The New North: The World in 2050. Laurence C. Smith by Laurence C. Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book raised significant interest here in Finland, and it is not difficult to see why. Reminds me a lot of Joel Diamond’s work (for good or bad) without the hysteria. You can see it started as a climate change study that turned into an exercise in geopolitical prospection. You might or might not agree with its future scenarios, but it was an interesting and not too heavy read.
Here we were worried about Islamic extremism and a Christian fundamentalist goes on a killing spree in Oslo, one of the safest, most peaceful places in the world. I guess dealing in absolutes is a sure way to become evil, even if it does sound a little bit “Star Warsy”.
chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.
The video above (via alt1040) explains Chatroulette better than I would. My experience with it has been mixed, but it reminds me a lot of the old BBS/ICQ free-for-all 10 years ago. I’ve read metaphors comparing it to TV zapping with people, but I think it’s more akin a people player in shuffle mode. Some of the nice people I’ve found (after nexting all the flying male body parts) included:
Serendipituous, yes. Extreme, sometimes (but you can also next them or even better report them, jerks!). An interesting study of the human condition, absolutely.
The WHO has raised its alert status to level 4. There have been over 2,300 cases in Mexico now, 700 still in hospital, 150 deceased. There are confirmed cases in Spain and Scotland, and closer to home suspected cases in Belgium, Sweden, Norway & Denmark. To make matters even worse, there was an earthquake in Mexico City today, although there is no reports of damages.
Although Mexicans are now starting to sound worried, some still cope by joking. Some people commented that the earthquake was basically another way of sneezing, and the influenza song now has a video. People are still staying home, following the instructions of the government, and the school shutdown has been expanded nationwide. If you speak Spanish, the Mexican Presidency has live video coverage of the situation here.
I won’t go into the whole story of who the Sámi (also known in other languages as Lapps) are, where they live and what their culture is like as Wikipedia already does a much better job than I ever could. However, it was very nice to see a traditional reindeer farm while we were in Levi.
Santa’s mounts were also kind of cute.
At least, given its flora, weather and orography, its environment definitely does. The city, however, is built in an entirely different order.
"Norway is just like Finland, but they speak Nordisk and they have hills."
Incredibly comfortable place, if a little expensive.
