots. Some plots will succeed. But still, they should pull of a plot like this one every month and even then they would not be able to kills as many travellers as cars kill in USA alone every year. 
By the way, the Iraqi war, civil or non-civil, killed some 3400 civilians in July, which is, if I remember correctly, more than 9/11 did. How come Iraqi civilians do not matter? Why are we not worried about their lifes, trying really to do something to stop the slaughter? Just wondering. 
Let's not be afraid, let's refuse to be terrorized and the terrorist cannot do anything at us. From the history we know, that people are capable of not being afraid. For example, people sat through operas even under German air raids in Moscow in 1942. Etc. 
On personal side, we visited Harri with Mirja last Tuesday. It is always fun to spend a night with three philosophers. I do not consider myself one. On Wednesday, I helped Olli to move some of his stuff to a temporary home for they have water-pipe renovation ongoing. On Thursday, I met with Fernando, who used to study in MIT (SDM04). A nice person, always full of energy and enthusiasm. On Friday, well, nothing much, just walking in parks and seeing a local male-Madonna's show (Antti Tuisku in Linnanmäki). On Saturday, nothing. On Sunday, a nice bicycle trip to Hvitträsk with S &mdash the home of Eliel Saarinen, one of the great architects of Finland. 
Check also an interesting story about a dead dog which lives on inside new dogs. Way freakish. 

Wednesday, 2006-08-09 

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on. Richard P. Feynman 

Smoke 

It has not rained for a month now. The whole area is a tinderbox. In Russia, large areas are burning. We are getting the smoke, it is even getting inside our office and we cannot smell the sweet smell of inspiration and self-started motivation anymore. 
Check the location of fires yourself. 

Oil shortage in USA 

The US department of energy is about to open the strategic oil reserve, because BP's oil pipe broke in Alaska. The pipe transfers 8 percent of oil produced in the USA. USA does not produce all oil it uses, so we can estimate that the pipe will have an impact of at most 5 percent on the US oil supply. 
There is a simpler and safer solution for the shortage. Just enforce the existing speed limits. Most cars in US highways speed, even up to 80 miles per hours. If that would not happen, average miles per gallon would increase and almost surely reduce the demand by the required amount (5 percent of the oil supply). 

Monday 06-08-07 

No wife, no life. Indian proverb

Support Antiwar.com 

Please, consider donating a few dollars to Antiwar.com. It is an excellent, independent news-site and collect news and commentary on the growing militarism. By reading antiwar.com one will stay uptodate with the latest developments and also find fresh ideas how to oppose the dark force, and stand up for the rights of us all. 

Telecommuting and fair housing 

One of the themes of the housing fare was telecommuting. Several apartments and houses had separate rooms for the home office. Does this development make any sense? Let us calculate. 
Assume that the home office has 10 square meters. It is a small one, but bigger than most cubicles. The average price in the fair was about 3000 euros per square meter. Thus the home office costs about 30000 euros, which is about (or above) annual net salary of an average office clerk. 
The average price of office space for a cubicle is maybe 500 euros a month, or even more. So, the more telecommuters, the more the employers saves, if they can convince/order employees to give up their personal cubicles in the office. 
So, the clerk uses 30keuros of his money (plus interest) and enables the employer to save some 4000 euros a year. The employer is happy, of course, as the stock rises and options are worth something. The office clerk is basically screwed, forced to pay for the tools and equipment necessary for doing the work. 
Unless employers start to share the savings caused by telecommuting with employees, telecommuting is not financially sensible. It may well be sensible emotionally, if telecommuter is more efficient than the car commuter and gets to spend more time with kids, pets, etc. Or just idling, moving the lawn, building one's house, or drinking with other telecommuters. 
The question why we still need large companies is a good one. Most likely networks of independent professionals would be must more efficient and stable. See e.g. the book The future of work by some MIT-professor. Or read what Kallo Isokallio, former Nokia CEO, writes in today's Iltalehti.

Romantic fragrance

It is nice to wake up in the center of the city and smell the smoke from burning birches. It reminds me of the countryside. Apparently, there are some large forest fires raging somewhere nearby, most probably in the western Russia. But there were quite many in southern Finland last weekend as well, some of them arsons. 
If this weather (27C yesterday) and no rain coming this week (or having come for the last N weeks) is not due to the global warming, it is at least a cause for a local warning. The nature, trees most notably, cannot take the heat and drought. 

Sun 06-08-06 

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome. Samuel Johnsson 

A hidden need 

Nivea has found a hidden need. To meet the need, Nivea has now introduced a new deodorant, which beautifies underarm skin. In the TV-ad, a man tells a woman, that the he likes her underarms more than anything else in her. I would say this is bizarre, if not downright perverse. 

Housing fair 

We (S, Satu, I) visited the annual Finnish housing fair today. Not that we would be considering building or buying a house — property is still a nuisance — but just to check how $400000-euro detached houses look like. We also wanted to see the crowds, see their reactions, hear their comments. 
Well, what would I get with my imaginary half million euros by buying a house. Quite a lot of space, about 170 sq meters or more. 2 living rooms with large screen TVs. A huge sauna with at least two showers and a toilet seat next to them. Another two-shower bathroom with another toilet seat, maybe behind a class wall. Usually two bedrooms (there are more showers than people living in the house). Sometimes, or quite often, the sauna is not in the building, but in a smaller sauna-building. A few terraces, very suitable for BBQs during the long Finnish winter. No places for bookshelves, but always a large fireplace. 
Actually, it would not be too difficult to build those house with $250000 euros or less. I would do it by just cutting down on the bathroom sizes, not building the separate sauna building, installing a bit smaller (less fancy) kitchen equipment. That would do it. 
Some smaller houses were more sensible, but not all. One has a bedroom, a kitchen, a living room and a sauna. All in different floors. Keeps one fit, I assume. 
In all, very interesting trip. About Kauklahti, the suburb where the fair is, I have no other comment, but that it is a bit too far from the Academic bookstore. And from and decent restaurant. 

Indian food, wine, and sauna

The restaurant Poiju in Ruoholahti has a nice terrace by a canal. They serve Indian (north) food etc, but the best offer is chicken korma for two and a bottle of wine for 24 euros. It is a real bargain in Helsinki. The food is decent, wine drinkable Chilean. We spent a nice couple of hours, but of course bought another bottle of wine for 16 euros, thus falling in their trap, happily though. The restaurant is reachable by the number 8-tram from our home. I assume we will make the Indian owners richer by frequenting the place. 

Lazy Saturday 

My Saturday was exceptionally lazy: reading military history at home, playing some pinball in the amusement part (Attack from Mars, 5.8 billion points), returning home, chatting, later meeting with Petri, Mila, Pekka and Mila's friends in Rytmi and Milenka. Once a month I need to take it easy, stay at home and then meet some friends for a few beers. Life is nice. 

Saturday 06-08-05 

There is a difference between being busy and being productive. Kristen Lippincott 

Standard humans 

In the Soviet Union, they attempted to create a "new Soviet man", who would be ideal for communism and the progress of the human kind. Of course, they failed as humans are varied and stubborn. 
In the capitalistic world, an attempt is ongoing to create a standardized man, kind of "new market-economy man". This attempt is going well and succeeding mainly because of limited scope: the standardization of human bodies, not minds. Humans should, to qualify as members of the new species, come in two shapes: obese & round or lean & gym-trained. If this succeeds, the advantages are huge. Not only does all logistics become easier, but political activity will cease as humans strive to perfect their bodies. 

Job hunting 

I have decided to apply for at least 5, but maybe up to 10 jobs today. I have collected job ads for two weeks now. Now I have enough of them to start my lean production of job applications. Or, maybe building an inventory of ads before starting is not lean at all. But then, maybe applying jobs (i.e. sending emails to some pattern matching, .NET-looking Outlook-script) is naturally a batch job. 
My modest expectation is to get an invitation to one interview per 20 application. It seems to be about the current ratio. I need to reverse engineer the pattern matching machines bit more carefully, I assume. 

Friday evening 

A nice summer evening with summerish activities: eating peas and strawberries at the market, by the sea; riding the 3-tram with lightly dressed people; reading a book about the Eastern front of WWII (Moscow 1941 by Braithwaite); watching drunkards from our balcony while sipping whisky. Not bad at all, especially while having her company. 

Friday 06-08-04 

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." Friedrich Nietzsche 

Studying new languages 

OK, I have now decided to study a few new programming languages. It seems that I am not taken seriously as a systems architect, unless I can claim knowledge of Java, C#, Ruby on Rails, Php, and maybe something else. Knowing C, Perl, Awk, Prolog, ML, Haskell, and SDL, is of no value in the current job market. It does not even prove ability to learn, say, Java. 
So, I have a question for my readers. Could you, please, refer me to the best books on Java, C#, Ruby, and Php? I will then read the books and write some programs in each of them, maybe even for mobile phones and the holy environment of Symbian. As it took me 12 hours to learn Perl back in 1997, this project should be doable. 

Brompton broken, extra energy, confusion 

Yesterday, I took my Brompton-bicycle to its first (complimentary) service. It was about the right time, for the rear wheel was not true anymore. I hope they can fix it. Yes, I should be 10 kg lighter, but I like food too much, any food. 
So, I have commuted by buses and trains. It is definitely boring, I lose my posture, and I am full of non-usable energy when I arrive in the office, not just simmering but boiling. Such an energy is not very good for working in non-academic environment. In an academic environment, such energy is essential. Too bad that we cannot freely choose our places of work in a way that would suit us and be best for the future of the world. Or can we? Am I just timid, lazy, convenience-oriented, money-driven engineer? Should I stop (complaining, striving) and just take a salary, be happy for getting it with about 25% of my intellectual strength and skills? Some do so. Would that be good life? What kind of life is good? 
How to cope? If I cannot cycle in the morning, I mean. 

Morning reading 

In addition to reading a paper copy of Helsingin sanomat every morning, I also check the following sites before leaving for work or otherwise:

• New York Times
• Guardian UK
• Juan Cole
• Antiwar.com
• International Herald Tribune
• Financial Times 
• Aljazeera
• Die Zeit - sometimes, not daily though

Are there any other news-sites worth reading every morning? Note that my language skills are limited. 

Email statistics over 698 days 

I have now kept statistics of all email I have received at helsinki.fi for almost two years. (the statistic is missing the email I got in 2005 at mit.edu). I seem to get quite a lot of email, most of which is spam, although spam messages seem to be rather small. 

---- Summary since September 6th, 2004 (698 days)----

Total number of emails: 76677
  per day:               109
Total number of SPAM:   50611
  per day:               72
Spam percentage:        66.0000

Total non-spam emails:  26066
 Of which
  personal email:     15451
    per day:           22
  list email:         10615
    per day:           15

Total SPAM in MB:       639.354 
    per day:             0.915
Total EMAIL  in MB:       6232.57 
    per day:             8.929

Thrusday 06-08-03 

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Winston Churchill

Finnish soccer 

More spectator sports for us today: we went to see local soccer team beat another team from Turku 5-0. The game was entertaining enough even tough it was played only on one half of the field. The most entertaining person was the associate referee, whose ample belly almost prevented him from noticing offsides. After the game, the best player got an electric toothbrush. It pays to play soccer in Finland. 

Cyberchondriacs 

A new disease has been found among the advance nations: cyberchondriacs. Take care and avoid the infection. It is a nasty one to suffer from. 
Instead, start worrying about the unsafe RFID-passports. Soon the terrorists near your home will copy your passport, cheat their way into the local parliament and bomb it, while laying the blame at your door. Nasty, eh?

American Madrassas

David Byrne discusses Christian indoctrination in some summer camps for children in his blog. It turns out that the kids are taught, in the name of Jesus, that even global warming is a lie. Mr Byrne asks wisely

When one sees religion perverted — in the U.S. or in Israel, Pakistan, Afghanistan or India, one wonders if the spiritual seeds, planted by visionaries and enlightened prophets like Jesus, Mohammed, Marx and others, are just too volatile for large societies to deal with. One asks if religious visions are better off kept as a personal thing, or at least confined to a small group ¿ otherwise the death and destruction sown by and in the name of religions more or less balances out their moral and personal virtues (which are many.)

Very, very, very worrying development is this. 

Nation of wimps 

An article in Psychology today claims that US is breeding a nation of wimps. It seems that paying too much attention to kids and trying to make their life fail-safe is really bad for them. 

Parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the bumps out of life for their children. However, parental hyperconcern has the net effect of making kids more fragile; that may be why they're breaking down in record numbers.

The article is worth reading even if one would not have won kids in the lottery of life. 

IP package service 

I sent two packages from US to Finland, both at the same time. First one arrived last week and I picked it up today. The other has not yet arrived. I hope that the has not been dropped along the way, that it has just taken another route. It takes about two months for a package to cross the Atlantic and arrive in Finland. Quite far from the normal speed of global commerce. 

Wednessday 06-08-02 

All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field. Albert Einstein 

Birthday 

Birthday should be a mandatory holiday. Celebrating requires some time. Work takes it away. So, this year, I had just modest celebrations: receiving congratulations via several media, meeting S for a dinner (in Wellamo, which was closed) in Ryan Thai and then drinking some cava at our balcony and watching trams drive by. Later, we watched "The Birds", which was just as good as I remembered. 
It would be nice to remember all birthdays (or the last 20 at least). I do not quite remember - I remember most of them, but not all and I am afraid that the chronological order I remember is not the correct one. More blogging and after 20 years I will remember 20 previous birthday celebrations. 
If I stay in some well-paid occupation, my 40th birthdate will be celebrated in Venice, on my expense, with my closest friends and relatives. Let's see. 

The state of oceans 

LA Times runs a great series of articles on the state of the oceans. Worth a look and deep thoughts. If not altogether dark ones. On a lighter side, 22 cities try to slow down the global warming by joining an initiative by Mr. Bill Clinton. 

Technology sites 

Because of my job as the head, brains, hands, and balls of competitive intelligence (of a certain organization), I follow quite many technology websites. Below is a selection. Thanks to Yoav and Sam for sharing their favourite sites with me. 

• Gizmodo 
• Techcrunch 
• Wired 
• Techmeme 
• GigaOm 
• Reddit 
• The Register 
• Science magazine 
• Popular Science 
• Digg 
• Slashdot 
• Lightreading 
• Current analysis 
• Information week
• Telco2 
• IMS insider 
• Newspapers of record - a list of good newspapers 

I would appreciate link to other good websites. Please, leave a comment!

Fighting a war 

Maybe the reason for fighting a war is quite simple. At least when the war has begun, it tends to get out of hand with more dead civilians, destroyed buildings, and making hundreds of thousands homeless. 
Karma Nabulsi writes wisely on how the refugees' fury will be felt for generations to come and how implementing existing UN-resolutions would be a good start. Or the war will destroy the whole region and shatter the world order, or whatever is left of it. 

Brave new world 

we may be witnessing birth of new multipolar disorder in the world. World is becoming more dangerous by the day, and as Timothy Ash writes, Who would be prepared to risk a bet that we won't see a nuclear weapon fired in anger over the next 10 years? I wouldn't. Would you? — I would not. It is not only that Iran may succeed in developing its own bomb, but Pakistan is building a reactor for 50 bombs a year. Curiously, Pakistan's growing arsenal (or that of India's) is not worrying the "international community". 
I wonder why the doomsday clock has not been updated since 2002. Back then, it was seven minutes to midnight. It must be much closer today, unfortunately. 

Tuesday 06-08-01 

Keep on raging - to stop the aging. Dale Carnegie

The joy oging 

To joy of aging is simple: presents. This year, my brother gave me different bottles of Bushmills whiskey, which is always necessary to have during the darkening nights of Finnish Autumn. It does not hurt to have warm clothes, which is something my mother seems to know well enough. And S knows that no present is more welcome than a book on military history. So, she gave me Poisoned Peace — 1945 the war that never ended by Gregor Dallas. It tells what Europe was like after the fighting ceased and how scores of people still died. The same is happening today in Lebanon, Iraq, Kongo, Sri Lanka, etc. 
So, I am now 38 yeards old, about half-way down to grave, but still raging and ranting. 

Weekend 

It was the first weekend in Helsinki in a month. Not too bad. Or not bad at all, although cleaning up our home was tedious, but well worth the result and nice words by mother and brother. It is surprising how messy a home becomes in just 3 months, even with occasional weekly cleaning efforts. 
On Saturday, visit by relatives to Weeruska, my office, etc, even to the lighthouse boat docked at the Pohjoisranta quay (and converted into a watering hole for the thirsty youth). On Sunday, sleeping late, idling, then cycling to see a museum tram (and getting to know that the number 3 tram, my favourite and passing by our house, has followed the same route since 1922), cycling to Vuosaari for a party thrown by Kari and Vappu. A nice party, cultivated discussions and a surprise encounter with another MIT-grad. Small world, great school. 

July 2006 

Friday, 2006-07-28 

All revved up and nowhere to go. Ramones 

Helsinki GP 

On Wednesday evening, I went to see a track and field event for the first time in my life. I also visited the Olympic stadium of Helsinki for the first time. Both firsts were pleasant and worth repeating as seconds. 
The stadium is old, for 1940s I assume, but in decent shape and rather cute. It is not covered, has wooden benches and is small, only for some 50000 spectators. On Wednesday, we were some 10000 and we did have good time. There were some decent performance in women's triple jump, women's javelin and men's long jump. The Finns were brave, but not good enough as the foreigners.
I found observing the careful preparation and the deep concentration of the athletes very interesting. It is something one cannot usually see in the TV. Also the work of the field hands (officials) is worth some time — their work is important, but taken for granted. The athletes do appreciate it, though, a lot. 
One strange official was sitting on a chair close to the long jump venue. He had a nice suit, polished shoes and bald head. He kept on telling the athletes how to jump and touching their bottoms. What a strange person! The athletes were amused, but perplexed. 
The event was sponsored by GE money. The commentators were repeating "GE money" ad nauseam. The sales director and the marketing director of the local GE money had the privilege of presenting the medals or whatever. I just wonder why the directors of the sponsor have to show off like that. It would be nicer to have some retired Finnish athletes presenting the medals. Not these fat, poorly dressed directors. So cheap!

Cycling 

So Landis got caught for usign some illegal (or unsportsmanlike) substances. He will lose his victory of Le Tour. Quite a disappointment it must be. 
I am amateur and diletant. I can use any substance I please and nobody can take away my victories over myself. This week, by Friday noon, I have cycled 9 hours 10 minutes, which is quite much for a large and unfit bear like me. And I will continue, my goal is to cycle 11 hours this week. Next week, if it does not rain too much, my raise the goal to 13 hours. 

Tuesday 06-07-25 

Why argue when one can use ridicule? Feyerabend

Weekend 

It was time for the traditional tour of Eastern Finland. First, we visited S's uncle and his wife (Seppo and Sirpa) with S's sister in Valkeala, some 30 kilometers north-east of Kouvola. They are a nice couple, always full of joy of living and endless stream of stories of the past world and of their large kin. Sirpa has done some research and now know who-was-who in their kin from 1620s onwards. Quite impressive. Then, on Saturday, we drove further east, close to the Russian border, to Joutseno. Olli, Maritta, and Tarmo spend their summer holiday's there by the lake Saimaa. Saimaa is the largest lake in Finland, with broken shoreline and countless islands. The house they stay in is the former residence of the gardener of the Rauha (Peace) mental asylum. What a place, so nice. In the past, being insane meant spending years by the great lakes, in beautiful places. 
What is there to do in the countryside in the summer? Well, one can spend some time in the sauna (this time we visited the Sauna of the Ovako steel mill - other bathers were sturdy workers and pensioners from the steel mill), smoke some fish (3 kilograms of vendace) and eat them with some vegetables and necessary drinks while enjoying the company of friends. On Sunday, we sailed (by Olli's motorboat) to one of the island for a quiet afternoon of swimming, fishing, eating and observing the nature. 
A great weekend. 

Cycling 

Cycling is more fun by the day. I am already moderately fit, can ride up steep and a bit longer hills, can cycle for 2.5 hours without having longer breaks than a few minutes. It feels terrific! Today, I cycled almost 3 hours. Yesterday, only 1 hour - I took part in a demonstration for peace in the Middle-East. A good cause, but a bit too militant slogans against Israel. And too many flags burned. 

Monday 06-07-24 

There are two sorts of death: death of the body and death of the spirit. Stress hastens both of them but laughter, however trivial its cause, has the opposite effect. Obsessive worrying is an unforgivable waste of living organism's most precious commodity, one that could be better used to pursue trivialities that promote laughter: time. David Inman

Prejudices 

Prejudices are strange. Everyone has them, but nobody knows his own. The only way of getting to know them and get rid of them, is to confront them. Facing any of one's own prejudice is always startling. I remember how shocked I was in early eighties when I first saw a woman driving a bus. I almost refused to get on the bus! 
If one loses curiousity, one cannot get rid of prejudices. What a failure will life be then! 

Friday, 2006-07-21 

The belly rules the mind.  Spanish Proverb

A dream 

I had a dream. I was in a party, in a house. It was a boring party with no food. Nobody talked to me and someone stole my shoes. Luckily, I found a door in the living room. The door opened into a staircase, which lead to the buffet restaurant of a youth club (nuorisoseura). The buffet restaurant was large, maybe 300 sq meters, and quite empty of people. It was full of food, though. And not just any food but all my favorite dishes were there, in great abundance. 
I guess I did not have large enough a dinner yesterday. 

Thursday, 2006-07-20 

There's a need for accepting responsibility - for a person's life and making choices that are not just ones for immediate short-term comfort. You need to make an investment, and the investment is in health and education. Buzz Aldrin 

On work ethic 

Yesterday, I wrote that I consider myself as an ethical mercenary. S pointed out that this does not make sense, or at least gives totally wrong impression of me. I did, however, have a more fundamental point to make. 
I have always (well, at least from 1990) considered my work ethic as that of a mercenary in the following sense. A rational employee is as loyal to his employer as the other way round. Current corporations are not very loyal, or committed, to their employees. If the stock price goes down, employees will be fired and then later re-hired. Thus, adopting a mercenary attitude pays off: select (using whatever personal ethical framework and principles) an employers/corporation, sign a contract, and serve the corporation as agree until: there is a better employer somewhere (better opportunities for professional growth, higher salary, better location of the office, etc), or the conditions cancel the contract. No loyalty beyond the contract, no hard feelings on either side. Just pure and simple business. 
For myself: my ethical principles do not allow me to work for defense or offense industries, and many others. 
Well, I have to rewrite this later. I have a very clear idea, but I just cannot express myself clearly and succinctly. 

Cycling still 

My legs are hurting, but I still cycle. Today, I cycled west by the train-track (there is a bike-lane there) via Leppävaara to Kilo and then to some strange place in Nihtisilta. A huge bakery was there, even their R&D-department. I almost dropped in and asked for a job in baking better bread. I am a decent baker anyway. But I dared not. Instead, the bakery being at the end of an cul-de-sac next to a flowery field, I decided to cross the field, over a small hill. I assumed there to be some buildings on the other side. I should have know better, I was in Espoo after all. The field continued and continued, I could not ride, there were deep ditches, and I had to carry my Brompton almost endlessly. But then, at the end of the field I found our office. What a relief and nightmare: why am I wasting my time in an office in the countryside? Too bad, I cannot last much longer. 

Wednesday 06-07-19 

A man who is well looked-afer becomes fatter. They are just like cattle. That is well-known. Mma Ramotswe in Tears of Giraffe

Experiment is over 

I have cancelled the experiment for several reasons. First, I cannot stop writing my blog (and when I try, my memories fails and I do now know what I did the other day, or yesterday). Second, I think my cover letters have not been state-of-the-art and they never will be, but I try to obey the rules and expectations by experimenting with new formats. Third, if an employer decides that its/his shareholders interest can only be served by docile, non-liberal employees, I do not want to have anything to with them. If all employers are such, I will start my own company. Fourth, some recent developments have been very promising. 
I want, however, note that I have been working with those who believe in gods, or God, and those who do not and even those who are agnostic (I am ignostic myself). I have not noticed any difference in their ability to work, nor their creativity. I have worked with radical leftists, ultra right-wing libertarists, and everyone in between. Again, I have not noticed any differences. Anyone's political or religious beliefs have nothing to do with their ability to work in a modern workplace. To think otherwise is to work against the goals of the company/corporation. 
I have always considered myself as a professional. I choose the things I do using a certain liberal, secular, and pacifict ethical framework. When I have chosen to do something, I try to do it to my best ability. So far this attitude has served me well. 

Cycling 

Cycling is as fun as it has always been. Last week, I cycled about 1 to 1.5 hours a day. This week I have cycled 3 hours on Monday and 2 hours on Tuesday. I intend to cycle another 2 to 3 hours today. 
I bought a new pump for pressurizing Brompton-tyres to 6.5 bar. Nice piece of equipment, a bit more expensive than Biltema's pumps, but maybe a bit more durable. Or just fancier. 

Playing pinball 

I broke my record, and became a grand champion, in Revenge from Mars today. The score was only 173 million, but that was enough, for the pinball machines in the local amusement park are in poor condition. In Revenge from Mars, the ball invariably drained from the "hole in which ball drops and shoots back", directly. Too bad. 

Camping on an island 

For the last two weekends, we have been camping on the Rövaren-island in Espoo. It is a small island, 9.1 hectares, with very basic facilities. The nature is, well, awesome. Ice-sculpted smooth rock-surfaces, pines, blueberries, etc. An excellent place for staying overnight, reading books while every also cooking some food and just admiring the wonder of Finnish summer. Life is at its best camping there, for two days, not longer. See a map. 

Other notes 

Last week: Satu & Matti moved in their new home in the far north, by the outer ring road. I took my Brompton and the train and rode there, to help them and to have nice time with Lassi, Petri, Mila, Kikka. It is a nice place, actually, and they will have almost too much space, if that is possible in Finland. On the way back, I visited Mika & Ruby in their much smaller home in Veräjämäki, full of Amazonian things and their baby's things and sounds. 
Brompton is very practical. So far, I have ridden it a lot, at most 1.5 hours a time, and it feels just fine, surprisingly comfortable and stable even at higher speeds. I have also made some use folding: I left it in the cloak room of the university library, took it with me on a train and a subway, with me in a bar, and in a shop in the shopping cart. Very, very practical. 

The experiment 

I have decided to close/hide my blog for a while. It is a part of an experiment. The questions is: is blogging preventing me from getting anywhere in my career/getting into job-interviews? I am sure time will tell, when I now hide my blog and adopt a nice, apolitical web presence. 
I will keep quiet until end of the year, or until I find out the answer. 

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