Darkness / Change of times / Stinginess / Letters to the editor of Helsingin Sanomat /…

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.
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.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs January 2007".