Heikot signaalit- Weak signals

In the end of the last year I was interviewed to a magazine called Voi Hyvin about a Hugging Monday campaign that I and my friend Minna Takala initiated last May. The idea of Hugging Monday started from our blog discussion concerning about the free hugs campaign. Minna posted me a comment that at our workplace (Nokia at that time) people would need some hugging. I got the idea of the words hugging + monday (counter attack to fu***king monday) and Minna was happy to go for it with me. That's how the Hugging Monday initiated.  So in the May, 2009 Minna and I delivered nice small pieces of paper to people saying positive things to people and wished people a nice workday.

The topic of the interview in the Voi Hyvin magazine was based on the campaign of random act of kindness. To be honest, that was the first time I heard about this campaign (not that popular in Finland). But I like the idea. Doing something good for people that you know or do not know- anonymously. There are too much evil words and acts in this world, so why just not try the opposite: do something good for the other people. It does not cost anything and you will get two people happy- yourself and the other person :)

But one of my newest spotting is a Champagne bar in Stockmann's department store in Helsinki. Another trend here is Finland is the rise of top quality chockolade selling cafeterias. Luckily, the depression does not concern us all.

one thing is of course, to have charging places for electric cars.

Other way to do this is to offer free bike rental  for people that are parking in the parking hall.

These both were spotted from Forum parking hall, Helsinki.

This business launge was opened in the end of the last year in Helsinki airport, and it's design was something that I was impressed of. It is very typical light colour Finnish design, which works well at least with me. This launge also includes a spa, but I did not visit that this time.

Here are the pictures:

...spotted in London...

Beware Twitter, because here comes a new bloggng service: Wordr. This is taking blogging into the new dimensions, at it allows blogging only one word at time. Maximum length of this word is 28 letters. I think that this blogging service is taking microblogging to newer dimension- to nanoblogging. 

 http://wordr.org/

via: Guerilla Innovation

Healthier choise, says the advertisement in the picture. The advertisement is about e-cigarette, that does not harm lungs, teeth, etc. It is the future of the smoking devise. Finally we have a cigarette with microchip!

(Spotted in Helsinki)

Some Futurists, including me, have visioned the future of 2020 in IET magazine. Read the article and the vision  here.

When giving some feedback to the church of Espoo via their internet pages people will get a form to fill. There is a standard way-write the word above- to check that no spam is send to the church. Here is a picture of it:

An unique thing in this page is that the word that one is suppose to write is "KASTE" which is translated to English as CHRISTENING. Here you could talk about holy spam filter.

My kid just had her birthday, and one of those traditional games that the little kids are playing in birthday parties is rotating a bottle. The one thatt the bottle is pointing at is giving the present to the birthday girl. Instead of using a normal bottle this time a software of bottle rotating (touch screen phone) was used for the kids. And for them it was nothing but normal... 

The right answer to the question is 15 euros/ kilo.

That is how much a Finnish millionaire is going to pay per every kilogram that a Finn is loosing his/hers extra fat. The "looser" does not get this money to him/herself, but this money is going to be payed for educating teachers in Nepal. The nameless millionaire has already announced to be ready to pay up till 10 million euros if equal to that of extra fat is lost by Finns. The church has already volunteered to weight the people who want to participate this challenge. The first weighing is taken place in January-February and the second one is taking place at May. The remainder of the kilograms from first and second weighning is determining the costs.

Finnish foreign ministry has already promised to take care that the payment is going to go the the right place.

Here is a link to google translated bulletin of the campaign.

picture: a campaign for those like me, who have little bit extra here and there...

Wishes,

Elina

This is a Finnish version of "Do not Enter" sign. These signs were spotted at Tampere, in a place, I was having my short presentation about future of consumer technology. The lady in the picture is Siiri Angerkoski, a Finnish very famous old time actress.

and a detail:

and a tree with shoe laces decoration:

all the trees were spotted at Kamppi Helsinki

i have a very nice pen friend in Japan, from whom I just got a christmas letter. I took a photo of the japanese stamps:

And here is a picture of this year's Finnish christmas time stamp:

Stamps of these two remote contries look quite similar!

This rocking style store advertises sales of bodysuits for babies and other children's clothes, among other things (like Rasmus t-shirts)

Spotted in Helsinki.

(Before this spotted: "I listen to Led Zeppelin with my daddy" t-shirts and Rocking body suits for babies in Prisma)

Now it is cold here in Finland- and finally we can enjoy the joy of having snow. Here is a picture from traffic from Helsinki. You can really see some snow:

Yesterday I had couple of meetings at Helsinki city centre (after a long time) and of course i was ready for spotting some weak signals. And I really did. In front of me there was a young lady walking in the street (about minus 10 celsius) with these shoes in her feet:

Finns do recognize these shoes: they are the famous Reino slippers. Reino slippers (Reino is quite old fashioned Finnish boy's name) are Finnish good-old-time slippers that were popular mostly in the countryside and with the older folks (and specially inside of house). Originally they were brown, but currently have their modern pink version, with a come-back of Reino Slippers. Now these slippers are sold for christmas present.

The observation of this young trendy lady with these Reino shoes was a weak signal, because:

-they are not youngster's shoes originally

-and they are defenately not outdoor shoes.

Interesting to see if these Reino's are going to be top fashion as hush puppies shoes or crocks here in Finland soon...

Second old fashioned grocery shop was spotted by me at Tapiola, Espoo. The first one was this.

Will this be a counter attack to Hypermarket boom??

Why do they still pop up from every place? Should not they be history by now?