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Many people here seem to be unaware of the lack of Wi-Fi hotspot coverage in Europe. And I didn't even mention the word free. In Finland, the Wi-Fi coverage is very spotty, unless you buy a subscription for unlimited service (and even these services are usually available only in limited areas). The advantage of 3G-based mobile broadband is that it covers a huge area, nearly the whole country (there are still many problematic areas, though). So you can you use the connection nearly everywhere and you don't have to worry finding a Wi-Fi hotspot when you want to check you email etc.

And people who flippet out by the 10 euros/day remark: Go read the article again. The remark was in the context of international roaming, which is horrendously expensive in Europe. 10 euros/day for unlimited data roaming might not be too bad compared to the usual rates the carriers charge for this. When you're in your home country, these services can be quite cheap. Generally the prices start from about 10euros/month for 384kb/s unlimited access and go to 20euros/month for 1Mbit/s unlimited or 30euros/month for 2Mbit/s unlimited access. (These prices are from the price lists of major carriers in Finland: http://saunalahti.fi/gsm/mobiililaajakaista.php, http://www.elisa.fi/matkaviestinta/liittymat/hinnasto/, http://www.sonera.fi/Puhelin+ja+liittym%E4/Liikkuva+laajakaista). Somebody commented in this discussion that mobile broadband that covers the whole country for 40$/month will maybe happen in 20 years. Well, it is already reality in Finland.

Coincidentally, in todays edition of Helsingin Sanomat (the largest newspaper in Finland) there was an article about the rising popularity of "mobile broadband" (article in Finnish only): http://www.hs.fi/talous/artikkeli/Langattomalla+laajakaistalla+valtava+kysynt/1135234701006. Although the article talks more about the marketing of the HSDPA modems for laptops, it also mentions that the carriers expect that during this year about 10% of their clients will have subscribed to mobile broadband services. So the shift from Wi-Fi hotspots (that are nearly non-existent in Finland) to mobile broadband accesss is already happening - at least in Finland. I would imagine the situation is nearly identical in other Nordic countries also, and maybe in other countries in Europe.

"Police in Helsinki have confiscated a work on display at the show in the Kluuvi Gallery by Ulla Karttunen. The item in question was the material in one particular artwork, which criticised child pornography and which had images of young girls and boys." Article at Helsingin Sanomat in English.

Indeed. SMS was invented by a Finnish engineer Matti Makkonen. There was a good story in the biggest Finnish newspaper on him a few years back... Found an English blurb:

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Finnish+inventions+-+going+cheap/1135220274722

Here is the whole list http://www.hs.fi/english/extras/toolong , kind of funny. Yes, I'm a Finn currently enjoying Seattle weather. But really, Apple stores are nice and Nokia stores are dull. I use Nokia phones but don't even think you get any kind of service or support in those stores. Try to get an USB cable for an European model phone in US or try to get them to update your firmware, forget it. My experience of Apple stores have been very good, 3 minutes to buy last MacBook with no sales of "extended warranty", etc. And then waiting my wife to try the Photoshop CS3 on 24 inch next hour.

According to some news, the shooted had long history of being bullying victim at school.

Yes, the monopolistic newspaper of Finland, Helsingin Sanomat, seems to agree with you. They call it "the home video by Pekka-Eric Auvinen that was removed from Youtube 2". There's also "the home video by Pekka-Eric Auvinen that was removed from Youtube 1", linking here: http://www.hs.fi/videot/1135231628338?kategoria=Uutiset&sivu=1 . Quite a typical bring everyone to a suicide -type. The last time something similar happened it was a boy/young man in 2002, exploding himself and some 7 other people in a shopping centre in Vantaa, near Helsinki. Both this school murderer and the bomb dude were very quiet people who didn't talk very much with others and who just hid all their bad feelings inside. There's something odd about the culture here that makes it a honour not talking about your feelings. And then stuff like this happens. Okay, this killer apparently had some sort of revolution as his motive, asking others to cause chaos in the classroom by throwing around shelves and that kinda stuff before starting the shooting, but behind everything there's of course a mental problem.

If people were smart (same goes for society as a whole, too), we'd build houses that took much less energy to heat and cool. Instead, houses are cheap, flimsy cardboard boxes, so we waste enormous resources every summer/winter fighting the laws of thermodynamics.

Don't get me started on all these "always on" devices that draw power even when they're "off".

Funny, I've just read about an experimental house that is heated by the waste heat of household electronics. The extra insulation means it only needs additional heating for a couple of weeks in the winter, and this is in Finland of all places :) Article in Finnish

I'm just speculating here, but I think it might also have to do with the fact that Estonia has been trying to strengthen its bond with the Nordic countries. Estonian as a language is closely related to Finnish, and Estonian culture is related to the culture of the Nordic countries as well. And don't forget that Estonia has been a member of the EU and the NATO since 2004, too.

Here's an article (from the Finnish Helsingin Sanomat newspaper) mentioning that one of the worst agitators on Russian-language message boards is believed to have ties to the FSB (one of Russia's intelligence agencies), too.

Finnish company Container finance is building cargo terminal in Kronstadt in Russia.

And now couple weeks after Estonian incident st Petersburg city decided that the land is immediately ceded to Rosstroi dam works as storage area.

Of course this is breach of all contracts and serious breach of international contract law. So something really strange is going on in Russia

More info:

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/St+Petersburg+cal ls+off+extension+of+Finnish+cargo+port+/1135226958 211

Sounds like the Scandinavian countries are too out-of-line. I'm surprised that Microsoft hasn't petitioned the U.S. government to nuke them or at least go on a bombing campaign against these shameless eco(nomy)-terrorists.

Today in other news, US president (the Bush guy) refused a meeting with Finnish president (Tarja Halonen) while she visits the US this week.

I'll raise my hand.

Seriously, though, that comment from Vixie was entirely stupid. Estonia's being put under pressure by Russia, the FSB (one of Russia's intelligence agencies and successor of the KGB) is stirring the flames, the Estonian embassy in Moscow is being attacked (literally), the Estonian ambassador is threatened with violence and there's a huge ddos attack against a number of Estonian websites, all because a statue is being moved to a different location (it's not even as if it's being taken down or anything), and Vixie rags on the Estonians?

He's an idiot for bringing politics into this at all, but if he absolutely has to, he should've talked about Russian teenagers, not Estonian ones. Not that it'd be fair to judge Russia, Russians *or* Russian teenagers by the actions of a few idiots, but blaming the victims is even more unfair.

The Finnish police usually don't do much in terms of high-speed chaces, and as far as I know most police cars are just decent performance models of mid-range sedans. However, they received a very nice car as a donation which has much better performance... Now obviously any car isn't going to stand a chance of catching a high-performance motorcycle. They tried, anyhow, and ended up crashing the car while chasing a speeder (sadly the only English mention of this event I can find of this is on the Wikipedia page for the Jaguar S-Type).

Yes, but the Finns have a government that serves the people.

Given the fact that Finns pay (on average) 22% more for food than the EU average ( http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Food+still+expens ive+in+Finland+by+European+standards/1076153030941 ), and given the fact that 'Mad Cow' disease is so astronomically unlikely to infect anyone when absolutly no precautions are being taken, any reasonable person has to question the cost/value of food paranoia.

I would say Finns requiring test for Mad Cow to be more about protectionism (it is against trade rules to outright ban foriegn beef, but if you require very specific and expensive testing on beef that isn't harmonized with other countries, and then subsidize the testing for domestic producers, you can essentially sidestep trade rules).

The Finnish Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published yesterday a letter from the Russian film director Andrei Nekrasov. (Coincidentally, mr. Putin was also visiting Finland yesterday as part of the Russia-EU summit.) The letter is a scathing analysis of the present-day Russian society.

The Finnish Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published yesterday a letter from the Russian film director Andrei Nekrasov. (Coincidentally, mr. Putin was also visiting Finland yesterday as part of the Russia-EU summit.) The letter is a scathing analysis of the present-day Russian society.

Wired is not the only one with the very short stories. There was a comic strip in the biggest Finnish newspaper a month ago featuring a pig who received shortened classics into his mobile. He read the three line version of Tolstoi's "Anna Karenina" - but still "The Odyssey" in 5 lines was too long for him.

Just started to guess when Reader's Digest will follow this trend... which yields to my entry:

"Reader's Digest to one-liners. Cutoffs foreseen."

URL to the comic strip for those who can read Finnish: http://www.hs.fi/viivijawagner/1135221853074

As you might expect, the consumption varies quite a lot depending on what kind of car you're driving.. A recent article states that an average car in Finland (using gasoline) consumes about 6.5 litres / 100 km, which is about 36 MPG. Another source gives 6 litres / 100 km for highway driving (39MPG) and 10 litres / 100 km for driving within cities (lower speed, higher consumption per km, 23.5MPG). The averange consumption rates for diesel vehicles in that article are 5.5 litres / 100 km (highway, 42.7MPG) and 8.6 litres / 100 km (cities, 27MPG).

Wikipedia has some examples as well.

This tax is one step further *away* from loosing your right to copy audio files. A step away from legally protected DRM.

... or not. Finland has had this tax for quite some time, and just at the start of this year, we got fucked with a new copyright law.

An example of this effects us can be found here.