Friday, November 30, 2007

Finland number one - again

OECD has published some preliminary info about the 2006 PISA survey because some of the results were published in Spain earlier. The full report will be published on 4 December.
clipped from www.oecd.org

Finland takes number one spot in OECD's latest PISA survey, advance figures show

29/11/2007 - Finland once again takes the number one spot in OECD's three-yearly PISA test of the abilities of a sample of 15-year old secondary-school students, followed by Hong Kong (China) and Canada in second and third place, according to advance details of results that will be published in full next week.

See table "Range of rank on the PISA 2006 science scale".

The table summarises the performance of 15-year-olds in science. It shows three main pieces of information:

The average score of the country on the science assessment. Across the 30 OECD countries the scores are statistically standardised to have an average of 500 points.
The rank of the country compared to other OECD countries.
The rank of the country compared to all the countries which participated in PISA 2006.

Sample test questions from the PISA 2006 assessment here


blog it
Of the neighbouring countries Estonia is number 5, Sweden 22, Norway 33, and Russia 35. Sweden falls in the catecory Not statistically significantly different from the OECD average but USA as 29th is Statistically significantly below the OECD average.

Year 2000 the survey concentrated on literacy, 2003 on problem solving and 2006 on science.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Memed - once again !

Once again I have been tagged by a meme, this time by Ivy from Chuvaness....Chakaness....Eclavu..
She says in her post that she is tagging people who she thinks to appreciate memes and she still has one from me to answer…

I don’t read horoscopes daily or even yearly but I usually read these descriptions and I have found most of these very well suited to me.

The rules are simple:

1.Mention the person who tagged you and create a
link back to them.
2.Copy-paste the traits for all the twelve months (see below).
3.Pick your month of birth.
4.Highlight the traits that apply to you.
5.Tag 12 people and let them know by visiting their blogs and leaving a comment for them.
6.Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve done it!

-----------------------------------------------
APRIL: Active and dynamic. Decisive and hasty but tends to regret. Attractive and affectionate to oneself. Strong mentality. Loves attention. Diplomatic. Consoling, friendly and solves people’s problems. Brave and fearless. Adventurous. Loving and caring. Suave and generous. Emotional. Aggressive. Hasty. Good memory. Moving. Motivates oneself and others. Sickness usually of the head and chest. Sexy in a way that only their lover can see.

Contradictory traits, but I react very differently to different people. We have a saying in Finland: “The forest answers just the way you call to it”. There probably are matching phrases in English, but I chose that because it is very descriptive of Finland. We have so many forests and as a kid it is a wonderful feeling to learn one of nature’s features. You can clearly hear the echo of your call!

-----------------------------------------------
Pasted as instructed:

JANUARY: Stubborn and hard-hearted. Ambitious and serious. Loves to teach and be taught. Always looking at people’s flaws and weaknesses. Likes to criticize. Hardworking and productive. Smart, neat and organized. Sensitive and has deep thoughts. Knows how to make others happy. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Rather reserved. Highly attentive. Resistant to illnesses but prone to colds. Romantic but has difficulties expressing love. Loves children. Loyal. Has great social abilities yet easily jealous. Very stubborn and money cautious.

FEBRUARY: Abstract thoughts. Loves reality and abstract. Intelligent and clever. Changing personality. Attractive. Sexy. Temperamental. Quiet, shy and humble. Honest and loyal. Determined to reach goals. Loves freedom. Rebellious when restricted. Loves aggressiveness. Too sensitive and easily hurt. Gets angry really easily but does not show it. Dislikes unnecessary things. Loves making friends but rarely shows it. Daring and stubborn. Ambitious. Realizes dreams and hopes. Sharp. Loves entertainment and leisure. Romantic on the inside not outside. Superstitious and ludicrous. Spendthrift. Tries to learn to show emotions.

MARCH: Attractive personality. Sexy. Affectionate. Shy and reserved. Secretive. Naturally honest, generous and sympathetic. Loves peace and serenity. Sensitive to others. Loves to serve others. Easily angered. Trustworthy. Appreciative and returns kindness. Observant and assesses others. Revengeful. Loves to dream and fantasize. Loves traveling. Loves attention. Hasty decisions in choosing partners. Loves home decors. Musically talented. Loves special things. Moody.

APRIL: Active and dynamic. Decisive and hasty but tends to regret. Attractive and affectionate to oneself. Strong mentality. Loves attention. Diplomatic. Consoling, friendly and solves people’s problems. Brave and fearless. Adventurous. Loving and caring. Suave and generous. Emotional. Aggressive. Hasty. Good memory. Moving. Motivates oneself and others. Sickness usually of the head and chest. Sexy in a way that only their lover can see.

MAY: Stubborn and hard-hearted. Strong-willed and highly motivated. Sharp thoughts. Easily angered. Attracts others and loves attention. Deep feelings. Beautiful physically and mentally. Firm Standpoint. Needs no motivation. Easily consoled. Systematic (left brain). Loves to dream. Strong clairvoyance. Understanding. Sickness usually in the ear and neck. Good imagination. Good physical. Weak breathing. Loves literature and the arts. Loves traveling. Dislike being at home. Restless. Not having many children. Hardworking. High spirited. Spendthrift.

JUNE: Thinks far with vision. Easily influenced by kindness. Polite and soft-spoken. Having ideas. Sensitive. Active mind. Hesitating, tends to delay. Choosy and always wants the best. Temperamental. Funny and humorous. Loves to joke. Good debating skills. Talkative. Daydreamer. Friendly. Knows how to make friends. Able to show character. Easily hurt. Prone to getting colds. Loves to dress up. Easily bored. Fussy. Seldom shows emotions. Takes time to recover when hurt. Brand conscious. Executive. Stubborn.

JULY: Fun to be with. Secretive. Difficult to fathom and to be understood. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Takes pride in oneself. Has reputation. Easily consoled. Honest. Concerned about people’s feelings. Tactful. Friendly. Approachable. Emotional temperamental and unpredictable. Moody and easily hurt. Witty and sparkly. Not revengeful. Forgiving but never forgets. Dislikes nonsensical and unnecessary things. Guides others physically and mentally. Sensitive and forms impressions carefully. Caring and loving. Treats others equally. Strong sense of sympathy. Wary and sharp. Judges people through observations. Hardworking. No difficulties in studying. Loves to be alone. Always broods about the past and the old friends. Likes to be quiet. Homely person. Waits for friends. Never looks for friends. Not aggressive unless provoked. Prone to having stomach and dieting problems. Loves to be loved. Easily hurt but takes long to recover.

AUGUST: Loves to joke. Attractive. Suave and caring. Brave and fearless. Firm and has leadership qualities. Knows how to console others. Too generous and egoistic. Takes high pride in oneself. Thirsty for praises. Extraordinary spirit. Easily angered. Angry when provoked. Easily jealous. Observant. Careful and cautious. Thinks quickly. Independent thoughts. Loves to lead and to be led. Loves to dream. Talented in the arts, music and defense. Sensitive but not petty. Poor resistance against illnesses. Learns to relax. Hasty and trusty. Romantic. Loving and caring. Loves to make friends.

SEPTEMBER: Suave and compromising. Careful, cautious and organized. Likes to point out people’s mistakes. Likes to criticize. Stubborn. Quiet but able to talk well. Calm and cool. Kind and sympathetic. Concerned and detailed. Loyal but not always honest. Does work well. Very confident. Sensitive. Good memory. Clever and knowledgeable. Loves to look for information. Must control oneself when criticizing. Able to motivate oneself. Understanding. Fun to be around. Secretive. Loves leisure and traveling. Hardly shows emotions. Tends to bottle up feelings. Very choosy, especially in relationships. Systematic.

OCTOBER: Loves to chat. Loves those who loves them. Loves to take things at the center. Inner and physical beauty. Lies but doesn’t pretend. Gets angry often. Treats friends importantly. Always making friends. Easily hurt but recovers easily. Daydreamer. Opinionated. Does not care of what others think. Emotional. Decisive. Strong clairvoyance. Loves to travel, the arts and literature. Touchy and easily jealous. Concerned. Loves outdoors. Just and fair. Spendthrift. Easily influenced. Easily loses confidence. Loves children.

NOVEMBER: Has a lot of ideas. Difficult to fathom. Thinks forward. Unique and brilliant. Extraordinary ideas. Sharp thinking. Fine and strong clairvoyance. Can become good doctors. Dynamic in personality. Secretive. Inquisitive. Knows how to dig secrets. Always thinking. Less talkative but amiable. Brave and generous. Patient. Stubborn and hard-hearted. If there is a will, there is a way. Determined. Never give up. Hardly becomes angry unless provoked. Loves to be alone. Thinks differently from others. Sharp-minded. Motivates oneself. Does not appreciate praises. High-spirited. Well-built and tough. Deep love and emotions. Romantic. Uncertain in relationships. Homely. Hardworking. High abilities. Trustworthy. Honest and keeps secrets. Not able to control emotions. Unpredictable.

DECEMBER: Loyal and generous. Sexy. Patriotic. Active in games and interactions. Impatient and hasty. Ambitious. Influential in organizations. Fun to be with. Loves to socialize. Loves praises. Loves attention. Loves to be loved. Honest and trustworthy. Not pretending. Short tempered. Changing personality. Not egotistic. Take high pride in oneself. Hates restrictions. Loves to joke. Good sense of humor. Logical.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now for the return tag...

This time I am tagging all my Conceptis friends who have blogs. Some of them have just started and hopefully get a kick to continue. If you can’t figure out 12, tag as many as you like. Even I am missing one from the list, but this way the list consists of people having all something in common. Gil would of course belong here but I have tagged him too many times to bother him for a while.

Here is one example of my contradictory character; last time I chose all the people from different countries.


1. Cyndommett from It's a dog's life

2. Tanny from Tanny's Blog
3. SewAndSo from Sew And So’s Notions
4. thistlestick from Forget-me-nots and Fireweed
5. Lynsie
from Lynsie's blog
6. Wilma from Wilma wondering
7. Planet Yo from PlanetYo

8. Michelle from Michelle’s Blurbs
9. wisdemol from logic puzzler
10. jennymannion from
Heal Pain Naturally
11. Tracey from
Logically Puzzled

Sunday, November 25, 2007

A milestone - my first award

Be The Blog award

I have received an award!

My new friend, the amazing 12 year old Meghna from India, writing her fantastic stories in Delve into the Mind of A Budding Blogger gave me the Be-The-Blog Award.

I am really honoured because this gives me the proof that I am succeeding in what I am doing: trying to convince more people about mathematics being beautiful and fun. Meghna’s comments have been very encouraging and an important source of motivation.

I would like to pass on the award to

Gil from Individual@home, because he convinced me to start blogging in the first place and introduced me to the secrets of social networks. Even now I feel that he is virtually holding my hand in my interesting new adventure :)

Thomas Laupstad from Photos from Northern Norway: A photo blog who was one of my first friends in blogosphere and who publishes his fabulous photographs

Liudmila from Diary - Everything about interests of a mature person who is one of my newest friends

Mokki from Mökkikunta, a Portuguese who writes about Finland and Portugal using Portuguese, English and Finnish in his blog.

Anne Rongas from Blogien opetuskäyttö whose blog has convinced me that maybe it is possible for me to get my Finnish blog succeeding in what I am doing here.

(Sorry for those whose browser does not show the Scandinavian letters right).

There would have been many more to add to this list. I have so many supporters and motivators and I hope I can give them in return what I have received from them. At least all my rewards go to different countries!

The code for the badge can be found in MeAndMyDrum by Mark, whose idea this award is.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Fun mathematics

I got a link from my friend Dutchalone in StumbleUpon to this video:

Make sure that you watch the whole video before using this technique because it has some initial conditions.

Of course I checked where this interesting technique came from. First of all I found out that there are more videos like this in Metacalfe in a channel named glad2teach.

More information can be found in Glad2teach website. There is a link to Faster Math Trick Videos which offers more examples and a change to buy the Complete EasyCal Series (Around 30 such faster Math trick videos)

According to the site:

These amazing tricks of faster Math have been taken from a 5000 year old book called Veda ( The ancient Hindu Scriptures ). If the name Veda sounds familiar to you, that is because it is the same book which gave to the world Yoga and Ayurveda.

The site suggest that after watching the videos you'll want to throw your calculator out of the window. I can imagine that happening. Too bad I still need the calculator for more complicated calculations. In my opinion calculators are used too much nowadays, at least in Finland.

You should also check dutchalone’s StumbleUpon page. According to his profile

I was dutchalone ..i cant change my name ..I am dutch but not alone anymore :-)For I have found my Love..Irja/mairem.stumbleupon.com.We both had given up hope in Love !!! Blessings and gratefullness to SU from us both :-)

Both ducthalone and mairem have the most wonderful pages. I could probably use a whole day just to watch those amazing pictures.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Marimekko goes cheap?


Once again I got a reminder that it is not wise to believe everything you read in the news.

I read the English pages of Helsingin Sanomat and found the article H&M to introduce Marimekko to masses

Price and quality settle towards upper end of chain’s product range

Adding the Marimekko designs into the selection of the Swedish clothing retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) will add considerably to the international visibility of the Finnish textile and clothing design company.

Marimekko is a leading Finnish textile and clothing design company that was established in 1951. The company designs, manufactures and markets high-quality clothing, interior decoration textiles, bags and other accessories under the Marimekko brand, both in Finland and abroad.

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB was established in Sweden in 1947. The company's business concept is to offer fashion and quality at the best price.

My first reaction was astonishment. Marimekko’s unique Finnish clothes sold in company which was accused of using child labour in manufacturing their clothes. They of course denied that.

I read the press release carefully and found out that H&M is making clothes with Marimekko’s fabric designs. After that I went back to Helsingin Sanomat and read again the English and Finnish versions of the article. The Finnish version states that H&M uses Marimekko fabrics.

The truth is that they only use Marimekko patterns.

Clothes by Marimekko are chiefly made from pure natural materials: cotton, wool and linen and are thus quite expensive. I seriously doubt that H&M even tries to achieve the same.


Marimekko was very fashionable in Finland in the 1970’s and it has recently become fashion again. The patterns can be found in paper products, kitchen utensils even laptops and TV’s can be found styled with Marimekko pattern.

I actually never had Marimekko clothes because of their striking colours but I am proud of the company which has been able to keep its original style and even introduced it abroad. To me Hennes & Mauritz is for clothes what IKEA is for furniture. The only difference is that you don’t have to sew the clothes yourself.

This is not actually a statement against IKEA. I have a huge bookshelf made by IKEA. It was the only place I could find a shelf adjustable to my needs and designed to carry books, not just being part of the interior design. Besides my daughter loves to put the IKEA furniture together.

Here are some examples of the Marimekko designs. The most famous in Finland is Unikko (=Poppy), the red flowers in the picture, and H&M is not using that one. The deal is for 5 patterns from 1950-1980 which will be published later.



Wednesday, November 21, 2007

The Traveler IQ Challenge

One of my StumbleUpon friends sent me a link to this addicting game.

Try it, it's really addictive. I live in a place many people can't even locate in the map, but I have had to learn very much geography in school. My problem mostly is that so many countries have changed name or divided after I left school. I have reached level 6 on World Map with my third game.
There is also
The Traveler IQ on FaceBook and the game can be embedded to your own website.
There are different challenges: the whole world, different continents, flags etc.

You can enter the game here.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Beautiful mathematics

Social Rank has over 100 sites listed in BlogLog and I found one which suits me: Math Bloggers. In their Last week's Top Blog Posts on Mathematics I found a fabulous video about Möbius transformations by Douglas N. Arnold and Jonathan Rogness.

You can check the video here and read the whole article in MathTrek blog





Isn't mathematics beautiful?


Monday, November 19, 2007

Summer Wine

Nancy Sinatra on her hit "Summer wine", from 1967, taken from her album "Nancy & Lee". Nancy sings along with Lee Hazlewood.Video clip black and white.

I heard the next one last summer and I was amazed. The male singer is Ville Valo, the vocalist of the famous Finnish group HIM. According to Wikipedia HIM is a rock band from Finland formed in 1991 by vocalist Ville Valo, guitarist Mikko Lindström, and bassist Mikko Paananen. They have released six full length albums to date. As of 2007, they are the first and only Finnish rock band to sell Gold in the United States. I like HIM's music, but since it is rather heavy rock I could not believe Ville Valo could sing like this:


I also found the lyrics for the song. I just love this. It always reminds me of summer.







Sunday, November 18, 2007

A mathematical riddle - think outside the box

My first good friend I ever got through the internet e-mailed me 2 days ago. He sent me a question I want to share. It is a good example of a problem where the solution is simple but to solve it you just have to change the way of thinking. Use both sides of your brain!

Use one straight line, horizontal, vertical or diagonal to make this statement valid:

5 + 5 + 5 = 550

I rule out the obvious one: a diagonal strike across the '=' changes the equation showing that the sides are not equal which of course is valid.
There are at least 3 other possible solutions I know of.

Friday, November 16, 2007

My Wildest Dream

I have been tagged for a meme by Jenny Mannion from Heal Pain Naturally about
Revealing My Dream -- A Personal Development Challenge
.

The meme was originally for personal developers, but widely thinking aren’t we all.

I have some of my dreams come true lately; my journey to Israel last summer, Dave’s visit to me a month ago, my brand new car a year ago... all of which I considered would never happen.

The rules state that the dream has to be wild, but honestly my dreams have never been very wild. I guess I have my feet too much on the ground. So here it goes:

I have a great job and wonderful students but after 20 years in my job teaching mathematics I have started to hope to get some change. I would love to teach people to solve puzzles. My dream is an online Academy of Puzzles where I could use e-Learning to be able to reach the students from all over the world. As Gil has wrote in his blog, the puzzles can be used as pain relievers and I know from personal experience their effect on the mental health and effect on decreasing stress. Also according to numerous studies brain activity can prevent from Alzheimer’s decease or at least delay it. Getting that decease is the worst of my nightmares. So briefly I want to become a Puzzle Teacher.

Here is the info about the original meme:

The Rules

  1. Reveal your dream for the world to see, either on your blog (if you’re a blogger) or in the comments of a blog (like this one).
  2. Remember, it’s a dream - so aim high! If your inner critic tells you that your dream isn’t “realistic”, tell your inner critic to take a hike. State one of your wildest dreams AS IS.
  3. Tag some other bloggers, or friends. Don’t forget this step!
  4. Links back to this post are appreciated, but not essential. You could just mention that you’re responding to the Reveal Your Dream challenge on NeilSattin.com.
  5. That’s it - start manifesting
  6. One last thing

You’re allowed to have many dreams, but you don’t have to reveal EVERYTHING for the world to see - just pick one of them for this challenge. Also, the beauty of being human and having the freedom of choice is that you can always change your mind - and by setting the wheels in motion for the dream you mention you’ll be able to make an informed choice. Reveal your dream for the world to see. It’s risky, but I promise you’ll thank me down the road. Oh, and please keep in touch - I want to hear how it all goes!

I’ll tag my following friends to keep this challenge going:

Gil Galanti from Individual@home

Lawrence Cheok from A Long Long Road

André Benjamim from Andre Benjamim

Ivy from Chuvaness....Chakaness....Eclavu... and

Meghna from Delve into the Mind of A Budding Blogger

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Pleasant Sudoku Surprise


There was a time when I searched for Japanese puzzles with Google. When the Sudoku boom had really reached the whole world there were lots of links to many sudokus, published daily or weekly, to be printed or played online. I never found any Conceptis sudokus, except from Conceptis website of course.

Now that I don’t search anymore, I happened to find one using a Technorati watchlist for puzzles.

Canadian Toronto Star publishes daily a Conceptis Dave Green Sudoku. The site uses the Conceptis Flash application I like so much. At one point I was a bit fed up with sudokus, but the online game in Conceptis has made me solve most of them weekly. Sometimes they are not enough for me and now I have a place to look for more.



This is a screen shot of today's Sudoku. They even have an archive which contains at the moment almost one month. What a paradise for an addict like me while waiting for the new website.

Men vs. Women

A comment to Lawrence Cheok regarding his article The Art To Answering Women's Questions



From Piitu to her "big sister"

This post is dedicated to my daughter who has to stay in the hospital for a few days. Piitu misses you!

MySpace Graphics

Monday, November 12, 2007

Nowhere Man

Inspired by gosmelltheflowers asking in BlogCatalog about favourite Beatles songs I decided to find out if my all time Beatles favourite is available anywhere. I found it!

May I introduce Nowhere man, which seems to be quite unknown to many people except my friend nobody127 in StumbleUpon




Saturday, November 10, 2007

Is this really journalism?

I know our shooting has been big news all over the world but The Times really hit the rock bottom.

Roger Boyes writes his Analysis with the title:

Similarities to other massacres - but this was a very Finnish affair

He starts his article:

In the old days Finns used to believe in the dark power of Tuonela, the mythical land of the dead. Now they believe in YouTube, the land of the virtual living.


After that he finds the similarities with the Virginia Tech massacre, but then continues:

Yet despite the common features with other massacres, the shoot-up in Tuusula was a very Finnish affair.

Finland is a land of wide open spaces, between 16-17 people per square kilometre. Lakes often separate neighbouring farmsteads. At this time of year it is sunk in almost permanent half-light and Finnish families count the days to their winter holidays when they can flee to the bright sunlight of south-east Asian resorts.

Clinical depression is high, the suicide rate too. But above all the Nordic winter isolates the young in the small towns: they arrive at school in the dark and leave it in the dark, travelling long distances to their homes. Friendship in the traditional sense is often a summer luxury.

And so friendship becomes virtual. The social networking sites are switched on the moment the Finnish teenager returns home. YouTube substitutes for television, which is regarded as dreary and middle-aged. About 75 per cent of all Finns use the internet. And Finland, the cradle of Nokia, has some of the cheapest mobile phone rates in Europe. Kids as young as 6 take mobiles to school; a child’s first text message is a matter of parental pride. None of this is unusual for modern Europe, but in Finland the high-tech world has become a normal, rather than an exceptional, substitute for the world of human contact. A youth isolated at school sinks even deeper into isolation when he has left the school gates: a recipe for trouble. Even more so in a country where guns are so readily available; Finland has the third-largest per capita ownership of handguns in the world.

The youth who ran amok signalled his intentions using the codename Sturmgeist89. The word means “storm-spirit” in German and probably refers to a Norwegian heavy metal band, but it provides a marker of sorts: when he took the gun in his hand he seems to have imagined himself as a hero, a corrector of wrongs. There is nothing very modern or YouTube-ish about that self-image. In ancient times the Finns used to worship Ukko, the mythic god of the sky and thunder.

After that he states what happened and has added a part of the manifesto the murdered published before his act.

Very hasty analysis without any background info, I would say!

One of his errors I just have to correct. We may have the third-largest gun ownership per capita but that is because each gun owner has about 2.5 guns. The main reason for having them is hunting. I personally don’t know anybody who owns a gun, but I live in a city.

Boyes got 217 responses to his article becoming one of the most read writers on Times online.


Most of the comments were from Finnish people but here is an example of a response from John, Helsinki:

To all Finnish.

As an UK citizen who lives and works in Finland I have to say Im sorry for mr. Boyes words. Ive been living in Helsinki for 10 years now and I've discovered that Finnish people are kindest, most open hearted people I've ever met.

Times used to be a quality paper but this article is so sad and show of poor journalism that first time in my life Im embarrassed for my countryman.

Roger, not a good show. Shame on you.

Because of the huge amount of comments Roger Boyes wrote a response to the comments. The commentators opinion was that he had never been here but it turned out that he has been here a lot, for 30 years. Maybe it is too long for a Brit because even his response is offensive. This explains why he did not consider the safety of UK.

He also lists the best 4 comments:

Oh yes, when I heard of this tragedy, I instantly thought of the dark powers of Tuonela and the mighty Ukko. I would like to call my friends and talk about this but I can't, because it's already dark and I'm feeling depressed. All I can do now is wait for the summer and just hope that my friends are still alive when it arrives. Thank God I still have my YouTube. Riikka, Tampere, Finland

Still upset about F1, are you Mr Boyes? Karolina, Helsinki, Finland

I'd really like to get closer look on this article but it's time for my monthly nightswim. Mr Boyes, if you ever visit Finland I have a free bed for you. Maybe we can go shooting wolves or something. Janne, Hollola, Finland

At least we Finns know how to GOOGLE! Katri, Suomi, Finland


Maybe it is time for me to go shoot the polar bears from the back yard. They are disturbing my hibernation!

Friday, November 9, 2007

Can you understand my blog?

Just when I was thinking what to write about, my friend André Benjamim sent a community message to MyBlogLog about The Blog Readability Test. The question was: What level of education is required to understand your blog?

I was afraid of this:



I know that many people think that it requires being a genius to understand mathematics and puzzles. I don’t agree. André had the same result and thinks that it is because his blog is not in English. I hope my Finnish lyrics are the reason for my result :)
My Facebook blog needed a high school education, and my StumbleUpon blog can be read with elementary school knowledge!


Thursday, November 8, 2007

To the memory of yesterday's victims





Nocturne

Ruislinnun laulu korvissani

tähkäpäiden päällä täysi kuu;

kesä-yön on onni omanani,

kaskisavuun laaksot verhouu.

En ma iloitse, en sure, huokaa;

mutta metsän tummuus mulle tuokaa,

puunto pilven, johon päivä hukkuu,

siinto vaaran tuulisen, mi nukkuu,

tuoksut vanamon ja varjot veen;

niistä sydämeni laulun teen.

Sulle laulan neiti, kesäheinä,

sydämeni suuri hiljaisuus,

uskontoni, soipa säveleinä,

tammenlehvä-seppel vehryt, uus.

En ma enää aja virvatulta,

onpa kädessäni onnen kulta;

pienentyy mun ympär' elon piiri;

aika seisoo, nukkuu tuuliviiri;

edessäni hämäräinen tie

tuntemattomahan tupaan vie.

Nocturne - translated by Aina Swan Cutler

I hear the evening cornbird calling.

Moonlight floods the fields of tasseled grain.

Wood smoke, drifting veils the distant valleys.

Summer evening's joy is here for me.

I'm not happy yet no sorrow shakes me,

but the dark woods stillness I would welcome.

Rosy clouds through which the day is falling,

sleepy breezes from the blue gray mountains,

shodows on the water, meadow flowers...

out of these my heart's own song I'll make!

I will sing it, summer hay-sweet maiden,

sing to you my deep serenity,

my own faith that sounds a swelling music,

oak-leaf garland ever fresh and green.

I'll no longer chase the will-o-wisp.

Happiness is here in my own keeping.

Day by day, life's circle narrows, closes.

Time stands still now ... weather cocks all sleeping.

Here before me lies a shadowy way

leading to a strange, an unknown place.

Eino Leino

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

We are not so safe any more

In Finland we are used to being safe. Now one part of that safety collapsed when an 18-year old student in Jokelan lukio started a planned attack in his school. He killed 8 people and according the latest news he died himself at 10 pm. local time in the hospital.

Finland does have strict restrictions about guns. Permits are granted only for those who hunt, exercise target shooting or need a gun in their work (e.g. policemen). The guy in question had got his licence for the gun only a couple of weeks earlier.

He had planned it very carefully. He had blogged about it, sent a video on YouTube and there was a link to pictures and information about his plan in his blog. All of those have been deleted, but things spread and I have all the files.

This guy wanted publicity. He wanted to die so that everybody did remember him. He states clearly what he wants and hates:

What do I hate / What I don’t like?

Equality, tolerance, human rights, political correctness, hypocrisy, ignorance, enslaving religions and ideologies, antidepressants, TV soap operas & drama shows, rap -music, mass media, censorship, political populists, religious fanatics, moral majority, totalitarianism, consumerism, democracy, pacifism, state mafia, alcholohics, TV commercials, human race.

What do I love / what do I like?

Existentialism, self-awareness, freedom, justice, truth, moral & political philosophy, personal & social psychology, evolution science, political incorrectness, guns, shooting, BDSM, computers, internet, aggressive electronic and industrial rock & metal music, violent movies, , FPS –computer games, sarcasm, irony, black humour, macabre artm mass & serial killer cases, natural disasters, eugenics

He states to be intelligent and he hated stupid people. What he did think to accomplish by attacking his own school beats me. If he wanted to purify the environment from stupidity, he would have found more obvious targets. The plan was exact:

  • ATTACK INFORMATION

  • Event: Jokela High School Massacre.
  • Targets: Jokelan Lukio (High School Of Jokela), students and faculty, society, humanity, human race.
  • Date: 11/7/2007.
  • Attack Type: Mass murder, political terrorism (altough I choosed the school as target, my motives for the attack are political and much much deeper and therefore I don’t want this to be called only as “school shooting”).
  • Location: Jokela, Tuusula, Finland.
  • Perpetrator’s name: Pekka-Eric Auvinen (aka NaturalSelector89, Natural Selector, Sturmgeist89 and Sturmgeist). I also use pseydonym Eric von Auffoin internationally.
  • Weapons: Semi-automatic .22 Sig Sauer Mosquito pistol.

The next days are going to be hard. I am sorry for all who lost someone. I am also sorry for the safety some people lost only thinking about this.

I am not afraid and I am not easily scared. What scares me the most is the speculations all over the evening papers which will dig every possible event in this boy's history, interview all possible people who are willing to talk. Normally I shut my eyes and ears from this, but this time it's different.

I am part of the system, I am a teacher. I fear for the constant discussion about what to do so that this won't happen again. I fear for the actions of the government and school authorities. This was a single incident so far. I hope it does not get more meaning than just a
screwed up kid.

Last the news from the Finnish leading newspaper:


Helsingin Sanomat - Eight killed in a school shooting

Five male and two female students at the school lost their lives, as well as the school's head teacher. The shooter, an 18-year-old pupil of the school was armed with a handgun. He was critically injured in the incident and hospital sources say that his prognosis is very poor.

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