http://www.koti.org/mesq/ en-us mmeskane@gmail.com 2007-01-16T12:22:58+01:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2007/01/theres_been_a_change_of_plans.php Oy vey, I haven't updated this site for over two months now. Still, I hope everyone has by now safely arrived in 2007. Sometime in November last year I decided to start a real blogging project and start it off on a clean slate. It took some time building templates and get some writing done. I think I could now safely welcome everybody over to take part in Medienschmerz.com. Any blogposts in this space will remain accessible, but redesign and refit ensues. 711@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Personal 2007-01-16T12:22:58+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/11/self-destructive_banknotes.php The most weirdly funny piece of news lately has been the story of euro banknotes that tear themselves apart into the thin air. Money comes out of the cash machine all right, but after a while, starts to decompose. Berlin police have been CSIing these problem banknotes and come to the conclusion that they were predisposed to sulphuric acid. Whether this has been deliberate or result of a spilling battery inside certain cash dispensers, is not yet clear. The prospect of an artistically motivated intervention is captivating, at least to my imagination. So far around 1500 contaminated banknotes have been reported - typically of 50 euro denomination. Consumers need not worry, as long as more than 50% of the note remains, it can be exchanged in a bank. If this is intentional, I have to commend the saboteurs for creative approach. Then again, one must keep in mind that 75000 euro is petty cash compared to what the members of former techno band KLF accomplished in 1994. After paying their taxes they packed their money into a suitcase and flew off to the Scottish whisky island of Jura. There they casually burned one million pounds sterling and filmed it on 16mm. Related links: Experten rätseln über Brösel-Euros Brittle euro notes baffle Germans The K Foundation burn a million quid KLF - The Documentary Update: BBC Video: Mystery of crumbling banknotes Update 23.11.2006: Just got a comment from a friend, whose message had been stuck in instant messaging limbo for nine days. Independent has the news that decomposing originates from banknotes that were "used to portion out and snort designer drug known as crystal meth". 20 and 50 euro notes are said to be perfectly proportioned for this. In contact with sweat, methamphetamine becomes corrosive. Towards the end of the article, a German professor also shares his findings about drugs and banknotes across Euro currency zone. 468@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Germany 2006-11-03T17:07:49+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/10/p_is_for_pecha_kucha.php Pecha Kucha Nights reached their third instalment in Berlin before I managed to catch up with this phenomenon. It's about rapid-fire public presentations, strictly limited in time and form. Devised by a couple of Tokyo architects in 2003, Pecha Kucha superficially looks like a standard auditorium situation with presenter, microphone, projection and audience with chilled beverages. This is where the fun begins. Main idea is that each participant is allowed 20 images - each shown for 20 seconds, resulting in a presentation totalling 6 minutes 40 seconds, before the next one is up. These ideas are usually about each one's endeavours in art, design or architecture. Pre-set duration ensures that the interest level stays at the maximum and possible boredom within bearable limits. Also, more people get to show their stuff, so one goes home with more ideas. Besides, at least Berlin Nights are video podcasted. All this obviously appeals well to the "young creatives" and design people with a touch of alternative flair. I personally hope, that this spreads among all kinds of human creativity. In one session, it would be marvellous to hear about something like; mushrooming, Orthodox iconography, weather prediction, language acquisition, investment banking and so on and on. Related links: pechakucha.de pecha-kucha.org/helsinki 461@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Berlin Lexicon P Presentation 2006-10-11T20:46:09+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/09/creative_economy_in_1950s_lapland.php While waiting for the gearbox replacement at the garage in Utsjoki, the eldest brother of our blessed car mechanist told about his childhood. He was born in Petsamo on the Arctic Sea. The harbour city had to be ceded to Soviet Union after the war, so the family was relocated to the village of Karigasniemi on the Norwegian border. There they learnt to speak "lappish" despite getting beaten up by classmates. Some other skills of the region he also learnt in peculiar ways. He acquainted a Norwegian called Larssen, from the other side of the river Teno. Larssen had a sawmill and a steam engine. By burning leftover wood and sawdust from his own mill he got 110 V electricity, district heating, warm water and street lights for his household and to his workers' barracks. German troops, had left a telephone switchboard behind them. Larssen turned it into a power supply. Then he taught the boy arc welding. From ironware left in the signals centre, he built a circular saw for field use. These days, this boy whom Larssen taught, is now learning English as well. He only curses his teachers at folk high school - "pensioners who went to gymnasium" - who show off with their grammar knowledge and Latin words instead of putting it straight. This entry is related to mikroPaliskunta project I travelled with 21.8.-4.9.2006. See www.mikropaliskunta.net for more. 452@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Environment Finland Travel 2006-09-22T16:59:04+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/09/iridium_flare_incident.php One evening my phone rang and I went out to speak. The sky was clear and my eyes began to wander among the stars. One of them moved steadily - across Cassiopeia. Definitely a satellite then. It got steadily brighter and suddenly flashed for a few seconds. Ha! That was one of those Iridium flares. Heard of them, but never seen one before. Iridium satellites were an attempt in the 1990s to create a worldwide satellite telephone network. Attempt failed commercially big time and bankrupted in nine months. It wasn't just a coincidence, that I was speaking to a GSM phone instead of Iridium. The satellites however followed mechanics rather than economics and stayed in their orbits. Eventually they found another investor to get them in use again. Unless you're on Antarctica or in the middle of an ocean, Iridiums' only effect to the lives of casual observers, are the flares they produce. They have shiny flat antennas, that can reflect beams of sunlight on Earth. Professional astronomers usually don't fancy this light pollution at all. Luckily, they are very predictable and one can track them on a space nerd website. As there are 72 Iridium satellites, flares are practically an everynight occurrence. So there was another flare coming next evening and by chance I was on GSM phone again. The sky happened to be clear at both ends of the signal. The calling distance was 300 km but as the satellite orbited as high as 780 km we could both see the same satellite and were able to share the flare experience telepresently. The world is huge, but the sky can be so small. Oh, somebody should put this phenomenon into romantic use. 451@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Astronomy Communication Locative 2006-09-13T17:32:15+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/08/biofuel_on_the_swedish_side_of_the_river.php In the border city of Haparanda in Sweden, the biofuel future is a whole lot nearer than in most of Finland. Petrol stations already sell new E85 fuel as a mainstream offering. E85 consists of 85% ethanol mixed with 15% normal petrol. Ethanol is an agricultural product and comes from renewable biosphere. E85 works principally with all cars built after late 80s, because their computerised fuel injection systems can feed the right mixture of fuel and air into the engine. This capability to adjust is necessary because of E85's higher octane number 103. More unique challenges may rise from possible corrosion of fuel conduits due ethanol. Ethanol fuel might be a grand scale solution, because it is possible to distill ethanol from all plants, that produce sugar from carbon dioxide and solar energy in photosynthesis. At the moment, E85 is considerably cheaper per litre than petrol, as it contains less energy - and according to first-hand reports - per kilometre cost-efficiency is about the same. However, critics say that E85 has more to do with polishing one's conscience than really taking part in nature preservation. Sweden imports its ethanol from Brazil, where it is produced by hastily burning sugar cane in sometimes horrible working conditions, and maybe even by cutting rain forest itself from the way of farm fields. An interesting anecdote is, that the some of the first automobiles in the history were built to run with mixed or ethanol fuel. In the absence of nationwide fuel distribution, manufacturers like Ford counted on their rural customers' ability to locally produce ethanol in their farmsteads. T-model Ford is a typical example of early automobile, that ran and still runs with ethanol fuel. This entry is related to mikroPaliskunta project I'm currently travelling with. See www.mikropaliskunta.net for more. 450@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Environment Finland Travel 2006-08-26T21:09:26+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/08/excerpt_from_uninon_citizens_guide_to_extremity_hunting.php 449@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Travel 2006-08-21T22:07:48+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/07/failure_to_communicate.php A friend of mine once told me that "absense of communication doesn't mean anything". Thus implied, that we shouldn't read too much into the lack of response in digital communication. A mobile phone might have been left home, left silent, stuffed too deep in the bag or slipped from the pocket into between the couch pillows. Prepaid might be used up or the bill left unpaid. Internet cable might be loose or WLAN settings mixed up. Or there might be a blackout at the recipient's end. I think all this could potentially add up into the first amendment of Wiio's laws of communication. 447@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Communication Theory 2006-07-24T20:39:55+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/06/guenther_netzer_owns.php I've no longer doubts about the quality of German football commentary. It's ARD's Günter Netzer who wipes the floor with the competition. He is magnificient, funny and ruthlessly nasty with his dead serious analysis. He is also the record holder of "Torwand" shoot-out challenge. His record from 1974 remains unbeatable in the forty-year history of "Das aktuelle Sportstudio". Should we choose to beat Netzer, let's build our own Torwand with these instructions and start practising in the backyard. 446@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Germany Personal World Cup 2006-06-16T14:05:52+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/06/dubious_timepieces.php On Christmas 2002 I got a Russian wrist watch as a present. Vostok Komandirskie was designed in 1965 for Soviel military and cosmonauts. Alas, under German air pressure its wind-up mechanism broke. I looked for replacement in newly reopened Kaufhof on Alexanderplatz and went for the cheapest alternative, plastic and digital Casio F-91W. The model is, according to US authorities, associated with well-known terrorists and possession of such a timepiece might be seen as an aggravating circumstance, should you face a dispatch to Guantanamo Bay. Without doubt F91-W is equally popular among US troops as well. The evolution of the wrist watch is actually a consequence of World War I. Officers needed to synchronise operations like artillery strikes. Those who survived, went home sporting their watches to the delight of general public. 445@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Culture History Personal 2006-06-10T13:51:45+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/06/b_is_for_bubism.php 443@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ B Finland Lexicon World Cup 2006-06-08T14:14:15+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/05/i_want_to_wear.php 442@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Personal 2006-05-31T19:27:47+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/05/day_of_rockoning.php No more zero points as Lordi routed the Eurovision Song Contest. Even more than nationalistic "glory hunting", I enjoyed the utter destruction of the institution and its botox code. Our prime minister was quick to take part in the former by confessing to be a heavy music fan. On the other hand I feel sorry for sympathetic Father Mitro, who in his ignorance prayed for mercy on Finnish people. Last week Nokia's CEO Jorma Ollila critisised Finns' drive for security and called for more (financial) risk taking. On that one I agree with him and hope that Lordi gave us the necessary kick in the ass. 441@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Eurovision Finland Lordi Music 2006-05-21T21:59:50+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/05/thank_you_for_y.php Alvaro Cassinelli, a Tokyo-based researcher in the field of optical computing gave a nice, compact presentation at ART+COM. His last year project Khronos Projector is already known in the circles, but what's been brewing a bit under the radar is the "Smart Laser Scanner for Human-Computer Interface". It can be used as a gestural input solution for ever shrinking mobile devices challenged by limits of human anatomy. No data gloves or such needed, the sticky laser beam can follow your fingertip(s) at the rate of one or two kHz. The rest is just semiotics. 438@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Interaction Laser Technology 2006-05-10T22:06:27+01:00 http://www.koti.org/mesq/archives/2006/05/n_steht_fuer_nasenspuelung.php 436@http://www.koti.org/mesq/ Heuschnupfen Lexicon N Web2.0 2006-05-09T15:49:27+01:00