Bikers are Awesome! The NYPD eats it's words, and donuts!

I am so happy to link to this article. Bikes are the best! Boo to the NYPD for sucking really hard. Basically, the deal is that the NYPD hates bikers and especially the Critical Mass rides, which are times at which bikers all over the world take a bike ride. The rides are not parades - there are no organizers, there are no leaders, there are no floats and no prizes. It is simply a time when bikers get out on the street to remind motorists that bikes are traffic too, and that we have a right to safely use the streets. The NYPD has repeatedly arrested people for biking lawfully during these times and has even resorted to calling bikers terrorists and employing undercover police officers to "infiltrate" the biking community.

Since the article will expire soon, here is an exerpt.

"The city had demanded that they [crit mass riders] be barred from assembling in Union Square Park, the customary gathering point before each month's ride, unless someone obtained a permit. The judge said that made little sense because anyone could turn up in the park and no permit was required for "casual use."

As a practical matter, Justice Stallman wrote, the city did not explain how it could tell the difference between people who were gathering for the Critical Mass rides from anyone else who happened to be in the park. The city's assumption that anyone with a bicycle could be barred "is simply guilt by association," he wrote.

The judge said the city had wrongly argued that the Critical Mass rides were a form of parade or procession that required a permit because the riders "travel en masse." Following the city's reasoning, the judge wrote, "New Yorkers commuting over the Brooklyn Bridge on bicycles during a transit strike could be considered as 'bicycling en masse.' " Such a restriction, he said, raised constitutional concerns.

"Riding a bicycle on city streets is lawful conduct, as long as one observes the applicable traffic laws and rules," he wrote.


See also here, here, and here for "biased" accounts.

Here is a link to an AWESOME group who is helping the poor bikers who got arrested. Kudos!

Hiking, the Lineup, and Really Pointy Shoes

Hi Folks! Sorry for the long break. I've actually been trying NOT to write in the blog for a week - mostly so that I can feel a little more ingrained in Finland, if you know what I mean. It's not that writing in the blog is bad, it's just that I found myself relying on it a little too much. However, I still miss you all and want to keep in touch. I've also been alot busier this week and have missed talking to lots of people on Skype! Sorry! I hope to catch you all soon

Thanks SO MUCH to everyone who sent me a package (Mom, Toby, Hannah, and ??? - I have one to pick up at the posti today). It is so wonderful to have such great friends and family. It's really appreciated (esp. the adapter and the socks).

Thanks to Toby, I can now post more pictures! Check the Flickr stream for them. I'll put a few more here.

I went hiking this weekend with a few people. We went to Kanavouri, or "Chicken Mountain", about 10k from Jyväskylä. It was really nice. The weather was not too cold and there was alot of snow to play with.

This is Maria. She laughs alot. Here she is being shocked at the aliens which were descending onto Kanavouri (they changed their minds at the last second). She is quite nice.
This is Tatiana. She is from Belgium. She is small but surprisingly stong. Also she makes a mean pasta sauce, and is quite nice.
This is Karoline. She is a Finnish woman whose parents speak Swedish. She is also new to Jyväskylä. She is also quite nice.
I have no idea what this is. The Finns are really strange sometimes with their artwork/public address systems. It, however, is quite nice.


On Friday, Pekka invited me to his house for a sauna and dinner. We had a good time and talked alot of math. We also drank alot. I admit it, my drinking skills are totally subpar. After dinner he showed me one the one of the best movies of all time.

I have finally have some idea about the problem I'm working on. That's good news. Speaking of math, I better get going!

Types of Snow: The sticky wet kind, the really dry cold powdery kind, the hardend ice-ball kind, the frozen and packed down pavement kind.

Race, Identity, Nationalism...You know, small talk.

In the past few days I've met a lot of Finns. My "source" was Café Lingua, a night organized by the international center where people can get together and practice various languages. I sat at the English table, because that's where are the Finns were (they're devious that way). Anyway, we had a really nice conversation and I got to practice suomea (finnish) as well. Afterwards, we went to a bar and I got introduced all around. Jackpot!

The people I met were a little older than most of the other international students, and so I seemed to get along better with them (how many undergrads do you know that would enjoy a conversation with me?). We talked alot about politics, and in particular about nationalism, identity, and race. It seems many finns identify with the problems faced by Muslim immigrants to Scandinavia - I have met a lot of finns with one (or two) non-native parent(s). Does this make them less "Finnish"? What impact does this have on their daily life? Is it easier to be "accepted" if you look "finnish" than if you do not? Interesting questions. As the anthropologists would say, "It's more complicated than you would expect, and everything is important."

I was outside this weekend for a while too. I went on a hike with a couple buddies. It was -28 C. That equals COLD F. Despite that it was REALLY beautiful. It is a strange sensation to stand in the middle of a huge lake. We have plans to go to a national park this sunday. It will be warmer this time, I hope!

I've been doing a lot of talking in seminars lately. Last week was a 2 hour study seminar, monday was another 2 hour study seminar, and today was a 2 hour research seminar. Hopefully 6 hours of speaking in 2 weeks is enough for the whole semester. I can't tell if the talks were well received or not, because the finns don't really express emotion about that kind of thing. So I'll just assume that it was the best talk they ever heard, and that they were just struck speechless by my incredible eloquence.

Tonight is a Finnish movie night with my "buddy group". Hopefully it'll be fun, but it's always wierd to watch movies with people you don't know that well because you can't really talk to each other. Despite huge popular concensus to the contrary, I don't think movies are a very social activity.

Ok, time for more math. By the way Toby recently resurrected the Love/Peeve tradition from my old blog (please don't link to my archive in a comment, folks, let the poor thing RIP). In the spirit of "sharing", I'm going to take an idea from her. At the end of each post from here on out, I'll list a category and give three things in the category. For example, Toby wrote

Tea Types: ginger, lemon, green (decaf), white, peppermint

Feel free to comment with your own additions

Here is todays category:

Mug Decorations: collegiate, floral, joke about being over the hill.

Hi Everyone! Sorry for the late post. This week has been pretty busy. I've been doing a ton of math, but I'm not sure how productive it's been. I finally had an idea for the problem I'm working on, but the constants keeping going to infinity (math geeks will know how annoying that is). Anyway, lets see what has happened this week.

Well, for one thing, it's been snowing ALOT. There's about a foot on the ground now and it's supposed to continue snowing until sunday, when it will be -25C and therefore too cold to snow. I'm quite proud of my biking skills. My bike, which I've dubbed "The Dingo" is not at all suited to deep snow. It has road tires and metal fenders. You might ask, what difference do metal fenders make? A big one. Today, after leaving my bike outside for a few hours, I found that the wheels were completely immovable. At first I thought the cassette or freewheel had broken, but they appeared ok. Finally I realized that snow had been caught between the tires and the fenders, and since the fenders are metal, the snow had frozen into ice, which had frozen to the tires. Thus, the bike would not move an inch. At the time, I was outside a coffee shop in the city center. Around the corner was the pedestrian mall, which has a heated street (yet another awesome thing about finland). So I lay the bike on its side on the sidewalk, and went to have another coffee. My bike was not stolen for two reasons. A) Nobody steals bikes in Jyväskylä (welfare state + university = no poor people = no bike theft) and B) there is a lock built into my bike which immobilizes the rear wheel. Anyway, after the extra coffee everything had melted nicely and I was off again.

I had dinner with the italians tonight. I thought, "wow, I better impress them with my food skills," so I baked a loaf of focaccia bread this morning (using only a water glass and soup spoon for measuring!) and bought a nice bottle of Chianti. So I was a little disappointed to find them using bottled generic pasta sauce! It was not so yummy. My bread was good though, and they were impressed.

My "buddy program" on tuesday went well. We were supposed to have 4 Finns and 4 Foreigners, but it ended up being 2 Finns and 4 Foreigners. Alas. We went for pizza after the meeting. I should say here, in Finland every pizzeria is more than just a pizzeria. It is also a kebab joint and mexican place. That is to say, no restaurant here (except Soppa Baari) seems to sell just one kind of food. They all feel the need to branch out in strange directions. And the name and atmosphere DON'T always indicate the best food. For example, the pizza at Pizza Maria is pretty terrible, but the kebab is good. However, at Sabor Latino, you don't want to get a burritto without a side of Pepto, but the pizza is decent. I think I'll stick to cooking my own meals.