Now, this weekend is obviously the Eurovision song contest (you all knew that, right?). And I expect Finland to do as well as it usually does ("Finland, nul point" - it's a national tradition!), and you can spend up to several minutes on youtube transfixed by the glory, or just start from the official home page.
But before that glorious tradition had time to take off, Tim Elliott sent me this gem of Finnish culture seen from the outside: the sauna championships.
What can I say? We have a sauna in our house. Even if we don't use it all that often, it's a Finnish thing.
When I read sauna I think about this crazy project:
ReplyDeletehttp://mbjork.home.cern.ch/mbjork/gase/events/saunaab_test/saunaab_test.htm
Some years back, Finland won with Lordi, the best Eurovision act ever :)
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile http://i.imgur.com/vu6hp.jpg
ReplyDeleteFinland didn't make it to the final this year...
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Germany we had a sauna in our house too! Now I live in a tiny, crappy, apartment in a state that hasn't realized they lost the revolutionary war... I want my sauna back!!!
ReplyDeleteThe Eurovision song contest is made by central European countrys for central European countrys. All others are there just to applaud and vote. Same old bull shi*t for years. I wish my country stop participating in such a political orientated contest.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the rant.
And Germany won! Yeap!
ReplyDeleteJose: it`s not bull shit. An east european country ROMANIA ended on third place, Turkey was second! This time it was for real!
ReplyDelete@Jose: You are full of ****. The central european countries didn't win that often. Germany just won once before today.
ReplyDelete@Linus: Even Finland won in 2006. Check your facts :P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_2006
Germany!!!??!! Oh well, there's always next year. Hey there, L, remember me? I turned you into Batman, and sent you the wrong kind of Guinness, and found out someone had trademarked the word "Linux," back in the day. Glad all is still good and well with you and yours. Viva kernel .1.0.0. Cheers, Lydia
ReplyDeleteAny cats in your sauna? http://bit.ly/dmc7Vw
ReplyDelete@Tom Since you went to look up the facts on Wikipedia, take a closer look at the winners by country, big surprise! They are all central European country's, with the exception of Israel! And they all won it more than twice, big surprise again! Now, go look for those who only won once or that have never won it. Also take the opportunity to read the part that says "Political and national voting". Germany won?! I guess is just a coincidence that Europe is in the middle of a financial crises and Germany happens to be the economic engine of the Euro zone. No Tom, I'm not full of S**t, I'm just sick and tired of this same old lie.
ReplyDelete@Jose: Utter Rubbish
ReplyDeleteSince 2000 Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine, Greece, Finland, Serbia, Russia and Norway won. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Eurovision_Song_Contest_winners
If you think those countries are central you really have to take your geography lessons again and learn the map of Europe this time.
And of course all the central european countries won more often, because for the first (40) years they were the only ones participating, DOH!
@Tom:Is it?...
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest
Political and national voting
The Contest has LONG been accused of political bias, where the perception is that judges—and now televoters—allocate points based on their nation's relationship to the other countries, rather than the musical merits of the songs.
Tom, if you like it so much, please be my guest and knock your self out. As I stated before, I wish my country stopped participating. That is my opinion and I'm entitled to it. As are you. That is all I will say on the subject. Have a nice day.
José: Since 1998, 8 out of 13 of the winners have been from the east and 4 from the Nordic countries. Only one central country won and that was Germany this year.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there is a lot of "neighbour-voting" going on, but generally, only countries that get good points from all over the map make it into the top five.
Somehow this made me think of the classic finnish pre-party youtube clip.
ReplyDeleteSauna rules! Eurovision doesn't.
ReplyDeleteAs for saunas (personal experience):
ReplyDelete*******************
It's goooood ... until you get the 'I-got-to-get-the-hell-out-of-here'-feeling sneaking up on you... then you try to trick the feeling by saying 'this is gooood', and the feeling says 'what the hell are you doing to us?!? get out!' :D
As for Eurovision "song" contest:
*******************
My eyes hurt, really!, all the sparkling effects just hurts my eyes. Not fysically from the front; but the lights enter the brain trough the eyes, and the brain just kicks my eyes from behind - cursing.
...my watch-eurovision-"song"-contest days ended when I watched the german-show in 2000 with "Wadde Hadde dudde da" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuXLcXn4l2k
I didn't watch a single minute this year, and I'm from Norway :D
As for finns:
****************
5 things come to mind:
1: Linus Torvalds
2: Lakes ("De tusen sjøers land").
3: Sauna
4: Drinking
5: Piirka - (a character in a norwegian tv series)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwYxJ8002Wg
...I'm sorry; I know, I really have to start learning something about Finland.
Have a nice june.
About Eurovision: These days neighbor voting happens basically because of similar cultures and cultural transfer which leads to the appreciation of similar music at a given time. In the old days, when the votes were decided by committees, it was much more political.
ReplyDeleteAbout Finland: When we lived in Canada, the main things I missed about Finland were: sauna, rye bread (and decent bread in general), maksalaatikko (liver casserole) and mustamakkara (blood sausage).
Abba already won, that is why they became famous
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjIt6D1E-lU
Céline Dion, the french Canadian who represented Switzerland, also already won
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLPlhvgE9qA
And some years ago, FINLAND won with Lordi band:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDcpQcUsgqI
People here seem to care - I'm not sure everyone gets the joke that is Eurovision.
ReplyDeleteThe Irish used to always do quite well, with the odds of winning increasing in inverse proportion to the quality of the act sent.
The Father Ted episode, "Song for Europe" probably captures it best...
I cant believe Linus is reading this :O
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting on my blog...HOw do you get soooo many followers? I would like to know your secret or talent...
ReplyDelete@Chanan, Rachael and Hope: Linus gets followers by being pretty famous outside the blog-sphere.
ReplyDeleteMr. Linus, I am a college student in a Linux class in Fort Worth Texas. My instructor told me that I gave him proof of early Linux from you I would be granted an A. My instructor has high integrity and I believed him. I was wondering if it would be possibly to get something from you?
ReplyDeleteBryan C Osborne
bryan.c.osborne@gmail.com
dia_tribeoz@yahoo.com
Retired Navy Chief
Westwood College Student
Linus, you've created a monster in public opinion where people are guilty of GPL violations until proven innocent.
ReplyDeleteYou own me to prove me innocent of GPL violations for my 120,000 LOC open source operating system, LoseThos. http://www.losethos.com It's so laughably different... you'll enjoy it. All nontrivial code is available on my web site. You can download the rest, if you like.
Do the right thing -- this is your monster.
Actually, Linus, I think you are glorifying our Eurovision successes somewhat.
ReplyDeleteThe way I remember it growing up, the "Finland nul" was only every other year, and every other year we weren't even allowed to enter.
Every two years they let us in out of pity, and - in clear defiance of any known laws of probability - we would once again score a whopping zero points and be out the next year. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum (except for the Lordi anomaly).
"Finland nul". Ah, the memories... Good times.