Every fourth day

Today its quite miserable and I am happy to be inside a warm computer room. I walked to uni a few hours ago and in the 15 minute period that it takes me to walk from my house to the university, I was soaked to the bone. It has been quite strange to be in Wales during winter and look up to see a cloudless sky. Now its more normal. I went to the travel nurse yesterday to discuss the list of vaccinations I need, should take and are recommended to take on the trip to Kenya - Tanzania - Zambia in May. Yellow fever and hepatitis A booster are the ones I will take for sure, she recommended hepatitis B and Cholera, while I refused rabies and a rare breed of meningitis. Of course its a matter of playing with your own health if you do not protect yourself from some of these diseases, but there is no need to go overboard with getting yourself jabbed with all of these things either. A good dose of common sense is sometimes better than a bruised arm. Refuse ice cubes in your drinks, wash your hands at every possible moment and especially before eating, wash all fruits and vegetables, or better yet, peal all vegetables and fruits, do not drink unboiled water, use purifying tablets in the water bottles bought from shops and when in doubt, step away from the food. Easy! Another factor that will save you a lot of headache is to mentally prepare yourself that there is a high probability that you will be ill at least once during your trip, as you are going into a totally foreign bacteria environment for which you have no immunity against, so its very likely that you will struck down with some sort of stomach bug. So prepare, take your own toilet paper (just in case of emergency) stack up on medicine that will help to nurse you back to eating solid food again and off you go!!!

There is this city / town in central Finland called Mikkeli, where this 63-year-old local man has become somewhat of a legend. He has on average according to computerised police records, which due to sheer number of cases only cover the last 5 years, has been arrested every fourth day and put in jail to sober up. He celebrated his 400th night in jail on the 13th of February. The police, however, did not bake him a cake to commemorate this joyful occasion. The man's crime is that he on occasion, or statistically every fourth day, has a bit too much to drink in a public place. He is not a menace to society or a risk to anyone else except himself, a valid reason for the police to book his usual cell for him for the night. On these sort of occasions, when you read something like this, its quite a proud moment for me to celebrate the fact that I am a Finn. Perhaps a pint at the local pub 'The Woodman' would be the prefect way to celebrate my Finnishness.

News from America now. US Air Force Staff Sergeant Michelle Manhart, 30, has been relieved of her duty and stripped of her rank. Michelle, who has served in the Air Force since 1994, thought it was time she made a little extra cash on the side. The busty brunette stripped for Playboy, showing all the assets God gave her in some photos, while posing partly in uniform in others. Michelle shows in her photos how to stand at attention, how to salute and other vital military know-how. The Air Force, however did not see the educational value of her pictures, because according to a spokesman of the Air Force her actions did not meet the 'high standards expected of airmen'. Michelle;
...decided she had enough and went to show someone else her assets. The row centres on moral decency and on breaking military rules. By using parts of her uniform and acting in a military fashion, she disgraced the institution of the Air Force by associating it with images of erotic nature. As she was an employee of the state at the time, she was under contract to the rules and regulations of the institution and as such by breaking these rules she was subject to punishment. Loosing one's stripes is common punishment in the military sector. Its a good thing that she did not disgrace the flag or end up burning her uniform or something, because then she would not have got away with just a proposed pay-cut and a scolding. When it comes to the yanks, they don't take kindly to people who mess with their symbols.

'Mother' Russia keeping an eye on the boys

Its Valentine's Day tomorrow. I wish I was on a desert island celebrating it, rather than here where you can't walk down the street without something red, something romantic, something commercial smacking you in the face. Do not get me wrong, I think its a fabulous idea, to celebrate a day where friends and lovers openly acknowledge how wonderful the people around them are. Well, now its mostly about your lover, rather than your friends, but I think you can also tell your friends how lovely they are. On the 15th you can take it all back and happily walk around town with them having toilet paper stuck to their shoe. You have noticed it a long time ago of course, but its too classic to stop it. But the commercial aspect of this day has made it as infuriating as Christmas, the good thing is that they do not have any annoying Valentine's Day song, which they start playing 2 months in advance. So the point I am really hard trying to make is that I would rather get a good bottle of wine, some candles, a blanket and some good relaxing music. Then spend a nice evening with Pearl sitting on the sofa, talking, laughing and making jokes... in candle light. To me that would be more romantic than rushing around like a drunk Russian looking for something to buy which will express how much you love someone. A good friend of mine, Bakyt from Kyrgyzstan, has embraced the old Soviet way with open arms. The more expensive your gift is, the more you love that special somebody. Even if its so kitsch that you cannot bear to wear it in sunlight. He has infected many people with such propaganda.

Talking of things ex-Soviet, the Russian army is having tough time adjusting to the modern world. Last year there was a high profile court case against a Sgt Alexander Sivyakov from a tank academy from the Ural mountains who thought it was funny to bully a young conscript. He made the 18-year-old boy was made to crouch so long that blood circulation to his legs was cut off, then beaten nearly to death. Later on he developed gangrene and they had to castrate him and chop off his legs. The sergeant got 4 years for this, but even if the sentence was a bit on the short side, Russian prisons are no picnic, so 4 years might feel like a decade. Then again today, the publicly humiliated Russian army is in the eye of another media hurricane. Now it seems that senior officers in the army have forced the new conscripts out into the streets of St. Petersburg to make money as male prostitutes. They of course don't get to keep the money, but at least they have balls to show at the end of it. With HIV and AIDS running rampant in Russia, being able to keep your balls perhaps is just a mere consolation price if you get infected. People treat you like dirt after that, you are infected and dirty in their eyes, as good as dead. ... Well, anyway, a mother of a new conscript made a complaint and now the Soldiers' Mothers Association is on the case.

Which is more shocking than all of this, that Jo O'Meara from Celebrity Big Brother is not eating and is becoming anorexic. Apparently the negative press has got to her. Its quite the shock and front page news for the Daily Mirror, The Star and all those important papers. At least she did not go into rehab for swearing.

Anyway, happy VALENTINE'S DAY everyone. I hope you get a nice cuddle.

swimming with the fishes

Its a fabulous day outside, well looking out the window anyway. I am in the computer room listening to Bruce Springsteen and some quite horrible (in my humble opinion) 1980s music and I do hope that nobody heard me listening to 'Holding out for a hero' and 'I'm still standing'. All those jokes about me looking like Elton John, which cut me deeply, have stopped the moment I got rid of my glasses and now that the hair is getting longer than Elton's. Having lived through that horrible experience, I do not think badly of my bullies, *sniff*, even though if they do not watch themselves, *even bigger sniff*, they might end up like Jade Goody - chubby, stupid, racist and alone. You know who I am talking about!!! :)

Something interesting in the news today and something quite different. There is this Slovenian born 52-year-old man, Martin Strel, who wants to swim the Amazon river. Its not quite the same thing as swimming the English Channel or swimming the Seine, as this river has quite a nasty list of inhabitants: sharks, pirhanas, crocodiles, a vast array of snakes and all sorts of really 'interesting' fishes. For example, there is this fish that the locals call the 'Brazilian vampire fish', which can track you down even in that murky water as it is attracted by blood and urine. Why its called a 'vampire' is because, looking like an eel, it will slither bravely into territory where no fish has gone before, attach itself to you and have a 'wee' drink of your blood. I don't really know what happens after, does it just remove itself from a dubious part of your body and go, or does it leave a small itching present behind. Perhaps we can ask Martin when he gets out of the water after his daily swim, as he might be dragging a few of these vampires in his wetsuit. Its apparently going to take 70 days. Good luck to him. If you want you can follow Martin on the web; http://www.amazonswim.com/main.php

Started doing research for my final article for the 'Risk Reporting' course today. Its quite an interesting course, but as most of us are more occupied with the looming dissertation deadline, this course is not getting the maximum effort it deserves. Leaving the dissertation aside, there is something about the theory we talk about, which makes me think of Jurgen Habermas and his 'crazy ass' way of expressing the simplest of things and thus the connection between the two German writers is not a positive one. I am researching material to write about the global warming impact here in Wales and this, I must admit, is pretty interesting stuff. As it is my last worthless essay / article of my academic career, perhaps I will put some 'extra' effort into writing it. Will keep you posted.

Enjoy the sun, the rain, the stars and the wind. Most of them, according to scientists, will change and will be more brutal in the future. So enjoy it while it lasts.