Nice studio in California with an outstanding portfolio. Hrm…. as if I’ve seen these before in tv… Serla, VR (Helsinki stone men), Battery Energy Drink, Posti… Say, visit the Anima Vitae Studios of Helsinki website too… work => ads => VR, Battery Perpetum, E-mailman… Was it now that plagiarism is the highest form of flattery? The “Stone Men” definitely are worth a compliment as it won an “Grand Effie Finland” award back in the day.

UPDATE: Was too tired to stay up for this one unfortunately. But Finland beat the USA 3-2 in overtime for a second time in four days, advancing them to the semifinals. In last year’s quarterfinals, Finland had also defeated the US in the quarterfinals (in a shootout if I recall).

Sounded like any Finn watching the game nearly had a heart attack though…

Heading into the third period, the United States was down two goals and twenty minutes from elimination. They would have to produce a strong effort in busting through the Finns near impenetrable defense.

Then in a blink of the eye, Team USA’s fortunes changed.

With 4:16 left in the game, the Americans cut the lead in half on a goal by Phil Kessel as be put away a Tim Gleason slap shot. Less than a minute later, Team USA got another goal when Drew Stafford brought them even.

Finland moves on to face Russia in the semifinals (just like last year). Sweden & Canada move on to the semi’s as well.

OLD:After a fake goal and big brawl on the ice after the final buzzer, this one could get ugly! The quarterfinal match unfortunately begins at about 2am Finnish Time Thursday morning.

So I’d like to honor Team America’s upcoming game by playing this song… (fuck yeah!)

2008 World Hockey Championships. USA up 2-1 with 15 minutes to go. Finland just scored because the puck went through the SIDE of the net!! It wasn’t a goal!! Fuckers!!!!!

UPDATE: The cheaters just scored again, tied game with 10 minutes to go.

AGAIN: Fuck this. Three goals from Finland in one period, all beginning from a goal that shouldn’t have been.

ONCE MORE: The score is tied, but Finland wins. Big fight at the end. A shame we won’t see the deserved overtime.

For the love of God Hillary, drop out!! You’re killing your party and handing another victory to the Republicans!!

I am thoroughly convinced that Hillary wants McCain in the White House - If McCain wins, she’ll run again in four years. But if Obama wins, she won’t be able to run for another eight years, far past her prime. By dragging this contest on as long as she can, she achieves two goals:

1) There’s a 1% chance she’ll receive the nomination, it’s slim but still a chance

2) the longer she stays in, the more chances McCain wins and more chances she can run again in four years instead of eight.

And even if she bows out, she won’t go gracefully, it’ll be all kicking and screaming.

INDIANAPOLIS, May 6 — After failing to win the decisive sweep in North Carolina and Indiana that could have reshaped the Democratic race, disappointed aides to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton conceded it would be difficult for her to catch Sen. Barack Obama in either delegates or overall votes in the six remaining contests.

The outcome caused the candidate and her campaign to intensify their efforts to persuade party leaders to include the results of disqualified contests in Michigan and Florida, both of which she won. The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws committee is scheduled to meet on May 31 to consider two challenges pending on whether, and how, to seat delegates from those states.

“Absent some sort of miracle on May 31st, it’s going to be tough for us,” said a senior Clinton official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to be frank. “We lost this thing in February. We’re doing everything we can now . . . but it’s just an uphill battle.”

This is weird - An Alko employee sells an underage kid some “mild alcoholic beverages” (beer probably), so they punish the store by closing it down for three days. Now who are they really punishing here? The customers who’ll have to be inconvenienced and must travel to another shop? The employees who won’t get a proper paycheck that month? WTF!?

An outlet of Alko, the retail monopoly for alcoholic beverages in Finland, has been ordered to close down for three days for selling alcoholic beverages to a minor.

Staff at the Kontula Alko in eastern Helsinki had sold a 14-year-old boy mild alcoholic beverages, for which the minimum age is 18.

A security guard at the Kontula shopping centre intervened when the boy passed drinks on to other youngsters. The incident took place in January of this year.

As punishment, the State Provincial Office of Southern Finland ordered the establishment closed for three days. The penalty is to be implemented on May 26-28.

Yesterday was “World Press Freedom Day”, and to celebrate with a pat on their own back, Finland’s Newspaper Association (Sanomalehtien Liitto) took out an ad in today’s Helsingin Sanomat reminding us that we have one of the most free presses in the world (tied for 5th in 2007). The ad even lays down a quick job to “lesser free” the countries: North Korea, China, Russia, England, and the U.S. (although they fail to mention the countries who have a “freer” press than Finland)

Finland has a strong free press, excellent! But here’s my question: Has that free press ever been challenged? During the Soviet era, Finland was known throughout the world for its self-censorship…

During the period of Finlandization freedom of speech was limited. Public libraries removed from circulation books, more than 1,700 titles, that were deemed anti-Soviet and bookstores were given catalogs of banned books.[1] The Finnish Board of Film Classification likewise banned movies that it considered to be anti-Soviet. Banned movies included The Manchurian Candidate, directed by John Frankenheimer in 1962, and Born American by Finnish director Renny Harlin in 1986.

…surely a lot has changed since then (although the Finnish media has been scolded for it’s self-censorship of the recent Russian elections). Any other time anyone attempts to test the boundaries of free speech Finland, they seem to get challenged…

- A Finnish organization had posted the infamous “Mohammed” cartoons and became the only group within Europe to face a federal investigation for the act.

- Finland’s state-run broadcasting company censored a documentary on the Mohammed cartoons, they later aired this after public outcry.

- The Finnish state now censors the internet and bans Finnish ISP’s from showing many sites with inappropriate content.

- A Finnish blogger was fined for a blog post he wrote concerning African culture and immigration.

- Finland’s current Prime Minister took his ex-girlfriend and her publisher to court over an autobiography she had written.

- A 15-year old schoolboy was fined $4,220 for posting a video on YouTube of his teacher and joking that he was “a lunatic singing at the karaoke of the mental hospital.

- Finnish animal activists passed out flyers protesting the sale of fur at Finland’s prized department store, Stockmann’s. Finnish authorities. The activists houses were raided and materials were confiscated.

- A Finnish blogger went to court over the comments he made about a school principal and the fundamentalist religious schooling Finnish children were receiving.

…sure there’s plenty of examples like these. But how about examples where the tests of free speech aren’t resisted? My Finnish isn’t as good as most of yours, so you’ll have to help me out here. But it seems that for decades, Finland’s press plays by a set of unwritten rules and few dare to challenge the system.

I’ve never been to one of these things. Anyone got photos of today’s event?

Hat Tip to Chong for the info!

I have this very special talent that I’d like to tell you about - I have this incredible, superhero-like ability to get piss-drunk and party…and not throw my trash on the ground.

It’s obviously quite a rare trait, especially coming from Baltimore, a city swimming in trash. Maybe it’s because I’m an Eagle Scout and learned to leave the campsite even cleaner than when I arrived, or maybe it’s just common fucking human decency…

The cleanup effort in the aftermath of the First of May holiday is expected to take several days in many Finnish cities. In Helsinki more trash was left on streets and in parks than ever before. Jyväskylä, Turku, and Kuopio also report more trash than usual.

In most cities, the debris left over from the celebrations should be cleared away by Saturday. However, in Helsinki and Tampere, the cleanup will last into next week.

In Helsinki, although the cleanup began already when the celebrations were taking place, the sheer number of people celebrating the holiday generated a record amount of litter.

Wow, a great May Day’s Eve last night. The weather was crazy warm, and the kids were extra intoxicated. I arrived downtown to hundreds of police lined up in riot gear - all because of some silly peaceful protest. A truck with a massive soundsystem on the back cruised slowly down the street with thousands of young people marching behind…

A DJ in the back of the truck was spinning some great trance, so naturally I joined in and marched with them. At the front of parade were kids wearing “illegal” ski masks hiding their identity holding a large banner that read, “Free Helsinki - We are Illegal”…

A few smoke bombs went off…

Police state Finland - Do the police line up like this for the “workers” May Day marches..?

The crowd was quite calm until the riot police decide to arrest a guy dressed in a superhero costume - this of course enraged the crowd causing a small riot to ensue.

Funniest part of the night - The police put the superhero into custody, then all of a sudden he escaped and ran frantically down the street before he was quickly tackled to the ground.

Scariest part of the night - On a quiet street I witnessed two police officers march a drunk kid up to the cash machine and guarded him as he made his transaction. I asked the police what they were doing, and as you can see from below the male officer got hostile, I quickly fled the scene. I seriously doubt they were straight robbing this kid, but the entire situation looked very suspicious…

Extremely unprofessional actions from the Finnish police. I followed the parade for 15 minutes or so, it was completely peaceful from both the people and police. In fact I was quite impressed how the riot police laughed off the middle fingers and taunting.

It all started when the riot cops threw down the boisterous superhero. It seemed completely unnecessary and made the crowd hostile, which led to the destruction of property, bottles being tossed, and further violence down Esplanadi.

But could you imagine this kind of demonstration in the U.S.? It would have lasted all of five seconds before the American cops would have tear-gased the crowd and beat everyone senseless. Nice to see that the Finnish authorities allow people to protest in the first place.