Eco cars ? Ego cars ....

Sort of tragicomic ? Since once we now start downscaling (in terms of fuel consumption) why not then really downscale (also in terms of our oversized "egos") - who really needs them that big and for what ?

This is how it should work...

Anguished by the vanishing snow and shitty rain I was searching for "Äkkilähdöt laskettelu" with Google... the 1st sponsored link was
"Hiihtokeskus - www.google.fi/igoogle Snow Report iGoogle Gadget tietää aina missä lunta riittää!"
Click and wham ... I got a very comforting and (sort of) usefull gadget for following weather, piste and snow info in the preffered centers.

For me this was the first time I saw it all working like it really should.

We do because we can....

A thought from Pentti Linkola's 75-year anniversary interview in Hesari has been wondering thru my mind ever since I read it ... "People buy SUV's because they can." Unfortunately that is true - we buy big consuming cars as long as we can, we fly long and short distances for our holidays and work as long as we can, ... then when it's over we do something different which we yarn for as long we can. In intellectual level total costs matter but unfortunately in emotional level way too few of us (me including) just do not act as we say we should.

One of driving things for mankind but also main source of our disasters...

Skateboarders staying overnight...

3 little skateboaders landed into the house...

Gaming...

Nowadays when Henkka stays overnight Vili and Henkka strech the "concept" of a morning in to extreme ... and game on rolled into their blankets

Truly "Fantsu" mobile workhorse ... and new neoprene

N82 has really actually a first good camera plus the flash truly works...
















Also GPS actually works... inside the car (without placing the mobile specifically into a satellite optimised spot) it was indeed capable of actually navigating me to a new place - I found Matti's Outdoorpoint.com showroom in Alaportti 1, Espoo "on the flight" and got my new winter surf gear plus new harness. Wish it would just now either get warmer or then significantly colder.

Great to see that things are done right - one can try out map services for few months... this is the way to make me a paying customer eventually.

Rising Food Prices ....

http://www.ifpri.org/pressrel/2007/20071204.asp

"Income growth, climate change, high energy prices, globalization, and urbanization are all converging to transform food production, markets, and consumption, according to a new report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). As a result, global food demand and prices are likely to rise, threatening the livelihoods and nutrition of poor people in developing countries. The report, "The World Food Situation: New Driving Forces and Required Actions," was released today at the annual general meeting of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

"Food prices have been steadily decreasing since the Green Revolution, but the days of falling food prices may be over," said Joachim von Braun, lead author of the report and director general of IFPRI. "Surging demand for feed, food, and fuel have recently led to drastic price increases, which are not likely to fall in the foreseeable future, due to low stocks and slow-growing supplies of agricultural outputs. Climate change will also have a negative impact on food production, compounding the challenge of meeting global food demand, and potentially exacerbating hunger and malnutrition among the world's poorest people." "Economic growth has helped to reduce hunger, particularly when it is equitable," added von Braun. "But unfortunately, growth does not always reach the poorest people."


And 100USD per barrel closing up (even though largely also due to USD lousy state)
















Poorest will suffer .... which in intellectual level makes one of course very worried but unfortunately in truly emotional level is sort of too "distant" to really have a lasting impact.
Well anyway made me remeber one of my old "ruikutus" blog post http://tuomosthoughts.blogspot.com/2006/08/drought-price-of-oil-barrel-finnish.html
I'm more and more convinced that we should really start heavily investing in our countryside and farming as a society - energy needed for large scale food supply chain transportation will just be getting more expensive and there will be less supply globally available/more demand in the future. I just hope EU farming legistlations (tuned really for over production of wine and olive oil ?) will not hinder us too much in trying to live with changing realities.

Actually it's funny that so many Finns are definately pro having our own defence forces instead if Nato ("It will anyway be just us if the shit hits the fan") when in case of equally or actually more important food supply people just seem to fine in trusting that we will be always supplied with food from EU/global markets even in case of "food crisis" ("Why should I subsidise the living standards of our farmers...").