Image: Interception, I think
by Bethany L King (CC)

Hakkapeliitat was again victorious, for the third week in a row. After a loss-filled start of the season, things have turned seriously for the better lately.

Two outstanding games by guys that regularly have showed up (Brian Westbrook and Derek Anderson), and a formidable return to form by the Saints' offensive duo that's been almost quiet for the previous weeks (Drew Brees threw four scores, three of them to Marques Colston).

Eli Manning, the opponent's QB was drenched in the London rain, and managed to nail a respectable score only with a scramble to the Miami endzone. The Jacksonville defense put up strong numbers as well, but that wasn't much compared to San Diego cornerbacks, who picked the Texans' passes with an alarming regularity, and converted them to multiple touchdowns.

Position in the standings is still low, but the victory percentage of teams ranking three to eight are the same. So the margin for error is nonexistent.

Next week features the game with highest expectations thus far - the unbeaten Indianapolis Colts face the equally unbeaten New England Patriots. The latter's offense has been on a roll throughout the season, but a lot of that's been at the expense of the teams with the worst pass defense.

Bring on week nine.

This week's fiver is all about conspiracies, and as an old-skool x-phile (the show was OK till the movie, or thereabouts) I find it impossible to resist the urge to answer. Even though they are monitoring every keystroke.

1. Area 51 exists, that's an established fact, but what actually happened at Roswell? Does the US government have extraterrestrial relations?

Well... Something fell in Roswell, an until someone comes up with concrete evidence to the contrary, I remain convinced that it was a weather balloon. And the tall tales behind it a nice spot of fifties' generic xenophobic paranoia.

2. We've read about our own beloved Sonera's less-than-inconspicuous eavesdropping, but what about Echelon, which goes undiscussed... Is it worthwhile to wear a tinfoil beanie and encrypt even normal conversations?

Nope. If anything, the colossal intelligence failures have taught us that the Big Brother may indeed be listening, but he ain't comprehending what he hears.

3. Are we still using gasoline, even though better alternatives have been developed, but suppressed by the Big Oil?

Probably. The companies have been wallowing in money for a century, and there's no sense in letting some killjoy inventor ruin it all.

4. Paavo lost in 1988. Was it all due to misplaying the media game, or was there a conspiracy behind it all?

Nope. A sudden bout of smarts by the population, that's all.

5. Is the weekly fiver a grand conspiracy to uncover our darkest secrets?

Nope. Just something to kill time with on a bored monday evening (or tuesday, in this particular case).

Red Sox swept the Rockies for the World Series.

Somehow this does not feel nearly as great as their 2004 championship did - when they rose from a 0-3 position to an unexpected victory over their greatest rivals, the New York Yankees.

So, sadly, it's unlikely that this year's championship will be celebrated with a new Dropkick Murphys tune. So here's a sweet repeat of Tessie, released when the Sox were on brink of elimination in game four.

The full song list for the soon forthcoming Guitar Hero III has been published.

The selection includes loads of good stuff from new arrivals to the genre such as Beastie Boys (Sabotage) as well as from old favorites like such as Alice Cooper (School's Out), and Queens of the Stone Age - and to top it all off there's One by Metallica. Though I'm not that convinced that a guitar emulation game needs boss battles. But a wireless plastic quasi-guitar is much appreciated.

Especially with Rock Band's european release delayed well into 2008, this will likely be one of the hits of the holiday season here.

Presso, by far the freshest newspaper in Finland is to be cancelled after three years.

Too bad - it was adamant in its quest for better existence for the capital region, "Pääkaupunkiseudun Tulevaisuus" was indeed an appropriate epithet, and a nice counterweight for the zillions of rural papers across the country.

Tomorrow Apple launches Leopard, the sixth incarnation of OS X, which ought to line the company's pockets even further (not that they're already brimming from the sales of ipods and iphones).

Gromit the iBook has been a faithful servant for years (entry called whoopsie tells the story of the purchase), but the time's come to upgrade.

I'm definitely settled on a laptop, but undecided between the regular and pro version of the Macbook. The former is a bit cheaper, but the latter boasts a bit funkier looks and a non-integrated graphics card. Which might actually come in handy, when the machine contains means to run windows (and games) natively. Nope, I don't harbour any illusions on being able to kick it with the likes of Alan Wake, but Civilization 4 would be good indeed...

There's been no indication of any serious upcoming hardware upgrades, though the extended touchpad for iPhone-like multi-touch would be a nice addition.

Top search hit of the month: DMXRTE. For which this site is actually the top dog in the whole web.

Also noted, that I've successfully googlewhacked "pössypetteri".

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is stairs.

My take on the subject is the attached image: a couple of ladder steps leading to a mysterious trapdoor in the ceiling. If it were any darker, grues would be lurking.

(As usual, the full-size photograph is available by clicking the attached image. And the previous photo thursday pictures are all available through the gallery page.)

A random collection of links that rose above the norm recently.

• Soundtrackinfo, because neither wikipedia nor imdb offers a complete guide to.
• The future of electronic paper.
• Cthulhu Fhtagn Cheezburger.
• Haven't played around much with buzzfeed, seems interesting and occasionally pointful - the selection of links on discovery of new species is interesting to say the least.
• For old-skool sim city enthusiasts: build your own Chicago.
• Eternity II, the two million dollar puzzle. 256 pieces is deceptively small, but the number of permutations is astronomically high: the dominant number is 196! which is the number of alternate ways to lay out the centerpieces.
• Balloon dog anatomy.
• The annual Wired Test review compendium is now available for free.

Image: Running Back by flynnwynn (CC)

Last weekend's game was the tightest of this year's campaign.

The game against the thus far unbeaten team ended up in a victory, with a margin of a single point, with the last points from the monday night football game.

Maurice Jones-Drew who started the season slow proved his worth by scoring the lone Jaguars' touchdown against the Colts. Houston's defense, on the other hand, pretty much had an open doors policy in the endzone, but fortunately managed to score on a returned fumble.

Bring on week eight.

The "Pixar: 20 Years of Animation" exhibit is heading towards Helsinki in january next year.

Right now the relevant page is pitifully empty, but bound to get at least a single image or even a bit of text soon enough.

Saw Knocked Up, Judd Apatow's lauded pregnancy-comedy. And rather liked it. Even when it took a serious turn towards being a conventional drama about two thirds in. The film slows down worrisomely, but narrowly escapes being utterly dragged down into a quagmire (a shroom-powered trip to Vegas is a decent distraction).

The dialogue straddles the fence between imaginative and way too predictable, and is certainly going to need a lot of bleeps to ever be suitable for showing in an airplane or other controlled environments, where a movie having "language" is a severe disadvantage.

Originally decided to see this movie on account of its review in hesari featuring the word "pössypetteri" twice in a very limited columnspace. And while Seth Rogen and his posse of bonging slackers is a decent source of laughs, they by no means dominate the screen.

The other actors do not drag the film down by any means, even though the characters they play tend to be heavily on the unsympathetic side. As a singular highlight Paul Rudd's out of the blue de Niro-impersonation smashes its way through in a couple of seconds and disappears.

Not bad. But nowhere near the level the lofty heights the aggregate reviews raise the movie.

This week's fiver is a single question. Albeit loaded with five relevant links. Which I'm not going to repeat here (being in finnish and all), so here goes:

1. How do you see and experience Sally Mann's photography?

Well, I plan on visiting the exhibit in Tennispalatsi one of these days, once the initial rush degrades to a gentle flow of visitors. Or on a friday, when there's no cover charge.

Ravintola Kuu in Töölö burned down (if that can be said of a place in a city block) last night.

As mr. Srpnt notes, this is quite a blow. Kuu was a pleasant visit on every occasion, and their smoked salmon soup is yet to be beaten.

Looking forward to a rebirth, definitely - but feeling reasonably pessimistic at the same time.

Something went horribly wrong in Greensboro, NC for Van Halen.

Jump turns into an interestingly atonal train wreck around the 50 second mark, and never really recovers.

And nope, it's not youtube's fault, as the frantic on-the-fly action by Eddie Van proves.

Some analysis available at the original source.

The third installment of Dreamworks' Shrek saga never reaches the heights attained by the two previous movies.

Sadly, as I surmised back in may, the best parts of the film were shown in previews and trailers, and the additional bits are either boring, stretched-out or just not that funny.

Though the interrogation scene of Pinocchio does rank among the finest offered in all three. And the final five minutes does rise above the norm as well, though that's only expected after all the foreshadowing.

But otherwise the film feels flat - the main characters seem strangely distant, and the secondaries are criminally underused. And the less said about the high school scene (apart from the Ramones on the soundtrack), the better. The soundtrack, even when not that great, is one of the highlights of the film - while the inclusion of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song is nothing short of mystifying, Live and let die is a way too rare touch of genius.

Fortunately the movie didn't last more than an hour and a half - and the jokes were seriously strained even at that length.

Antoine Fuqua's Shooter was the second assassination-themed movie in as many days. And for a long time I thought that even the target was the same. The movie, based on Stephen Hunter's Point of Impact, turned out to be very decent entertainment indeed.

Considering the patrioric undertow in Hollywood, the anti-establishment direction of the movie was a pleasant surprise. But unlike the Death of a president, no fingers are poked at the current administration, just the hopelessly murky halls of power.

Mark Wahlberg, fresh off the role of the angriest cop in the world in the Departed joins Leonardo diCaprio in the set of surprising action stars. His portrayal of the betrayed sniper is spot on, and might be a sign of movies to come. As supporting characters Danny Glover and Elias Koteas go way over the top, but Michael Peña and Rhona Mitra rescue a lot with their convincing portrayal of hard-working feds.

Altogether a surprisingly good movie - with pleasantly little clancian jingoism on board. And while there's plenty of shooting, explosions and other traditional trappings, the film rarely stoops down to being mere gun porn.

In an award-winning pseudo-documentary film about the act and aftermath of the assassination of the 43rd president of the united states (and that would indeed be the current one, for those not keeping score on paper).

While the movie spends considerable time on the titular murder, that's just the beginning of the story told from a retrospective viewpoint. Both the investigation, the legal proceedings and the effects on civil liberties are dealt with in the second half of the film.

Indeed, the film dwells very little on the actual assassination (for still the best coverage on the subject, check out the two-part In the shadow of two gunmen episode of West Wing), but bypasses it with just some seconds of frenzied action and a collection of news reports.

So no. This is not a petty fantasy about killing the commander in chief. And it's not a CSI:DC either, as minimal screen-time is devoted to the actual investigation.

It's instead a movie about the people affected, and speculation about the actions of the upgraded president (thankfully there's no image of Cheney being sworn in - that might've been just too much JFK).

The death of a president is a thought-provoking film, and well worth watching. And as a trivial bit of trivia: in Finland it was broadcast on the eve of the event, last thursday.

This week's photo friday challenge is city.

My take on the subject is the attached image, an morning cityscape (eastward towards Brooklyn) from the observatory deck of the Empire State Building in New York, with an attentive pigeon for audience.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is pollution.

My take on the subject is the attached image: the second most common form of pollution: junk mail.

The most common is of a non-physical kind: ever-flowing spam in the inboxes.

(As usual, the full-size photograph is available by clicking the attached image. And the previous photo thursday pictures are all available through the gallery page.)

John Kricfalusi, the genius behind Ren & Stimpy has a blog, and much more importantly, a selection of printed-to-order clothes.

No slow-witted cats, no hyperactive chihuahuas - just some well-drawn, yet disturbing characters.

Nokia announced N810, the new internet tablet today.

While by far biggest new feature is a slider keyboard, there's lots of intriguing additions in the device: on-board GPS, way more internal storage, and an improved battery life.

The release date: november, the biggest rival: ipod touch.

This week's fiver is all about the ongoing shelling out of Nobel awards.

1. How do you stress the name of the awardist? Noo-bel? No-bell?

Never thought about it, but I'm certainly a first syllable man.

2. Do you reckon this year's awards went to the right recipients? Do you even know who received the awards?

Yeah... I remember some: Gore and the IPCC, Doris Lessing, ... That's about it.

I don't think Gore and the guys did much for peace, so at least that award is misplaced.

3. You certainly remember the finns who have received the award. And the years too. Right?

Kind of.

Frans Emil Sillanpää. Somewhere in the forties.

Artturi Ilmari Virtanen. 1951?

4. Are you a fan of the award-winners? Do you even familiarize yourself with their works?

Literature, occasionally. Though Kurt Vonnegut ought to have been awarded (even if he claims that he did a disservice to the swedish car industry as a salesman back in the day).

Others, rarely. Apart from the big boys (Watson & Crick) famous from popular science, even less.

5. Any idea how old dynamite is as an invention?

Not really. From the 1860s?

Correct Answers:

Checked wikipedia: of the two finnish awards (recipients correct) the former was awarded 1939, the latter in 1945 - so off with a decent margin on both. And dynamite was invented in 1866, so the guess on that was on the correct sector as well.

In a bolt out of the blue arrive news about a metal-edged game by Tim Schafer, a member of the long-lamented SCUMM-alumni.

Add Jack Black, eighties rockstars, rampant use of heavy metal umlaut, and the conclusion is clear: How could this be anything but good?

Image: Prepping for a pass by eqqman (CC)

The second victory of the season is mine, all mine!

Good things: Jags' Jones-Drew got his groove back (and netted 29 points), Browns' Derek Anderson continues to be the most surprising QB of the season (topped three passing touchdowns with a scramble to the endzone).

Bad things: Redskins' Santana Moss decommitting himself from the game after his first touch: a fumble. It's not often that a player ends up in the minus column, but the DC wide receiver managed exactly that...

Bring on round seven, facing the leader of the league, one with a clean slate. Thus far. Too bad the Cleveland bomber has a bye this week.

hetilainaa.fi has employed the multiply crowned skijumping champion Matti Nykänen as their new spokesman for supremely high interest quickie loans.

I certainly would expect people to think of yet another reason not to stumble into the trap of easy money by just recalling the phenomenal inability of the fallen hero to judge between sensible and no-so-sensible needs.

Image: Brush-tailed Possum by pierre pouliquin (CC)

The mantle of the laziest animal on earth (currently held on tight with the narcoleptic grip of Mats the sloth) is being contested by a new arrival on scene: a napping possum.

Hibernation would not be such a bad idea, considering we're entering the lousiest season of the finnish year - november, when the wet black asphalt just magnetically consumes all available rays of light.

[ via kasa. ]

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is everyday. The original topic is "arki" in finnish, but that doesn't translate so well.

My take on the subject is the attached image: a breakfast off the daily paper.

(As usual, the full-size photograph is available by clicking the attached image. And the previous photo thursday pictures are all available through the gallery page.)

The reborn Uusi Suomi begun its road today.

Neither Dennis Hopper as a psychotic serbian general nor scheming chinese could take down Jack Bauer, but a DUI charge did.

The first truly high profile acquisition of a finnish company in a long long while: Google bought Jaiku.

Good luck for both parties - and the way's now paved for the inevitable Twitter purchase. Yahoo? Microsoft? AOL?

EDIT: Fixed the link.

In the long-running series of "odd cover-song choices": Turisas' Rasputin.

Back in the late seventies, Boney M's original was one of the first songs I recall having listened to. Repeatedly. In both english and even more embarrassingly, the finnish version. There, if that musical confession didn't tear down my street credibility, I'm not sure what could...

The battle-metallers rendition will probably be a crowd-pleaser in their newly begun tour. Sadly, the tour will not reach Finland - Iced Earth, the headliner, would have been interesting to see.

It's a monday - it's a beatdown.

Drew Brees was an easy pick, on acoount of the Browns' Derek Anderson facing the Patriots' secondary. But it was not a good pick, mainly on account of bad luck, as the Saints had two TDs disqualified, and Brees left with none on the box score.

This week's fiver is all about the past and the future.

1. Where were you five years ago?

I think I was in Portland, Oregon, attending a Carrier Grade Linux meeting. But that's a very vague recollection.

2. Where were you five months ago?

That's easy... I was home.
Five months the HQ underwent the second plumbing-related emergency.

3. Where will you be, and what will you be doing, in five minutes?

On a stationary bike. Watching television and pedaling hard.

4. Where will you be in five months?

That'd be, like, february. I aim to be on a safari in South Africa. Or enjoying the winter in Helsinki if that falls through.

5. Where will you be in five years?

No concrete idea. Five year planning didn't work back in the days of the soviets, and in today's much quicker-paced society such things are even more far-fetched.

BBC Worldwide has bought Lonely Planet. Not the whole company, but a good 75% chunk of it.

Implications on the company that has published more than 500 guidebooks are unknown, and I certainly hope that the range of books remains as wide and eclectic as it has been. Even though I've succumbed to the middleclassian bug and been converted to Dorling Kindersley's eyewitness travel guides, it's always beneficial to have a second source for information.

And I'm certainly looking forward to this year's annual Bluelist. guide. Even if a lot of the content is out of reach (though camel-trekking across Sahara certainly would be interesting), the well-written books are packed with data (such as that Rainbow Warrior, bombed in 1985 has been given a new purpose in the depths as an artificial reef).

In an odd duo of games, both the Wallabies and the All Blacks are now knocked out of the Rugby World Cup, by England and France, respectively.

The loss of Australia and New Zealand thus means that only South Africa (and possibly Argentina, if they survive an encounter with Scotland) will oppose a total European dominance.

Well, at least Castlemaine and Steinlager will probably experience record days in consumption as the losing nations drown their sorrows.

The regular gamenight was spiced up by the arrival of a couple of new faces, bringing the attendance number close to record.

Games on the Wii were by far the most popular, with a longish game of Mario Party 8 consuming a lot of screen time. Definitely a good use of the controllers, as was the Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, a collection of puzzles expanded immenselly from its kid brother on the DS. Almost escaped one of the rituals, the Wario game on Wii, by retreating to pinball, but played a single game just for kicks.

Didn't play much on the pins, and certainly didn't play well. Apart from a single decent effort on the Addams Family. The rest of the tries did not really merit much accolade. No successful breakins in Safecracker, no 250M+ scores on the Twilight Zone.

Pro Evolution Soccer was rather subdued, only two games and a peek on the demo of the forthcoming 2008 edition. The regular games were traditionally tight and low-scoring - the demo on the impressive side, but the oddly quicker pace was somewhat worrisome, no room for planning if the game devolves into a twitch tournament.

NHL 08 had corrected the skating issue somewhat - this time around the on-screen characters could actually move without resorting to large-scale circles. Number of goals in the two-on-two games remained very low nonetheless.

Release of Ratatouille (as Rottatouille) in Finland in theatres: 19.10.2007.

Release of Ratatouille on dvd in the states: 6.11.2007.

Are we slow? Or is Pixar just too fast?

Investigating the mysterious events in Marienburg in good company beat attending the irregular meeting of finnish bloggers.

Once again. I think I'm zero for five in the bigger gatherings now.

Oh well, there's always the christmas party to look forward to. Or to miss.

21.3.2008, that's the date when Apple shall feel the ire of customers.

Unless Leopard (and the new macbooks) are badly delayed - in which case the whip may crack sooner.

When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat?

Chuck Palahniuk: Invisible Monsters

So compact. So right.

And so against this week's photo thursday picture.

What? Me, out of touch?

Surely missing the start of the annual interactive fiction competition by almost a week is a sure sign thereof.

Out of the two dozen or so games some are bound to be good, some frightfully bad, and most mediocre. Ought to try out a few, just for kicks.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is future.

My take on the subject is the attached image: a future so bright, you gotta wear shades (to quote Timbuk3 in a somewhat mangled fashion).

(As usual, the full-size photograph is available by clicking the attached image. And the previous photo thursday pictures are all available through the gallery page.)

Hakkapeliitat lost again, and is now 1 for 4.

Patriots had a good week, and the loss was finalized by the opponen running Sammy Morris as the running back - in the absence of Lawrence Maroney he picked up just too much yardage to resist.

The new guys played well: Derek Anderson threw two scores, and Shaun McDonald caught one. Too bad the last week's hero, Brian Westbrook, was inactive, and the Eagles suffered as a result, managing just a single field goal in the game.

Drafted a hockey team in Yahoo as well. Just a single finn in the catch, Jussi Jokinen. First pick was Marian Hossa, drafted tenth, which explains the loss of the big guns.

Radiohead lets each buyer decide how much the new album is worth. 0.00 is a legal price, thus negating the evergreen lament on "music being too expensive and thoroughly commercialized".

9/11 is over claims Thomas Friedman, and that ought to be the truth. Sadly, the current administration may have even more targets in its sights before the next commander in chief takes over.

Boba Fett Hoodie.

The Tintin-movie has a scriptwriter: David Moffat, the man behind quite a few of the new Dr. Who episodes.

I'm sure the series' characters could expand on this with a lot of swearing: Deadwood movies are cancelled.

United States? 50 states. And Puerto Rico. That's it, right?
Not really, as the excellent visualization from radicalcartography shows.

It's been a while since I've been suspicious of anything I've ordered in a restaurant.

Today was the first time I ever tried frog legs (a quartet of them), and was pleasantly surprised. While they were a bit fiddly to eat - the bones need to be carefully pruned of the succulent meat, the experience was altogether pleasant.

And yes: they do taste like chicken.

First time in the new Cocina (now located in the second floor of the Glo Hotel downtown), and like the previous visits, this turned out pretty to be good. Though the cold-shouldered service at the entrance sure could do with a bit of tuning.

Long time, no update.

Some changes. Nothing to get concerned over.

Lego has launched the ultimate Star Wars fans' object to build and covet: a gigantic Millennium Falcon.

The ship clocks in at close to fifty-two hundred pieces, and 33 inches in length. Making both the building and storing of the ship something to think carefully beforehand. Not that the price, a neat 550€ would be something to fork over accidentally.

Sadly the star destroyer is not built on the same scale, a single ship would probably consume half of Denmark's plastic producing capacity.

Saw the third, and last chapter of Jason Bourne's cinematic adventures, the Bourne Ultimatum. The film is good entertainment for its two hours, and neatly ties the story to a knot at the end.

Didn't remember much of the previous film, but the last of the trilogy got going fast, and let off steam at calculated intervals. Usually after tightly paced setpieces in which some antagonists of the mr. Bourne got hurt.

But despite the violence, the movie doesn't take it lightly. It continues to wallow in the troubled ex-assassin's search for truth and redemption, and violence is just a fact of life for a good chunk of the movie.

Matt Damon indeed shines as the amnesiac Bourne, in one of his strongest performances to date. There are no weak elements in the supporting cast either, but the true star is the director, Paul Greengrass. His impeccable timing drives the plot like clockwork, relentlessly onwards - but rarely from a viewpoint that could be described as pedestrian, the camerawork is imaginative without resorting to tricks too obvious.

Yet another quality summer movie - this year's been blessed with a good selection.