Posts

Showing posts with the label Finland Gist

Why the World faces global wine shortage.

The world is facing a wine shortage, with global consumer demand already significantly outstripping supply, a report has warned. The research by America's Morgan Stanley financial services giant says demand for wine "exceeded supply by 300m cases in 2012". It describes this as "the deepest shortfall in over 40 years of records". Last year, production also dropped to its lowest levels in more than four decades. Global production has been steadily declining since its peak in 2004, when supply outweighed demand by about 600m cases.

Why Finland fell in love with the word "SAUNAS".

Tamminiemi is now a museum dedicated to Kekkonen. Visitors can even bathe in his private wooden sauna - for a mere 8,000 euros (£6,700, $10,800). All Finns have a favourite sauna. For 35-year-old Minna Kurjenluoma it is the one her grandfather built for the family in the 1940s on the shore of a lake next to a forest in north-east Finland. Language of the sauna *.kiuas- sauna stove *.kiuaskivet- stones in/on the sauna stove *.loyly- steam, heat, humidity and temperature created by throwing water on hot stones *.kiulu- water bucket, usually made of wood *.loylykauha- ladle for throwing water on the stove *.vihta/vasta- whisk made of fresh birch branches for beating the body to aid circulation. *.laude- elevated platform to sit on *.laudeliina- special towel or disposable paper for sitting on *.lakeinen- opening in the ceiling of a smoke sauna where the smoke escapes during heating *.saunatonttu- sauna elf who, if you behave badly in the sauna, will become angry and burn it d...

Why Finland fell in love with the word "SAUNAS".

Most Finns consider traditional smoke saunas to be the best because of the very softloylythey produce. They take about five hours to heat and produce soot which covers the wooden walls in a thick black layer. The benches are scrubbed clean but bathers are advised not to lean against the wall, unless they want to get a sooty back. Unlike wood-burning saunas, the smoke saunas use a stove without a chimney. The smoke clears through a small hole in the ceiling before you enter. You can still smell it - a pleasant sensation which transports your mind to the forest - but you do not see it or feel it in your eyes. No clothes or swimsuits are allowed, for the same reason that you would not wear anything in the bath or shower. Every part of the body needs to be properly cleaned. Men and women visit the sauna separately, unless they are members of the same family. Parents go with their children, and everyone is comfortable with that - at least until the children become teenagers, when they te...

Why Finland fell in love with the word "SAUNAS".

The only Finnish word to make it into everyday English is "sauna". But what it is, and how much it means to Finns, is often misunderstood - and it's definitely not about flirtation or sex. In a dimly lit wood panelled room, naked men sit in silence, sweating. One beats himself repeatedly with birch branches. Another stands, takes a ladle of water and carefully pours it over the heated stones of the stove in the corner. There is a hissing noise. Within seconds a wave of moist heat creeps up around your ankles and over your legs before enveloping your whole body. Your pores open up and sweat covers you from head to toe. This bathing ritual has been performed across Finland for thousands of years, ever since the first settlers dug a ditch in the ground and heated a pile of stones. Water was thrown on the hot stones to give off a vapour known asloyly. Each sauna is considered to have its own character and its own distinctiveloyly. The better theloyly, the more enjoyable ...

Greenpeace activist: Russian court 'corrupt'.

A court in the Russian Arctic port of Murmansk has remanded 22 activists from a Greenpeace ship in custody for two months for allegedly trying to seize an oil platform. Another eight people from the Arctic Sunrise were detained for three days pending a new hearing. The activists - who hail from a total of 18 countries - are being held pending a "piracy" inquiry, but Greenpeace says the activists were staging a legal, peaceful protest. Among those detained was Iain Rogers from Devon. He said the activists had been made to comply with the Russian authorities against their will and that the justice system was "corrupt".

Russia remands Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise activists

A court in the Russian Arctic port of Murmansk has remanded 20 activists from a Greenpeace ship in custody for two months for allegedly trying to seize an oil platform. The crew of the Arctic Sunrise ship, who hail from 18 nations, are accused of "piracy" against an oil platform. Russian coastguards intercepted the ship on 19 September after two activists tried to haul themselves onto an offshore drilling platform operated by the Russian company Gazprom. Greenpeace says the activists were staging a legal, peaceful protest. Warning shots were fired as they were apprehended. Watch footage of the incident.

Greenpeace to appeal over activists held in Russia.

The environmental organisation Greenpeace is to appeal against the detention of 30 of its activists in Russia over a protest in the Arctic. It demanded their immediate release, after a court in Murmansk remanded 22 of them in custody for two months pending an investigation. Eight other activists face a new hearing on Sunday. The crew of the Arctic Sunrise ship, who hail from 18 nations, are accused of "piracy" against an oil platform. However, President Vladimir Putin has said the Greenpeace activists are clearly not pirates, though they may have broken international law. Led by Captain Peter Henry Willcox, who previously commanded Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior ship when it was blown up by French agents in a New Zealand port in 1985, the activists were protesting against the Arctic oil and gas industry. Greenpeace says drilling for oil in the Arctic puts a delicate environment at risk. Russian coastguards intercepted the ship on 19 September after two activists trie...