Cathedral at Tampere

We went for a drive over to Tampere this weekend, mainly because I wanted to see the interior of the cathedral at Tampere. I also wanted to see some of the artwork of Hugo Simberg

The ground floor entrance reveals a moody interior with great architecture. The ceiling above supports the second floor ...

There are a few reasons I'm interested in it ... firstly (while its not large) its beautifully designed and decorated inside, especially when you consider that its a Lutheran Cathedral.

It shows an interesting Gothic sort of character, combined with the traditional central European sorts of things (like the organ). Looking towards the back, you can see the second floor "balcony seats".




This shot is an ultra wide, showing from the pews up to the interestingly decorated ceiling, note the use of "wings" to fill in arches and the serpent over there in the top right hand corner at the top of the dome.

The Resurrection meaning

Probably the most striking feature for me however is the lovely art work behind the Altar. Unlike so many churches with a crucifix depicting the death of Jesus on the cross, this has a beautiful artwork which has is depicting the rise of the dead to the after life.



To me, this is so much more the message of salvation (which is supposedly what the church is sending) than a depressing one of sacrifice and suffering which is usually sent.

Lastly, a view from the 'balcony seats'

I love it ...

ants (vs human organisations)

One of the interesting things about Ants is they remind me of people

They build their little city close to nice places and all scurry around doing what the hive needs.

Its sort of fun to watch them.

They scurry about busily, with seemingly no specific purpose. When working alone they can be carrying something back to the nest or carrying something out of it. Work is clearly getting done.

In groups it all seems to break down, with what seems to be an uncoordinated tug of war in all directions.

Eventually the item seems to get back to the nest (despite) all their efforts.

Strange thing is, no matter how disorganized it looks they are really quite successful creatures. Each ant may have totally no idea, but the hive does well

Reminds me a lot of people.

Like this week ... after spending some months working on a database project it appears that the other part of the organisation has decided they can't coordinate themselves properly and have instead gone with each member of their team putting data into a spreadsheet. Essentially leaving me with the leaf ripped out of my mouth after some struggling with pulling it in the right direction. It remains to be seen how much better their direction is ... Glad I'm not the one putting that together later ... mean time I've picked up something else and I'm wandering around with that in my mandibles.

In contrast to Ants (and our organisation), White Ants are quite organized creatures. These cool little guys normally eat decaying tree in the natural environment (and people's Homes in the urban one ;-)


You won't see them easily in the wild because they can not tolerate extremes of humidity and UV.

So they live inside their food and construct sealed environment walkways between food sources and their nest.

These are really hard to spot as they're made of chewed up wood pulp and blend in nicely, but on the trunk of this white Gum (Eucalyptus) their track stood out clearly.

I thought it would be interesting to give them a little challenge, so I made a small bit of damage to this walkway roof, exposing the interior.


Fairly instantly they all set up a guard and protect the gap in their tunnel.

Notice the fellows with the pointy heads? They are quite different to the other ones there which have jaws.

Quickly they set up a strong defense perimeter but do not go beyond it ..

They are quite specialized creatures, some being defenders others being workers.

The fellows with jaws are the workers, and you can see that soon after the defense is set up they emerge and begin repairing the breech in their system.

In the image below you can see clearly the guard ants (with their antenna spread wide to sense any movement or smells) with the workers in below them already chomping and spitting up chewed wood pulp to rebuild the damaged wall.



Quite a good system they have ... no wonder they're so successful.

H56N2 infects Parliment

The greatest fear of virologists is the combination of Pig flu (H1N1) with Bird Flu (HPAI or H5N1) that could form a virus that is irresistible to the immune system producing the dreaded so called "Pigs can Fly" flu H56N2 EWV variant.

This results in hallucinations and distortions of reality which can make the sufferer to believe that "Pigs can Fly".

It is suspected to have been to have made the mutation by extended close proximity by having their snouts in the same troughs.

It can then be passed from "high flying person to high flying" at conference venues through out Asia and Europe where snouts may be placed in the same troughs and or course via other vectors such as unmentionable secret handshakes.



The early signs of this is a fever of creation of impossible political targets without understanding the meaning of any of the underlying issues (such as the Australian ETS) which are not likely to be effective, but can induce a sweat similar to a fever in those effected with such a malady.

Look closely at our politicians ... it seems they've been infected with this deadly pathogen.

The only remedy for this is isolation of the contaminated persons. Its important to not allow them to do anything harmful while suffering from this!

and remember ... always wash your hands after handling a politician

the next US shock: will that be bonds?

I've never studied Economics at uni, I spent my time there in Chemistry, Computing and Environmental Science instead.

So as a self confessed non-economist you can take this how you will.

Right now the USA owes heaps to China, there is discussion that the Current Account Deficit in the US is blowing out big time, for instance:

The current-account shortfall could rise from 6 per cent to 15 per cent of gross domestic product by 2030 and net foreign debt could explode to $US50 trillion ($54.4 trillion).

The budget deficit could remain close to $US1 trillion until 2020 or later.

Scary stuff ... that same writer makes an interesting assertion which I happen to agree with:

Most analysis underplays the root cause of the crisis: the US political system’s refusal to adjust to the global labour supply shock - the sudden increase of workers leading to a sudden drop in the price of labour - from China’s industrialisation.

We all live on the same planet, so it has been obvious to me for some decades that if the standard of living in China goes up, then it will likely mean that has to come from somewhere ... well that would be from the west wouldn't it :-)

It gets worse with the USA facing nations turning away from Oil trading in US$ to possibly trading Oil in Euro ... noone will need those US$ as much anymore ...

Now, let me cast your mind back to 1971 to the time when the US economy was in deep trouble for all of its spending in the Vietnam war. They had printed bucket loads dollars and exported them off shore.

Soon enough European countries were presenting the USA with demands to fulfill their "promiary note" of gold for US$. This lead to what was called the Nixon Shock. At this time Nikon (without consultation with the IMF essentially betrayed the Bentton Woods agreement and decoupled Gold from the US$

So, with China investing heavilly in the USA at the moment (to allow the US to get at cheap imports), I wonder if the USA will do something similar again but with bonds?


"Hello, My name is Bond ... "