Think You'll Find This Interesting

Summer Weekend in Finland

2012-01-06T17:58:00.001+02:00

Virpi was exited. Summer vacation had begun after a long waiting, and she was making her way to the summer cottage with Alexa, Henry and Frank. Alexa, Henry and Frank had been in Finland for the whole year as exchange students, and they would be leaving back to Scotland, England and Wales by the end of the month. They all came from a school called Bittendale Private College, and Virpi would be going to the very same school next year.

"Is it nice here?" Virpi asked in fluent English.
"Yes", Alexa answered and the boys nodded. They got out of the car, took their stuff and settled in the cottage.
"Boys in left room, us girls in right", Virpi explained and pointed out the rooms. When everybody had put their stuff in the rooms and made the beds ready, Virpi suggested that they would go to do sauna and swim. The others agreed.

After swimming and sauna the four sat on the balcony of the cottage drinking tea.
"Do you like the summer?" Frank asked. Virpi shook her head.
"Why?" Henry was interested to know. Virpi made a soft smile.
"My brother and grandmother died in boat accident here four years ago", she told them.
"We are very sorry to hear that", Alexa said touching Virpi's hand emphatically.

The next day Virpi took the exchange students out picking blueberries. The foreigners were surprised at the abundance of berries and their good taste. As a thanks the three gave Virpi and acrobatic performance. They were in their school's acrobatic team.

In the night Virpi woke up to odd noises. She got up and stepped carefully to the door of her and Alexa's room. She opened the door and peeked into the lit kitchen-living room of the cottage. She saw Frank and Henry smoking, and Virpi recognized the smell of pot. Her dead father, a drug police, had taught her how to recognize different kinds of drugs.

Virpi stepped back thinking about what she should do. Call the police? As she stepped back, Alexa grabbed Virpi's arms.
"You shouldn't have woken up", Alexa hissed. She took struggling Virpi to Frank and Henry who were hiding bags of pot into the buckets filled with blueberries.
"What is this?" Frank asked as he saw Alexa.
"She got up. You shouldn't have made so much noise", Alexa explained. The boys took some rope and tied Virpi's hands. Virpi thought quick on her feet and shoved her shoulder into Alexa's stomach. Then she turned around to punch Frank into the face. Henry was stunned for a moment and Virpi had time to run into hers and Alexa's room to grab her cell and then run out of the cottage.

As she ran, she heard the three exchange students begin the chase. Virpi frantically pushed 1-1-2 on her cell phone to call the emergency number and explained the situation and her location to the emergency call center person at the other end of the line out of breath. The emergency call center person promised send down policemen.

Virpi shut the phone and saw that she had come back to the cottage yard. Henry and Frank were there and Alexa appeared from the forest soon after herself. They tied her up and were just about to get into the car to leave, when the local police appeared. The policemen got out of the car in a hurry and surrounded Virpi's car. The three Brits got out and surrendered to the police. There was no way to escape.

Later a whole criminal league importing drugs to Finland was exposed with the help of the three exchange students. Virpi got a reward, and she and her mother traveled to the French Riviera for a few weeks. Her father was very proud of his daughter, and encouraged by the event Virpi became a policeman.

A Seed of Trust

2012-01-06T15:55:00.000+02:00

"Maddy, he has fed stories of the lower world to you since you were seven years old. I would say that he has so far trained you pretty well."
Maddy clenched her hands into fists. "What are you implying? That he lied to me?"
"I mean," The Nameless said, "that a man may plant a tree for several reasons. Maybe he likes the tree. Maybe he wants some shade. Or maybe he knows that it may one day be required for firewood." -Joanne Harris, Runemarks

This quote is intended to express the following matters: the character of the story Maddy has been friends called with a person One Eye for seven years, but then she meets the Nameless, who makes Maddy doubt her friendship with One Eye. In other words the Nameless makes Maddy doubt the trust between her and her friend.

Trust is the most important part of a good friendship, and one cannot know who is a true friend before times are difficult. From this comes the saying "a friend in need is a friend indeed."

Without trust there is no friendship, or any relationships at all. Trust can be undermined with a lot of things. Doubt is one of these scourges.

Even without knowing it one can do things that make the trust one's friends to disappear. In these cases an apology and explanation are the best cures.

A true friend takes into account the friendship in all his or her actions, and always thinks of the best friend and himself or herself. He or she is empathetic or sympathetic, honest, sincere, and there is mutual understanding among friends.

Sometimes, however, true friends can also come across circumstances where disputes are unavoidable by the two. The showing of angry emotions can be positive, as long as the parties argue constructively, searching for a suitable solution for both.

"A true friend will never make your life more difficult - unless you're on the way down." -netti.nic.fi

In a friendship each party should have a healthy self-esteem. A true friendship is not where one envies the other looking for a chance to succeed on the expense of the one, or in which one uses the other. A friendship is not black mail!

Friendship may be be considered by some overrated. Such people prefer to be alone, but humans are social animals, and even a hermit natured people need company sometimes.

Theoretically, all should have at least one friend. works In fictional the hero has usually a friend or friends, on whom the hero may count on almost everything. The fact is that several discriminated, bullied, beaten, and lonely people pass through, the world in need of friends.

Suicides, school shootings, and other bloody attacks would be reduced likely if people would be able to live in harmony. There are bad people always, but there could be less bitter people. Friendship can prevent self-destructive thinking. A friend may also notice if something is wrong.

Scientifically viewed friendship is a phenomenon which is equally difficult to explain and explore as love, but recently with psychology, and magnetic resonance imaging it has been possible to study the reactions that friendship creates in a person.

A Great Season to Read

2012-01-05T15:58:00.001+02:00

I just finished one of the best books ever written. It's called The Long Season of Rain and it was written by an American, born Korean, author Helen Kim and it was published in 1992.

The book details the story of one long rain season in South Korea in the year of 1969 when a family takes care of an orphan boy until they could find him a new family. The family consists of parents, Chong-min and his wife, Chong-min's mother who is referred to as Grandmother and four daughters: Chang-hi, Chung-hi, Mun-hi and Ki-hi. They live in Seoul and the father works in the military.

The boy, Pjong-su, raises much turbulence in the fragile peace of the family. Chong-min's wife, always referred to as Chang-hi's mother, has lossed two sons and wants to adopt Pjong-su. The father is against it and Grandmother doesn't know what to think. The boy triggers a long-lived situation of the father never being a father to his daughters and a husband to his wife.

The book is beautiful and well written. I was sucked in from the first word to the last. When I finished the book, I gave it to read to my sister and she has been as sucked into it as I have. The story is about women, their feelings, expectations and duties in a community. If you ever get your hands on it, read it. That's all I can say.

EU down... Again

2011-12-09T16:59:00.001+02:00

BIG EU COUNTRIES. Finnish priminister Jyrki Katainen: "Here we go all together now!..."

The picture is funny, but the message is not. It all began when the Finnish Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen (SDP) was interviewed on the Finnish Independence Day of the 6th of December.

Summary: Germany and France proposed a new EU treaty with stricter rules on government budgets, automatic sanctions and a majority vote in decisions concerning supporting countries like Greece. Finland can't go through with this, because it would make the position of small, rich EU countries one of pay, but don't talk. Doesn't that sound like mafia?

Click to enlarge
Source: http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/12/finland_slams_majority_rule_in_eu_bailout_fund_3083845.html

Summary: Before the summit the parliamentary committee on the Finnish constitution ruled that the majority vote would be against the Finnish constitution as it would damage the country's sovereignty. The Grand Committee which deals with everything European gave its mandate to the priminister Jyrki Katainen. This was not to accept the majority vote.

Source: http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/12/parliamentary_committee_franco-german_proposal_unconstitutional_3089102.html

The summit began on Thursday the 8th, and the EU leaders negotiated all night. My heart and stomach dropped. I was scared when I read this next piece of news.

Summary: During the night of negotiating Katainen informed other countries that Finland could not accept the majority vote proposal. Horrifying: Finland was the only country that said so. Aren't other small countries worried of their sovereignty? I would be. They ruled out that the majority vote would be dependent on the Finnish parliament.

They can kiss that sucker goodbye, since acceptance would mean a majority of 2/3 (134 parliamentarians out of 200). This is not a majority the Finnish government possesses (124 seats).

Source: http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/12/finland_alone_in_rejecting_majority_proposal_3090605.html?print=true

This is what it came to. I don't know so much about Urpilainen, but what she said was kind of inconclusive. I thoroughly believe Finland should stick to it's sovereignty, and so should other countries. This integration is going the wrong way. I many times say to my friends: if I want to live in a federation, I'll move to Russia or the USA.

Call me eurosceptic, but that's the way I think. Don't get me wrong: EU has its sides. One market, the Schengen Treaty etc. These are smart, but since we went to all this monetary union stuff with no major country following the key treaties (for example the Stability and Growth Pact, SGP), we haven't gone anywhere.

Source: http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/12/finland_threatens_to_leave_bailout_fund_over_unanimity_row_3092176.html?print=true

94th Independence Day of Finland

2011-12-06T15:09:00.001+02:00

All I can say today is have a great 94th Independence Day Finland, my homecountry. The flag is flying high and even Google celebrated us by making a doodle (below).

History of Archaeological Methods

2011-11-02T19:26:00.003+02:00

The development of archaeological methods has been major. One of the early attempts to develop methods was by al-Hamadani of Yemen. His work is summarized as follows: “-- observing and describing the site, -- excavating and recording of finds with exact origin, descriptions and measurements, -- using knowledge of Himyarite inscriptions, -- analyzing the findings in light of religious and historical texts and oral history”. Al-Idrisi’s work was particularly for Egyptology and it includes study of sediments to see the indication of the flood level and chemical analysis of clay in building materials.

Richard Colt-Hoare was one of the earliest modern archaeologists and it is possible that he was the first one to use a trowel for careful excavation. The terms he invented to categorize and describe his findings are still in use.

Augustus Pitt-Rivers was a major figure in the development process. He developed a type of typology which helps with the dating purposes and has to do with the similarity of objects. He had the first archaeological timing system that was based on importance and not beauty.

The man that can be legitimately called Father of Archaeology is William Flinders Petrie. He created a serialization technique which is a way of situating an object within a series and it permitted accurate dating long before the technology we have today.

It was the idea of Mortimer Wheeler to lay a site out in a grid pattern. It forms the basis of excavation technique, but it is slowly being let go when methods have developed.

The first chance for archaeologists to practice urban archeology was during the Second World War when the cities were emptied. The latest major step in archeology was the invention of radiocarbon dating. The theory was introduced by American scientist Willard Libby in 1949 and after his time it was made fact. Radiocarbon dating is revolutionary, but it has many limitations. Another modern technique development is geophysical survey which allows archaeologist study the formations of the ground before making the decision of where to dig.

History of Archaeology

2011-11-02T19:25:00.002+02:00

Archeology has for the longest time been inspired by hobbyists, normal people with a passion for digging up the remains of ancient human cultures. All though professional archaeologists have supervised several excavations for the last few hundred of years most of the digging is still done by amateurs.
I have a passion for digging up history. There is still so much to discover in the world of archeology, like at the Mayan temple site of Tikal, Mexico, only 15 % has been excavated.
Archeology is a well-known subject. The history of unearthing history is not part of common knowledge.

The exact origins of archeology are not known, though some think that the roots are from the last king of Babylon Nabonidus, better known as Nebuchadnezzar II. He supervised the first archaeological excavation during his reign between the years 555-539 BC. There are records of even earlier excavations than the one in Babylon: the reconstruction of the 4th Dynasty Sphinx during the New Kingdom Egypt (1550-1070 BC). Collecting of antiquities and excavating ancient monuments is not a new practice, but has taken place for thousands of years.

In the Near East, the Muslims were the first to develop archaeological methods. They had an interest in pre-Islamic cultures that had habited their areas before them. Their primary interest was pre-Islamic Arabia, Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) and ancient Egypt. The first steps of Egyptology were done by Islamic Dhul-Nun al-Misri and Ibn Wahshiyya in the 9th century. Among known Egyptologists is Abdul Latif al-Baghdadi who was a teacher at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University in the 13th century. He made detailed descriptions on the ancient Egyptian monuments, like the pyramids and the Sphinx. He and two others, Abu al-Hassan al-Hamadani of Yemen and Al-Idrisi, developed elaborate archaeological methods.

In China during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) the educated gentry concentrated on collecting antique art and the Neo-Confucian scholar-officials used archaeological pursuits to revive the use of ancient relics in the state rituals. This was criticized by polymath official Shen Kuo who endured materials, technologies and objects of antiquity to study them for their functionality and to discover ancient manufacturing techniques.

Archeology took its first steps towards being an acknowledged science about 150 years ago in the beginning of the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment, as others would say. The Age of Reason was in Europe between the 17th and 18th centuries.

Flavio Biondo was an Italian Renaissance humanist historian and he created a systematic and documented guide to the ruins and topography of ancient Rome. He is considered an early founder of archeology. During Biondo’s lifetime the itinerant scholar Ciriaco dePizzicolli traveled throughout Greece recording his findings of buildings and objects from the far past.

The founder of scientific archeology is seen to be the German Johann Joachim Winckelmann, “the prophet and founding hero of modern archeology”. His systematic study of physical remains is more recognizable to the modern students of the subject. His work was built by more theoretical work and he applied empirical examinations of artifacts. Reasoned conclusions could be drawn and theories about ancient societies could be formed through Winckelmann’s method, which is still in practice today.

Great Britain was one of the first countries to develop a systematic approach to archeology. It was mainly practiced by clergymen that recorded detailed descriptions of their surroundings.

The third president of the United States Thomas Jefferson, nicknamed the father of archeology, supervised what seems to be the only systematic excavation of his time. The excavation was located on his land in Virginia and they investigated a Native American burial mound. His careful methods were ahead of his time, but unfortunately his colleagues were not inspired by him and they continued their violent fashion of digging up history.

In the 1800s Napoleon started an Egyptian campaign and he brought a lot of scientists into the country. One of these was a French Army engineer Lieutenant Pierre François Bouchard who found the Rosetta stone near the city of Rosetta. The Rosetta stone is one of the world’s most famous artifacts. It has the same text carved in it thrice with three different languages, including Egyptian hieroglyphics and ancient Greek. With the help of the Rosetta Stone Jean- François Champollion discovered the hidden meaning of hieroglyphics. Champollion’s work was and is the key to Egyptology.

The first person to suggest that humankind was older than six thousand years was Jacques Boucher de Perthes. He found historical artifacts from the Ice Age near a small town called Abbeville along the Somme River, France. He was later proven right by two British archaeologists that visited the site to investigate de Perthes’ theory.

In the beginning of the 19th century archeology was mainly done by the kids of rich families whom traveled to exotic location and brought back the best-looking artifacts. Unclassified items gathered into museums, because there was no dating system to display the items correctly. Finally Christian Jurgensen Thomsen, curator of the National museum of Denmark, developed a classification method called the Three Age System basing it on the ideas of historian Videl-Simonson. Videl-Simonson claimed that the earliest Scandinavian antiquities were made first out of wood and stone, then of copper and later of iron. Inspired by this Thomsen introduced the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. The Three Age System sorted artifacts by material culture and the suggested order was chronological. Thomsen’s successor J.A.A. Worsaae proved him correct. The problem is that the changing of material culture to another doesn’t always coincide with the social changes of the ancient world.

In the 1830s geologist Charles Lyell brought to the world the theory of old rock being buried by younger rock and that the same seismic activity and erosion that happens today happened also in ancient times. This is called the principle of uniformitarianism. The principle has been proven incorrect. Lyell also introduced the idea of transmutation meaning that organic forms would develop and change over time. This inspired biologist Charles Darwin to form the theory of evolution. Creationists disagree with transmutation. They believe in the theory of creationism which replicates the Bible’s idea that God has created everything.

Interest in the cultures of the New World was light up by John Stephens in 1839. He traveled through the New World recording his experiences. Stephens’ writings excited the interest in the Maya and the studying of the Toltec and Aztec in Mexico, the Inca in South America and the Folsom culture, near Folsom, New Mexico began.

From halfway through the 19th century to the end of the century more importance was put on delicate excavation. First archaeologists to practice it were Giuseppe Fiorelli in Pompeii (1860) and before him Ernst Curtius in Olympia (1852 and 1875). In 1730s Marcello Venuti had a similar approach to excavation. Venuti was an antiquities expert in 1738 hired by King Charles of the Two Sicilies to excavate the ancient city of Herculaneum. Venuti’s approach was methodical and the excavation was the first supervised one. This was a likely birth of modern archeology.

People usually investigated locations mentioned in available texts. One of these people was rich German businessman Heinrich Schliemann who had a lifelong interest in the city of Troy. After he had gathered a fortune he traveled to Hisarlik, Turkey where he did find a rich, ancient city which he immediately assumed to be Troy. He spent four years in the early 1870s in Hisarlik digging through the nine levels of occupation. Schliemann was mainly a treasure hunter and very harsh in his digging methods, luckily he in the last years he spent in Hisarlik he hired Wilhelm Dorpfeld who refined Schliemann’s technique. Dorpfeld used to work with Curtius in Olympia.

Chiaroscuro and the Hamsa

2011-10-25T20:06:00.001+03:00

I shifted from deep sleep and heard the clock ticking on the wall. I had taken that clock away from the room several times, but somebody continued bringing it back. It struck seven. Great. Now I would have to wake up, because my alarm would go off. It didn't. Since I was already awake, I opened my eyes, and they didn't open. Or at least I thought they didn't. I had felt my eyelids rise, but the world had become colorless and dark. ”She's awake”, somebody said. ”Go get the doctor!” The voice was familiar. The name was on the tip of my tung, but the thought kept slipping from my grasp. Somebody left the room. I heard the door go. Some minutes passed. The room was filled with the ticking of the clock and the breathing of this person next to me.

After some time the door moves once more. I can hear footsteps. Two pairs. The door bangs shut and I am startled. Somebody apologizes to me. They use a name unfamiliar to me. Who am I? I finally dare ask myself, and I don't know. ”Miss”, a man's voice says one more time, and I respond by looking into the direction of the voice. I don't think I know how to form the sounds they are making. ”My name is Jean Auger”, the man says, ”I am your optometrist.” Fancy word I don't recognize. Or I think I don't. I nod. I hope they saw it. They saw it. ”Miss...” They use that name again. ”You have...” I stop listening and turn my head. Do I really want to know?

They all leave, because the doctor said they should. He said it was for the best, that I clearly didn't want to meet them. I don't care. I don't know who they were. I guess they were supposed to be friends and family. Do I have family? Friends? That's who they must've been. This is not my room. That's not the same clock. There are more voices than the ticking. There is the humming of many machines that makes my ears hurt. I turn my head around, but it all looks the same. Only the voices change telling me of the space I'm in.

I am paralyzed.

No sunlight, redness of the autumn trees, green of the summer plains, white of the winter snow. They are all memories.

Time will cure my wounds. And now I can imagine my life. I can be anyone I want, what color I want, what creature I want. I can finally follow my dream, and go back in time to the medieval times, antiquity. I can see the Mayans in their bloody rites, the building of the pyramids, the death of millions of people during the Black Death, and not be a part of it.

The sorrow fills me. My bones feel as heavy as lead. A shadow grows over my fairy tale world. Is this life?

Chiaroscuro is the sharp contrast between light and darkness in renaissance paintings.

The Hamsa is the Arabic symbol of protection against the Evil Eye.

The Continuation War

2011-10-21T13:13:00.002+03:00

The moment Finland signed the Moscow Peace Treaty on the 12th of March 1940, Finland began preparing for the next war. The shooting stopped the next day, but a partial state of war continued. The temporariness of the peace is shown by that e.g. Mannerheim was still the supreme commander 1.

When Germany occupied Denmark and Norway, and the Soviet Union invaded the Baltic states, fear of a new attack grew in Finland. The Soviet Union still dealt with Finland as part of its interest fear in accordance with the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 2. Fear of losing our independence drove Finland to ask help from Germany. Finland had had a bad year, and Germany gave Finland grain and weapons. In 1940 Germany was planning operation Barbarossa. The main reason for Germany to want to help Finland was because of our long border shared with the Soviet Union.

When the preparations for the attack for started in 1941, the Finnish military command was involved. The same year German troops came to Finland, and at the same time Finland's purchases of weaponry from Germany increased notably. On June 14th the command of Finnish troops in Northern Finland was transferred to the Germans. Three days after the transfer of command, the command was given for the mobilization of the entire Finnish army. On the 22nd of June Germany began operation Barbarossa, and the German air force and navy began their operations in Finland. Hitler, the infamous leader of Germany, said in a radio speech that Finland was an ally of Germany. Finland's president Risto Ryti hastened to keep his own radio speech in which he corrected the impression that Hitler had given of us being allies. Ryti said that Finland and Germany were merely fighting side-by-side for different goals. Finland never had a treaty with Germany.

The Soviet Union began bombing Helsinki on June 25th which is three days after the beginning of operation Barbarossa. On the same day Finland declared war on the Soviet Union. The Continuation War had began.

The Continuation War has many names. It is called the Compensation War, the Union War, the Separate War and the Continuation War. For Finns the war was one of compensation, it was Finland avenging the Winter War and the harsh Moscow Peace Treaty. The war is called the Continuation War, because the Moscow Peace Treaty was never viewed as a real peace treaty, only a pause. It is called the Union War, because weren't alone, like during the Winter War. We had help, and that help was Germany.

Finland had bought weapons and equipment from Germany, so the situation of Finnish troops from that aspect were far better. The troops of Northern Finland were stronger since they had a lot of Germans in their ranks.

There was an idea amongst the Finns that the Winter War had been a justified war, but the Continuation War, which was already moving over the old borders, was wrong. The spirit of the Winter War, the miracle of unity had been lost, or if not lost, then faded in glory.

The first phase of war was the attack phase which began in the June of 1941. On the 10th of July the main forces of Finland began the conquest of Ladoga Karelia. Their goal was the Syväri river 300 kilometers (186 miles) away. In September they reached the borders of 1939, the borders prior to the Moscow Peace Treaty. Finnish soldiers showed hesitation when they came to the border. Until now, the war had been justified, because it had been the returning of the lost land to its rightful owners. A great example of this dilemma is shown in a section of Väinö Linna's book The Unknown Soldier, published in 1954, where one of the soldiers steps theatrically across the old border saying that now he is on Soviet ground.

When Finnish troops crossed the old border, Great Britain waged war on Finland in December. In practice, this had no meaning since Great Britain never sent its soldiers to fight against Finland.

From September onwards, Finland presented several proposals to Germany for the borders for Greater Finland. The Finns, especially the members of the Academic Karelia Society, were still hoping to combine all the Finno-Ugrian people under one state. One of these proposals was the so called three isthmus border which would have extended from the Gulf of Finland, over the isthmuses of Lake Ladoga and Onega to the White Bay.

In the beginning of October the Finns reached Petrozavodsk on the shore of Lake Onega. It was renamed Äänislinna (Onega Castle) by the Finns. Most of the population of the occupied territory had fled, but about 85 000 people had stayed (about 1/4 of the population). The Finns thought of themselves as the liberators of East Karelia. They moved the Soviets to concentration camps, and began educational work amongst the Karelians of the area to convert them to the Finnish national romantic views.

In the concentration camps the Soviets suffered of epidemics and hunger due to the poor food situation. Mortality during the winter of 1941-42 was higher than normal, especially in the camps. All together Finland had over 60 000 Soviet prisoners of war, of whom a third died in captivity. Of these, about 3000 were handed over to Germany, and in exchange for Soviet prisoners, Germany gave Finland Finno-Ugrian prisoners, which often joined the Finnish army as volunteers.

Finland advanced to Medvezhjegorsk, which is located in the upper arm of Lake Onega, in November and December. The attack phase was over soon after the Finnish Independence Day on the 6th of December 1941, when the territories lost in the Moscow Peace Treaty had been recovered.

At the end of the attack phase, began the so called trench war phase which lasted until the last war year of 1944. During this phase the fronts did not move. In the winter of -41 Germany was unable to defeat the Soviet Union. Mannerheim began suspecting that Germany might not win the war. He began limiting the co-operation between Finnish and German troops e.g. by denying the shutting down of the Murmansk railway which was vital to the servicing of the German troops. Also he did not allow Finns to participate in the siege of Leningrad knowing the unforgiveness of this act.

During the trench war both Finns and Soviets engaged in partisan activities. The partisans went over the border killing whole villages of men, women and children. They also took prisoners, if at all possible. This was often scarier than dying.

Significant battles during the trench were e.g. the occupation of Hogland between the 26th and 27th of March 1942 and the major bombings of Helsinki in February -44. During the Hogland capture, a major part was played by the air forces of both parties (Finland and Soviet Union). For example during the operation, the Finnish air force made 600 flights. The survival of Helsinki during the heavy bombardment was influenced greatly by the fact the region's air combat had been improved from -42 onwards.

In 1944 Finland began its exit from the war. After Germany's defeat at Stalingrad, Finland began peace overtures to the Soviet Union. Soon after D-day on 6.6.-44 the Soviet Union began the Vyborg-Petrozadovsk Offensive. The Offensive was not a surprise to Finland, but the force of the Soviet troops was so great that the Finns had to retreat to the VKT (Viipuri-Kuparsaari-Taipale) line on the Karelian isthmus. The Finns lost Vyborg on the 20th of June. Around the same time Stalin demanded Finland to surrender.

In June the president Risto Ryti sent Germany a personal letter which is also known as the Ryti-Ribbentrop Agreement. In the letter Ryti assured that Finland would continue fighting. At the end of June Finnish soldiers rejected the Soviet invasion in the battle of Tali-Ihantala. Similar battles were held in Vuosalmi and Vyborg Bay. In the change of July and August Finns reached victory in Ilomantsi.

The armistice began the 4th of September, and on the 19.9.1944 the parliament accepted the Moscow Armistice. The Armistice's terms were accepted in the Paris Peace Treaty in 1947. The terms included territorial concessions (Porkkala on lease, Pechenga), driving the Germans out of Finland, 300 million dollars in war reparations, the closing down of fascist movements, restoration of the army to the peace level and allowing of communist activities. The fascist movements included the Lotta Svärd Organization, the White Guard, Patriotic People's Movement (IKL) and the Academic Karelia Society (AKS).

66 000 were killed or disappeared, 1500 civilians died, and there were over 150 000 wounded in the Continuation War. On the home front, all the resources were directed towards military action. All civilians had the obligation to work. In -41 food cards were given to the families, so food could be rationed. During the war reports of the general mood were made. Already in 1942 people suspected the success of the war.

The war was opposed since 1941, about 500 men were retained in preventive detention due to not doing their military service. About 80 000 children were sent abroad to foster parents, most of them Sweden. After the war many child custody battles were fought between real parents and foster parents.

The Allied Commission lead by Zdanov arrived in Helsinki a few days after the armistice had been approved by the parliament between the 22nd and the 23rd of September. The Lapland War began soon after the arrival of the Commission, and lasted a year. The purpose of the war was to fulfill the article of the German expulsion of the Moscow Armistice.

1 In peace time in Finland, the president is the supreme commander of the army.
2 The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a surprise to the whole world, at it was known that Hitler thought of communism and the Soviet Union as his greatest enemy. Hitler made the pact to ensure that he wouldn't get into a war on two fronts. Stalin on the other hand knew that the Soviet Union was very unprepared for war, and by the pact bought more time. In the secret protocol Germany and the Soviet Union divided Eastern Europe into interest spheres. The border of the interest spheres war on the Oder and Neisse rivers in the middle of Poland dividing the country in two.

Merchants of Death

2011-10-06T17:59:00.001+03:00

Three obscure figures stood on the side of the road. They were all cloaked in black. The first figure was in a cloak made of sackcloth. The breeze made him shiver, and with one drop of rain it would give him a cold. He was always sneezing and coughing.

One day a young man came down the road and was just about to pass the first figure when the figure collapsed of nausea and exhaustion. The young man ran to the figure for the young man was innocent and didn't know the ways of the world.
- Are you all right? he exclaimed in an alarmed tone. The figure who was an old man rested on the side of the road coughing hoarsely while keeping the young man away.
- Sir?
The old man started to get up, but stumbled over his long clothes. The young man supported him until he was stable.
- What's your name, young man? asked the old man.
- Daj, answered the young man.
- You are Daj! I have heard of you! Why do you walk this road?
- To get to the end, Daj answered.
- Do you know what's there?
- No, I do not, said Daj. The old man shook his head.
- You are so naive. What is this road to you, when you could do so much else?
- This is life to me. I'm curious.
- You're curious, aye? the old man coughed. You know... I'm a merchant. I sell stuff.
- What do you sell then? Daj wondered. The old man opened his cloak and pulled out a cigar. He took it to his nose and smelled its scent sighing with deep gratification.
- I sell these.
- What are they? Daj wanted to know.
- Cigars, the old man said in a tone most reverent. He took a lighter out of the cloak. Daj looked at the fire mesmerized. The old man took the lighter to the end of the cigar and then put it back into his cloak. He breathed in the smoke of the cigar and blew out happily.
- That feels so good.
Daj looked at his actions pondering. The old man sucked in more smoke, and then asked:
- Would you like to try?
At the end of his words he began coughing violently spewing out spit and slime which flew everywhere as the old man doubled over. Daj was frightened so he backed away and walked onward.

The next figure down the road was a strong, large man who stood like a rock guarding the road. He didn't move an inch. His cloak was made out of wool. It was warm in the breeze, and dry in the rain. Daj walked by him careful not to disturb the trance the giant was in.
- Hey, boy! a voice yelled, and Daj turned to look at the giant who had barely moved, but who had clearly spoken.
- Yes, sir? he asked a bit louder then usual not to sound wimpy.
- Been talking to the old man up the road, have you? the soldier-like man stated.
- Yes, sir.
- Damn waste of time the old fool, the giant said harshly.
- Yes, sir, Daj answered not knowing what else to say. His lack of creativity seemed to upset the giant who yelled.:
- Don't you yes sir me! I had to do that in the army, and growing up. I despise yes-siring.
- Well, what would you have me say then? Daj pondered confusedly.
- Captain Merchant, captain Cook Merchant, the giant introduced himself and extended his giant hand out. Daj shook his hand, and was almost crushed in the tight grip of the captain's.
- Are you a merchant too, captain?
- A spokesman, Merchant only by name.
- A spokesman for what, captain Merhant?
The captain smiled secretively and pushed his hand under his cloak pulling out a gun. He played with it in his hand, juggling it and making it spin. Suddenly he sharpened and shot at a target in the distance. In the distance, they could hear the old man curse at them.
- What is that?
- Its a 9mm Glock 17, the captain whispered admiringly. Its top.
- Top what? Daj yelled out.
- A top gun, the giant said frustrated. Daj didn't understand the fury of the giant who began cursing and pointing at him with the "top gun", as he had called it. Daj barely understood anything he said. The only message that truly transmitted into his feet and brain: Danger! Even though he didn't really know what the danger was. Something about of the "top gun" made warning bells ring in his head.

Walking onward Daj hoped he would not meet anymore unpleasant people like the old man and captain Cook Merchant.

The third figure on the road was clothed in silk, and satin. She was as beautiful as sunshine, as frail as moon rays, and as elegant as a swan in her black night gown which hugged her generous figure like a glove, and wore a thin cape she shyly tried to hide in. Daj, raised to be a pleasant, and helpful young man, turned to her and asked if she was alright.
- No, I'm lost, she answered with a voice of tiny chiming silver bells, a peaceful brook on a hot summer day, and the harmonious sing song of tropical birds.
- How can I help you? Can I take you home? Daj asked in his gentlemanly way.
- I'm not sure. I was taught not to trust strangers, the woman answered with a voice so small and fragile that Daj's heart was about to break.
- So was I, but I was also taught to help those in need of some, Daj said kindly. What's your name?
- Elene. What's yours?
- What a beautiful name. I'm Daj.
They spoke and sat on a bench on a bridge nearby. The sun began to set. Elene seemed more relaxed, but Daj asked again:
- How could I help you?
- Stay with me, she answered after hesitating for a moment. Daj stayed, and when morning came, he was starving.
- Oh, I'm so sorry! I don't have any food, just this water in the river. But don't worry, if you drink it at least once a day, you will never feel hungry again, Elene explained. Daj thanked her and took her advice. He went down to the river and saw that there was a pitcher full of river water, and cups. He poured water into the cup and drank. It was delicious. He was so hungry, and thirsty he didn't stop until he was absolutely bloated with the river water. The world seemed to change around him. Demons began creeping up to him. He turned to Elene who was smiling cruelly.
- What's happening to me? Daj asked mumbling. Elene laughed like a witch.
- You are dying.
Daj yelled helplessly as the river flooded and drowned him. Elene looked up into the distance and smiled, and her friend with red horns smiled back.

Rags to Riches -- and back down again

2011-09-27T19:02:00.000+03:00

"Also the people of Tellus started from scratch in ancient times, but now everybody already owes astronomical sums--!!"

How did we ever end up in this situation. The picture ultimately says it all: Europe is in debt, the USA is in debt, Russia is in debt, Japan is in debt... All the great countries from years past. The only country that doesn't seem to be in debt is China and India, but especially China. On the contrary, China owns most of our debt.

This is scary.

Not necessarily the fact that a specific country has most of our debt, but a country, an one country in general, owns most of our debt. This country wields the most amount of power over the world it has basically bought up.

How did we come to this situation? Where everybody is in debt, there is need to save, but we just aren't able to. We used to be able to do so much with so little, but now it is impossible.

One reason is inflation, the value of money becoming smaller and smaller over the years. Inflation in Europe is about 3 % and that's got people worried. Believe me. Its nothing as bad as during the 16th and 17th centuries when Spain and Portugal discovered the Americas and their vast gold riches. Inflation was during a hundred year period about 300 to 500 percent. A hundred year period!

Of course if you multiply 3 by a hundred, you'll get 300. But I don't think economical mathematics works that way.

I'm no expert, and no frankly very little about the subject of how economical history lead us to this situation from nothing to a lot to less than nothing, technically. You would have to consult other sources to get the details, and I regretfully am not able to give any other sources. They will have to be searched later on.Even without much knowledge, one gets to wonder and worry. It's a real rags to riches tale -- and back down again.

It's WTC today, WTD across history

2011-09-26T21:41:00.000+03:00

There are three things in human history that constantly reoccur: war, trade and despotism. From the time of hunter gatherers to this very day.

Trade is the most natural part of human nature. It doesn't matter what theories of the birth of the earth one believes, it is most certain that people traded much before the Neolithic revolution. Capitalism is as natural as breathing.

After the Neolithic revolution it was possible for people to stay where they were. Thus permanent living came to be. People gathered into small groups and so were created villages, cities, city states and sovereign countries of many cities. This was all made possible by the introduction of bronze and iron. As farming became more efficient all the humans weren't needed to do just that. People began specializing, and so was created the traditional hierarchy of despot over the priests who knew how to read and write, craftsmen, traders and serfs.

Here we come to the creation of a despotic or tyrannical rule. A despot is a person who rules over the people with fear. He is the only one with any real power. His power is upheld by his army, the priests and superstitions.

From farming came specializing came despotism came war. There are many reasons why an ancient people went to war. One was because of food running scarce due to salinization and crop land turning into swamps caused by irrigation. An other common reason is pure greed, "need of space" and the lust for power of despots.

War in a larger extent was born only with bigger, more permanent communities, but skirmishes and extensive battles are also much older than farming. Despots were tribal leaders than, but they thrived better after permanent living was established.

All of these three, war, trade and despotism, have flourished throughout the centuries. The despots of Ur and Uruk of the Sumerian cities with their trade routes and the waring history of Mesopotamia, the unevenly flooding land of the two rivers, Euphrates and Tigris to authoritarian countries like Kim Jong-Il of North Korea, to capitalism rediscovered by Adam Smith, and the Afghan war of the 21st century.

PS WTC for world trade centralism.

Movie of Love and Cultural Identity

2011-09-17T17:38:00.000+03:00

Historical or cultural dramas have thegreatest impact on me, and the best ones have always been booksoriginally. The best conversion from book to movie is Niki Caro'sdepiction of Witi Ihimaera's book the Whale Rider(1987). Caro changed the storyline giving it his personal touch stillkeeping the key elements of the story.

Carohas a good eye for cast. Keisha Castle-Hughes was exactly how Ipictured little Paikea, named after the Maori tribe's hero. The storyis quite sad. Paikea Apirana loses her mother at birth and isrejected by her grandfather Koro Apirana, the leader of her father'stribe, for not being a boy. She barely sees her travelling father whois Koro's first born.

KoroApirana starst teaching the Maori traditions to the boys of his tribeto keep the traditions alive. The education is only allowed to boys,but Paikea constantly sneaks in to listen. When Koro finds out, he isfurious at her. For example in one scene Koro is teaching the boyshow to fight. He dismisses Paikea who is trying to imitate. She goesbehind the corner and is followed by a boy. They fight and Koro hearsthe commotion. As he arrives Paikea wins the boy and Koro tells herto leave.

In theend a tragedy is needed to trigger Koro's love for Paikea. And Ithink this is the most beautiful part of the story. Koro finallyrealizing who Paikea is.

Whatespecially makes me feel for the movie is how old traditionalcultures are disappearing constantly, because of the influence of thewestern culture. Many peoples lives have been wrongly disrupted,because of the greediness of the European imperialists. I'm nomarxist, but I feel ashamed of calling myself a European for this veryreason.

My Cultural Profile

2011-09-17T12:35:00.001+03:00

I would describe my cultural profile asaverage and universal. The kind of history that I like makes me morewestern European than a Finn. Finland, my current land of residenceand birth land, has gone through the normal stages of the world:Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Middle Ages, the Black Death,Renaissance, Industrialization. But the history has been dictated bythe Swedish and Russian rules. Only for one century have we been ableto make our own history. That is why my love for history resides inancient countries like Italy, France, England and Egypt.

One reason I'm drawn to the culture ofwestern Europe is my other home overseas, the US, which has beenlargely influenced by France and England. My cultural profile hasoriginated here.

Still Finland has had a large impact onthe way I am. I am timid like a Finn, I respect other peoples'privacy like a Finn. I am polite, I am punctual.

Yet, I do not value most products ofFinnish culture. I find most of the movies and music boring. My movietaste is a sophisticated, but American one. My music taste belongs toEngland and France. I do not enjoy the Finnish language too mucheither. I am a writer, and can say more in Finnish than in Englishfor the obvious reason I have lived in Finland since I was born.Still, the language is crude and boring. A violent, harsh languagedominated with Ks and Rs.

Because of globalisation unified thepop culture in most western countries, I find myself to be verysimilar in matters of taste to Swedish, English, French, German andAmerican youth. But still there is the personal touch that has comefrom living in the part of the world I'm living in.

I have learned to eat weird food thatsounds weird to anybody else than a Finn: mämmi, maksalaatikko,talkkuna. Mämmi is basically malt and full of fiber. Maksalaatikkomeans literally liver box, and talkkuna is a powder of oats mixedwith sugar and buttermilk. Oh yes, and sour dough rye bread.Something I can't live without.

9/11 - the infamous date

2011-09-11T13:27:00.000+03:00

I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm just... mad. No real reason for it, I think.

Today is my 17th birthday. Yes, today, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, probably the biggest terrorist attack in modern and world history. I should be happy. I should be elated. Probably.

Still, when I see the "happy birthday" sentiments on Facebook which I normally love, my anger deepens. My sister also wished me a happy birthday this morning even though I expressly told them yesterday: no wishing! I was enraged at her. She said I ruined her day. Its not her day, so I don't care. If it was her birthday, I wouldn't act against her wishes ruining her birthday.

She is who she is.

I know I'm being selfish, but I just can't help going on not thinking about all those people who died that sad day in 2001, and all their relatives and friends who survived. And all those firefighters, policemen and paramedics who became heroes that day. The finest of New York, and the finest of the USA. I believe if it would of happened anywhere in America, the local authorities would of done the same thing.

My father is from Texas. He came to Finland while the Soviet Union still looked like it could hang on forever to study Russian and Soviet politics. He came to study in he university of Finland's capital, Helsinki, which had the leading Soviet Union research facility in the world at the time. Helsinki also used to be called the city of spies, since we were a "free" country right on the border. More about that some other time. This is just a preface to me saying, I live in Western Finland and I have and American and a Finnish citizenship.

I remember vaguely my 7th birthday, when IT happened. It was a Tuesday, I was on first grade. We had just moved to where we live now about over a month ago right before school began around the 10th of August. I had come home from school and I was doing something in our living room. It was directly connected to my parents' office. He was looking at something interesting on the Internet, so I went over and asked: "What is that?" It was the World Trade Center twin towers in New York billowing a lot of smoke. It must of been a bit over 9 o'clock which means it would've been around 5pm in Finland.

I don't remember what my father told me had happened. Maybe it was that airplanes had crashed in to the skyscrapers. I vaguely remember understanding that it was a horrible thing that had happened. Feeling like my birthday was ruined. I only later got to know that there were also two other planes. The one that hit the Pentagon and the other that crash landed in a field thanks to the courageous acts of those in the plane.

This sounds horrible, but I am feeling better now. I didn't know any of the people that died that day, I don't know any of the people who survived. I just have read and heard about them. It didn't ever effect me personally. What am I mad at other people about? The people around me didn't know them either. It was a horrible tragedy. Nobody can deny it, but the fact is: I have lived in Finland all my life and I have never visited New York. The beginning of this month I have only been aggravated a) that they have spoken about in the Finnish media so much before the actual day leaving nothing and b) they are building new WTC skyscrapers and one of them is 1776 feet high, symbolic of the year USA became Independent. Admirable, defiant and stupid! That is definitely going to be a target!

Other events on September 11th that are hitting the big zeros:

470 years ago in 1541 – Santiago, Chile, is destroyed by indigenous warriors, led by Michimalonko
90 years ago in 1921 – Nahalal, the first moshav in Palestine, is settled as part of a Zionist plan to colonize Palestine and creating a Jewish state, later to be Israel
80 years ago in 1931 – Salvatore Maranzano is murdered by Charles Luciano's hitmen
70 years ago in 1941 – Ground is broken for the construction of The Pentagon, and Charles Lindbergh's Des Moines Speech accusing the British, Jews and the Roosevelt administration of pressing for war with Germany
50 years ago in 1961 – Foundation of the World Wildlife Fund, and Hurricane Carla strikes the Texas coast as a Category 4 hurricane, the second strongest storm ever to hit the state
40 years ago in 1971 – The Egyptian Constitution becomes official

And people hitting the zeros:

400 years - 1611 – Turenne, 3rd Marshal General of France (d. 1675)
300 years - 1711 – William Boyce, English composer (d. 1779)
100 years - 1911 – Bola de Nieve, Cuban pianist (d. 1971)

Interesting death was on this date in 1971 – Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, Soviet politician and leader, and he was born exactly a 100 years, 5 months and 8 days before me on April 3rd, 1894. I was born in 1994.

Life Cycles

2011-09-08T19:06:00.000+03:00

Life is the same. Birth, death. Falling in love, breaking up.

The world changes, but the cycle of life doesn't. Habits change, the cycle doesn't. A new generation will step in and replace the other. This never changes.

I felt this last Friday when the first year students in our gymnasium were "officially accepted" into the school community, the student body. It was the last straw that made me realize and fully feel the impact:

I am the older generation. I am now in my second year of gymnasium. And I'm going to be seventeen.

Shocking, isn't it? The way time creeps and jumps on you every once and a while like a very lively shadow.

I also felt like a totally new person. This sounds like a cliché, but I can explain it no other way. It also sounds a bit corny: "an event in my life has now made me new." But that's not the point here. It's like I am shedding of the old, wriggling out of my old skin of shyness like a snake. I am more open now. At least I'm heading the right direction. I am ever closer to being an adult.

Is this what growing up is like? Like a dragon fly coming out of its old clumsy body into the open air. It dries of its wings for some time and then flies away to new horizons.

I am full of hope and anticipation.

I am doing my matriculation examination (Abitur) during the spring and autumn of 2012. Then I'm going to be free and able to do whatever I want to do next. The closer I am getting to my tests, the more excited I am. I just absolutely love gymnasium, because it is, at least here in Finland, like a pre-university where you can after some mandatory courses concentrate on whatever you want. I have a lot of history and geography, because I love the subjects.

Life moves on, but remember the core of the cycle doesn't change.

I'm not afraid anymore

2011-08-23T17:06:00.001+03:00

I am not afraid of...

...people, just hurting them or being hurt.

...animals, just being eaten by a carnivore.

...heights, just of falling or getting the urge to jump while standing on an edge.

...the dark, just lonely nights walking down the road in a city waiting for somebody to jump from the dark to burgle me.

...plants, just green, growing things that might be poisonous.

...relationships, just being rejected.

...small spaces, just of the possibility that the structure might collapse on me and those around me.

...the ocean, just drowning or being eaten by a shark.

...life, just dangers I might encounter.

I am not a phobic, because...

...my fear is reasonable.

...I don't loose control.

...it makes me careful enough.

...helps me know how to stay alive.

To those who are crippled by fear, I want to tell that...

...you are not the only ones.

...you don't have to be alone with your fear.

...there are people out there that can help you.

...it is possible to overcome your fear.

...you should face your fear, it will make your life easier.

I want to encourage people to...

...be careful.

...be bold.

...be helpful.

...be considerate.

...be a friend.

...smile.

...save another's day.

...live life.

...not fear ghosts.

I am not afraid anymore. I hope you will not be afraid either.

Homo computatrums and Others

2011-08-13T16:17:00.003+03:00

There has been a twenty to thirty year development or seamless transition that has changed the world enormously. This period is called originally when it started from the middle to the end of the 1980s the Information Revolution. This revolution was caused by:

a) the 11/9 or the falling of the Berlin Wall,

b) computers,

c) the Internet and WWW (Word Wide Web)

d) user-friendliness of web browsers (Mosaic/Netscape), and

e) the dot com boom, or major investment in fiber optics.

As Thomas L. Friedman writes in his book The World Is Flat (1.0 - 3.0 or 2004 - 2007) this all lead to the so called Flat Age. The transition from Information Revolution to Flat Age was seamless, because the other would not exist without the other.

This transition, as I would call it, has gone two ways amongst my generation, the first true digital generation, born in 1994. These two ways are total opposites of each other. They can be called orders or races in a sense. As the medieval people were called homo religiosus and the Renaissance man as homo universalis, I see myself belonging to the homo topicus or current human race. Homo topicus basically means interested in news and what is happening currently in the world like the EU financial crisis that is spreading like wildfire.

The other "race" is homo amittere intelligentia or the man who loses his intelligence. What could be added to this is per media visus or per internet, since the use of visual media by young children had depleted their literacy. The Internet contributes to this, because most youth don't spend their time reading news, but playing games and writing simple English to friends through the social media outlets, like Facebook.

Amongst the youth homo amittere intelligentia per media visus is an increasing majority and the homo topicus a depleting minority. This is a problem since the information hungry people are needed more than lazy men that use the Internet only to consume entertainment. Actually, logic says that the lazy men aren't needed at all, but this is an impossible goal since there are always people that are like this.

The development of the division of this two "races" depends much on the country. Even though the flat world, as Friedman says in his book, gives developing countries great opportunities to develop, many experts say there is also the danger that the cultures of the world get homogenized. A level of homogenization has already happened. Almost anywhere you go in the world, the youth is the same. They wear the same clothes, speak of the same things, act the same way. This has come through, yes, the flattening of the world. The most appealing parts of society has migrated around the world and have become the common practice.

Nobody is going to deny that the Internet has made accessing news from all over the world and from many points of views overwhelmingly easy. News has transformed from the privilege of newspapers to free commodities. So, one wonders why homo amittere intelligentia is increasing instead of the homo topicus. You don't have to be the well-educated child of a rich family to be able to take part in politics. Now, you only need a computer and a modem, as Friedman says.

I see myself this development:

When the Internet was new the traditional homo topicus rejected it and continued with their newspapers and the normal humans just continued on with their lives, but the new race of homo computatrum (or geeks) embraced it and developed it. They saw the opportunities of the Internet. As using computers became easier and easier thanks to the coding skills of the geeks, the normal humans were overwhelmed and didn't know what to do with the new world of computers. Still, they had to learn, and quickly, since more and more services moved to be part of the new world, the virtual world.

The youth immediately caught on with homo computatrums and gradually the normal people followed. The youth didn't yet understand how revolutionary the tool they were using could be, and the normal people didn't want to understand. So, the Internet started mainly to be the channel of entertainment. Videos, music, pictures ect. Later on, the youth grew and became the homo topicus of the news industry and got a new generation of youth. With their children they suddenly realized what the potential of the Internet was. This lead to the dot com boom and to the news is free standard that seems to be taken as granted.

The normal people became the homo amittere intelligentia race that didn't understand and kept on with the entertainment part of the new world. The world was (and is) changing too fast for them, but as schools catch on to the modern world and see that things need to be taught a new way, the portion of the homo topicus race is increasing slowly, but surely.

We are all homo computatrums now. By the definiton of the 1980s/1990s we are very geeky people. But we are not all homo topicus which seems to be where we are heading. One large reason why this development is so slow, is because the development of schools is very slow. Before teachers can learn how to teach a different way, the teachers of the teachers need to teach the teacher a different way. This means that everything has to change, and the only way to change is to teach new ways to old dogs hoping they will learn the new tricks and teach them to the young dogs.

And that is very hard. But I think we should all read the book Do Hard Things, because the world needs to know how to do hard things, because the world is turning harder and more complicated by the second.

The definition of homo universalis, which meant "Jack-of-all-trades", is changing. It will change to mean the man of the world and homo ex communi cultura, a man of the common culture. And this is all possible, because of the Flat Age.

Times of Revolution: the popular way

2011-08-02T16:17:00.005+03:00

I am of the first digital generation. The very first people that learned how to play games at the age of three. The information revolution. That's what future generations will probably call us. The largest and vastest of three BIG revolutions. Have any idea what the three BIG revolution are? They are N, I and I. They stand for neolithic, industrial and information. Without the first, there would've not been the second, and without the second there would've not been the third.

Let's take the neolithic revolution. There are three ways to look at it: the creationist, the evolutionist and the popular. The creationist is probably the oldest one of these.

The traditional, modern creationism is the Christian creationism. Basic message: "God created heaven and earth." Nice and simple. No doubts about. That's it. The ancient creationist say the same thing, but make one creator into a plural and a moral mess.

Then there is the wonderful evolution, a theory almost as old as creationism in its oldest form, but mostly embraced after the 19th century when somebody (Darwin) wrote a book in a common language for common people to read it. This is the theory the catholic "church" supports. It is real, it can be proven by science, we are just trying to study the world God created.

No.

They are catering to the public's flings and swings.

Evolution means there was a small cell in the beginning and through out billions and millions of years it evolved into dinosaurs and humans.

Psst! Size does matter!

Isn't it a bit hard to see how a ten meter high creature and I share the same ancestry? Na-aa.

The neolithic revolution means that humans started farming. Before this they had been or we had been things called hunter-gatherers. Seems like a nice/hard lifestyle. Hardcore, I'd say. Creationism: the world was created and humans started farming immediately. Evolution: humans evolved from apes and finally started farming. Same end story.

The second BIG revolution was the industrial revolution. Traditionally, there is only one way to look at it: historical. Culture back then was so rich that we knew how to write and paint. They already started to have cameras and video back then. And it all started with making labor less manual.

What is the untraditional way to look at the industrial revolution. Well... The popular way, naturally.

The information revolution is the time we are living now. Another revolution that is looked upon in one way: historical. Now we have everything digitized and video and pictures are very cool. Damn, we don't really have to even write anymore, we can just record our own voices. Yeah! Let's loose civilization and return ten thousand years back.

What is this popular view? You've probably never heard of it. Of course you haven't, its a new invention.

The popular way is to see the different ages in history as people, typical to the age.

Picture in your mind Nick Neolithic or better known by his friends as Nik or Nicothedes. Hellenic or barbarian, whatever. Nik is probably more accurate. You'd have to travel 5000 years to meet someone called Nicothedes. Nik is a burly, hairy man. He has never cut his hair or beard. He has a spear in one arm and a bow in his other with a quiver full of arrows on his back. He is wearing animal skins wrapped around him to keep him warm. When it is summer he only has animal skins around his abdomen. He creeps through the forest like an animal hunting his prey. He has a woman and many children, because only a few of them will live to old age. They live in a hut made of mammoth bones and skin. Life is cruel and they are content. Then they discover that when they eat a certain plant and leave the seeds into the soil, the plant grows back and provides more food. Discovery of farming.

Ivan Industrial is a poor worker covered with soot from the coal factory. He lives in the slums on the edge of the city in a small room with his wife and three children. He washes up and goes outside, but is already dirty when he arrives at work. He works for fourteen hours with a poor wage, his eldest son works in the mine and the wife works at a weaving mill. She gets really sick of the chemicals they use, but Ivan has no money to spend on a doctor or medicine. He had seven children, but one was stillborn, another was born disfigured and two died the other winter after they caught the cold. But yet, they are making a bit more money than at the farm they owned up north. Income had been uncertain, only thing to fear now is sickness, the factory machines and bars. Many of Ivan's companions drink all there money and beat their families, but Ivan is a good and reliable man.

Ian Information was born in the beginning of the 90s. He grew up with a normal childhood. His family got their first computer when Ian was around ten. He learned to use it faster than his father who was supposed to work on it and they taught the use of machines in school. Later in life Ian used the computer and the Internet as part of his studies. He has a lot free time and he has never been seriously ill. He has met a few nice girls, but not one to marry. He is an IT consultant. He is thirty and his girlfriend is pregnant with a boy. Maybe they marry someday if the relationship lasts.

Seeing a human at the place of certain years in a time line might help people to visualize the time more. When one reads of an everyman, its easier to relate and picture oneself in such a position than a position of a king or a nobleman.

Lessons - Falling on bikes and other things

2011-07-21T12:05:00.003+03:00

Things I have learned this summer:

1. Asphalt is a bit too ruff to be used as skin care.

2. An überfan is not the one who travels half the world to meet the idol, but the one who bicycles thirty kilometers to see the movie, falls on the bike and goes to the hospital and still goes to look at the movie.

3. Also, a sacrificial friend is not one who does things against their will, but the friend who bicycles to see a movie with you and injures themselves in the process of doing so.

4. Harry Potter is a very expensive movie. (movie ticket 10 euros + new lenses 280 euros)

Yes. What happened to was this:

Me and my friends had been speaking of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 since we saw part 1 which was in the autumn. We planned on seeing it together on Wednesday the 13th at 00:07. Wonderful. I live 34 kilometers from the center and I was too lazy to get a motorcycle and driver's license.

My parents wanted me too sleep over at a friend's house, because bicycling back at around three o'clock in the night ain't really feasible. I didn't want to bother my friends, so I decided that maybe I'll just stay home. Then my friends called and offered me a place to stay and I was off.

A few kilometers before town they were laying down some new asphalt with edge like a five centimeter stair. A truck drove by, not even very close, I reacted very naturally and my bike headed towards the side.

Crash!

The asphalt scraped my knee and face and hands. Some friendly people stopped by and took me to the hospital from were I had to get my bike (which I estimated to be 200 meters from where the hospital was... wrong assumption. I was about... 1800 meters off) and join my friends at the theater. I made it just in time. Now I'm much better, but also much more careful about bicycling. Thank God, I had my helmet on!

Spirit of Today

2011-07-05T11:01:00.001+03:00

I write. I have written since first grade. And read. Reading is important. I admire those who wrote the first novels. They made some new ideas.
No they didn't. It was just a new form of the old. There are alot of new ways to use thr old, because nothing new can be invented. There is no "original idea". There must have been one. Some where. Some time. But not here, not in my time. The time they call the last generation.

Every generation is the last generation. Of its generation. Its not going to come 2012, like it didn't come this year, or 1994, or the 1800s. We are no closer to knowing when than when Jesus came.
You know. Even that wasn't an original idea. In every last religion there is a son of a god that comes down to Earth. The original idea about it was the sacrificing himself to save the world part.

The reason why reading is important is because it is. Keeps your mind sharp. Gives new ideas, a broader understanding of Life, the Universe and everything. But reading is vitally important to writers. Words give birth to words.
For me, I have a storage room for words and ideas. I store what I have read there and they mix thoroughly. Again, new ways of using the old. And when the room is empty, I read.

I write, so I'm a writer. But what is an author in this world. I publish my writings... on the internet. But that's not being an author, is it? What am I, a creative blogger? A poetic blogger? A authorial blogger?

Define author.
Wikipedia says "an author is broadly defined as 'the person who originates or gives existence to anything'". Answers.com says an author is "one who practices writing as a profession." Dictionary.com: "the writer of a book, article or other text." Merriam-Webster explains "one that originates or creates". They also tell that the first known use was in the 14th century. You had to be either rich, bohemian or crazy/passionate enough to be an author then. It wasn't profitable. Many of the earliest authors were clerics.

We've come a long way since the 1300s. In the post-modern world almost anybody can be an author of a book. You basically need just two things: literacy and a profitable, interesting-enough idea. But in my own opinion an author is a writer of a book that catches the attention of maybe not the masses, but some, good amount of people that the book is profitable and original. Well. As original as it can get in the world of used ideas. That, my dear children, is called plagiarism and is frowned upon in many societies.

The internet brings an interesting challenge. Once you've put your idea out there, its basically in the public domain. A good example of something similar is fanfiction which is plagiarism, if you think about it. Fanfiction is fictional writing based on somebody else's popular (or unpopular) idea. Some authors hate it, some encourage, like Stephnie Meyer, author of the succesful Twilight saga. Its amazing how one writer's idea brings out a string of similar storylines and milieus. Think of the Vampire Diaries, young vampires discussing fictional books about vampires, for example Twilight. L.J.Smith is riding on Meyer's back!

The question of authors and their rights is a though one. I like to think of myself as an author already. I have yet to publish something through the traditional publishing houde method. Am I just a writer or are we all authors? There are so many people on the internet pouring their royal hearts out in all ways possible. On the internet nothing really is new.

To upset no one, I'll graciously call myself an authorial blogger (for short @blogger?) which basically means author-to-be, but I will stand with the argument that the meaning of the word author should be updated or simplified. There are so many great @bloggers/authors out there that want to share their talents free on the WWW. That's the spirit of the day, and shouldn't go unnoticed by say, the Nobel Prize committee?

we C A R E

2011-07-05T10:54:00.000+03:00

Speaking to someone doesn't mean their listening. Writing for the public doesn't mean that anybody is reading. Performing for an audience doesn't mean its watching you breathlessly. Painting to bring happiness doesn't mean that you will be liked. It seems that whatever you do, there's always somebody who hates you and is ready to begin a war. Countries are a good example of this:

Let's take for example one of my home countries, Finland, or any other Nordic country. Our educational system is free and full of equal opportunities for everyone. This leads to what? Us educating terrorists. They have left us alone for a long time now, but just some time back they turned their eyes on us. Appreciation.

While getting the words 'thank you' out of a person is getting harder and harder in the rich west, its becoming easier and easier in the third world. Children starving, people dying of AIDS leaving several children parentless. No education, no income. Give them one grain of rice and thei eyes are light up with happiness. They have nothing and we have everything.

They need to sacrifice theirselves for a noble cause such as climate change? We have time and resources to ponder, worry and investigate, but the one's we want to sacrifice themselves are struggling to get anything to eat. We should set the example. It's an uncomfortable thought and yes, I dread the thought as much as you do. But if we have the time and energy to worry (and we sure as heck do) we should have the time and energy to do something about it and not just talk like I'm doing right now.