Gizmodo Australia » finland

Finland First Country To Establish Broadband As A Legal Right

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:32:00 +0000

Finland! Not only do they have good universal health care—including dental—and free daycare and great public education at all levels, but now they also got broadband as a legal right provided to every citizen. And not any crappy broadband.

The policy will be active in July 2010, when every Finn will get a one-megabit connection. But that’s just an intermediate step towards their final goal: By 2015, everyone will have a 100Mbps—yes, a hundred megabits per second—available.

Now, before the political debate starts in the comments, please watch this.

Thank you. [YLE News via Into Mobile]

Finnish Chair Has One Priority: Your Balls

Adam Frucci — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:40:00 +0000

See this chair? It is designed with the comfort of your genital in mind. Don’t believe me? Just listen to a no-nonsense Finn describe its advantages over close ups of comfy, comfy balls.

[Today's Big Thing]

Spiderweb Solar-Wind Sail Proves Jor-El Was Right

Wilson Rothman — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:15:00 +0000

Laugh all you want at the sea-urchiny ship Jor-El used to send Kal-El to earth, but it looks a lot like the new kind of solar-sail array developed by the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki. Instead of the standard solar panels, the Finnish scientists propose long thin strands, just microns in diameter, that stretch out from the spaceship, and use a positive charge to repel heavy positive ions in the solar wind that move at hundreds of kilometers per second.

Unlike Superman’s ship, these strands have to be very long—even a test run will require a total of 10 kilometers of the strand, which is currently stitched by hand using ultrasound. Also, as they require solar wind, they won’t be much for interstellar travel. Still, as you can see in the video below, it’s wild stuff, promising to provide plentiful free “fuel” for fast travel around the solar system. [New Scientist via KurzweilAI]

Finnish Spitzer Sends 200 Sex SMS to Exotic Dancer and Her Sister

Gizmodo US Edition — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:00:00 +0000

An SMS-savvy Finnish Foreign Minister has joined former New York governor Eliot Spitzer in the “thinks with the wrong head” club this week. The 60-year-old Ilkka Kanerva was discovered to have sent more than 200 text messages to an exotic dancer named Johanna Tukiainen, 29. And her sister! Despite the fact that Kanerva’s longtime parter said she’s not bothered by her man’s wandering eyes (or should that be fingers?), people are still calling for a resignation. More below.

The Finnish press got a hold of a few text gems sent by the minister, including this vague pick up line that may or may not be related to musical waterbeds: “Would you like to do it in an exotic place? Where could it be?” When asked if ‘it’ meant sex, Kanerva said it was obvious that the message was an answer to an earlier inquiry from Tukiainen.

We at Gizmodo are inclined to believe the minister; he was probably referring to their upcoming coffeehouse debate about the subtle differences between the Centre Party of Finland and the more even-handed (although no less capable) approach to governing taken by the National Coalition Party. Or maybe he was just trying to get laid with the exotic dancer, and her sister. We think her name’s Debra.

AU: Hopefully Warney will never enter politics, or this kind of scandal would be all too frequent…

[HELSINGIN SANOMAT]

SMS Opens Bathroom Stalls: I HAV 2 P

Mark Wilson — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:00:56 +0000

Along Highway 1 in Western Finland, some rest stops have bathrooms that can be opened only via text messaging. Otherwise locked, a number is posted on the door to which you text “OPEN.” The door unlocks and you can do your business.

The surprising aspect is that only standard text messaging rates apply, meaning that the government isn’t making money off the service. So why lock the bathrooms in the first place? By putting users’ numbers on record, authorities hope to cut down on vandalism. We’d be happy if just it curbed “gush without flush.” [HELSINGIN SANOMAT via textually]