Awesome Protest Signs

[Svata]

Seriously. At least its consistent year-round. Unlike Georgia, where in the summer its 90°F+ every day, and so humid I'm suprised people aren't drowning on the air, but it gets down to the low 20s in the winter on a semi-regular basis. And its still humid.

...Umm no.

Finland can have temperatures as high as +30°C during summer or as low as  -30°C per winter. The temperature variation is really big.

Which is a good thing in my mind. We actually get four separate seasons rather than "slightly warmer vs sligthly colder" or "warm and dry vs warm and rainy" etc.

Fair enough. My mistake. I'm just in a bad mood because I found out I'm get to work outside today. Why is that bad? I just saw today's weather report. After factoring in humidity, it is going to feel like its 103°F+. For those of you who were lucky enough to be raised on the metric system, let me explain. If you have a fever that high, you need to go to the fucking hospital.

[Art Vandelay]

-Finns may seem distant and rude due to small talk not being customary here.

Oh man, that sounds like a dream come true. There are few things I find more tedious than small talk.

Exactly how difficult is Finnish to learn for an English native speaker? Because assuming Finland is part of the EU (and I'm pretty sure it is), I'm now extremely temped to move there.

[Askold]

-Finns may seem distant and rude due to small talk not being customary here.

Oh man, that sounds like a dream come true. There are few things I find more tedious than small talk.

Exactly how difficult is Finnish to learn for an English native speaker? Because assuming Finland is part of the EU (and I'm pretty sure it is), I'm now extremely temped to move there.

Well, Finland is in EU but as for the language...

It really is really, really hard to learn. But you can get along with english language most of the time.


Oooh, one more thing: We use Euro as a currency but do not put any 1 or 2 cent coins into circulation since we thought those are so worthless. If you pay with cash we will round it up or down to the nearest 5 cent, but you can pay the exact sum if you use a credit/debit card or if you happen to have those 1 or 2 cent coins. The shops just don't give them as change.

[Ultimate Paragon]

I think the main problem with higher education is that it's a necessity the establishment treats like a luxury.

[RavynousHunter]

-We cook our meat rather than eat it raw. (This seems to be a sign of HERESY to the yankees.)

I was born and raised in the South, and yet I cringe every time someone orders a steak rare.  I know its technically safe, but I always order my beef, at minimum, medium or medium-well.  I don't mind consuming my own blood, since I had frequent nose bleeds as a child and am quite familiar with how my blood tastes, but the blood (or blood-looking fluid) of other critters?  I'll pass, thank you.  You can decry it as "carbonized" all you want, but when the prions come a-knocking, they'll be turning your brains into sponges, and not mine.

[SCarpelan]

Re: Finland

Also, on the more serious note it's not certain that the Nordic welfare state model will survive here in the long term. Economical conservatism has gained popularity and the politicians have started embracing the more neo-liberal economical ideas. Inequality is growing and with it the envy and bitterness that's unfortunately targeted towards "welfare bums" and specially immigrants. The whole society is undergoing a structural change that is caused by the aging population and urbanization in addition to the usual changes caused by globalization and technological advances.

Don't be too afraid of the language, though. The basics are notoriously difficult to learn but after you have internalized the basics the more advanced stuff is actually pretty easy. The language is very consistent with very few exceptions to the rules.

[Askold]

-We cook our meat rather than eat it raw. (This seems to be a sign of HERESY to the yankees.)

I was born and raised in the South, and yet I cringe every time someone orders a steak rare.  I know its technically safe, but I always order my beef, at minimum, medium or medium-well.  I don't mind consuming my own blood, since I had frequent nose bleeds as a child and am quite familiar with how my blood tastes, but the blood (or blood-looking fluid) of other critters?  I'll pass, thank you.  You can decry it as "carbonized" all you want, but when the prions come a-knocking, they'll be turning your brains into sponges, and not mine.

I will drink the blood of my prey, drinking the blood of the animal that YOU personally hunted and killed is a tradition.

Cooking meat is ALSO A TRADITION. Yea, I also know that with proper hygienic handling and safety measures raw steaks aren't dangerous but I just prefer well cooked meat anyway. And the traditional cuisines have the meat well cooked. AND it is safer just in case somewhere down the line something went wrong with the hygienie or something.

[RavynousHunter]

-We cook our meat rather than eat it raw. (This seems to be a sign of HERESY to the yankees.)

I was born and raised in the South, and yet I cringe every time someone orders a steak rare.  I know its technically safe, but I always order my beef, at minimum, medium or medium-well.  I don't mind consuming my own blood, since I had frequent nose bleeds as a child and am quite familiar with how my blood tastes, but the blood (or blood-looking fluid) of other critters?  I'll pass, thank you.  You can decry it as "carbonized" all you want, but when the prions come a-knocking, they'll be turning your brains into sponges, and not mine.

I will drink the blood of my prey, drinking the blood of the animal that YOU personally hunted and killed is a tradition.

Cooking meat is ALSO A TRADITION. Yea, I also know that with proper hygienic handling and safety measures raw steaks aren't dangerous but I just prefer well cooked meat anyway. And the traditional cuisines have the meat well cooked. AND it is safer just in case somewhere down the line something went wrong with the hygienie or something.

Eeeeexcatly.  After the number of rather serious fuck-ups in that particular industry, I'm more than a little leery of just blindly accepting that all hygienic practices were followed in the production of the meat I consume.

[Ultimate Paragon]

[Ultimate Paragon]

[Ultimate Paragon]

[guizonde]

S.H.A.R.P.'s are some of the most compassionnate people around. My only quibble with them is trying to beat compassion into opposing factions. Toulouse has a very big S.H.A.R.P. population comparatively (around 60% of toulousan skinheads are either that or red and anarchist skinheads, or R.A.S.H for short). However, some clashes between them and boneheads (extreme right wing) have become city legend where they actually started a free for all in a bar and one of them walked out with a ceiling beam.

I talked to one of their lieutenants in toulouse and the guy and I had a friendly disagreement. I'd rather teach people to learn to live together, whereas for him violence is the first option when in front of a bonehead. He had a short fuse but did understand where I was coming from. We left feeling satisfied by a proper discussion, him back to beating up extremists and me back to learning about conflicts between political extremists in the 1960's (I love cultural history, especially with a great teacher).

[RavynousHunter]

Not to shit on a good thing, but...am I the only one that saw the flag on the left there and immediately thought "that's one MASSIVE condom?"

[guizonde]

Not to shit on a good thing, but...am I the only one that saw the flag on the left there and immediately thought "that's one MASSIVE condom?"

you know trojans. Little guys in a disguise. I think that's why they adopted that symbol: passing as boneheads to better smack them, but that's pure speculation on my part. Still funny, though.

[Askold]

Not to shit on a good thing, but...am I the only one that saw the flag on the left there and immediately thought "that's one MASSIVE condom?"

you know trojans. Little guys in a disguise. I think that's why they adopted that symbol: passing as boneheads to better smack them, but that's pure speculation on my part. Still funny, though.

Trojans weren't the ones inside the wooden horse.