Finnish

Almost everything that gets onto a commercial plane—fuel, checked-in baggage, cargo, and meals—is weighed. For passengers and their cabin bags, most airlines use average data.But Finnair, Finland’s national carrier, said Friday that it started asking passengers this week to voluntarily and anonymously hop onto a scale with their hand luggage at the country’s main airport in Helsinki. The airline said its aim is to get its own figures.“We will need data for both winter season and for summer season. In winter season people…

In 2023, Finland was declared to be the world's happiest country for the sixth year in a row. However, even this Nordic country has its own set of challenges.Enter "Very Finnish Problems." Created by Joel Willans, a Brit living in Helsinki, it hilariously highlights the quirks and idiosyncrasies of local life, entertaining both Finns and international audiences alike.From popular spring activities to unorthodox road signs, continue scrolling to check out some of the most popular memes that have recently appeared on this…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Finnish airline Finnair this week instituted a new voluntary policy whereby it is now weighing passengers in addition to their luggage.…

Edinburgh-based startup Gravitricity is set to turn one of Europe’s deepest mines into the continent’s first-ever gravity energy storage system.   The gravity tech uses massive weights that are hoisted up the mineshaft during times of surplus energy, and then released back down again during times of peak demand — driving a turbine and sending power to the grid. The system can release large bursts of electricity quickly or release it more slowly depending on what’s required. Gravitricity…

Best known as the home town of Father Christmas, Rovaniemi is perhaps not an obvious setting for crime, corruption and murder.But the unique lighting conditions, climate, nature, architecture and atmosphere of the capital of Finnish Lapland, a city of 64,000 that lies right on the Arctic Circle, is contributing to the evolution of its very own Nordic noir sub-genre.“Reindeer noir” (reindeer noirissa) – the term coined to describe the emerging category – was characterised by “a hint of dark humour” and a “localised feel”,…

VarjoWhen Apple launched its Vision Pro earlier this year, it joined a crowded virtual reality headset market that includes entries from Meta, Playstation, HTC, and more.That market got a little more crowded this week as Varjo, a Finnish company, launched its XR-4 headset. And while it may be similar to the other headsets on the market, there's one big difference. Also: The best VR headsets right now (and they're not just from Meta)The new VR headset, which carries a price tag of $3,990, functions much like models…

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was directly responsible for over 1 million fatalities in 2019, and the death toll keeps rising. It occurs when bacteria become resilient to antibiotics, making infections more difficult to treat — or in some cases impossible.  In Finland, scientist Windi Muziasari has made it her mission to tackle this “silent pandemic.”  In 2018, after completing her PhD studies at the University of Helsinki, Muziasari founded Resistomap — a tool to help doctors and researchers…

‘He is one mean motherfucker you don’t want to mess with!” The memo arrives too late for the Nazis. When they clap eyes on the mean motherfucker they mistake him for a harmless old gold miner. “Get down on your knees, grandpa,” one orders, laughing so hard that he doesn’t notice the hunting knife entering his skull through his left ear and exiting out of the right. And that’s just for starters.For the rest of this extravagantly violent and cheerfully entertaining action film from Finland, director Jalmari Helander treats…

Median sea level rise projections of IPCC AR6 (medium confidence, 2100 relative to 1995–2014) divided into different components, for three emission scenarios. The ocean component includes thermal expansion and ocean dynamical effects. The global projection is shown together with three local projections: Vaasa and Helsinki at the Finnish coast, Hanstholm at the North Sea coast of Denmark. Credit: Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (2023). DOI:…

A Finnish newspaper is celebrating World Press Freedom Day today by walking the walk. Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest daily paper, created a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map containing a secret room. Inside the hidden blood-red chamber, players find real-world multimedia storytelling about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — sneaking some much-needed journalism into a country inundated with propaganda. The developers that the newspaper worked with on the map left some clues for Russian players to find it. First, it…