Local news

Short Hollywood movie filming in Oulu this weekend, mostly driving action scenes I think. Actors include Wentworth Miller (not on site due to production issues) and Amaury Nolasco. The movie will be called The Great Escape, with the premiere scheduled for April.

 

It's hot in here... In Pleven it was 27 degrees C today - set a new all time record for the country. In Sofia was only 22 degrees - the hottest in 125 years of meteorological history. It's gonna be even hotter tomorrow. It's ridiculous. My summer clothes are all packed away.

 

Pretty mild February weather here in Melbourne too. Traditionally this is our hottest month (more or less) but it hasn't been too hot at all. Today it's actually a bit cool (for Australian standards).

 

The passing of Umberto Eco wasn't that surprising... but Piotr Grudzinski? Truly shocking. May he rest in peace.

 

I loved Grudzinski's playing and guitar tone. It's a terrible loss.

 

I am very saddened :'( Riverside are one of my favourite bands but I'm afraid this is the end of them.
Besides, being reminded of your own mortality is never pleasant. Shit, he was just three years older than me

 

I can't say I'm a fan of their music, but it's sad such a young musician died. RIP

 

Right! Summer holiday in Norway is booked. I'll be spending a few nights on a sailboat in the Oslo fjord, a few nights in a tent at the Midgardsblot festival and a few more nights in a penthouse in downtown Oslo. Sounds like a plan

 

That does sound like a nice plan, Trin. Hope you have a great time.


As for me, kinda bad news. My uni decided to screw me over (as usual) with the exam dates, so I'll have to skip the Amorphis concert. Luckily for me, I though this might happen so I didn't buy the ticket, but it sucks nonetheless.

 

I was lucky enough to feel a M 4.2 intraplate earthquake below Bay of Bothnia. Cool experience that gives some perspective of what some parts of the world have more frequently.

 

Nothing cool about earthquakes, imho. We get them relatively often and it's always scary as shit when I actually feel it.
And there's no getting used to them :/

 

I understand, from my standpoint it was just a cool thing as a lesson. The strongest Nordic quake recorded by a seismometer was 6.2 in the Arctic Ocean, and that could've been really bad to hit a more populated region. Luckily such a strong quake is once-in-a-lifetime thing here.

 

The strongest in what is now Bulgarian territory was 7.8 in 1904, in Krupnik, on the Struma fault. I think it is the strongest earthquake on record in Europe and has destroyed several villages and towns in the area.
Sofia, which also lies on a major fault line, in the past has been hit by several strong ones and has suffered serious destruction.
The last strong one was in 2012, 30 km south of Sofia - 5.6 and two serious aftershocks of 4.7 and 4.2. It happened at night and was one of the scariest experiences in my life - everything was shaking, the building and the furniture were creaking, stuff was falling on the floor. The worst thing were the wind chimes jangling like crazy. Fortunately the wall of the dam in the area held and there was no serious damage - mostly cracked walls, fallen chimneys and broken roof tiles, but it was awfully scary.
Otherwise we get many weak earthquakes and we don't even feel most of them, but every now and then we get reminded of Earth's wrath.

 

I hate earthquakes. We try to stay blasé about them -- nothing you can do about it -- and they definitely break any boredom we might have been feeling, but I'd rather avoid any big ones. We had a 7.2 hit 400km away that was still big enough to rock us like waves in the ocean; big, slow waves that had pictures swinging rather than rattling. Felt like the ground was rocking about a foot at a time.

 

The fact we're topping this EU Nanny State Index is a complete lack of surprise. Other interesting countries are the populous UK and Germany, who are pretty much polar opposites.

 

Sadly I am not surprised to see Germany that far down the list. In theory we do have i.e. smoke bans in a lot of public places, but neither does anyone give a shit nor does anyone actually sees to it ppl stick to the ban.

 

No, being down there is better than topping the index. It measures the amount of restrictive legislation, taxation and overall prices of these products, not the amount of smoking bans in public places or anything like that. We definitely didn't want to be top, haha.

 

Quite frankly, I wouldn't mind if prices for alcohol or tobacco would go through the roof here. Anything to make it more difficult to get hold of this shit would be great. I think it is high time to ban adds for alcohol and cigarettes or forbid to put special offers on alcoholic beverages in supermarkets. Living in Berlin you see how it's getting out of hand on a daily basis. Beyond disgusting.