2 years in Finland too and no choices, every carrier has it and they are priced almost exactly the same.. Just like a bunch of guys agreeing something in the backroom and miraculously announcing their campaign in sync.. Personally, i buy the cheapest phones there is and have my 12 year old prepaid still going strong. I've estimated that i've saved over 2000€ in the last ten years and that's comparing to the cheapest contract available (around 20€ is the minimum contract price.) Of course that means that i'm the only one in my class that doesn't have a touchscreen as you can't get those without contracts on a students "salary"...

That's funny, they use the same method in Finland... So maybe you should be afraid

Yeah, in Uppsala, not in Stockholm. Allthou i guess i's just easier if every town in Sweden is Stockholm and Finland has only Helsinki...

Most of the lifts in Finland are of this type. Can't imagine why it's so hard for this guy.

Y2K.. I was busy in Finland during fall 1999, hoping to get my fiancee visa and fly to the US before Y2K hit. Just in case all airplanes would stop working and so on.. Luckily I got the visa on time and arrived to the States already in late November 1999.

The world didn't end, planes were still flying at 2000, and I got to marry the love of my life! Not bad for a doomsday scare!

Heading back to school for nuclear engineering myself in the next year or so, hopefully to make reactors completely self regulating.

Since no source is mentioned, I assume this to be your comment and therefore applaud and envy you. Most of my passion for a couple of things died somewhere along the way.

Questions, comments or concerns on nuclear or energy in this thread are always welcome (and encouraged!)

Meaningful questions would require a level of knowledge I do not possess, so I'll stick to the layman's reaction: a comment.

Two issues that are not exclusive to the use of nuclear technology make me a strong opponent of nuclear energy in general, aside from technology-specific problems. It's the involvement of people in every stage of the process and centralisation.

Anything run by private entities has to generate a profit. Therefore corners will be cut, regulations will be circumvented. Mistakes will be made, design flaws covered up. The cheapest material will be used by the least paid worker, supervised by a guy on his second job who just wants to go home to his family.

Case in point would be the reactors in Germany, one of the most stricly regulated and controlled markets in the world. Absurd levels of negligence and coverup after coverup have become public over the years, and that's before cost cutting measures became en vogue.

Or take the EPR Olkiluoto 3 in Finland. The reports on the construction process would be hysterically funny if it wasn't a bloody nuclear reactor they're working on.

Google some pictures of "Schachtanlage Asse" to see the reality of "due dilligence" in these matters. If people are involved, bean counters and politicians will run the show, fuck-ups and bad calls are inevitable.

Even if engineers call the shots, they'll overengineer it, they'll make it incompatible with real life conditions. We've seen it time and time again. I could tell you stories about the ICE train, for instance, that'll make your head spin. Incidently, the same company is also involved in the construction of nuclear power plants.

As for centralisation: if energy generation is focused on large scale power plants, it creates monopolies/oligopolies. If a handful corporations, or regionally even just a single corporation, controls the market for something as fundamental as energy, it turns all concepts of a market into a farce. Look at France where EDF basically owns every single plant. Or Germany, where Vattenfall, E.ON, RWE and EnBW control the grid, control the power plants, control the market, control the price, control the politics. It's madness.

Edit: Blimey! This was supposed to be a short comment, yet it turned into another incoherent rant. Sorry.

In reply to this comment by moodonia:
Sorry about the duping of the red bull jump/fall video. I assure you I feel like a petty wretch at this moment!


No, no worries, you got it first, and the video was so funny! I am not very good at findind dupes in the first place when submitting, and this week I have had my friend from Finland staying over at my house, so I have minimal time to sift amd browse. So I am kinda just posting and running until Monday afternoon, and hoping not everything is a dupe

>> ^bmacs27:
I think most criticism of gun ownership is alarmist, and heavily influenced by confirmation bias and sensationalist media.

I don't really agree with this. There really is only one major criticism and that's the amount of death and injury caused by firearms, which is backed up by statistical research rather than media hyperbole.

If you're a 25 year old US citizen you're almost as likely to die by gunshot as you are by a vehicular accident.

You may or may not agree with the justification (I, like you, agree - the world is an inherently dangerous place) but vehicles do bring obvious benefits to society in many ways.

I have a hard time saying the same about guns.

I know a few European countries have a relatively high gun ownership rate (about a third of the US) but without the same death and injury rate, so I agree it's not a simple relationship between ownership and injury. Perhaps it'd be fairer to say that the US' high gun ownership, and their high injury/fatality rate has a common root. I see that as the gun regulations.

Taking Switzerland specifically (which, as you said has half the gun ownership of the US) they have compulsory conscription. I had two separate friends who (both reluctantly) had to do it. They learn how to use their weapons and I believe this has a positive impact on reducing death and injury. Their conscription is not about guns though; using a gun is just one part of that experience.

I don't really agree with the whole concept of mandatory conscription though, so don't see that as a solution.

In Switzerland the issued firearms have to be stored separately from the bolt. Carrying is only permitted when you're called for service, unless you have a specific permit, a valid reason and pass an exam once every 5 years.

In Finland you need a specific reason and evidence in order to gain a gun license such as hunting, sport or your job. Self defense is not a valid reason. Only firearms appropriate to your license purpose can be purchased.

In Iceland you have to take compulsory training and exams before you can get a license for a shotgun. Self defense with a firearm is not a valid reason for a license. A year of training is required for a handgun license. Semi automatic and automatic weapons are illegal. You can't buy ammunition for weapons you are not licensed for. Licenses are only granted by your local chief of police. Licenses are only granted for hunting, sport, or collecting.

France, again you need a hunting or sport license, and they limit the amount and type of ammunition you can purchase. You can only purchase firearms appropriate to your license class (hunting rifles for hunters, etc).

In Austria you need to pass a psychological test, and pass a shooting exam every 2 years. Non sport weapons require evidence of requiring them from your employer (such as the police).

They all have laws about storing weapons in lockable closets; and laws against carrying (you can only carry a weapon to the place of purpose, and in a manner that accords to regulations) with the exception of Germany which requires training, tests, an additional license and a provable reason for requirement to carry; such as your job.

If your justification for gun ownership is hunting, sport or collecting then why object to implementing these kind of controls?

>> ^L0cky:

>> ^bmacs27:
Like Switzerland, right?
>> ^L0cky:
That's not an idealism, that's pretty much most of Europe.


Hence why I said most.


Which is what I figured, however, if you take a look at the noise in the numbers, Switzerland is within noise of Iceland, Germany, Austria, France, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Would you still call it most?

For every enthusiast per capita the US has like this guy, Switzerland has one with half as many guns. Does it really make a difference? Is Europe really that different?

Frankly, I come from the North East. I still feel an attachment to the revolution, and if you think about, it wasn't that long ago. The minutemen weren't paranoid, they were prudent. And they were packing cannon, the nuclear arms of their day. While I think it's worth carefully considering where lines are drawn, e.g. "small" arms, I think most criticism of gun ownership is alarmist, and heavily influenced by confirmation bias and sensationalist media. Sure they're dangerous. But so are lots of things. Accepting a dangerous world is the cost of living in a free society.

I'm sympathetic to the view that "well regulated militias" should probably keep large stores of arms away from their residences, and certainly children. However, we have no strong evidence this guy has kids around. I guess we can quibble about fire, however there is not particularly much in the way of ammunition present. Remember, guns don't kill people. Bullets kill people. Personally, I suspect this guy is a gun salesman. That would explain the quantity of guns, and the relative lack of ammunition. Further, it would explain the youtube video that appears to be an advertisement for a gun cabinet. I don't begrudge this guy his vocation.

*wilhem @1:03
Interesting political commentary...
The giant woman is Tarja Halonen, president of Finland.
The giant man is Andrus Ansip, prime minister of Estonia.

lol at hairy armpits.

Oh Come on people! You're just south of Finland you've seen snow before!

>> ^JiggaJonson:

PSA's like this are the reason PSA's suck. Reminded me of when a DARE cop told my class that, after smoking one marijuana cigarette, 10 years later, this poor guy was going to the bathroom and looked down to see a toilet full of blood.
Prediction:
Kids will see this, then look over at dad casually having a beer doing something else. Decide that all the info that they get from PSA's is likely false.
-=OR=-
Kids will see this, look over at fall-down-drunk dad beating mom in the kitchen and say "I wish my dad liked taking me for ice-cream while wearing a bunny suit instead of domestic-battery."


Interesting point of view, however off point as this PSA (unlike your weed example) is not aimed at kids, but at drinking parents, who are meant to see this when not drunk (e.g., while watching the evening news). A kid growing up with an alcoholic parent would probably understand what is being portrayed, i.e. that a drunken parent is scary/estranged/etc.

I feel like most of those subjects are useful to me. Some of the upper level science and math don't do much for me, but I feel like the experience of learning difficult things teaches you how to learn difficult things, which is important, even if the difficult things you learn aren't all that important.

There are big problems with the US system, but they have more to do with how things are taught rather than what is taught. The politicians seem like they want to sell public education away to corporations, which sucks.

I'd like to see us pattern our school system off of Finland's system. They went from mediocrity to 1st place in a single year. I guess the lure of campaign cash and future lobbying jobs are more important than making a decent school system.

Election funding is what is wrong with our school system. Election funding is what is wrong with our foreign policy. Election funding is what is wrong with our economy. Ele...

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Lol you can carry something like that out in the open AND don't need to tell your name or show your ID? Here in Finland you need to carry ID with you at all times which can be a pain but it seems to do more good than harm. Sometimes sacrificing your "freedom" to do something in order to promote safety is a fair trade.