Bill Murray's Blog, page 35
May 27, 2019
Oodi
“Finns are ranked as some of the most literate people in the world, as well as some of the most prolific users of libraries. On average, every resident of Finland borrows 16 items from a library each year.” – from Finland.fi.
When I was seven or eight years old I guess, my mom regularly took me to the public library behind the big shopping center on what was yet to become Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis.
I think it has been all those years since I had the general light euphoria and sense of well-being that came with being in such a lovely, peaceful, well-meaning place as Oodi, the new main Helsinki public library last week.
Opened to acclaim last December, on Independence Day eve, Oodi (“ode” in Finnish) is a library, but it’s more than that, it’s a gathering place, a community center, and a dramatic demonstration of one of the ways Finns feel it is appropriate to spend €98 million of public money.
Besides books for borrowing, there are conference rooms, studios for recording and editing audio and video projects, a theatre and various workshops with sophisticated equipment for, for example, laser cutting. There are 3-D printers and extra-wide photo printers and there is plenty of space to spend the day working on your project, or just lounging about.
Again from Finland.fi:
“The biggest technical innovation by far is the ‘Cube,’ a room with smart walls,” says Vänttinen. “A person can use huge touch screens to transform the room into almost anything through 3D virtual reality. Artists are already planning to use the Cube for digital immersive art exhibitions, and medical students would like to study surgery there, using it as a virtual operating room.”
Let’s have a look.
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It’s in a central downtown location, just off Mannerheimintie, main street. It’s beside Musiikkitalo, the Helsinki Music Center, home to the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, close to Finlandia Hall and across the street from parliament.
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Spacious and well attended.
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This is a 3-D printer. There’s a suite of these for hire.
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Sewing machines, all in use.
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These folks are inspecting the industrial-sized printers available to print your advertising banner, or whatever you might need that’s over a meter wide.
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The kids behind glass in these adjacent suites are playing virtual video games.
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Three floors, seating throughout.
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The top floor, with books in Finnish and other languages. Borrow games, comics, graphic novels, cds, movies, training courses for any number of languages and disciplines.
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For a sense of the pride of place with which people hold Oodi, this row of chairs faces an outdoor terrace for events, and beyond it, that’s the parliament building across the street.
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See collected photos from this slow trip around the world here.
May 25, 2019
Photo A Day: Back in the Air
First trip in an Airbus A500-900. No overhead bins in the middle, only on the sides. Makes for a roomy feel. Here’s the route, BKK – HEL:
A great feature of this Finnair Airbus is the tail-mounted live camera. Here, in the queue to leave Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport:
Here, jukin’ out over the Gulf of Thailand:
Here, over the Gobi Desert:
Collected photos from this slow trip around the world here.
May 24, 2019
More Silly Menus
It’s so easy to poke gentle fun at menu translations it’s almost unfair, but it’s meant with good humor. So this, as we leave Asia:
I suggest skepticism of the approximate beef roll.
I know, you’re torn between the porcupine and the weasel. Same here.
Is chicken iap erosion due to climate change?
The deer may be fine but that damned vain hot pot, always going on about how great it is….
May 23, 2019
Mostly Daily Photos
A couple more as we begin to finish off our Vietnam visit. Here, one of those tumultuous tropical thunderstorms Ho Chi Minh City was eager for, as the hottest part of the year begins to draw to a close:
And here, lovely Dalat, Lam Dong province, just before dusk:
Collected photos from these few months around the world here.
A long flight across Asia follows, and before long we’ll be back in touch from Finland. For the moment (spring 2019) I’ve changed the header above to a nice view over Helsinki from the top of the original Sokos hotel.
May 19, 2019
May 18, 2019
Photo A Day
Posing women, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
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Collected photos here.
Quotes: Ah, Well Then
[image error]Nairobi, Kenya
“The President is around, it doesn’t mean that because he is not seen in public he is not there, he has an office where he goes every day and he is working on several things.”
– State House spokesperson Kanze Dena.
So that’s cool, then. Long as he’s working on several things.
The president has not been seen publicly since he traveled to China in April.
May 17, 2019
Dalat, Vietnam
French colonizers used Dalat, at an elevation around 1500 meters, to escape from the heat and humidity of Saigon and the Mekong Delta area. It’s just lovely here.
Collected photos here.
