Only slightly bent

Here’s a story that on the surface of it doesn’t make any sense – something in today’s noise-laden environment is actually too quiet. Come again? But it’s true – a recent article on The Economist raised an interesting issue that’s set to become more problematic in the future; electric and hybrid vehicles are too quiet, especially when going slowly. And since most pedestrian accidents happen in the city when going relatively slowly, this is a problem.

On the surface of it, the notion that cars can make too little noise is absurd. But for pedestrians it can be dangerous, as often (too often, I might add. Except the blind who have no choice) we rely on our sense of hearing to alert us to the presence of approaching cars.

There were several small things in the article I didn’t know about, for example:

• Studies have already been done on this and they seem to confirm the concern; people are unable to judge the direction of hybrids by their sound until they’re too close.
• Synthesized noise might actually help reduce noise pollution; sound from the speakers is highly directional whereas the sound of an internal combustion engine radiates in all directions.
• The Fisker Karma luxury electric vehicles (which, btw, will be built in Finland) will have an audio generator. What is apparently so far undecided, however, is just what the car should sound like.

The article also raises a possibility of some new business:

Drivers of electric cards might in future even be able to select different engine sounds, and maybe download them like ringtones.

Now that’s a scary thought. Let’s call these drivetones. I really, really hope that regulators will have the sense to regulate the allowable car noises before we get Crazy Frog drivetones. Just when you thought the ringtone epidemic from some years ago was bad enough, you’re going to get hit by one ;P

Goodbye Finland, Hello Soviet Union

I think stores should be allowed to stay open anytime they wish to; hence, I welcome the May-August period when stores in Finland can be open on Sundays. Last Sunday I went to our local grocery store to pick up some fresh bread – or so I thought. Here’s what they had on offer on Sunday evening:



Perhaps I didn’t want bread after all.. Kind of reminds me of the Soviet Union, doesn’t it?

Hmm, wonder what that is… Let’s call it scrambled eggs!

We were in Kuopio last week for a friend’s wedding which was a lot of fun. During our visit, we stayed at the Cumulus Hotel. Without going into unnecessary details – I do NOT recommend the hotel. One thing that we, prior to witnessing the actual fact, thought was positive was that the breakfast was included in the price. Now, hotel breakfasts can often be judged by their eggs – in better places they will make you a perfect omelette just the way you want it. In good places they will at least have decent scrambled eggs and crisp bacon.

In other places they have this:



On the left are the scrambled eggs from Day 1. On the right is the same scrambled eggs dish on Day 2. I didn’t dare look into it on Day 3.. I don’t know about you, but I doubt one can classify pieces of rubbery eggs floating in water or a huge block of cooked eggs as scrambled eggs. Eww!

Luckily it was possible to find good food in Kuopio – more about that in a later post.

So why don’t we put one like, I dunno, everywhere?

Another snippet of Kuopio. It is a common complaint that there are not enough trash cans in the downtown area of any given city. The Kuopio market square, however, hardly suffers from this problem:



That just might be a bit of an overkill, don’t you think?