Blogs January 2007

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---

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

(Goethe)

January 2007 

Wednesday 07-01-31 

Marriage is a wonderful institution...but who wants to live in an institution? Groucho Marx

Swan lake 

To celebrate our first ten years, we went to see Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in the Finnish National Opera. The ballet was a co-operation with some Dutch ballet, with Finnish guest star as Odette/Odile, a trule spectaculer dancer. I have hardly even seen anything so beautiful as the ballet. It was a good and mature (?) way to celebrate. 

The first 10 years 

10 years we have been together, S and I. Not married, not in an institution, just together, which is way better. If we are lucky, there are still decades of life together for us to share. Maybe 4, or with extreme luck maybe even 5. Being together is better and happier by the day, by the year, it seems even by the decade.

Boxing 

The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality, and eventually in one's own. Susan Sontag 

Boxing 

I have never been to a boxing match. Today, Amin Asikainen, the reigning European champion, will have a fight in the local sports arena. There will be 4 other fights as well. Now it is the time to go and see what such a boxing night is all about. If it fun and Asikainen wins, maybe we will at some point have another European title fight in Helsinki, and I will be watching it as well.
I have been to ice hockey match, soccer match, track and field even, and ice speedway world championships, at least. Now it is time for boxing.

Reading historical novels

I have been reading Pakolaiset (Refugees) by Linnankoski today (while walking and while having lunch, not during working hours). In the story, an old man marries a young woman in order to get hold of bride's kin's house and property. The old man has never had his own children and is now too old to have them. The bride gets pregnant. Shame over the whole family, over both families. The only solution they can find is too flee to the other side of Finland, where shame will not reach them. 
Of course, nowadays solution would be different. Either the bride would get the child aborted, or the groom would adopt the child, or they would divorce. Shame would be there, of course, but it would not be large enough to cause two families to become refugees, to flee from their friends. But this is a bit theoretical, for people do not marry that much because of houses and wealth, I assume. 
In Big babies Michael Bywater discusses similar topics and notes that teen pregnancy is not something to be ashamed of anymore. Mr. Baywater seems to think it should be, so that teens would think twice or otherwise be more careful. Or get abortions. 
More discussion later when I will review the book. In a week or so. 

End of the internet 

The Google reader took me to the End of the internet. Scary, but also somehow liberating. I think it is time to go for lunch. 

Elephants and elephantitis 

Google is funny. When someone searches information on elephants or elephantitis, or pictures of them, Google sometimes gives an old blog of mine as one of the top-most results. All because I have there a link to a picture of elephantitis. I get some 50 to 100 hits daily because of this. 
Most likely there will be even more hits because of this post. 

A mystery 

Look at a tracked vehicle, for example a battle tank. Do the tracks move relative to the ground while on the ground? Or do they not? At least they do not slide. But the vehicle moves. I know this is not a deep question; just one that has fascinated me every time I observe such vehicles. A little mystery of my life, simple life. 

Monday 07-01-29 

Read in order to live. Gustave Flaubert

Manhood? 

V.A. Koskenniemi writes in his foreword to Pakolaiset (Refugees) by Johannes Linnankoski about Linnankoski: (my translation)

Linnankoski had reached his years of mature manhood — he was almost forty years old — he had left behind years of learning. 

Well, I assume I have also reached my years of mature manhood. I have no idea should I start behaving in a different manner, should I take up some mature endeavours, or should I just continue to live as I happen. Strange. 

Books: reading versus listening 

I prefer reading books. When reading, I choose the speed, I choose to imagine the voices of characters, or of the author. I can also jump back and forth as I please, skim the pages if my interest in some part/argument is small. Most importantly, even while walking and reading, I can write notes in the margins, draw diagrams, underline, argue with author in writing. An audio book would not let me do any of these things properly. So, listening to a book is no proper alternative/substitute for reading. For me, that is. 
If I were forced (although I cannot imagine how I could be) to spend ours by driving my own car every day, or even weekly, I most certainly would listen to books. Fortunately, that will never happen, for I value my time too much to spend any of it by driving a car. 

A dream 

Studying in MIT had been a dream of mine for a long time. Now I have been able to fulfill it. I have another dream: to study political science (and economics and global governance) in the LSE. I hope I can fulfill this dream as well, maybe after working some 4 to 5 years now. Working for 5 years and studying for one would be nice - and prevent unnecessary accumulation of property, a most distracting nuisance. 
Beyond LSE I do not have any specific university related dreams. Well, completing a PhD would be nice, but I doubt my patience. 

On names 

One's name does not tell anything about one's character, for one cannot choose his or her initial name. Parents choose before knowing anything of one's innate character (not getting in to the nature/nurture discussion here). Later, when getting married, one must choose. Some choose to have composite names, in the manner of Kyäharakka-Ruonala. Choosing such a name, or any two part composite name, tells a lot of one's character, I have observed. Only nitpickers, semi-fanatic people with no faculty of judgement choose to call themselves with such names. They are also unsure of themselves, always questioning their own decisions, prone to needless perfectionism stemming from lack of security. All bad traits, in most professions, especially in politicians and public servants.
For my part, I am not going to change my name. For I do not want my name to tell anything about me, just denoting me is enough. Furthermore, I will never vote for anyone with such a composite name. Choosing such name shows that one cannot be trusted with deciding anything on behalf of others.

Snap removed 

I removed snap. As Musicnaut pointed out, it is against normal architectural principle. The page itself should not know about automatic previews of linked pages. Although implementing suck previews in browsers would not be good either: it would generated web-wide extra traffic and load. Maybe the whole idea of such previews is not worth the costs. 
Anyway, the search engine interface prototype of Snap is worth another look. I will keep on testing it. 

Really cold at last 

Well, maybe not really, but -16C anyway. I will still walk to the office. It should wake me up. 
It is interesting to see, whether a paperback book breaks into loose leaves in freezing weather. Hardcovers do break, I found last week. 
Update: the book did not break into looves leaves. The cold weather and slippery sidewalks made reading very slow: I could only read 10 pages of Regarding the pain of others by Susan Sontag. 

Sunday 07-01-28 

One kind word can warm three winter months.  Japanese Proverb

Snap - a good idea or not? 

I added snap previews to this site. Now a cursor hovering over a link should bring up a picture of the linked page. Musicnaut already called snap previews annoying. I have not yet made up my mind. I may well remove the previews soon. 
Note that the default delay before a preview pops up is half a second. Increasing it to one second (in options) makes snap less aggressive. Try it. 
What do you think? Is Snap a good idea? Does search with picture results make searching easier than Google's text-based search? 

How to motivate 

Nokia made bigger profit it ever has in 2006. One would think that making a record profit would be good enough a reason for giving some bonus to the employees. Not so in Nokia. The profit should have been even bigger for Nokia to afford any bonuses. I am sure that Nokia's employees are now brimming with motivation and loyalty. They will work so much harder next year, that even Stakhanov could not work any harder. 

How to read 

I read while walking. The Chinese read while doing acrobatics. I envy them - maybe I will learn the trick next summer.

Open doors 

We Finns have a curious habit: we keep our shop doors open even during the coldest winter. Or, not all door, just the front door — there is usually another door still. Somehow, we do not believe that we can understand which shop is open, if the door is not open. 
Energy is too cheap still. Also, the district heating means that the shop owners do not pay directly for energy, the costs are included in the rents. Here, the efficiency of district heating etc works against us all. 
I assume we could learn to tells an open shop from a closed one even if all doors would be closed. 
By the way, we now have proper winter here: -10 C, calm, dry, even some 10cm snow. 

Saturday 07-01-27 

Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage. Dwight Eisenhower

Gay bands identified 

Some religious people have too much time at their hands. Now they have listed Gay bands. The claim is that if children listen to these bands, they will grow up gay. Such a disaster must be avoided at all costs. Better to have sad kids. Fortunately, there are some Safe bands out there. 
Back in the 1980s, they used to listen to records backwards and were sure that Satan was talking to to them and to their children. Must be funny to live in such a fantasy world. 

Book reviews 

Some new book reviews in my books page: 

1. Lahti by Arto Salminen
2. Routavuosi Juha Seppälä
3. Maata ja Tuhkaa by Atiq Rahimi 
4. Rikki by Henry Parland 
5. Mansikoita marraskuussa by Pirjo Hassinen 
6. Elena by Joel Haahtela 
7. Naiset katsovat vastavaloon by Joel Haahtela 
8. Mitä sähkö on by Juha Seppälä 

I like to write reviews as a painter paints with watercolors: fast, with no possibilities for corrections. Or like a piano player plays prima vista, with no preparation, straight from the material: he directly from the score, me directly from memory with no drafting. 
Of course, for a publication, I would rewrite my reviews, or get them rewritten. However, I have no intention to get them published this year. After I have written the first hundred reviews, I will start writing reviews for newspapers and the manezine, my own literary journal. Coming soon to the .fi-domain.
It takes me 40 minutes to write a review. 

Bush and energy 

His new solution to energy shortages is promising. And as realistic as his real, other proposals. 

FSB killed Litvinenko? 

Larisa Alexandrovna writes in AtLargely.com on the murder of Litvinenko. According to her, it is quite clear that the FSB killed Litvinenko. So, now we know, or are reminded once again, that the powerful do not think twice about getting their opponents killed. It seems that the Russians show more restraint than the Americans at the moment - the Americans would have used missiles or cluster bombs, the Russians used polonium. Less collateral damage, or killed civilians, with the Russian methods, this far. 

New song by the Stooges 

A new album by the Stooges will be out soon. Meanwhile, listening to My Idea of Fun at their MySpace will have to do. 

List of restaurants 

Eating out at least once a week is not bad habit. It is not even hard as my list of restaurants visited proves. 

Some links

I have been surfing the web way too much this week. Surfing is total waste of time, but some interesting new pages console my conscience: 

• Another interesting visualisation of the US airspace and light traffic 
• Sizeasy.com  let's us compare sizes of different things
• Bush and Iran — attack seems to be imminent. Fuel prices will double or triple overnight. It is strange that Bush can break the constitution and order an attack even if (against all odds) the congress would be against the attack. More speculation about the coming insanity. Juan Cole also sees Bush looking for a pretext for another war. Scary. Indeed. 
• Intel has found a way to run chips cooler, which is definitely good news. Computers use too much electricity today. 

Busy week 

Somehow I have not been able to write any entries for a week. I have not been that busy, nor worked long hours, nor even read that many books (only 3 this week). I just have not had the energy or things to say. For my own records, some notes of the past 8 days. On Friday I spent the whole evening home, cleaning, arranging. Our annual home arrangement fever has taken over. Same things on Saturday, with a short visit to Ikea for a new carpet and some energy saving light bulbs. On Sunday, a walk in Vallila, where I used to live 17 years ago. Not that nostalgic. Later Satu's birthday party. On Monday, nothing but work. On Tuesday, a supplier paid us a nice dinner in the restaurant Lasipalatsi — best mushroom soup I have ever had. On Wednesday, Kössi and Marianne came for a dinner in Dong Bei Hu, the best Chinese restaurant in Finland. Since Tuula was dining with us, we got to know the owner, a young Chinese lady. She has been living in Finland for 2.5 years and is married to a man who works in Nokia. Surprising or not. On Thursday I saw Kössi and Marianne to Sönäinen and went to the office very late, thus staying there too late. Yesterday, on Friday, we went to Gloria for publication of a record against sexual violence. Several good bands played 3 songs each: Valkyrians, Paleface, Manzana, Maritta Kuula etc. Today, on Saturday, I again visited Ikea for some extra light bulbs. Ikea runs a free shuttle bus from the center of Helsinki. It seems that older people take the bus and have a cheap lunch at Ikea. I did so too. 

Friday 07-01-19 

There is no limit to what a man can do so long as he does not care a straw who gets the credit for it. Charles Edward Montague 

Honya budo 

Lars Wirzenius has found (invented?) a very interesting new martial art: honya budo: skill of visiting a bookstore without buying a book. I think I have achieved the second level: The Feeling of the Touch. Which level are you on? 

Thursday 07-01-18 

I believe in using words, not fists. I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex. Bertrand Russell 

Wikis 

World is full of free Wiki software, most of which is good (e.g TWiki, Mediawiki). I also found one commercial Wiki (Confluence) and played a bit with it. It turned out to be really good: easy to use, able in index Microsoft attachments, marcos for slide galleries, to-do list and similar. I am not sure whether it is worth the cost, but it is worth a look, if one is looking for Wiki SW. 

Reading 

I am still able to keep my new year's resolution. So far, I have read 7 books this year. If I can keep up this reading speed, I will be able to read more than 150 books before time runs out. No matter how much I eat, I will certainly weigh less than 150 kg, so all is well. 

Wednesday 07-01-17 

With nuclear weapons, everything has changed, save our way of thinking. Albert Einstein 

NGO meetings 

Many NGOs are rather active. They organize meetings, discussions, and other interesting social gatherings. Most of the gatherings begin at 4pm or even earlier. I wonder, whether they do that knowingly. For having meetings at 4pm or earlier makes it almost impossible for normal office workers to participate. If I should be in a meeting at 4pm, I would have to leave office at 3.20pm, for which I would have to go to the office at 7.20am. That is absolutely impossible. 

1.2 trillion dollars 

Some accountants say that the war in Iraq (against terrorism or something evil) will cost some 1.2 trillion dollars (1200 billion dollars). NY Times has estimated what else would 1.2 trillion buy. For example, universal heath care would not be that hard to finance. 

Becoming ordinary 

I am afraid of ordinary days. Whenever even a single day feels ordinary, I almost panic. Today was quite an ordinary, on the surface at least: walking to the office, hacking something, having lunch with colleagues, having a walk in the nearby forest, taking bus back home — I do not like to walk after sunset as I cannot read my book then, I need to find my head-mounted flashlight — reading. 
But under surface, something not so ordinary took place. The books I am reading (by Pirjo Hassinen) is lousy. It made me think about literature and the role of narrators in novels. I got some new ideas, new at least for myself. Finding new theories is always fascinating and raises any day out of ordinariness. 

Tuesday 07-01-16 

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still maintain the ability to function. F. Scott Fitzgerald 

Some links 

• 20 most recent comments to this blog — see also at the top of this page. 
• Europe underground  — superb photographs from the sewers. 
• A big hole in the ground in Mirny, Russia  — for mining small things, diamonds. 
• A Chronological List Of U.S. Military Interventions Throughout Its History — dictators of the world, beware! 
• BLGD blog  — with a great collection of websites about (civil) architecture 
• Is the electric grid breaking down  — another reason why electric cars are not realistic. 

So cute 

Can there be anything cuter than a hugging lion? Hardly. 

Doomsday clock 

The doomsday clock is about to move closer to midnight. At the same time, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will make a major announcement. Interesting, but depressingly worrying development. 

On work 

It is surprisingly hard and tiring to work in a new company. Even though the work I do (systems architecture and large scale program management) is exactly what I like to do and for what I have a lot of talent, skills, and knowledge, it is still hard. It is hard to get to know new people, try to figure out their strengths, their motivations, their skills and knowledge. It is even harder to do that while trying to learn many new technologies and business models. All this means that at the moment 8 hours is about the maximum I can work daily. Once I get to know the people, technologies and businesses, I can move from learning to creativity, or at least to higher productivity, or if not that, to longer workdays, if need be. 

Peak oil MBA thesis and other energy issues 

Sarah Odland has written an interesting looking thesis on peak oil and coming low-energy society strategic choices for managing the transition from peak oil to a reduced petroleum economy. Worth reading. I agree with her on her conclusion 

However, the biggest hurdle to overcome in reducing oil consumption is human nature. Denial is the first recourse, followed by a fighting instinct to preserve the status quo. Cataclysmic perceptual and behavioral shifts will be required before individuals voluntarily reduce their oil consumption. Education and discussion of the issues surrounding peak oil are crucial if we are to manage our inevitable transition away from fossil fuels with any hope of preserving a civilized society. 
As for the post-carbon economy, there is currently no viable plan B. A full-scale transition effort is urgently needed. The top priority should be to buy as much time as possible to develop sustainable alternative energy sources. Individuals, villages, states, and governments need to begin investing in mass transit, energy efficiencies and renewable energy. Before they will agree to that, they need to believe that the future value of those investments is worth forgoing other investments or consumption today. Once people grasp the realities of peak oil, a longer investment horizon becomes possible. We must value the world¿s remaining oil resources as our primary, ever dwindling asset to build the bridge to the future. 

And yes, we have the same problems ahead of us here in Finland and Europe in general. We are a bit luckier than the Americans, for our cities are still somewhat walkable and most of them have decent, if not perfect, public transportation. Of course, problems with agriculture, plastics, and other necessities for which oil is necessary, are going to become a major headache, soon.
James Kunstler's newest rant on the mirage of cheap oil is worth reading. Mr. Kunstler repeats himself, of course, but as nothing has changed since his previous rant (or his excellent book The long emergency), we do not complain too much. 
Also, to reply to Richard C, I am working on a city planning competition for a vision of the Helsinki metropolitan area in the year 2050. Energy issues are most crucial in trying to figure out how to live here in 40 or so years. A single person, not even of me, cannot do much more. 

Another reader 

A great bureaucrat Mr. Wahlroos has died. He was last of his kind: a bold, outspoken, well-read public servant. Not liked that much, but well respected. I was surprised to read today in his obituary (written by his son) that Mr. Wahlroos was compulsive reader. He read while walking. I mourn passing away of a great member of polis and brother in books.

Monday 07-01-15 

The average, healthy, well-adjusted adult gets up at seven-thirty in the morning feeling just plain terrible.  Jean Kerr

Cities of future 

James Kunstler has written an excellent summary of his book tilted The long emergency. I tend to think that Mr. Kunstler has got it right, and that future will not bode well for the USA in particular. In Europe, we still have some cities, but our dependence of oil will become a major problem soon. 

Morning 

Really, it is just plain terrible to wake up before nine o'clock. Brains frozen, body aching and stiff, creaking and clanking. It is against all laws of nature to wake up when it is dark. Thus, I try to avoid it. Should be enough to be at the office 9.30 or so, and if it is not, I must start cycling. Cycling to work would allow me to wake up 8.45 (twilight) and still reach the office (physically, though not with working brains) by 9.10. 
My brother works in shifts. He claims that the night shift is the best and the morning shift the worst, next to impossible to bear. I tend to agree with him. 
The only way wake my brains up seems to be writing blog or something else, then having some light exercise. Just getting on the bus and appearing at the office will destroy my day and productivity.

Bridge 

When I was young, Finland boasted its ability to build bridges between east and west, Russia and Europe. We considered ourselves non-partial, even though we were not. But we arranged some high level meetings, bringing together people over the iron curtain. 
It still happens, although only on personal level. On Saturday, I met Eivind, an Norwegian engineer who used to study with me in MIT, and his girlfriend Olge from Russia. It is easiest and cheapest for them to meet in Helsinki. Or at least most romantic. And we, natives in Helsinki, should be proud of being the hosts. 
Actually, much better to stage romantic encounters than semi-military ones. 

Mending things 

The Guardian runs a story on how hard it is to get things repeaired today. For most things, no spare parts exist. If spares exist, it usually costs more to get them installed than to buy a brand new thing. It is a pity, for we cannot really go on like this much longer as we will run out of resources. 
Sometimes, repairing broken things is possible, even though almost as expensive as buying new ones. Our DVD broke down last autumn. Getting it fixed took 2 months and cost 85 euros. It was worth the cost and wait, for the player plays records of all area codes and has good sound quality, much better than the cheap new ones. 
Fixing bicycles or getting them fixed is still possible and makes sense. Same for shoes and some clothes. Maybe we still have some hope. 

Weekend recap 

On Friday, a mini SIG with Aaro and Lavonardo. I continued with Aaro until the early hours, ending up in the Roskapankki. It is necessary and always enjoyable to meet friends, discuss for hours. Life without friends would be rather short. On Saturday evening, Lemmy threw his monthly game night party. Lavonardo has already written a nice summary of it. I played mostly pinball, making my record (340 million) in the Twilight Zone. I also got some 7 billion in the Attack from Mars, which is not my record, but still made me happy. 

Sunday 07-01-14 

A room without books is like a body without a soul. Cicero

Books 

Every week our home library grows by three to five books. Every now and then, we need to buy new shelves and re-organize our books. As so many other Finns, we only use Lundia bookcases. They are very durable, adjustable, and easy to get from second hand market. The only problem is reorganizing them, which in most case requires us to remove books from the shelves and to rebuild the shelves. It takes time: it took whole day today to do it, once again. But now our books are all again where they should and we have some 10 meters more shelves. Most of them already used. It is time to buy some more Lundia.

Wednesday 07-01-10 

I went to a museum, saw art ad nauseam. Joseph Brodsky 

Green drinks 

The Green drinks movement has started its monthly meetings in Helsinki. They take place on the second Wednesday of each month. The purpose is to discuss ecological issues. This time, Celia Peterson gave a short talk about The Natural Step, a sustainability movement from Sweden. We did not stay long this time, for my natural Finnish shyness took over. But I will certainly participate in later meetings, maybe in February already. See you there, my readers in Helsinki. 

Le Monde Diplomatique - in Finnish 

The first issue of Le Monde Diplomatique in Finnish is out now. LMD in one of the best newspapers in the world. Publishing it in Finnish is very important. Check it out! You can order it for only 5 euros.

Flying, lying 

A couple moths ago, Mr. Blair hailed Mr. Stern's study on global warming and let us believe that the UK would take some action. Yesterday, he said that not flying as much as possible (or to cut down the growth of air traffic) is not possible. It would be too big a personal sacrifice. I wonder who has paid him and how much? Or, are there several Mr. Blair, each of them not know what to others think and speak. If politicians are not bold enough to ask for moderation (or mandate it) with flying, I wonder how can they cope, govern and survive, when climate changes, oil becomes expensive and hard to get, and food security will suffer due to lack of energy, water shortages, salination, and erosion. Who can we all? 

Tuesday 07-01-09 

Lesson for me and other consultants - keep it simple. If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it. Or you've just gotten lazy and rely on the jargon. Jeff Nichols 

Sustainable mobility 

Green car congress is working for sustainable mobility. Being car obsesses, they are mostly interested in cars. There are few articles about bicycles (most non-human powered) and railway systems. I wonder how do they plan to run the cars (of whatever type) when oil becomes expensive. And how do they plan to replace the current fleet of cars and their support systems with electric ones? I would claim trying to fix the problem created by excessive mobility and energy expensive city planning by just changing the powertrains of cars is futile
Not that this kind of car-blindness would be unique. Even the respectable Scientific American failed to include public transit in their set of methods of reducing CO2-emissions. SciAm also wrote pages after pages about some hydrogen cars. It seems that cars have blinded even the best journalist and scientist in the world. 

Clever tricks 

The managers at TeliaSonera in Sweden are clever:

TeliaSonera is planning to end contracts for about 500 consultants in Sweden. The decision follows discussions with the SIF union, which has been critical of TeliaSonera's plans to sack permanent employees while allowing hundreds of consultants to continue working at the company. Newspaper sources suggest that many of the consultants have already been reemployed by TeliaSonera, but in more specialised jobs. 

I wonder what the unions will do next. Not that I am very fond of this consultant driven R&D. It is way too expensive and risky. But management is not science, it is just a set of fads. Today is fad tells that variable expenses are good, fixed are not. Thus, it is acceptable to pay a consultant several times the salary of an own employee and in addition to lose all knowledge created during the development work. It is not acceptable to hire and keep enough own employee. Neither of these things make any sense. Or money. 

A good day 

Today was a good day. S walked me to the office, I had meaningful and moderately successful tasks to do there, I finished reading a book and did not drink any alcohol. And I watched TV only for 30 minutes. 
Apple published their new mobile phone. It is fascinating. If Apple can just lower the price a bit and get e.g. Samsung to produce the phones, Nokia must pay attention. Which would be good for everyone. 
Another book review: Aikamme sankari by Lermontov. 

Monday 07-01-08 

In order not to drink, he tried to convince himself that all evil is caused by alcohol. Lermontov 

Superb Chinese restaurant 

We had dinner in  Dong Bei Hu, a new Chinese restaurant in Helsinki. It was rumoured to be an authentic place and it indeed is. We have not had so authentic Chinese food since leaving China, not even in New York. The place is worth several visits, at least a visit a week. Take your friends and do yourself a favour: visit Dong Bei Hu. It is much cheaper and easier than flying to China. Do not go alone: the portions are too large for one person and eating Chinese alone is more stupid than drinking alone. 
We were celebrating a new task I got at work. I will lead/manege/design a very significant integration project, which deals with IT-systems, embedded systems, processes, business renewal, etc. Just the kind of task I have been training and studying for the last 5 or so years. A good enough reason to celebrate. I assume I cannot be more specific. 

Art, philosophy, and new theories 

A question: what are relations among symbolism, representation (or realisim), roles of artist and the art viewer in different cultures and different eras in each culture? If the relations change, how do they change, why do they change? Do they change because of technology, or some scientific advance, or changes in relative importance of religion? How do the (possible) change in the relations change the very definitions of work of art, the existence of artists in general? Is the concept of "art world" just one, and actually quite tentative, solution to these problems? 
I have a theory of all this. It all became evident tonight. Now, I just have to read a couple basic treatises of the philosophy of art and some history of art. Then I can write and publish an article in some philosophical journal. It will be fun, for the philosophy of art is a field for a logician to tread. 
Of course, until my article gets published, the above questions are left as exercises for the readers. The answers are far from trivial. 

Some links again 

• Ice storm aftermath  — nature at its strangest 
• Michigan lawsuit abuse watch — a catalogue of ridiculous lawsuits. Those greedy Americans. 
• Uncyclopedia — false information 
• Motherjones — another independent web news site, I assume
• The world's twelve worst ideas 

Sunday 07-01-07 

I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste. Marcel Duchamp

On China 

An excellent article on China in the Guardian. It is hard to misjudge China's situation and consider it another capitalist country. It is not. Read the article, and send me the book, if you are nice.

EMMA 

We (S, Satu) visited the EMMA, the Espoo Museum of Art. The premises are wonderful: an old book print, with acres of empty un-assuming floors, and more wall space than they really can cover with art. 
The museum is too large for a single visit. They sell three-day passes, which would be of good value. 
The most interesting exhibition a selection of movies (or video installations) by Shirin Neshat. I was especially moved and impressed by Zarin, a story of a prostitute, who cannot bear her situation any more. Mahdonkt, a movie of a woman losing her mind, is visually impressive, although I could not really understand it. 
Some photos of Neshat and her work. 
Somehow, my review of "Mare Nostrum" by Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila seems related to Ms. Neshat.

Nice Sunday 

Sleeping late, eating from fish burgers, walking to Malmi, visiting S's relatives, eating more fish (Baltic Herring steaks, the 2nd best Finnish dish), taking bus back, reading, writing. 
It seems that I will be busy enough this spring. The city of Helsinki has declared a city planning competition. Most likely, we can form a great group for the competition. It will be fun. I will tell more about it once we are working on it, properly. The first thing is to get the group together, the second is to rent some office space.

Getting desperate 

The official news (e.g. Helsingin Sanomat, Financial Times) tells that a new EU study proves that we here in the North will win when climate get warmer. I have not seen the study, but the news tell that we will get the tourists from Southern Europe. Mainly because the Southern Europe will be too hot and dry for accommodating the tourists. So, they will flock North! I just wonder what kind of transportation will they use, for by 2050 we will have run out of affordable oil, not to speak of natural gas. And most likely we cannot feed even ourselves here, not to speak of any millions of tourists. 
Last night I dreamt of snow. I woke up to the sound of rain, in the dark. I have never missed snow and winter this much. What have we done? 

Getting older 
Getting older is getting invited to birthday parties. By the year, I becomes harder to leave for a party, to face my own age and some of the things will be gone, past, and over with, forever. At the same time, meeting frieds — old friends a bit older again — becomes more and more pleasant, the value of having them around is invaluable. Not having to repeat some youthful attempts is quite nice as well. 
Yesterday, Kaius celebrated his 40th birthday. Happy birthday to Kaius, once again. 
Others asked me how I will celebrate mine. I do not know: please leave some ideas as a comment! What kind of party would you like to participate in on the 31st of July, 2008? 

Friday 07-01-05 

The man who does not restrain wantonness, allies himself with beasts. Leonardo da Vinci 

Darkness 

Days should be getting longer, but they are still very short. And they are even darker than they are short. There is no snow, it is overcast and miserable. I cannot leave home for work before the sun rises for the street lights cannot drive away the darkness. So, in the morning I either hang in at home, or go to the cafe below our kitchen for a cup of coffee and some Finnish smörgås. 
When it does not rain, I can read some 30 pages of a novel while walking to the office. In the rain, I pity my books. 

Change of times 

Back in the 1940s, prime ministers knew how to behave as gentlemen and distinguished persons. They did not reveal their private life to the newspapers and if they had affairs, they were smart enough to keep them at least semi-secret. And they took their jobs seriously. Prime minister J.K. Paasikivi adviced his new secretary I handle important affairs. Nobody may bother me with his private affairs. I do not even bother myself with my private affairs.
Not so anymore. Our current prime minister, Mr. Vanhanen, picks up women in the internet, dumps them via SMSs, and reveals his private life to the yellow press. Not that I would read the yellow press.
And then Mr. Vanhanen maintains a public image of teetotalling. However, the grapevine tells that he drinks, but hides hides signs of hangover behind sunglasses. 
Mr. Vanhanen is deplorable and so am I for telling these rumours. 

Stinginess 

Sometimes, it would be wise to give a taster away for free. It is a good and well proven business model. Some companies just do not get it. The latest example is the Finnish mobile operator Elisa. Elisa, of course, wants to be fashionable and had the bright idea to open its own music store. It takes quite ingenious marketing managers to get such a bright idea. But Elisa went one step further in their copy-paste business development. They copied the idea of having flat screen TV at trams stops from Sony. Not that is something. They even installed touch screens, which allows their would-be customer browse some 10 songs from their music store and watch 10-second clips. Now, here they shied away from the real stuff: there is no way to get even the short clips for free and thus test the music store. 
Copy-pasting is OK, not using brains while doing it is not OK. 

Letters to the editor of Helsingin Sanomat 

Some of my letters to the editor of Helsingin Sanomat are now online. More to come, for sure. I just sent in one about nuclear power. 

A book review: "Huolimattomat" by Hotakainen 

I wrote my first book review on Huolimattomat by Kari Hotakainen. About 100 such reviews still write before the year is out.
There are also some other reviews for the curious to read at my book page. 

Some links to click 

• Turn up the heat  &mdashl; George Monbiot on greenwash 
• Guardian on hanging Mr. Hussein 
• Iraq Coalition Casualties  tells how many have died in vain
• Totoro video
• A good documentary film on the history and future of oil (52 mins)
• The oil drum , which pointed out that oil production did not increase in 2006, but consumption did (mainly in China, Russia, and Middle East). Thus, some other countries did manage the decrease their consumption: they simply could not afford enough oil. The time of oil shortage has begun. At some point, affordability of oil will become a major headache also in Finland, unless we do something very soon.

5 days into 2007 

This year began lazily. We arrived from the most joyful new years parties (thrown by O-V, Susse and Vesku; another by Tero and Pivo ) at 4pm, slept well, woke up not so well, and I never rose up. Instead I spent the day reading, surfing the net, and for a short while, reflecting on 2006. On Tuesday, we had the monthly Tuesday meeting where Lenin once met with other fanatics. No fanatics were present, except certain philosopher who is fanatic about information society, which actually has never existed. At our table: Sirpa, Jussi, Lassi, Harri, Pekka and S. 
On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday: most studying optical character recognition and related technologies in the office, having short walks, reading a lot (well, two books — still missing the reviews or such), on Friday almost going to the movies, but finding them overly expensive on Fridays. 
So, the much anticipated change of habits has not occurred yet. Maybe next week is stranger. 

Monday 07-01-01 
The end of reading is not more books but more life. George Holbrook Jackson 

Just one resolution 

My only resolution for 2007 is to read at least as many books as I weigh in kilograms on the 31st of December, 2007. Should not be too hard a resolution to keep, for the number of books will be about 100.
Ok, let's make it a bit harder: in addition to reading, also writing a review or summary would be necessary for keeping the resolution. Hard enough?