Cetacean intelligence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dolphins are known to engage in complex play behaviour, which includes such things as producing stable underwater toroidal air-core vortex rings or “bubble rings”. There are two main methods of bubble ring production: rapid puffing of a burst of air into the water and allowing it to rise to the surface, forming a ring; or swimming repeatedly in a circle and then stopping to inject air into the helical vortex currents thus formed. The dolphin will often then examine its creation visually and with sonar. They also appear to enjoy biting the vortex-rings they’ve created, so that they burst into many separate normal bubbles and then rise quickly to the surface. Certain whales are also known to produce bubble rings, or even bubble-nets for the purpose of foraging. Many dolphin species are also known for playing by riding in waves, whether natural waves near the shoreline in a method akin to human “body-surfing”, or within the waves induced by the bow of a moving boat in a behavior known as bow-riding.

The wikipedia article about the intelligence of dolphins and whales is a fascinating read. While sleeping, dolphins appear to rest only one side of the brain at a time. This is sometimes given as an explanation to their exceptionally large brain size. Their brains (1500-1700 grams) are actually heavier than human brains (1300-1400 grams) and the wrinkles in them are of near equivalent complexity.

I’ve seen dolphins underwater once near the Eilat Dolphin Reed in the Red Sea. One of them came all the way to a nearby sandy tourist beach obviously seeking human contact for his or her amusement only. A delighted child ran to the dolphin and whatever they were doing, it was most obviously some sort of playful social interaction for both parties.

Here’s another interesting experiment that is being conducted on captive dolphins:

More recently, researchers at the Sea Life Park in Hawaii have been testing dolphins through an underwater touchscreen attached to a computer. There are no food rewards, so the dolphins use the touchscreen solely for intellectual stimulation. The scientists found that the dolphins weren’t particularly interested in abstractions, such as geometric patterns or artificial sounds. But they were very excited about touching the screen if it resulted in their seeing videos of other dolphins or hearing dolphin sounds. The next step will be to let dolphins choose video or audio sequences and then try to analyze why they’re making those decisions.

I can confirm this behaviour in humans as well. Even without any experiments, I know that people are much more interested in seeing other people and hearing human sounds compared to seeing geometric patterns or artificial sounds.

As a follow-up to the article below about “low” and “high” culture, I decided to write a few words about the relationship between fashion and art. I visited the Espoo Museum of Modern Art last Sunday. The main reason for the visit was the Claude Monet exhibition which is on show over there, but I did take a good, long look at some of the more contemporary stuff that was on show over there. Although some of it was thought-provoking and interesting, I sometimes can’t help but wonder if some of the most creative people are not working as artists after all. There is a huge amount of creativity and depth in modern advertising landscape. Diesel is one of the big brands that has a long tradition of mixing art and fashion in their advertising, but after seeing a blog post about this Viktor & Rolf store in Milan, one can hardly blame them for lack of courage either. Sure, it’s a gimmick, but you have to give them props for actually building that space with that degree of accuracy and commitment. But.. just to put my personal view of art in perspective and for the record, I thought that the Borat movie was a great piece of concept art as well.

Palast der Republik

Construction

The Palast was constructed from 1973 to 1976 in the prevailing architectural style for East German buildings, with bronze mirrored windows. The grand opening ceremony was held on 23 April 1976, and the building was opened to the public on 25 April 1976. It was built on the site of the old Berliner Stadtschloss (Berlin City Palace), which was damaged during World War II but finally demolished by the GDR authorities in 1950, as they regarded it a symbol of Prussian imperialism. It was sometimes nicknamed “Ballast der Republik” (”Ballast of the Republic”), “Erichs Lampenladen” (”Erich’s Lamp Shop”, referring to Erich Honecker and the 1001 lamps hanging in the foyer), or “Palazzo Prozzo.”

Demolition

In November 2003, the German parliament decided to demolish the building and leave the area as parkland until funding for the reconstruction of the Berliner Stadtschloss (Berlin City Palace) could be found. Demolition started on February 6, 2006 and was scheduled to last about 15 months. The demolition was to be carried out as a careful and slow process in order not to endanger neighbouring historical buildings such as the Berliner Dom. The cost of the demolition was estimated at 12 million euro. Dismantling of the structure was seriously delayed after more asbestos was found in various locations, and the estimated completion date was pushed back to the end of 2008.

New Music House in Helsinki

In addition to the appointment of a new DG for the public broadcaster, the Administrative Council of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) also voted 15-5 in favour of the company’s participation in the Music Centre planned for downtown Helsinki. The project has an estimated price-tag of around EUR 112 million, of which YLE is expected to find 26%. The remainder of the money will come from the state and from the City of Helsinki, but it was widely acknowledged that had the broadcaster opted out of the venture it would not have got off the ground.

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra will make its home in the building, hopefully relieving the musicians from the acoustic doldrums of Alvar Aalto’s lovely but musically-unsuitable Finlandia Hall. The new music complex will also become home to the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Both ensembles will undoubtedly welcome the change.

The building will be completed by 2008 or 2009 at the earliest and will occupy a prime location in the centre of Helsinki, opposite Parliament and on the site of the former railway freight warehouses dating back to the Tsarist period.

In an ironic twist, Eastern european workers also laid the foundation for the new Music House at a less than 2 euro hourly wage. In an epic battle between “high” and “low” culture, the Music House is being erected in midst of great controversy regarding it’s appearance, purpose, financing and location.

I agree that Helsinki needs a acoustically worthy venue for classical music, but trying to wrap this whole thing under the generic term “Music House” is almost an insult to the wealth of other music styles that do not necessarily resonate well within this 1970’s style structure.

Now that the budget is being cut even further down from the estimate mentioned above, I find it almost impossible to believe that the acoustical design of the building will overcome the difficulties that the nearby heavy tram and car traffic present.

In my opinion, this spitting image of Palast der Republik is overpriced, overhyped and an overkill. If the gargantuan “Central Library” will be built next to it, the whole Töölönlahti area will become a sad monument to the idea that culture can be created and maintained by building huge cubes with the proper titles to accompany them.

Modern Plasztikai Sebészet

The philosophy and technics of the operative procedure was developed only a few years ago, but our experiences on more than one thousand ears revealed the fact, that the operation is safe and well-tolerated by patients. We perform the operation as a one-day-surgery, mostly under local anaesthesia.

The procedure itself means a very careful dissection of the structures at the upper pole of the earlobe. The required reshaping is achieved by modellation of a specially designed chondro-cutaneous flap (a flap containing the own cartilage and skin of the patient). The new shape is fixed by means of absorbable sutures, skin closure is made with unabsorbable uninterrupted sutures.

Postoperative care is very important. The bandage protects the new ear for one week. Suture removal is performed after the second postoperative week. The result is seen immediately after the removal of the bandage, but total resoption of the soft tissue swelling and appearance of the very final shape usually needs three or four weeks.

I’ll be participating in a LARP conference this weekend. Upon researching the subject I found out that some people have actually commissioned pointy elf-style ears as a cosmetic surgery. This is a totally novel and exciting genre of body modification.

My own personal experiences with larping are limited to a few games of Steve Jackson’s Killer in the 1980’s. At the kick-off party I learned that there are still groups actively playing it.

While exploring photographs that might suit this definition, I quickly noticed that in real photographs there are often little “mistakes” that wouldn’t make it to a computer model. The random decay and debris is often almost too perfect in computer modelled scenes.

Please join and add a photograph or two if you happen to have anything in your archives that would be relevant to this group.

Every once in a while, while reading any random newspaper, one stumbles across a story about an expedition to the North Pole or some other extremely remote location. The stories usually make the international news treshold if a) an expedition has just started or b) they have just succesfully made it to the destination or c) someone gets lost or dies in the process. I just spotted a story in Helsingin Sanomat about a solo expedition to the North Pole. After a quick look at the website of Hannah McKeand it became obvious that she is one of the professional adventurers who make a living by planning, organizing and realizing expeditions. When she is not on the road, so to speak, she is available for motivational and public speaking engagements.

Adventurers like this usually have an extensive roster of corporate sponsors. On this particular expedition she has a separate shotgun sponsor and even a chocolate sponsor!

There is at least one professional adventurer, or “explorer” in Finland. The profession has a relatively high fatality rate. A highly controversial incident that many people still remember is the North Pole attempt by Dominick Arduin. She died while pursuing her dream. I tend to agree with the people who say it was mostly due to arrogance and lack of preparation. In the words of Benjamin Franklin: “Failing to Prepare is preparing to fail”.

If you are interested in the subject of people who venture out to the wilderness to find fulfillment in life, I highly recommend two films: Walking alone across Australia and the Oscar nominated film adaptation of Jon Kraukauer’s Into The Wild by Sean Penn. Into the Wild is not really about a professional explorer, but about a student who just wanted to get away from it all and find his inner self.

For a more technical overview of the field of adventuring around in the modern world, browse Explorersweb.com.

I wish fair weather and all the best to Hannah with her expedition. It is always inspiring to see people who have the guts, dedication and energy to get up and actually do this sort of stuff. I have nothing but utmost respect for people like her.

Occasionally I do redesigns of existing websites. This one was for a small association that promotes networking between executive business women. It was a demanding project which involved a lot of integration and consolidation of various data sources. Membership information is synchronized to an external database via a XML/SSH pipe cronjob. Most of the legacy content had to be imported by hand, because it was originally entered into an unwieldy behemoth of a CMS called Midgard. I still don’t know what was wrong with it, but to give you an idea, load times of simple pages occasionally exceeded 20 seconds.

After tweaking the code and parameters for a month or two, I was happy that the fresh, new site was finally launched last week. The most interesting parts of the site are confidential and members only, but feel free to take a peek at the public side of the site… it’s all in finnish though. Props to Toni for his mad jedi skills and indispensable help. The ladies at Gaia are also a really nice and friendly bunch of people. I hope they like their new virtual home.

When general Yi Song-Gye overthrew the Goryeo (Koryö) dynasty in 1392, he transferred the capital from Gaeseong to Hanyang (Seoul) and had a defensive wall built around the city. It was finished in 1398 after three years of work. In keeping with East Asian precedent there was a gate at each of the four approaches to the city: north, south, east, and west. Of the original four, the south gate is the best preserved, dating from 1447. Since goods used to flow into the city through here, a bustling market grew up along the adjacent street. Though the walls have vanished, the market remains, and is larger than ever.

The wooden part of the gate was destroyed by fire on February 10, 2008. According to some witnesses, the fire was incendiary. The identity of the arsonist is not yet known, but a taxi driver in the area observed a male approximately 50 years of age climb to the second floor with a lighted bag and run from the area.

Stonehenge, Statue of Liberty, the pyramids of Gaza… national monuments around the world have incredibly powerful symbolic value. That’s why they are often blown up in epic action movies.

My condolences to the Korean people. This was indeed a very regrettable incident.

Switchback is a rather appealing product if your work involves performing tasks with a computer in adverse weather conditions. It’s water and dust resistant and can operate at -10 degrees celsius with the solid state hard drive option. You can also get an optional wireless package that includes a civilian GPS module. The display is a touchscreen enable 5.6″ LCD screen which is sunlight viewable.

The processor is a 1 Ghz Intel Celeron© M and if I understand correctly, the device can run multiple operating systems such as Windows XP and Linux simultaniously.

I have no idea how much it costs, but my estimate would be somewhere between 4000-6000 euros per unit.

If you already own a Hummer H2, this is the computer to get further enhance your ruggerized look and feel

Музей советских игровых автоматов

There are moments when you want to come back in the childhood for a short while, because there were so many interesting things that remember cordially till now. From our Soviet childhood they are Souzmultfilm’s cartoons, Olympic Bear, planetarium, Sportloto lottery, football at the yard. They are pioneer camps at the Black Sea, horn sounds, walking-tours and songs near the campfire. They are walks with parents and friends at the Parks of Culture with ice-cream, fizzy drink and candy floss, and more — Arcade Games.

Arcade Games were a part of childhood and youth of soviet people. They were made at the secret military factories from the seventies up to the Perestroika. Forgotten and broken down Soviet-era arcade games are being restored for Moscow’s newest museum and now it is possible to play and feel atmosphere of the passed epoch.

Around 20 of the 37 different kinds of machines are now in working order. They operate with old Soviet 15 kopek coins, the hammer-and-sickle emblem of which itself conjures up a bygone time. Visitors can try their luck with games like ’Sea Battle’, where the player looks through a periscope and pretends to be a submarine commander, attempting to torpedo passing ships. In ’Tankodrom’ the player tries to knock out rocket launchers and jeeps with a small plastic tank. The museum also features Soviet pinball tables, ice-hockey games for two and four players, a target shooting game called ’Sniper’ and early video games with titles like ’Gorodki’ and ’Skachki’ (’horse race’).

Welcome to play, discover and enjoy!

Address of the Museum: 7-aya Parkovaya street, 9/26, Moscow State Technical University “MAMI”, el metro Pervomayskaya

This is like an alternate universe of video game history. One in which Space Invaders, Pacman and Donkey Kong didn’t exist.

Comrades, take good care of those treasures… I’ll come over and visit you one day.

I was seriously considering to build a charger like this myself. After googling around a bit, I found a company (Thermo-Gen) that has already designed a commercial product that allows you to keep low power mobile electronics charged up in the wilderness. It works with water, a heat source and the Peltier effect to generate electricity.

The mobile Thermoelectric Generator / charger (TEG) is based on a Trangia stormproof stove. The TEG can be used with all types of heat sources: LPG, alcohol, kerosene, open log fire, log fired stoves…

• Electric power output: 9W with cool water and 4W with boiling water in the
  kettle.
• Kettle diameter: 160mm
• The “all in one” packs into a compact unit
• Electric connection: DC plug connector
• Optional adapter: DC-plug to car cigarette lighter socket
• Cellular phones and other units are charged via a cigarette lighter charger
  adapter connected to the TEG output

As long as you have firewood and water, you could easily keep a GPS, a digital camera and a Nokia communicator infinitely charged with this ingenious device. I wrote about portable power sources some time ago, but unfortunately solar power is not a realistic option here in Finland.

Sir Edmund was apparently so shy that he even proposed to his wife with a message via her mother.

In the years that followed his famous ascent, he shunned the celebrity that had become his overnight.

On the 50th anniversary of his achievement, he even turned down an invitation from the Queen, so that he could instead travel to Kathmandu to be with lifelong Sherpa friends.

He was made an honorary Nepalese citizen in 2003.

Sir Edmund was far happier exploring.

During the next two decades, he led expeditions to the South Pole, searched for the fabled Yeti, and completed six Himalayan ascents.

And he became increasingly concerned by the plight of the Sherpa people he had met on his expeditions.

He spent two years as New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India, and founded the Himalayan Trust in 1964, which helped establish clinics, hospitals and nearly 30 schools.

It also supported the construction of two airstrips, bringing in more tourists than Sir Edmund liked.

He continued this work after personal tragedy in 1975, when his wife and daughter died in a plane crash on their way to meet him at a construction site.

Although the explorer was inconsolable for a long time, he found solace in the Nepal landscape and its people.

A man of great virtue… may he rest in peace.

During my last hike in Lappland I realized what a difference a little bonfire can make to a camp site. It immediately increases the general comfort level of a wilderness camp. You can cook food, dry your gear and stay warm much more easily when you are staying next to a fire. Unfortunately modern ultralight tent and clothing materials are usually very sensitive to heat. When placed next to fire, a typical tent or synthetic clothing can catch fire in no time.

Many Finnish hikers use a traditional lean-to shelter made of aluminium coated nylon such as the one pictured above. What I cannot understand is why hasn’t anyone made one out of Nomex. Nomex is a type of aramid fibre that is used in textile products used by the military, fire fighters and car racers. It is patented by DuPont and various fabrics based on it seem to be readily available from manufacturers such as Warwick.

A company called Massif even produces fire-resistant, waterproof, breathable outdoor clothing. I’d be interested in sewing a traditional lean-to shelter out of waterproof Nomex derivative. Please drop me a line on the comment section of this post if you know of a supplier that could sell a short roll or a leftover piece of suitable fabric.

EDIT: I’ve learned that Nomex is also used in hot air balloons in the part that is closest to the burner. I’ll contact a balloon pilot tomorrow to ask for more details. All I really need is an approximately 2 x 5 meter piece or 10 square meters… I can’t afford to buy a 500 meter roll.

I usually don’t write negative reviews, but either it was the brain washing of the Vatican or perhaps Golden Compass is just a bad movie. The plot keywords made me salivate in anticipation, but as soon as the lights went out and the endless trailers and commercials had ended, I quickly found out that this particular film wasn’t my cup of tea. While Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra wasn’t exactly an untalented actress, she failed to breathe life to the synthetic, blue screened scenes. Nicole Kidman herself had slight troubles orientating to the invisible daemon friends who were all digitally added to the frames in the post, no doubt.

This is a problem I’ve seen in many, many films. I, Robot suffered from the same blue screen syndrome. So did Mirrormask by the way. (On the other hand, I did like Beowulf quite a bit… perhaps it was because it didn’t mix live action with CGI, who knows)

It is hard for an actor or an actress to imagine that they are talking to a 4 meter tall polar bear when they are actually just talking to a giant chroma key wall or, even worse, to the microphone in a tiny little voiceover booth.

Before I forget it, let me just mention that my favorite performance in Golden Compass was Sam Elliot as Mr. Scoresby.

Technology aside, I wasn’t swept away by the plot either. It felt very much like a made-to-order saga with a little bit of myths and scandinavian names thrown in for good measure. The film is based on a book by Philip Pullman, one of England’s most outspoken atheists. There is a strong anti-christian (or anti-dogmatic, to be more precise) undertone in Pullman’s script. On the other hand the fascination with the ancient mythology seems very shallow and gimmicky in this context.

I’ll give Golden Compass two stars out of five. Ahh, I’m looking forward to I am Legend to also give two stars only. This will equalize my ratings scale nicely and make it look more like a gaussian curve instead of a baseball cap with every other movie getting three and a half or four stars…

I’ll be back

It is that special time of year again. Here’s a collection of images from my archives to enhance your holiday spirit.

If that didn’t help, try one of the Christmas radios

Well, I finally made it to redrum last night. To warm up for a night out, we doped up with some cava (Conde de Haro) and a nourishing meal at Grotesk. The tuna pastrami appetizer at Grotesk was excellent, by the way. Grotesk is a fancy fine dining place with relatively high prices on the menu, so I was surprised to see a high profile biker gang complete with emblems over there enjoying the creations of the chefs. It greatly enhanced the already eclectic atmosphere of the restaurant.

After a quick taxi ride, we ended up at Redrum, the club with allegedly best sound system around. Well, after last night I can confirm that the sound system is indeed unbelievable. It is built by Funktion One and combined with the unique interior the music sounded totally out of this world. Maybe I’m just used to the el cheapo systems at other clubs or maybe it was the Cava, but the acoustics in the wood paneled club sounded practically studio quality to me. You could easily chat with your friends without shouting and still hear the music with vibrant clarity. The bass was superbly satisfying as well. I think there are at least 6 or 7 layers of acoustic material on the walls.

If you are visiting Helsinki and dance music is your thing, I highly recommend redrum for the acoustic experience alone. Sometimes they host rock concerts as well.

Philips, Computed Tomography - Brilliance CT - 64-channel configuration

The Brilliance 64-channel configuration breaks through previous boundaries in CT imaging, providing large volume, thin-slice coverage to improve diagnostic confidence, image quality and productivity.

With 40mm of thin-slice coverage, the 64-channel broadens horizons in cardiac imaging, allowing for unprecedented coronary artery evaluation. The 64-channel configuration also provides breakthrough performance in advanced  pulmonary imaging, multi-organ trauma evaluation and low-dose pediatric applications to boost your clinical capabilities to the highest level attainable.

Remember that story about Tom Cruise buying a $200000 ultrasound scanner for personal use to check his unborn baby? Well, if you have the money to spare, here’s a gadget that any budding scientologist should love, the 64 channel Philips Brilliance! Who wouldn’t want to reach the highest level attainable?

Perhaps one day you will be able to search Google not only for people’s names, but also for their pictures, fingerprints, internal body structure or DNA.

The hottest Christmas present tip this season: a personal fingerprint or DNA poster!

Reuters - EU agrees public funding for satellite project

Supporters say it is a vital technological platform for Europe, but critics say it could be a costly white elephant because the U.S. system already has a dominant market position and Russia and China are working on their own systems.

Berlin had been blocking the use of unspent EU funds partly because it feared German firms could be shut out of major work under the initial tendering scheme, but also out of concern at the precedent of using unspent funds that would otherwise be repaid to member states.

TENDER REDIVIDED

To placate Germany, diplomats said EU leaders could issue a declaration next month pledging that the use of unspent funds for Galileo would remain an exception.

The total cost of Galileo — 3.4 billion euro ($5.1 billion) — is being raised from public funds after private companies declined to carry the risk.

Uncharacteristically, I am going to a political rant mode for a paragraph or two.

“…because the U.S. system already has a dominant market position and Russia and China are working on their own systems”? Isn’t this the main reason why this system is being built in the first place? I am amazed that it has taken this long and that people are not seeing importance of this project. As a mental exercise, just imagine someone pressing a big red button to turn off GPS for everyone else except the American Army. Is it an unprobable scenario? Perhaps it is, but if it happens, there really is no place to call and ask for your money back.

GPS has grown from a military platform to a global, ubiquitous navigation system that has thousands of applications all over the world. It is a mind bogglingly powerful ace card that USA has up their sleeve. They can use that big red button any time they see fit. GPS system’s selective availability could probably be enabled at a relatively small geographical area for a short period of time if needed.

In my opinion, 3.4 billion euros is pocket money to neutralize that threat. Well, granted, it doesn’t take much shoot down a competing satellite positioning system, but it is not only military threats that this system could be used for. Anyway, sometimes it is just time to bite the bullet and show that you have the muscle to get by relatively independently if need be.

This was a tiny little news item at Reuters which probably goes unnoticed by most media. I wanted to highlight it a bit to underline the importance of projects like this instead spending 200 million euros a year on MEPs commuting between Strasbourg and Brussels.

OK, rant mode over, thank you for listening.

A designer friend of mine, Tuija Järvenpää, has come up with the idea of selling pictures of Christmas trees.

She’s been working with the concept of disposable objects of art for quite some time now. One of her earlier projects was a paper wedding dress. The works are dancing around in the gray area of ecological statements, conceptual art, household items and commercial products.

The paper Christmas trees are actually very large scale ink jet prints. They are 134 cm * 280 cm in size and can be stored in the shipping tube for the next year.

I helped her put together a little online store to make it easier for clients to place an order for the tree. Go ahead and mail her if you want one shipped outside of Finland.

Sunshine

The director also considered the story of Sunshine as an appropriate counterintuitive approach for the contemporary issue of global warming, with the death of the sun being a threat. Originally, Sunshine was scripted to begin with a voiceover talking about how parents tell their children not to look into the sun, but once told, the children would be compelled to look. Boyle described the sun as a godly personality in the film, creating a psychological dimension for the astronauts due to its scale and power. The director also described the film’s villain as based on light, explaining, “That’s quite a challenge because the way you generate fear in cinema is darkness.” The director also sought to have the characters experience a psychological journey in which each person is worn mentally, physically, and existentially and is experiencing doubt in their faiths.

I like to get a little dose of science fiction every now and then to keep the subconsciousness nourished with far-out ideas. Sunshine was just what the doctor ordered as far as the science part of the movie is concerned. In the movie a “Q-Ball” , the nucleus of a supersymmetric particle, gets itself lodged in the Sun. The hypothetical Q ball eats through normal matter, ripping apart the Sun’s neutrons and protons and converting them into supersymmetric particles. The Earth’s last and only hope? Why, to launch and detonate a gigantic nuclear bomb to fix the problem, of course!

Here’s an interesting review with the scientific advisor of the film.

Well, science aside, I think the film makers did a pretty good job with many other aspects of the film. The art direction and visual effects in general were well made. More importantly, they were also original and refreshing, which is not an easy task to accomplish in this day and age.

I found it particularly inspiring that the sun was treated as a god-like entity much like the ancient egyptian Sun God Ra and the aztec god Huitzilopochtli. As a matter of fact, sun has been worshipped for all of recorded history.

My personal prediction is that the Sun God is about to get quite angry while us mere mortals are thinning the ozone layer which is protecting us from his angry UVB eye.

Scientists develop Terminator-style helmets which allow fighter pilots to see through their planes | the Daily Mail

A futuristic helmet which allows fighter pilots to see through the walls and floor of their aircraft has been developed by scientists.

The high-tech head gear is attached to cameras on the outside of the aircraft, which project pictures of the plane’s surroundings onto the inside of the pilot’s visor.

The pilot then has 360 degree vision of the world around the plane, allowing x-ray style vision.

This is for the European F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It will also impose infra-red imagery on to the visor to allow the pilot to look through the cockpit floor at night and see the world below.

Eye-Fi Wireless Card

Eye-Fi uses home wireless networks to eliminate the time-consuming chore of dealing with cables, card readers or software plug-ins associated with uploading photos. Users simply turn on their digital camera and their pictures are wirelessly uploaded. The Eye-Fi Card works with existing and new SD-compatible digital cameras and stores photos like a conventional SD memory card.

How on earth did they manage to cram a 2 GB memory chip and a wi-fi chip the same card? I remember when a 1 GB hard drive used to cost a thousand dollars and wireless networking required great big satellite dishes.

Well, times they have a-changed and now you can pop in a memory card that uploads your photos automatically via wi-fi as you take them. I am curious if you can also upload your photos directly to iPhoto or if you can only upload them to online services. It does seem to support a wide variety of different services including Facebook, Flickr and the open source Gallery software. At $99 it’s not an expensive add-on if you need something like this for real-time coverage of an event for example.

Micro-Compact Low E-Home

The micro-compact low e-home is all-electric and powered by photovoltaic solar panels of 8 sqm with a small diameter vertical axis wind generator.

Day-time excess power is diverted into the grid. Night-time power is provided by the wind turbine and reserve batteries. Heating and air conditioning is ducted to each of the four function spaces. Long duration LED lighting is used internally and for the external walkways.

I wouldn’t call it exactly portable at 2 metric tonnes of weight, but it is an interesting and quite well though out concept. The Micro Compact home web site has several other variations of this shelter. The price is around 34000 euros per unit.

On my recent trip to Lappland, I met a guy who had built a small transportable fibre glass home mounted on a sledge. It could be moved around with a snow mobile and could house him and his dog. I think that architects who design miniature houses like the Micro Compact home could really learn a lot by interviewing people who have actually built and used homes like this in the real life. Sometimes there is a bit of an ivory tower situation between the architects and the real world users of portable homes.

And don’t let me get started on the huge RV truck conversions that they are building in USA. Sometimes they have a small garage built in the truck for another vehicle. Check out this example of these gas guzzling monsters.

CSS: CANSEI DE SER SEXY “Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex”

This is the soundtrack to a consumer made iPod commercial that made it big time. It’s being remade in hi-def by TBWA for broadcast use.

Consumers creating commercials “is part of this brave new world we live in,” said Lee Clow, chairman and chief creative officer at TBWA Worldwide, based in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Playa del Rey.

“It’s an exciting new format for brands to communicate with their audiences,” Mr. Clow said. “People’s relationship with a brand is becoming a dialog, not a monolog.”

Check out the YouTube video that caught the eye of the ad agency.

Treetents

Originally developed by Dutch designer Dré Wapenaar—who was commissioned by a non-profit to make the lives of tree-sitting activists a little easier—these tear-shaped tents hang suspended several feet off the ground. Though never actually used to stop chainsaws, since 1998 they’ve been in use at the Hertshoorn campsite, sleeping up to a family of four on the interior platform, which has about a nine foot diameter. More recently Wapenaar’s also added a bivouac for mourning the dead and an orb-shaped birthing tent (featuring a central pool) to his repertoire.

I’ve slept in a hammock out in the woods a few times just to test it out, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not all that practical for most environments. For some unknown reason, all these different variations of tree based shelters really fascinate me. It must some sort of primal instinct of getting up there on a tree for safety during the night.

On a totally different note, I remember reading a detailed description of a radically different kind of tree shelter. I think it was in a Vietnam war related book (perhaps the sniper autobiography One Shot, One Kill which Reko borrowed to me?). Anyways, it was a square metal platform that was secretly placed to the upper foliage of a jungle by a transport helicopter. It acted as a base for a group of commando soldiers who lowered themselves to the ground every now and then to fight behind the enemy lines. The only safety it provided was that you couldn’t see it from the ground unless you knew what to look for. Somehow, metal doesn’t seem like the right kind of material to build a stealth base like that. One would think that every little trinket you drop on the platform would make a loud noise like a church bell.

Stealth camping is a concept that is closely linked to hammock camping in general.

camping overnight on land that is unmarked or signed, unimproved, unfenced and away from habitation without anyone’s consent or knowledge using the Leave No Trace principles.

*RISCON：A word coined from “Risk ( Danger, Crisis )” and “Control ( Administration, Management )”. This word connotes our aspiration to: “Control risk to the fullest despite unavoidable difficulty.”

Seriously, how far can you go with this anti-terrorism thing? It seems to me that in many historical periods there has been an external threat that has kept the society more or less organized.. keeping busy to keep the threat at bay.

Wrath of Gods, neighbouring nations, dragons, terrorist cells.. there is always something to keep an eye for.

Sorry for sounding like a broken record, but the it’s practically impossible to avoid this subject matter while keeping up to date with the modern media. I stumbled upon this picture while browsing China Daily!

To create truly striking digital art images, it is often necessary to combine computer procesesses with various analog source material. It’s difficult the resist the abstract beauty of the digitally colored incense smoke photographs. I think the whole concept and production method was invented more or less single handedly by Graham Jeffery. He shared his method at his Sensitive Light site. The Flickr group Art Smoke now has more than 500 photographs.

Well, I’m back from the wilderness. The bogs proved to be way too deep for my Scarpa alpine hiking shoes. I spent quite a few nights by the campfire drying my feet, shoes & socks. I also spent two nights at one of the most scenic wilderness huts in Lappland, the Vaskolompolo hut. Two other outdoor enthusiasts joined me to spend the night at the safety and comfort of the hut. One of them was Reijo, a retired border guard and the other one was Ivalo-Joe, a friendly gold miner who was hunting for bears in the area. He had a superb hunting dog with him called K.A. Lotti. I spotted a few bear droppings myself.. and half a dozen moose who chose to run away with great commotion and noise when I approached them.

We spoke about the habits of the animals, gold mining legends and other interesting and very non-urban subjects. During the first night there were some nice Aurora Borealis on the sky and we took the opportunity to take a few long exposure shots of them. (The new Aurea models by Philips remind me of them, by the way)

Once again, I was completely enchanted by the nature and the people of the North. I plan to return over there again and perhaps even do some gold panning one day. I heard that many men have panned the gold for their own wedding rings in the old days.

After I’ve returned to Helsinki, I’ve been a bit busy with work and real estate deals, so I haven’t had time to upload photograhs from the trip, but I’ll try to do it later. We’ll be moving to a new address next week.

Great Worldwide Star Count

Bright outdoor lighting at night is a growing problem for astronomical observing programs around the world. By searching for the same constellations, participants in the Great World Wide Star Count will be able to compare their observations with what others see, giving them a sense of how star visibility varies from place to place. The observers will also learn more about the economic and geographic factors that control the light pollution in their communities and around the world.

“Without even being aware of it, many of us have lost the ability to see many stars at night,” Ward says. “The Great World Wide Star Count will help raise awareness of the importance and the beauty of the night skies.”

My father’s father was a bit of an eccentric. Among his other achievements (of being the director of an aeroplane factory and a fire station) he painted stars on the ceiling of his sauna. The exact reasons for this remain a bit unclear to me.

Light and sound pollution are an increasingly serious problem, especially in densely populated areas. In this year’s Banff Mountain Film festival I saw a collage-style animated film called Conversing with Aotearoa. In an interview segment, various outdoor enthusiasts were asked “When do you feel that you are out in the wilderness?”. I couldn’t agree more with the person who said “When I can no longer hear the sounds of the civilization.”

On Monday, I’m off to the most remote village in Finland. The village of Lisma is located deep within Lemmenjoki national park in the parish of Inari. It is my departure point for a 10 day solo expedition to the Øvre Anarjóhka area in Norway.

Tom Hanks Interview

The Oscar-winning actor spent months on a remote Fijian island for his new movie Cast Away and far from being an idyllic experience it proved to be something of a nightmare for the 44-year old star.

Not only did he have to lose 55lb in weight for the role and spend weeks up to his neck in water, the shoot almost turned to tragedy when he caught a serious infection.

“Just before we left the island I had a little sore on my knee and something got inside there. We left Fiji on the Friday and by the Sunday my leg was twice its normal size,” explains Hanks, looking more than a little relieved to be in the urban surrounds of London.

“I had to go to the doctors and I thought I was going to get it cleaned and some antibiotics to take. The next thing I know there were five doctors running around in a panic trying to figure out what was inside my leg.

“I underwent surgery that night and was out for three weeks. We had to shut down the movie. I was very close to blood poisoning, which can kill you. If I’d really been a castaway on that island, doctors told me I would have been dead in five weeks.”

I really liked Cast Away, but I don’t think Tom Hanks did a very good job with his method acting a.k.a. losing weight for the role. He had a full year to do it. He had a special “Weight loss trainer” that is credited at the end.

There was a lot of press about the weight loss and Mr. Hanks got completely bored with endless questions about it in interviews. Just to give a little perspective to Tom Hanks’ 55 pound loss, Christian Bale lost a third of his normal body weight (63 pounds) for his role in The Machinist. Tom Hanks had gained extra weight for the first part of the movie and I think that he simply returned back to slightly below his normal weight.

Although method acting doesn’t usually refer to physical alterations in an actor’s apperance, weight loss and gaining for a role is often seen as a measurement of actor’s commitment to the role. Sadly, sometimes things go a bit wrong when people commit themselves too deeply. Requiem For A Dream star Jared Leto was diagnosed with gout after losing weight for a film role.

Body weight is one of those things that you can’t yet fix in the post.

I just read an interesting story about the new generation of wiretapping technology that FBI is using in the USA. Coincidentally, three of the last Hollywood blockbuster movies I’ve seen (Bourne Ultimatum, Die Hard 4.0 and Ocean’s 13) have all dealt with the general themes of “individual versus the surveillance system” and “we can see your every move at the hidden command center”. I also saw Wim Wenders’ “The Land of Plenty” which was about a Vietnam war veteran who had become more or less obsessed with surveillance.

I remember seeing scenes in Hollywood movies portraying the Echelon as early as 1994 (”Clear and Present Danger”), but recently it has become the most trendy plot element that you can have. The usual way to weave it into an action film plot is to have the protagonist somehow fool the system and simply outsmart the government agents at the hidden command center by switching the sim card in a phone or hiding behind a balloon seller at a busy railway station.

Bourne Ultimatum went completely over the top with the surveillance theme though. All I can remember about the plot was that the same scene was basically acted out in slightly different variations about 5 or 6 times. During the end credits they played the theme song by Moby.

Well, I guess my point is that not only the script writers, but also the audience in this seemingly less secure world have become fascinated with wiretapping and remote sensing. Whether it’s good entertainment or not, I can’t say. But I do know that during insecure times, horror films repeatedly become a more popular genre. A society based on the remote surveillance and monitoring of the potential threats in the neighbourhood is indeed a bit horrific.

Suunto Lumi

The Suunto Lumi helps you navigate mountain trails and city streets with ease. This sleek outdoor instrument is designed with smart, strong, passionate and active women in mind - women like you.

It’s a cloudy morning, but the barometer on your Suunto Lumi says blue skies ahead, so leave your raincoat at home. The day counter reminds you that a special event is coming up - you still have time to make plans. The weather trend indicator and day counter are a few of Suunto Lumi’s intuitive features that you can use to navigate through life.

Props for a good idea and what appears to be a technically great execution. Suunto’s reputation for high quality products especially in the diving instruments product line is impressive.

For quite some time there has been a specific type of consumer that has been a prime target for market segment researchers… the “active yet trendy outdoor person”. Nokia, Nike, Apple, Sony and many others have been trying to come up with products that appeal to people who enjoy both the urban and outdoor lifestyles. New women specific products are popping up left and right every month. Suunto has finally entered the game as well with their Lumi “instruments”.

In their advertising they refer to the menstrual cycle with the same kind of discretion (”Special event”) as the tampon advertisers with their mysterious blue liquids. I like the way Suunto does their brand building. It is very logical and persevering.

The consumers who are interested in these type of products are usually very fashion conscious. The replaceable wriststrap is actually a rather clever innovation in this industry. I doubt that many women have bought or even considered buying the previous “wrist-top computers” that have been double the size of a typical gentlemen’s wrist watch.

“Polar madness” grips many people working at poles

“Say there’s somebody you go to lunch with and you don’t notice the way that they eat. But if you ate with that same person day in and day out for six months, suddenly the way they chew their food is enough to drive you crazy,” added Palinkas, who has ventured to the Antarctic seven times.

The Lancet paper detailed past cases of polar expeditions gone wrong, including an Arctic scientific expedition in the 1880s that descended into mutiny, lunacy, suicide and cannibalism, leaving only six survivors from a crew of 25 men.

Palinkas cited more recent examples of “polar madness” at research stations, including one staffer clubbing another with a claw hammer and another beating a co-worker with a pipe.

“There was a saying at the station for the remainder of the winter that ‘If you’ve got a gripe, use a pipe,”‘ he said.

The researchers mentioned several other symptoms among people on polar expeditions such as memory impairment, anxiety, reduced alertness, headaches, boredom, fatigue, inattention to personal hygiene, intellectual inertia and over-eating.

Intellectual inertia? I wonder what that means.

I have tremendous respect for people who can live in confined spaces with anyone for half a year or more. Some people can’t even manage to stay married for that long.

One can only imagine what the atmosphere is like at a place like the Halley research station, when one looks at Snow Girl’s collection of photographs from over there. It seems like most of the staff has lost their mind in one way or another, but for some it is a positive experience. Most seem to pursue all kinds of crazy activities just to keep sane. They even have a bar in a mysterious “building number 5″.

Recently polar and arctic regions have started to increasingly interest me. While researching the Kola peninsula as a potential hiking destination, I found out about Varanger in the most Northern part of Norway. It seems like a beautiful, yet easily accessible place. Kola might be a bit too demanding for a solo expedition for someone with my level of experience of arctic regions.

U.S. Subs Luxury Submarines

At U.S. Submarines we are always interested in finding new clients for our products. Unfortunately, there are very few individuals financially capable of purchasing one of our vehicles. And while there are quite a few corporations that could afford our products, not many can justify the expenditure.

There is also what we call the “Lemming Syndrome”. There are many individuals and corporations that purchase expensive luxury yachts, some of which get very little use. Yet when approached with the concept of a luxury submarine, they discard the idea without serious consideration because they do not know anyone else who has one, and they are not progressive enough to contemplate the advantages of ownership. Sadly, a place to sip cocktails while invoking as much envy as possible is the rationale for many status conscious large yacht owners. So, we’re always interested to speak to the progressive and enlightened few who might consider one of our submarines as an incredible alternative which opens the possibilities of new worlds and new experiences - all in perfect comfort and safety.

I really like the tone of the text at the U.S. Submarines web site. They are selling a novel concept to a clientele that is willing to pay 10 to 100 million dollars for a vehicle that many might view as no more than an extremely expensive status symbol. Their potential clients include arab sheiks, world leaders and hi-tech mega-millionaires. As a side note, the president of our own country recently commissioned a luxury yacht for mere 2 millions euros.

I read through most of U.S. Submarines marketing material and learned a lot about submarines… licensing, operating range, comfort factors etc. Although going underwater in a metal tube might not seem like the safest thing to do, I was surprised to find out that there haven’t ever been any serious injuries or fatalities in the history of tourist submarines. Statistically speaking, that actually makes it the safest form of transportation in the world.

Although submarines aren’t exactly the most fashionable form of transport, they have remained a source of constant inspiration for popular culture ever since Jules Verne wrote about Nautilus and Captain Nemo in Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea in 1870.

Nautilus

Much of the ship was decorated to standards of luxury that were unequalled in a seagoing vessel of the time. These included a library with boxed collections of valuable oceanic specimens that were unknown to science at the time, expensive paintings, and several collections of jewels. The Nautilus also featured a lavish dining room and even an organ that Captain Nemo used to entertain himself in the evening.

I spent last week at a summer cabin in Jämi area and in the Seitseminen national park. Most of the time the weather spirits were not in a favorable mood, but luckily the skies cleared for the experimental aircraft gathering, The Jämi-Niinisalo Fly-In.

There was a whole bunch of stuff to see for the aviation enthusiasts. I learned a lot about the hobby of building and flying your own aircrafts and about aviation in general. One thing that fascinated me in particular was the radio controlled aircraft modeling. It had seemed like a way too expensive and difficult activity for a person with poor hand/eye co-ordination (like me) to even consider.

Fortunately, nowadays it is possible practice flying the models at the comfort of your own computer den. I think I have crashed a few thousands of dollars worth of virtual planes already!

I highly recommend the free demo of the RealFlight 3.5 simulator. It is available at RealFlight web site. It has only one model, but the wind dynamics and the physics simulation are apparently quite accurate and realistic. I am seriously considering getting the full version some time in the future.

EDIT: To get an idea what you can do with modern electric planes, have a look at this this demonstration flight at YouTube.

I am having real troubles trying to resume the previous, more or less regular update schedule of this blog. I’m finally back in Finland. In July everything closes down around here and people head to their precious little summer cabins to relax and enjoy the sunsets and mosquitos.

Anyway, our last leg in the long trip around the Balkan countries was a cycling trip down the Danube river. There are many companies that arrange such trips and we chose the “economical option” of one of the bigger companies. They take your luggage from hotel to hotel and all you have to do is to hop on a bike every morning and ride 50-80 kilometers to the next pitstop.

All in all, it worked like a charm. The overnight stops had been chosen very carefully to offer a delightful variety of different styles of accommodation. In Linz we stayed at Hotel Kolping, which is run by a christian social organization. In many other cities we stayed at smaller gasthauses and guest rooms run by Weinguts & Heurigens (vineyards & wineries, that is). They were often run by a single family and the staff was always very friendly and hospitable, yet completely professional in the way they handled the business.

Every now and then we would see the some of our trip companions, but you could easily enjoy the nature and the steady, satisfying downhill speed of the route all by yourself if you wanted to. The scenery was beautiful and the river made it easy to find the right way. We had a little well written guide book with us. It was provided by the company that organized the trip and contained detailed maps of the entire route. Sometimes it was a little hard to find the exact spot of the accommodation, but we didn’t have to ask for directions at any time.

I highly recommend this option for anyone who is interested in starting multi-day cycling trips, but isn’t keen on spending a lot of time finding out about accommodation options or carrying a lot of stuff with them. It is the most popular bike route in all of Europe and for a very good reason. The bike lane quality is excellent and there are plenty of choices for a quick snack or a lunch along the way.

I’ll upload some photographs once I’m back from my own personal summer cabin trip after a week or so. Until then… Peace out, brothers and sisters!

A bit of more of me

David Keith McCallum, Jr. (born September 19, 1933) is a prolific Scottish actor and the son of concertmaster violinist David McCallum, Sr.. He is best known for his role as Illya Kuryakin, a Russian-born secret agent, on the popular 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E..

Although McCallum subsequently became a familiar face on television, he was never able to achieve the same level of popular success as he had done with his role as Kuryakin. His best-known roles were in Sapphire and Steel (opposite Joanna Lumley), as the lead in a 1970s remake of The Invisible Man, and as Judas Iscariot in The Greatest Story Ever Told.

In the 1960s, McCallum recorded some albums for Capitol Records with producer David Axelrod, such as Music: A Bit More of Me (1966) and Music: It’s Happening Now! (1967). The most well known of his pieces today is arguably The Edge, which was sampled by Dr. Dre as the intro and riff to the track The Next Episode. There is some controversy over what role McCallum actually played in these recordings, as he did not sing on the tracks (they are instrumentals), nor did he write them.

DJ Majestic Mood played a really nice set a few weeks ago at Palmenhaus. I asked him about a particularly interesting tune and it turned out to be from a weird 60’s album conducted by none other than David McCallum.

I wrote a draft for this entry earlier, but decided to postpone publishing it due to..uhm.. some eBay bidding activity. I am now the proud owner of both of his 60’s vinyl albums. I can’t wait to get back home to listen to them.

As a quick update to our Balkan tour, we’ve succesfully visited Budapest, Ljubljana, Split and the Island of Hvar. On the last night at the island we met an interesting character. He was a local island man, who had studied archeology and came up with the concept of “herbal tourism”. In a word, he was a herbalist. He graciously gave us a whole bunch of wild herbs which he had been collecting earlier that day with a group of Swiss tourists. Sadly, we had to leave for Split and we didn’t have a chance to interview him in more detailed manner. Split was a superb experience as well. Our accommodation was right next to Jupiter’s temple in the Diolectian palace, which is the most active and well preserved site of it’s kind in the world. It is part of the Unesco world heritage program and so is a part of Graz, where we are lodging at the moment.

I’m typing this at the hotel lobby internet terminal while slightly intoxicated, so this will have to do for now. Resuming normal blog update schedule when I’m back in Finland in the beginning of July.

Without further introduction, here is a list of my travel tips for Vienna (and especially for the area surrounding Karlsplatz):

1. La Norma (authentic italian food and very friendly service. Another place worth visiting, Das Kleine Café is just around the corner on the Franziskanerplatz)
2. First Floor (a smoky, dimly lit cocktail bar. rather classy, but also suitable for serious drinking.)
3. Anton Heldwein (one of the best jewellers on Graben)
4. Opera (don’t bother if you can’t get proper tickets for seats with good visibility though.. the peddlers near Stephansdom will usually try to sell you cheap ones in the back. you can get good tickets for the less popular operas online exactly one month before the show)
5. Haus der Musik (a music museum)
6. Sisi museum and royal apartments (consider skipping the silverware section and heading straight to the apartments.. they are much more interesting)
7. Local Heurigens (take a tram and a long walk around the vineyards and then sit down for an hour or two to enjoy the wines. Try Zadowsky to see an authentic vineyard instead of a inner atrium only)
8. Puma Store (on Mariahilferstrasse which is a good street for shopping in general)
9. Brunch at Naschmarkt (it’s a bustling food market with many nice restaurants. gets very busy on Saturdays, also a flea market)
10. Flakturms (there are three old air defense towers in the city. all of them are impressive sights to behold)
11. Vintage fashion (right next to Babette’s)
12. Specialty tea shops (it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a few around the city center)
13. Palmhausen (it is run by the same people as Volksgarten)
14. Fresh Soup and Salad (the name says it all, it’s a franchise, but the concept works well)
15. Podium (an unhurried, relaxed and friendly atmosphere)
16. Fratelli il Gelato (one of the many great ice cream bars in the city. fast service, the orders are transmitted wirelessly to the kitchen)
17. Uhrenbörs (a store specializing in old and antique wrist watches)
18. Babette’s (bookstore specializing in cooking books)
19. Musik Kiosk (a must see club that can be summed up in three words: sausage, mustard, music)
20. Tiberius (slightly less discreet souvenirs for that special someone)
21. Volksgarten (an institution in the clubbing scene.. some say it’s one of the best in the world)
22. Stadtpark (a pleasant restaurant pavillion right next to the u-bahn station. the park is rather compact, there is a grass field reserved for sun bathing and just lying around at the north part of the park)
23. Aroma.at (a cozy little place suitable for chatting and drinking)
24. Breakfast club (a restaurant that sells only breakfasts)
25. Badeschiff (a floating restaurant around the very nice Schwedenplatz area)
26. Sunday brunch at Marriott (lavish and expensive buffet, worth trying at least once in your life. we were lucky enough to get gift vouchers for it)
27. Kunsthalle Wien Project Space (another great option for a brunch or a breakfast.. they are open until 2 am)
28. Schloss Schönbrunn (there is a zoo and a nice palm house in the area. Plenty of walking opportunities)
29. Belvedere (A Baroque residence complete with a nice park. there is also a botanical garden right next to it)
30. Kohlmarkt (a shopping street with Chanel, Prada and other luxury brands)
31. Museumsquartier (including museum of modern art)
32. Donau Insel (rent a citybike or rollerskates, register your credit card on the internet site of citybikes before the rental)
33. El Español (a members only tapas club on most night, but try making a reservation for Tuesday)
34. TwinCity liner to Bratislava (it’s a nice way to see the river on a boat)
35. Cafe Sperl (a great example of the highly refined cafe culture around here)
36. Parndorf Outlet Park (Helly Hansen, Levi’s etc)
37. Prater amusement park (the ferris wheel is worth visiting, so are some of the wilder rides, several outdoor restaurants in the area)
38. Bergfuchs (mountain equipment store)
39. Alte Donau area (a tv tower and a big field suitable for playing soccer, I didn’t try the huge chinese restaurant)
40. Danube Trail (if you are fitness orientated, you could cycle up or down the river for a few days, we’ll be doing the trip with this company)
41. Sababa (perfect for late night snacks, for a drink try the nana limo.. a type of non-alcoholic mojito)
42. The public transport works like a dream. The easiest way to get around is the U-Bahn. Get a weekly ticket for 12,50 euros. Taxis are relatively cheap as well.

That’s all for now.. comments and corrections are welcome! I’ll be travelling in Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia for the next few weeks, so don’t expect too many updates to this blog in June.

P.S. If you are also going to Berlin, check out my travel tips fo Berlin

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I picked up a rental DVD of Terry Gilliam’s latest creation Tideland. I knew that the film hadn’t been a commercial success, but that was nothing new as far as his works are concerned. I had enjoyed Brothers Grimm and come to think of it, every other movie by Terry Gilliam as well, so I decided to give it a shot. The movie is a roller coaster ride through the life and inner universe of a junkie’s daughter. It is rated R for “bizarre and disturbing” content and I can’t blame the rating people for that decision. It is disturbing and provocative, but at the end of the day, it is a kind of movie that sadly very seldom gets financing. It must have been obvious to even some of the financers that this might be a commercial flop around the premiere, but like many other Gilliam’s movies, I’m sure that it will recognized as a masterpiece in the years to come.

The plot is not very important and I don’t want to give it away. If interested, have a quic