turning completely around

On my previous rant I made a passing reference to a website, 360 cities. The idea behind the site is simple; They stitch panoramic photographs together to create immersive views of a place. Their site is pretty neat (think Google streetviews) even though their navigation system is awkward and using the main map to move from one site to another is a bit frustrating.

Even though the site features an extensive network of European cities, I was still surprised to find that Helsinki, where I grew up, was included. I'm not sure if the photographs featured from Helsinki represent "the most interesting places in the world from the most interesting perspectives" but I guess I have never seen Helsinki through a pair of foreign eyes. (And maybe part of the fascination is to see what parts of a familiar landscape a stranger chooses to photograph.)

Most of the images turned out to be the obvious ones. There is the main square, the main park, the main shopping district, and there are multiple images of Suomenlinna, a naval fortress where I run around as a teenager participating in live action role-playing games (wearing a complete scavenged pseudo-medieval outfit with a cape and a wooden sword. Geeky, I tell you). Yet, some of their choices are more puzzling: Hotel Sokos' lobby is not very high in my list of interesting interiors in Helsinki. And why take photos of a lipouautomaati* (sic)? I fail to see the exoticism.

*A vending machine that sells parking passes.

Familiar Ilulissat

I'm back in Ilulissat and will be heading out to the field tomorrow morning. I find it interesting to see how my perception of Greenland, especially Ilulissat, changes with each visit. It's becoming more familiar - I no longer have the urge to take photos of every thing I see. This doesn't mean that I no longer find it interesting and beautiful. I also don't take that many photos when I'm in Fairbanks, but I like it there as well.

My initial attitude towards Greenland and Greenlanders was probably too romantic. The Greenland of my imagination no longer exists, at least not in the big town of Ilulissat. Life here really isn't that much different than life anywhere else. The culture has been strongly Danish-ized: pretty much everything about life in Ilulissat has been affected by Danish culture. I'm very curious to see how this changes in the future. How will Greenlandic culture evolve under globalization, climate warming, and rising fuel prices? The problems facing Greenland are very similar to the problems facing Alaska. The lack of resources, harsh climate, and large distances makes it very difficult, in my mind, for a modern western culture to survive.

I'll be done with field work in a little over two weeks. Then I head to Frankfurt to meet some friends and to Limerick, Ireland for a glaciology conference. Looking forward to both of those trips.

Note for our American readership

(Warning: this post contains political commentary. Take only with moderation.)

The rising price of gasoline is sending panic waves through congress and pushing legislators to open Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration and drilling. I urge you to contact your representatives and tell them that drilling in ANWR will not lower the gas prices, reduce the dependency on foreign oil, or provide improved homeland security.

(For the record, I am aware that drilling will employ a few Alaskans, and create income to the state, and to a few native corporations. But no one knows how it will effect caribou migrations, subsistence hunting or animal populations living in the area.)

As for the Alaskan representatives, they are dead-set on opening ANWR (which is quite understandable when you think that 90% of Alaska's revenue is created by the oil industry - the rest comes mostly from the Federal reserves.). They have tried every trick in the book to slip ANWR legislation through the system. The rising gas price might be the ticket that they have been waiting for.

If the rising gas prices get you down, please remember that Finns are currently paying €1.50 per liter. That is €5.68 per gallon. High conversion rate increases the price even further so that Finns are essentially paying over nine dollars per gallon of gasoline (which is the same than rural communities in Alaska are facing right now).

Just in case you agree with the former Alaska senator Frank "There is nothing there!" Murkowski, please click here to see 360 degree images taken on location.

(End. You can all take a deep breath now.)

Edit: price calculations

Suomalaisia uutisia

Now that we have fast internet at home, I've started researching more exciting ways to learn Finnish. One thing we discovered is that Yleisradio, basically Finnish public broadcasting, offers streaming news video and sound clips. What is really cool is that the website offers "selkouutiset" (meaning: clear news), which is geared towards foreigners living in Finland that don't yet have a good grasp of Finnish. The language is greatly simplified and the reporters speak r-e-a-l-l-y slowly. The audio clips are also transcribed, so you can read the news as you are listening to it. Seems like a great way to learn - news clips tend to be short, so you don't need to have a long attention span, they use very common language, and if you are somewhat current with events it can be easy to figure out the meaning of words. For example, one of the clips today talked about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so I was easily able to translate "asuntomarkkinat" (housing market) and "lainata" (to loan). I plan to listen to Finnish news every day. We'll see what happens, but so far I'm one for one.

I wonder if other countries have similar programs for foreigners. It seems like a great way to help non-native speakers assimilate into a new country. The Finnish program that we found is great, but I think it could be significantly improved with just a little bit more effort and resources.

Listening, reading, watching: July 2008

Listening: Pandora radio

I just learned about Pandora (internet) radio from a friend of mine. This coincided with Inari and I getting faster internet at home, and I now listen to Pandora basically every day. It's really neat - it allows you to fine tune your "radio" to listen to music that you like. It's a great way to learn about musicians. Right now I have three stations: pop, cuban, and electronic. I'm sure that will expand with time. No more advertisements, no more top-40 playlists, no more pre-processed mass-produced music.


Reading: Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Speaking of mass-produced culture, I'm now reading Fast Food Nation, which doesn't exactly instill pride in our culture. The book is a very thorough account of the history of fast food and how it has affected American culture. It covers everything from treatment of employees to health to agriculture. Schlosser has a very obvious left-wing bias, so I am left wondering exactly how truthful he is, but on the other hand he does seem to have done very thorough research. I'm anxious to finish the book so that I can begin reading critiques.


Watching: WALL-E

This sci-fi Pixar animation is fantastic. I wasn't sure if Pixar could top their last animation (Ratatouille), but I think they have. Of course I'm a little biased - some of my favorite movies throughout my life have been sci-fi (e.g., E.T., Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey) - so any movie that makes fun of or mimics these movies is likely to make me laugh.