Olli Jokinen is not related lion

Google translate is gaining fame. As reported by the Finland-swedish newspaper HBL, the Finnish Ice Hockey Association is now referring to GT for Swedish, English and Russian versions of their website.

For the Finland-swedish hockey fans (who obviously support Finland) this would be a severe punch in the face, if it wasn’t for the comedy value associated with automated translation.

As far as the ongoing World Championships are concerned, it couldn’t be much better. Finland won their group with a clean protocol, while the Swedes suffered a humiliating penalty-shootout defeat against Latvia in the group game.

Both teams are still in the tournament, though, and speculations of a Finland vs. Sweden quarter final should be underway soon.

From the Swedish People’s Party to careers advice for journalists

I want to share with you some of todays browsing history. It goes like this.

A few days ago, I wrote a little piece about the Swedish People’s Party (in Finland) and their prospects in the forthcoming elections for the European parliament. The political group is, despite how its name translates into English, not communist, but rather liberal in their policies. Selectively liberal, anyway.

Following the theme, I was skimming through Nils Torvalds’ site today. He is one of the party’s front-line candidates, and he actually IS an ex. commie. He is also a journalist.

From there, I was pointed in the direction of a sharp analysis of the EU constitutional referendum conflict, by Guardian columnist George Monbiot. It is written from a British perspective and discusses democratic deficiencies of the kingdom in particular.

Browsing Monbiot’s site for a bit, I finally came accross some careers advice for journalists. Not saying that I’m planning to become one. But I can think of a few friends who might want to read this. It’s about independent vs. institutionalised professionals. Or something like that.

Again, this hasn’t brought me anywhere. But I thought I’d share it with you.

Apart from the first article, which I wrote, I feel pretty confident in saying that there’s some good stuff hidden under the links above.

Meeting Dwain “non grata” Chambers

Dwain Chambers at the Student Union. Photo: Dan Richards

The fresh European Champion and record holder over 60m is taking a two week break from training. With only a few months to go until the summer season, this is not quite optimal. But it is necessary. He is on a charm-tour to save his career.

Dwain Chambers is in a good mood when he visits the student union at Bristol University. With a Q&A-session on the agenda, the audience is invited to challenge the controversial British sprinter. He manages to convince many, by talking openly about his misuse of steroids in 2002-2003. He explains what he was thinking then, and what is different now. The phrase “close co-operation with the anti-doping agencies” has been part of his briefing, and is repeated a few times.

The athletes in the audience make sure he also gets to talk about running. He still wants to sprint, that’s for sure.

The second chance is written into the rulebook, but that is not of much help to him. The promoters of the money-leagues will not invite him, and it is still thumbs down from the British Olympic Association. So what can he do?

Dwain has written a book. The main reason may be to compensate for lost income. But he is also on a mission to clear his reputation. And that is necessary, in order to get back into the big races, and perhaps the 2012 home games.

But there is something more important than reputation. Quite ironically, he also needs to run faster than he has ever run before. Because only then will the organisers get interested in seeing him on the start line. The opportunities won’t be many, but Dwain is determined to take them. And one is forced to admire this determination.

No-one asked, however, what would perhaps have been the most important question. Dwain was too charismatic, and the crowd did not satisfy any journalistic standards. But here is something to think about: What is the permanent advantage of 18 months of unnatural hormonal growth?

University Athletics

It’s been a long break. Times are busy.

I’ll just post something I wrote earlier today, for a different purpose. It gives away something about myself for a change. It’s a message to “my team”.

Match report

We had a great day at the UWIC indoor arena today, so a big thanks to everyone who came!

In the end we entered the match with a joint Bristol team, with our friends from UWE. This is probably against all university regulations, but it’s a tradition from back in the day, when we were doing most of our sessions together, at the track in Filton. Also, joining forces means that we get a decent size team so we can compete against some of the big athletics uni’s. Which is what we did, more than ever before!

The match was won by Bath, with UWIC coming second. We were VERY close to Brunel for third place. The final score hadn’t been published when we left, but with Brunel’s disqualification in the relay, we might just have gotten them. Either way, this is a huge achievement, as they are one of top 5 athletics unis in the UK.

Another big one, Birmingham, we left behind clearly, along with Cardiff, Newport & Exeter.

I’ll get back to you with the final score when I get hold of it.

Here are some individual highlights as well (all bristol uni):
We won 5 individual events: Lawrence kicked it off, dominating over the 60 hurdles, and finishing in yet another PB time. Erica overtook in style on the home straight, winning the 1500m, also in a new PB time. Rebecca won the tripple jump (while at the same time taking part in the high jump). The captain’s did the job as well. Steve (XC captain) comfortably won the 3000m, and I ran home the 400m (not quite as comfortably).

The multi-eventers did a good job in collecting points: Rebecca (shot, 60m, tripple, high – 2 PBs) and Dan R (60m, 200m, tripple, 4×200m – ALL PBs).

But the big thanks for the outcome of the match goes to the whole team! All the points matter, and everyone who came deserves a thanks! We had someone from Bristol uni entered in each of the men’s track events, from 60m hurdles to 3000m. I believe this is unprecedented in the clubs history!

The day was finished with the mens 4×200m relay. UWE wanted to test run their BUCS lineup, so we put up a team against them in true varsity spirit. Unfortunately, with some of our sprinters gone home, we could only keep them behind for the first 3 legs. Steve, who’d won his 3000m race only 20 minutes earlier, had to see himself overtaken by a sprinter on the last leg. We wish UWE good luck for the BUCS champs in 2 weeks time.

They’ll need it when we step up the speed.

Eutrophication in the Danube and the Black Sea

Todays lesson: Do not run and eat carrots at the same time.

Carrots by sunrise@flickr

I also learned something else. I went to an interesting talk about the environmental management of the Danube basin. It is a seriously complicated matter, and a lot to take in.

Here are some loose notes.

The presentation focused on the problem of eutrophication in the river Danube and in the Black Sea.

This was a new word for me. Wikipedia says:

Eutrophication is an increase in chemical nutrients — compounds containing nitrogen or phosphorus — in an ecosystem, and may occur on land or in water. However, the term is often used to mean the resultant increase in the ecosystem’s primary productivity (excessive plant growth and decay), and further effects including lack of oxygen and severe reductions in water quality, fish, and other animal populations.

Oh, you mean övergödning. We are well familiar with this around the Baltic Sea too!

The geographical scale of the problem makes it very complex. There are a dozen or more political players, and the EU-Russia dimension comes into play too. The EU is perhaps armed with the greatest political will, and the economic powers, to tackle the problem. But the bureaucratic labyrinths of directives and Directorate-Generals can be somewhat cryptic, and become pretty incomprehensible for the uninitiated spectator.

The Danube flows from Germany to the Black Sea

Although it is agreed something needs to be done, it is hard to find the solutions. And the incentives vary from country to country, of course.

Upstream, Germany and Austria are bounded by the EU Nitrates Directive, but even within the restrictions, they have by far the most nitrogen intensive farming in the Danube countries. A lot of it is excessive and floats downstream.

Then there is the inadequate waste water treatment in the big cities, like Budapest and Belgrade. This is where the phosphorus comes from. Along with a lot of other waste of course.

Linked to this are the efforts to ban the use of phosphorus from detergents. This can be done, and has already been done in much of western and northern europe. But the EU in the form of the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry is actually resisting these actions! Well, someone has to look after the interests of the phosphorus mining industry.

From phosphorus to Bosporus. The presentation was concluded with a photo of fishermen on the bank of the Bosporus. They too, along with colleagues throughout the Black Sea, are stakeholders in this huge ecological system. People are only beginning to try to control the systems’ human inputs. But how much power do they have?

The presentation was given by Peter Whalley from the UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project. I am to blame for any misinterpretations presented in this text.

Meatball music

Hello again!

I just want to briefly report from the Scandinavian meatball fest, which was held yesterday at the Bristol International Student Centre (BISC). It was a lot of fun.

There were guests from all around, from Japan to Chile, and the committee/chefs did a remarkable job in the kitchen. This is the three course meal they served:

1. Knäckebröd, tunnbröd, skorpor, with sill, falukorv och kaviar
2. Köttbullar from the furniture store with mashed potatoes, peas and lingonberry jam
3. Norwegian waffles

What a job!

Fortunately, mainly for the outcome, I wasn’t involved in the kitchen. Instead I focused on helping to win the Scandinavia-quiz with the Finnish-Japanese team!

Me and Hayley also provided some entertainment, in the form of a “chronology of Scandinavian troubadours”. I did a bit too much talking in between, but I think songs, especially those accompanied by Hayley’s cello, went down well. Here’s the playlist:

1. Carl Michael Bellman – Epistel No. 81 Märk hur vår skugga. To trouble-maker Löfberg by the Danto gate. Fredman and Movitz watch the funeral procession and remember the good old times when Löfbergs wife used to serve up the wine in generous quantities.
2. Evert Taube – Fritjof i Arkadien. Taube’s alter ego stumbles upon 3 naked girls in the picturesque heights of Colla Bella, in the Italian riviera.
3. Alf Prøysen – Du ska få en dag i mårå. About how to best meet life’s struggles, like complicated girls and too much hard work. The trick is to listen to what the wind whispers over the treetops.
4. Tapio Rautavaara – Isoisän Olkihattu. The story of granddad, how he picked up a straw hat and a blue eyed girl from a little hat shop on a side street.
5. Tove Jansson – Höstvisan. See below.
6. Cornelis Vreeswijk – Grimasch om Morgonen. Ann-Katrin says: I know that you could write a song about the fragile happiness – so why won’t you? This song is Cornelis’ response. A beautiful song about the fragility of happiness.
7. Lars Winnerbäck – Timglas. About the meaningless of life’s struggles and how one girl (called Anna) makes it all worthwhile.
8. Own song – Anna’s tjugofyraårskris. Another Anna. Song inspired by the Meatball evening in December 2005. About sorting stuff out and getting lost in Redland.

As mentioned, there was a lot of explanations and translations accompanying the songs. Tove Jansson was a late addition to the list, but not so late that I didn’t have time to translate parts of the song into a poem (I know there is already a translation by Barbara Helsingius, but it was nowhere to be found online). I read this out before the song. I tried to sound like Bob Dylan, when he reads out his “last words on Woody Guthrie”.

Autumn Song

The road home was long, and I met noone upon it
now the nights are growing chilly and late
come keep me comfort, cos I’m feeling tired
and all of a sudden I’m losing my faith

Look at all the lighthouses along the autumn shores
Hear the waves wander around like they’re lost
The only thing that matters is the longing of the heart
and to have someone there, who’s holdin’ you close

Im lookin’ for something I might have forgotten
and which maybe, maybe you could help me find
A summer passes by, it is always too short
like the dreams that have been on your mind

Thanks again to everyone!

Another song and a bit of identity

Some of us are getting more and more into the swing of the computer room. But this will be a brief post about other things.

I’ve been listening to Bob Dylan again. Especially “If You See Her Say Hello” has been playing a lot, both in the headset, and later in the head alone. This article captures some of the emotional magic going on (and lets you listen to the track).

I liked the song so much that I felt a translation into the Swedish language would be appropriate. So again, I made a Skypophone recording. Severe quality warnings, including singing out of tune. I am more satisfied with the crafting of the lyrics and rhymes, although they too should become a bit more flexible as they mature with time. But you can listen to “Ta med en hälsning härifrån” here!

I’m looking forward to doing some real recordings in the Seventh Day Studios in Helsingin Herttoniemi next summer.

I’m also looking forward to seeing Bob Dylan in Stockholm later this spring!

And the identity bit

Quite unrelated. It’s a reference to Finland’s Swedish Think Tank, Magma, which I briefly mentioned before, and which has had to withstand much criticism from various directions. This week, they’ve been strengthening their collection of articles concerning the presence of the Swedish language in Finland.

Two articles, which have been dug up from last autumn, gain my liking in particular. These are Herman Lindqvists speech (in English with GT) about the intertwined histories of Finland and Sweden, as well as Martina Reuter’s writing about linguistic identity (GT). They both answer some questions about the peculiarities of Finland-Swedish identities.

They would well deserve some real translations into English – and Finnish (the machine code, which I linked to above, has the usual comedy value). But this time I might wait for someone else to deliver.

Friday morning

First the alarm. If you pass the alarm it’s ok. You’re up.

Avoid dragging out breakfast for too long. The seventh slice of toast is a bad sign.

A flatmate is using the shower. Its ok. Write a quick blog post. It’s so cold it’ll have to be quick.

Then get dressed and leave the house quickly. Oh, and don’t shower for more than a few minutes.

Once in the computer room, you may check your email. do not open firefox. Do not open firefox! DO NOT SWITCH ON FACEBOOK! Then it’s ok. If you do, you’ve lost, and all the small battles loose their significance.

Open MATLAB and Word.

Song about a nightmare

It’s been a hectic week in the old engineering school, with deadlines and presentations. And more of the same coming up.

Amidst all this, there were some news events from around the world stirring up feelings. The genocide on the Gaza strip for one thing. No comment. It’s just sad.

And around the corner, in northeastern Europe, a think tank published their brand new discussion forum, magma.fi. The site is intended to be the the place where the future of the swedish speaking population in Finland is decided. Or something like that.

In the emotional turbulence of these events, I wrote my longest song ever. It’s called “Finlandssvensk mardröm” (swedish-speaking-finnish nightmare). I did a recording with my skype microphone, for your pleasure. My apologies for targeting an audience with knowledge of the Swedish language once again.

Listen to the song

Bronze soldiers and gas bills

I’m pleased to see the first Estonian flag appearing in my little counter. So pleased, in fact, that I’ll put that country in the focus of a post.

The Estonian visit to my blog coincides with a news notice I came across earlier. It was big enough to cross the news gulf to the neighbour up north.

The story relates to the Bronze Soldier conflict from the spring of 2007, when riots in Estonia caused damage, injury and one death. This analysis discusses the historic events and the nationalistic ideas which were said to be behind it. But really, the main cause was the frustration of an indoctrinated group of young people, who wouldn’t really care so much about history, if only they were absolved by the present. The invisible hand of the Kremlin was not too hard to spot, and there were some agitators identified on the ground as well.

That is what today’s story is about. The four men charged with inciting the riots, were found not guilty by a court in Tallinn. The evidence presented against them was insufficient.

The indecision of the court actually shows great resolution, and deserves some congratulations. Here’s why:

In the wake of the riots, the right-wing prime minister Andrus Ansip called for “the maximum sentence to be dealt to whoever was responsible”. Now, that’s not really his job. The legal system of a democracy works slightly differently. Isn’t it nice to see it showing off it’s strength against the politicians. It makes me happy.

The court ruling might be a political defeat to the hard-liners, who wanted to see a sentence (and link it to their enemy – Russia), but democratically it is a victory. And it might well be considered a moral victory over Russia, where fabrication of evidence on the request of the tsar does seem to happen (Yukos, Khodorkovsky, WMD, Irak… well not just in Russia).

So we won.

Now, perhaps, there could be some serious political talk – about what actions are needed to improve the status and the conditions of the Russian minority. A good start would be to stop calling them a problem, and start calling them citizens.

Under current circumstances, it shouldn’t be too hard to convince anyone of the benefits of holding an Estonian passport, as opposed to a Russian one. It should mainly be a matter of allocating resources to education. An education system which respects the ethnic and bi-lingual reality, and which encourages involvement in the democratic process, would be high on my list of priorities.

This would come at some economic expense, of course, but the benefits too, should be quite encouraging. If humanitarian and democratic advances aren’t enough to persuade the politicians, then the opportunities in foreign trade should be. For the boom will hit again, for sure, in this part of the world, where the gas and oil still flows (if the price is right). Add sensible taxation, and the money which is put into education will pay back.

This really could be extended to the whole of eastern Europe, and especially the regions where Russian ethnicity and language are abundant. A soft approach would be so useful. Just imagine one million Russians living in the Baltic countries, highly educated, democratically fostered and with economic prosperity. What an asset that would be to democratic development in the region.

Of course, now I am out sailing waters which are as deep as the past hundred years of history and emotionally stormy – in Finland too. And after Paavo Lipponen sold his soul (political credibility) to the Russo-German gas enterprise (like Schröder before him), Estonians might not be the first to take advice from another Finn.

But the issue is important, and it’s not just a question of national affairs. I see this as an international challenge of sorts. The EU has an impressive track record of creating peace and prosperity. The formula of democracy and economic cooperation for the common good has paid off several times. I don’t believe in the magic powers of Brussels. But if these values that make the EU powerful, are delivered to the Russian population already within its borders, there will be some results. Glasnost and perestroika from the west will bring down the Russian wall too.

You may remind me that I told you so.

Anyway, remember to pay your gas bills. Mine arrived yesterday, and here in the UK the gas still flows. The fact that it doesn’t keep the house warm, is another issue altogether.

A story about entertainment systems

I have spent nearly four years in Bristol. It struck me at some point that, apart from traveling to and from various airports, I haven’t really seen so much of the country and the supposedly famous English countryside. So when my parents came to visit in a Fiat Punto, we seized the opportunity. I bring to you the story of the Somerset & Devon two day roadtrip.

Looking for pop – found baroque and cheddar country

On new years eve we headed south from Bristol. The radio didn’t work so well, and at a petrol station we stopped to get some substitutes. Dad pulled off one of his standards: “Maybe they have some popular music by Sir Tapani Kansa or Elton John”. It turned out they didn’t, but instead they gave us a free stack of unsellable discs from the back room.

The collection contained some classical music: Tchaikovsky and a disc with the English baroque composer Henry Purcell, including 6 birthday songs for Queen Mary. The other half consisted of country music from the rectangular states, i.e. from somewhere in the middle of north America. Quoting Indrek, who is an expert on US affairs: “How can you take seriously someone who comes from a perfectly rectangular state?” Although Charley Pride apparently is from Texas, we didn’t listen very seriously. Driving through Cheddar Gorge, he seemed particularly cheesy.

Compay Segundo in Exmoor

In Wells cathedral we saw the second oldest functioning clock in the world. It’s been going since 1390. Thats pretty old. After forgetting my mobile phone in Ciego de Avila last summer, I use a phone which dates back to 2001. It might be a hard blow to the Finnish hi-tech industry to learn that the Wells clock has a better entertainment system than the Nokia 6210. The 600 year old timekeeping installation puts on a spectacular audiovisual show every 15 minutes.

At the market in Wells, I decided to further diversify the music collection in our automobile. I bought a disc with the legendary Cuban musician Compay Segundo. His career, including his involvement in Buena Vista Social Club, pretty much defines the Cuban entertainment system (guitar, tres, double bass, trumpet, bongo, claves, maracas..). Here is a little video containing some nice displays of instrumental skill. Compay Segundo had never been to Exmoor National Park before, but that was a perfect combination. The highlight of the trip. Including wild Exmoor ponies and lots of sheep, of course.

From there it was downhill, really. Down to the coast and some villages. The wind was cold, and the rocks looked nice. New years eve we spent in the pubs and streets of Ilfracombe. On new years day, before turning back to Bristol, we looked at the fishing village Clovelly. There were lots of seagulls, cats and donkeys around, but I didn’t see the fish.

This concludes my holiday travels. A summary looks as follows:

Map showing the path traveled in the days around Christmas and New Year.

• A-F: 22 – 24.12
  Bristol – Swansea – Saint Clears – Pendine – Gloucester – Bristol

• F-I: 26 – 29.12
  Bristol – London – Birmingham – Bristol

• I-P: 31.12 – 1.1.2009
  Bristol – Cheddar Gorge – Wells – Exmoor – Lynton – Ilfracombe – Clovelly – Bristol

The pointlessest historiest

OK. I shall give you some New Year weirdness, and reduce the legibility of my blog further.

The time has come to present one of my absolute favourites in the category of entertaining blogs: Poänglösaste historiaste.

The blog is essentially a commentary on daily events in the life of Andrea, lets call her aspiring actress and script writer. The reality show is very spontaneously described. Her most creative use of the “Swedish” language includes, among other things, invention of new words and plenty of svengelska/swenglish.

The cultural and linguistic collisions that happen when Åland meets mainland Finland are prominent, and the transportation links to the autonomous islands are commented with a mix of passionate satire and deadly sincerity (there was an episode of about a month when the new Viking Line ferry was the only topic featuring in the blog).

The translations section

Poänglösaste historiaste is roughly translated in the title of this post. The rest of “poänglös most history” you can try with GT. It’s almost as hilarious as the original text, but that’s probably because most of the highly original words can’t be translated anyway. Which might complicate matters for non-ålandic-speakers.

If you don’t understand what I’m on about, calling all this stuff funny, you can test yourself on these sample articles:

• Andrea goes shopping for midsummer (eng)
• Existential angst and about moose (eng)
  (i wish my existential angst was this funny)
• Knarkhund (drug detection dog) wanted (eng)
• And it came blooooood! (eng)
  (this article gives rise to the most astonishing google translation: “aftonbladetexpressen” = “bbc guardian”. Can someone explain?)

Also, I’m gonna rip some of the humour out of context by giving some examples of English with Swedish spelling and grammar. Its not too hard coming up with these, but the frequency and contexts present in the blog represent true art:

• superhajjjteck
• lajjv njuus
• suprajjs suprajjs
• appdejta
• kåmmjuutärtrejjnet from hell

Finally even more stealing of good humour. I wanna write like this!! (excluding or including the bad translation, doesn’t matter)

bihålehollywood # 2

detdär with mediciiiner is probably a whole science and I say this not because I do not understand something (as with schammppo) but (also) because it really IS a whole science (which schammppo is not really, if you look for much of lårreallreklams).

Travel diary

Just returned from a week or so of traveling. I will account for it with a diary entry, like I used to write them back in the day, naming the faces and mentioning the places.

It’s a long list of things, and it might turn out to be a bit of a bore if you’re face is not in it, but it’s the story, alright.

Monday, 22 December

Train to Swansea, Wales. Walk for about three blocks. Shopping in Oxfam. Books about physics, bilingual studies, Welsh railways, education theory, writing etc.

Train to Carmarthen. Stand on the new, queer, lit up, pedestrian suspension bridge. Beautiful. Sheep sleeping on the bank of the river.

Vet van* to Saint Clears. Play poker with snowboarder and the seven vets. Lose. Eat mince pies.

Tuesday, 23 December

Bus to Pendine. Low tide. Warm and no wind. Run on the Beach. Drills, stretch and strides followed by 6×4min endurance intervals.

Bus back to Saint Clears. Socialise with Lucy the terrier. Play pool against Phil in the Black Lion. Lose. Listen to audio book of John Steinbecks “Grapes of Wrath”. Contemplate humanity and the movement of people. Fall asleep.

Wednesday, 24 December

Walk around the woods near Llanddowror. Contemplate more the issues of emigration and refugees, fueled by Grapes of Wrath. In particular the desire for a better future, which causes men and women to dream big dreams. There’s nothing gonna stop people from moving around. No matter what walls are built. It’s always been that way. It’s the course of humanity. Jog back to Saint Clears along country roads.

Vet van back to Gloucester, England. Stand outside the Cathedral in the dusk, listening to Christmas carols. Very Christmasy feeling. Buy carrots, parsnips and swedes by the coach station.

Coach back to Bristol. The other passenger on the coach was Ishmael from the horn-of-Africa, now resident in Stoke-on-trent, who was going to see his family in Bristol. Flicking through an English dictionary.

Thursday, 25 December

Run to Leigh Woods. Christmas day special: 3 x Nightingale valley, aka the long hill.

Run back home. Prepare a traditional Finnish Christmas course: carrots-, parsnips- and swedes-in-a-box (That’s the vegetable. Nothing to do with Swedish ice hockey players, who have a tendency to appear like a “jack-in-the-box”(=”gubben-i-lådan”) in front of the Finnish goal). Clean the toilet.

Friday, 26 December

Early morning Megabus to London. Sat next to an exchange student from California.

- ..Finland

- Is that somewhere near the Netherlands?

- Yes, pretty much.

Later, in the National Geographic Society store with Camil, we verified it using a terrestrial globe. If you place the state of California diagonally across north-eastern Europe it just about stretches from Holland to Åland.

Some tubing around and book shopping. It was the day the shopping craze hit Britain like never before. I was there.

Rail replacement bus to Kilburn. Sierra Leonean cooking and Finnish meat ball making in a big kitchen. As you might expect, me and Camil accounted for the latter. Well, Camil cooked the pasta.

Discussions about identity, careers, religion, balkanisation etc. The Finn went to bed early. The Pakistani and the Montenegro stayed up ’til the early hours. OK, I learned that a person from Montenegro is called a Montenegrin, but I refuse.

Saturday, 27 December

Tubing and the replacement bus thereof to the national history museum. Salutation of Darwin. Ice skating outside, in a crowded rink, with Camil, Kapil and Hayley, the latter getting confused by the names of the two former, and the formest mixing up the middlest with Bavan, who joined later, but not because of similarities in their names.

Hot chocolate. Beer. Burgers. Cider. Sambuca from Edinburgh.

Sunday, 28 December

Long journey by mixed vehicular use, including pedestrianism, to Lee Valley Athletics Centre, near Tottenham. Hurdle plyometrics and 2×4x200m.

Lee Valley Athletics Centre is a beautiful, new indoor athletics facility, but it’s right bang in the middle of nowhere. At least if you define “somewhere” using measures such as vicinity of tube stations and residential areas. The place was all dark when we got there so we thought it was closed. They looked a bit confused when we stepped in and said: “can we do athletics, please”. They switched on the lights for us.

Brand new athletics track. Contrast that with Liikuntamylly in Helsinki. Housed in an old printing house. 20m from the Metro station entrance. Kids all over the place.

Turkish food in Angel Edmonton. Tired. Copied some Woody Guthrie and Bob onto my music player. Sleep.

Monday, 29 December

Megabus to Birmingham. Meet ma and pa. Wetherspoons and a bit of bullring shopping.

Drive back to Bristol. Drink tea and play gurka (traditional card game in our family).

Write blog post.

* a vet van is a van full of equipment for treating animals and enough drugs to put cows to sleep or smaller mammals to very long sleep. Typically the equipment is worth more than the van itself, which is typically a Citroen Berlingo.

Holiday in Wales

I am going on holiday to Pendine, leaving NOW. The blog is staying at home this time.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish the readership a
Merry Christmas!

Be nice and make sure you come back. I will.

Motivation psychology from Brandon Hill

Regardless of whether you’re accompanied by a nice girl or a chicken baguette, the park on Brandon Hill usually provides the highlight of the day. The view over the city, the nice benches and the squirrels make it one of my favourite places in Bristol. And the grass is green again, after recovering from a Norwegian barbecue last summer.

A few days ago I was accompanied in the park by Nigerian sprinter Dieks. We talked about a lot of things, including career plans and the slow speed of evolution, which has left our species biologically optimised for a life of hunting and gathering. But most of all we talked about motivation and sports. Dieks gave me a free class in motivation psychology. I took notes, which I will replicate here (in brief, without good references).

Motivation Psychology by Dieks

Motivation can be categorised into three main types. The abundance and proportion of these is individual and fixed (settles by the age of 15-16). The three categories are (with athletics analogies/drivers in brackets):

• Power motivation (winning a medal)
• Affiliation motivation (being part of a relay team)
• Achievement motivation (performing a personal best)

All motivation should fall within these three categories. Needless to say most (successful) athletes score high on the first one. Anyway, there is a test too, but it costs something like £60 and you have to go to Sheffield to take it, so we did the park bench version.

An example of the tripple motivation chart

Try to create your own graph. The values have to be between 0 and 100, and they can be completely independent from each other. It’s an interesting thought experiment, which can be used for careers guidance, among other things.

If you post your values on the comment line I can update the graph.

Maturity of power motivation

Anyway, since Dieks is motivated by power, he had a bit more to say about that. It seems power motivation, in it’s most mature form, is not just about personal power. It’s also about social power, and providing benefits for others.

Increasing maturity of power motivation

The little diagram might need some explanation.

1. Most immature: promoting oneself by dependence on external capacities. Eg. Wearing a uniform.

2 and 3. Using own capacity or independent work to exhibit power. Either to benefit oneself (2) or others (3).

4. Interdependence. Exhibiting power by influencing and working in symbiosis with a community. This seems to be analogous with “good leadership”, where driving things forward is done by delegating and motivating others. This is what Dieks is aiming for.

References and a Swedish “test yourself”

OK. I found a reference. The wikipedia article on motivation theory calls this “David McClelland’s achievement motivation theory”. Achievement, affiliation and power even have their own articles.

Another thing Dieks directed me to was the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator. There’s also a nice free test. But beware, on the bottom of the page it says “Made in the wonderful country of Sweden”. I couldn’t answer most of the questions, but I think its the kind of test where the results are always nice.

Forced to do duunii

As the last post possibly conveyed, thoughts are wandering around.

Mainly to all the nice places. Friends and the sea.

Holidays around the corner but forced to do a little more work. Hence only a light post today.

Ismo Alanko’s “Pakko tehdä duunii” conveys the message. Couldn’t find a recording online. But it’s beautiful.

Here moderately preprocessed and run through GT. Duuni is a slangword with the meaning somewhere between work and labor. Neither the nominative case, nor the slang version of the partitive form appearing here, were recognised by the translator, so I let it be.

Forced to do duunii

I want to land the sun a little smile
I want to hear how the waves massage the beach sands
I want to float the sea’s lap without a shotgun
which we stick into the mouth when it comes to rock, and fuck yeah
Surely everything is ok, guess everything is ok

but duunii, forced to do duunii
forced to do duunii
forced pakertaa that money may be

I want to reach the fireplace in the magic again
I want to hear how the rain roof of the cottage beat
I want to feel when you smell the autumn to stuff nostrils
and the field side of a small soup convene festivals
riemastuttaviin, so riemastuttaviin

but duunii, forced to do duunii
forced to do duunii
forced pakertaa that money may be

I want to hear stories from around pint
I want the support of friends tunnustautua
little of mediator and the tray lost
why this is the case, I do not know, but I know that tomorrow
arrives with a grin
mua herjaten

because duunii, forced to do duunii
forced to do duunii
forced pakertaa that money may be

The art of attracting traffic to a blog

Following the recent addition of the “flag counter”, I realised that I could do with some more traffic. It also occurred to me that targeting Cuban internet users is, perhaps, a too narrow and slightly unsustainable niche.

So I had a look around to see how other people are doing it.

Causing controversy, especially by heating people up over topics like race and religion, seems to be a good way. And this blog is also quite popular. The main theme seems to be that Obama is not American enough to be president. It also features a nice conspiracy theory (work of art?) about Barack’s twin brother.

For pacifists and less talented artists these options might be out of question. Instead, one can apply for partnership in crime by posting links to the original material. This way, the little gnomes that run the internet may put up some trackback links, and some spill over of traffic may occur.

But that’s unlikely. Instead, I will try an attack from a more conventional blogging angle: Personal story telling.

Inextricably linked with this is the filling of friends’ inboxes, so you might be reading this because you got a spam e-mail from me. I’m terribly sorry. The story isn’t the best.

I spent most of yesterday implementing a spam filter in Java. This time the technical specificat[geeky language has been removed by the administrator]. Anyway, by the 8th hour or so of programming, mood swings usually start appearing. I was hit by mid-life, mid-winter nostalgia. It was necessary to switch the background music from finno-melancholy to sveco-reggae to get a bad program submitted by the midnight deadline.

But it was too late. During one of my frequent clementine breaks I had fallen into contemplation over the meaning of life. The brief, but inspirational moment was perhaps catalysed by the realisation of the futility of my spam filter. I thought:

Perhaps all this doesn’t matter so much.

After all, friends will be friends.

So I’m really not so sorry if you came here as a result of my spamming efforts. I love you. To emphasise it, the rest of the entry will be about meteorology.

Yesterday, I received my first fan-mail containing a picture. Well, it’s not as exciting as you might think, but in the spirit of true investigative journalism, I will publish selected bits and out of context. Thank you to Eddy from Italy.

good work!

I had something I was going to tell you but I have forgotten it

Here I provide you with a free picture of the Tiber flooding to give you an idea of how much it is raining here[Rome]. All on the house.

Eddy

The river Tiber is flooding because it is raining a lot.

A recent cnn story comes to mind. Especially the pictures are striking in their oppositicity.

But since climatology doesn’t seem to attract audiences the way it used to do, I won’t be forcing any conspiracy theories upon you. It is debatable whether the climate can conspire at all. Change is more likely.

This seems to be turning into quite a bumpy ride for the reader. Thanks for reading this far!

Atomic energy and the translating machine

In the Cuba post I added some links with the translating machine from google. I have the intention to keep doing this whenever the targets of my links are not in English. In addition to making good stuff accessible to a wider audience, this should increase the entertainment value. Google translate has a high comedy factor.

When applied to the Finnish language, the translations hit the ceiling in terms of sillyness. Nevertheless the message is conveyed (with a bit of imagination).

The example I’ll share with you is a song by the legendary Finnish Rock band Eppu Normaali. The song is “Suomi-ilmiö“, a song critical of the finnish nuclear industry. In English, with explanation links inserted for the uninitiated, it goes like this:

Finland phenomenon

While the Harrisburg need to close the windows
Finland can always go ahead and
Harrisburg is in a different planet
no such can happen
birch and the star below

Can perfection to exist in any form?
Yeah, of course, among other things, at Olkiluoto
None of the so-oo smart as an engineer
is complete
who nippeli and rööri

Uranium splits
and produces a white lamp
but in any other countries
Finland than it did not oo free from the risk of

It is erehtymättömyyttä us quite a range of
is a FAQ, YYA, and the Imatra Voima
Not a danger we can fit patterns
unless ago in China
Finland-phenomena that occur

Uranium splits
and produces a white lamp
But, in any other countries
Finland than it did not oo free from the risk of

Since this is already my second blog entry which has a reference to Olkiluoto, I ought to include a brief explanation. The position of my position on nuclear energy is undecided. Realisation of the fact that all alternatives need to be on the table (systems thinking) is key to this position (or rather lack thereof). In other words, I haven’t crunched it all yet.

Nuclear energy in Finland, it’s relation to the Helsinki metro as well as the percieved general lack of entrepreneurial initiative in my country of origin might be the subject of discussion of some later posts.

Bloggers from Cuba

The first entry in the series of interesting and inspirational blogs comes from the sphere of commentary on society. One could argue that half the internet is about that, but this material I find particularly interesting. It sits right on top of a boundary of free speech, and has the potential to be an integral part of the transformation of a society.

The feature site is Bloggers Cuba. It is a collaboration site written by bloggers (currently 8), writing about Cuba, from Cuba. A machine translation makes it possible for a non-spanish reading reader to access the material.

The blog, which has been active for about a month, contains entries about most aspects of life. Entertainment and arts feature heavily, as does sports (=mainly baseball). Discussion about society and politics is opening up, attracting the interest of readers outside Cuba as well.

A different voice

There are already a lot of blogs about Cuba. The force with which Cubans in exile are making their voices heard is astonishing. Proponents of democracy and free speech, but also sworn opponents of the regime, their accounts tend to give a heavily politicised view. They form the front line of the political battle in which one side only is armed with the financial and technological means to run an internet based campaign.

Bloggers Cuba differs from these sites in that it transmits a moderate voice. It is a source close to the people, generating content which has its roots, not at one or the other of the extremes, but in the middle. This opens up new possibilities in terms of constructive dialogue.

Availability and censorship

The main hurdle for the constructive discussion to happen is availability. In order for the internet to have an impact, people must have access to the medium. Limitations to the freedom of speech is of course the most notable problem, but technological issues exist too.

The Cuban authorities’ censorship of internet sites would require an article in its own right. Since I am by no means an expert, I suggest to you a couple of online readings on the subject.

The OpenNet initiative has a seemingly objective account of Cuban internet use. One of its astonishing, but credible claims is as follows:

Currently Cuba still uses its satellite connection with a 65 Mb/s upload bandwidth and a 124 Mb/s download bandwidth for the entire country.

Another text on the availability of internet is featured on Bloggers Cuba. This article describes the main problems slowing down the arrival and mainstream use of interaction websites (blogs, social networking, media sharing..) in Cuba. The emphasis of the article is on technology and connectivity, but it does not fail to call for relaxation of government policy on the subject matter.

The comments that follow the post open up an important debate between people of differing views. Just the possibility to discuss the facts and figures in a neutral setting gives important relief to the current atmosphere of communication blockade and propaganda warfare.

The last word of the extremes

The Miami Herald, while subjective in it’s critique of the regime, makes sure we get to hear of all the violations of liberties. They recently reported on the police interrogation of Yoani Sánchez, award winning author of the oppositional blog generacionY (which is blocked by most Cuban internet providers).

On the other side of the journalistic spectrum sit the Cuban government press. They too are proponents of free use of the internet when it suits their cause.

Blogs as a neutral medium

In this environment of heavy polarisation the blogs are invaluable. When studying the blogs and commentaries from various directions you can get a pretty good picture of where ordinary people stand. In their discussions, ideological polemics come second to constructive thinking.

Bloggers Cuba, by virtue of its size (growing) and it’s relatively neutral position, has the potential of being the most radical account of life on the island avoiding censorship. It is a commentry by ordinary people for ordinary people. If and when Cuban connectivity to the internet improves, the dialogue transmitted by sites like this is likely to play an important role in the development of society.

About the blogosphere

When deciding to become a blogger, I gained inspiration from many directions. Under the category “internet”, I will be writing about these pages that keep inspiring me, and which I find worth reading.

The pages will vary a lot in content and degree of formality. Some of the sites I will bring up are blogs worked by my friends, others just express nice thoughts or transmit information in a pleasant way. What constitutes a good read, I appreciate, is somewhat subjective, but I hope to not disappoint you.

I might also complain about the annoyances. There is some disguisting stuff out there. For example, I keep running into the islamofobes, which is a particularly noisy community of extremists residing in northern europe. I hopefully wont get so pissed off that i dedicate whole articles to those. Thats what they thrive off, you see.

No links in this post as you can see. I will hold your excitation on suspense. The series starts tomorrow with the review of the blogging phenomena which is currently – right now – aspiring to change the culture of dialogue of a particular carribbean nation.