Blood Donation Suomalaisittain

Posted on March 6, 2010 by Markus Stocker, Recommended 0 | Recommend | E-Mail | Comment

(For a note regarding the title, please see previous post.)

I think, it was September 2009 when I first asked a colleague for information regarding blood donation in Finland. He wasn’t familiar with the details but he gave the first hint: the address of the local Red Cross Finland Blood Service. After I first visited the center, I learned that donating blood in Finland would not be as straightforward as I hoped.

First, you need a Finnish social identity number, which I already had. Here, however, the requirements I fulfilled ended. Next, you need an official Finnish identification with picture. I thought, oh, well, I suppose I won’t be donating blood in Finland, saddened. You need one of (i) Finnish passport, (ii) Finnish identity card, (iii) Finnish driver’s license, (iv) Kela card (the Social Insurance Institution of Finland).

I tried Kela first, after all it would be good to have coverage here anyhow. No luck, I’m currently paid for 15 hours / week, required are 18 hours / week. What else? I’m sure I won’t get a Finnish passport. Do I get a Finnish identity card? Unlikely, I thought. Driver’s license? Do I want to go through this?

Some day between Christmas and New Year. I went to the police, with a Red Cross Finland Blood Service business card and a list of the four cards, in Finnish, and asked for directions; which one can I get? A Finnish identity card! Sorry, what? I’m not a citizen, how is it possible I get a Finnish identity card?

I need to have a permanent resident status. Back in September, I did register as a temporary resident, unclear on what advantage a permanent status would give me. However, I was confident I would fulfill the requirement for a permanent resident status, i.e. a work contract for at least two years. (Wish it would be that easy for the US, actually, no, everywhere.) Thus, I went to the immigration office to change my status. They did, almost instantly, including a warm welcome smile, I think partially motivated by my tentative Kiitos, hei hei, ja Onnellista Uutta Vuotta (Thank you, goodbye & Happy New Year). I needed a new passport picture as well, the one I had didn’t fit the model. Back at the police things went really smooth.

Two weeks ago, I got the Finnish identify card, my first in a foreign country. It didn’t take me long to visit Red Cross Finland Blood Service again, confident I would match all requirements now. I did.

It might sound like a lot of troubles to go through for something like blood donation. Perhaps. I would not want to miss anything of the experience, though. First, blood donation is a reasonable thing to do, if you can. Second, I did enjoy to learn the differences to what I’m used to. Third, I have never been given so much attention while donating blood like here in Finland, notably the nurse bringing me multivitamins juice during the donation, almost worried I might run out of liquids. But the best part has been a new friend who joined me, kiitos, for me the first time I had shared a donation upon my suggestion.

On a side note. I previously reported on what donated blood is tested for in Switzerland. In Finland, the list is longer.

• ABO, Rh and Kell (K) blood group components
• HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus
• HBA, or hepatitis A virus
• HBV, or hepatitis B virus
• HCV, or hepatitis C virus
• The Syphilis bacterium
• Parvovirus

(Source: Red Cross Finland Blood Service “Lend an Arm Donor Information Pack.”)

Is There Anybody Out There?

Posted on March 2, 2010 by Markus Stocker, Recommended 1 | Recommend | E-Mail | Comment

A step ahead the threshold,
a hand afar the frame,
the door behind you
slowly turns to rest,
appearing weak and tired
of withholding the chill.

I sneak past like a ghost
not caring for its lament.

Your pace is slow, emphatic
on the door’s weariness.

I get ahead of you
when, suddenly,
a gleam of will to reach
outside your self-built wall
as unintelligible words,
to my ears, resounds.

“Excuse me?”
my answer to you over the wall.

“I was talking to someone else,”
you reassure.

Just, there is no one else
so no response is heard.

(At this point in the plot, the album’s protagonist, Pink is attempting to reach anybody outside of his self-built wall. The repeated question “is there anybody out there?” suggests that no response is heard. Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall, Pink Floyd. Kiitos.)

Exams Suomalaisittain

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Markus Stocker, Recommended 0 | Recommend | E-Mail | 1 Comment

A note regarding the title. Suomi; Suomalainen; Suomalaisittain. The first one is easy, just point to Finland on a map. The second one is like in Suomalainen kielen, i.e. Finnish language. Now, the third one is where the fun begins. Suomalaisittain is the distributive adverbial case, one of 12 adverbial cases that exist in addition to the 15 cases of Finnish language, and means “in a Finnish way.” So, this post is about university exams à la Suomalainen — or Suomalaisittain. (No guarantee I got this right.)

I graduated from the University of Zurich — which I recently discovered to be #2 in Environmental Economics, according to RePEc — with, therefore, university exams à la Suisse. (More accurately, I should probably say university exams à la Institut für Informatik.) What follows is a curiosity that adds to the recent one on Finnish grading.

There are at least two rather distinct differences in exams à la Suomalainen vs. à la Suisse. In Switzerland I was used to 90 minutes examinations; in Finland the standard seems to be four hours. In Switzerland, time is a scarce resource and one has to regurgitate as fast as possible the answers to a long list of detailed questions. In Finland, time is abundant, at least at first sight. The second, and more important, difference is the examination form. In Switzerland, at least in my experience, exams were composed of lots of questions, some multiple choice, and most required a few words or sentences for a complete answer. In Finland, the exams I had up to now all had four or five questions. The answer is an essay.

Now, at first the Finnish way seems to be all the more easy. Perhaps it is. However, I believe there is a huge difference. While the Swiss way is testing knowledge for depth, the Finnish way tests depth as well as breadth. While you need to know the details an essay also shows whether or not you connect the dots and understand how things relate.

I must say, I am still adapting to this form of examination after a career of exams à la Suisse and my current belief is that exams à la Suomalainen are at worst a curious variation but most likely a lot smarter.

Ihanaa Ystävänpäivää

Posted on February 14, 2010 by Markus Stocker, Recommended 0 | Recommend | E-Mail | 2 Comments

In our modern world of the news running fast and the hip spreading wide it is sometimes easy to forget that what we think to be the accepted standard is a belief that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

I think, I’m probably correct in stating that most people I know across countries and continents on this day celebrate Valentine’s Day, provided the 14th of February is memorable in first place. In fact, most celebrate a particular embodiment of Valentine’s Day, namely, the flowers & chocolate giving among lovers — to the extent that some perceive the day of the red hearts as depressing.

Not in Finland. What Google translates with Valentine’s Day is, in Finnish, more accurately translated into Friend’s Day. In fact, the root of the Finnish word Ystävänpäivä is Ystävä which is translated in English into ‘friend’. (Päivä means ‘day’.) And so I experienced this week that what I have been taking for granted is one of those days during which Finnish people use to give postcards among friends.

Incidentally, I find the Finnish tradition of Ystävänpäivä so much more loving. Friend’s Day not only includes your lover but your past lover, your friends and families as well.

Therefore, a Wonderful Friend’s Day!

(Ihanaa Ystävänpäivää!)

«It’s The Bank Secrecy Law, Stupid!»

Posted on February 7, 2010 by Markus Stocker, Recommended 1 | Recommend | E-Mail | 2 Comments

The German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has spoken: “Switzerland’s bank secrecy law has no place in the 21st century.” For starters, what in Switzerland in German is called Bankkundengeheimnis — bank client confidentiality– is the safeguard of financial privacy, not the secrecy of the bank, as I argued almost a year ago.

I’m sure Mr. Schäuble is a reasonable man and I respect his opinion. Cross-border tax cheats as well as banks that resort to illegal practices are a problem that likely contributes to the financial destabilization of countries [1] and is probably pronounced in our ever more global world and in times of recession. However, I’m not sure if stating that “we will disestablish the bank secrecy in Europe” (Wolfgang Schäuble, interview with NZZ) is the most sensible approach.

What Mr. Schäuble does not appreciate is the core idea of the Swiss bank client confidentiality, namely, the freedom of financial privacy. Disestablishing the “bank secrecy” equals to giving up individual freedom and move power into the hands of a few, the likes of Mr. Schäuble or government at large, a dynamic that is inherently problematic. Homo sapiens with power has yet to evolve into knowing and wise.

Freedom never comes for free. With respect to bank client confidentiality, Swiss law sets decisional power into the hands of each individual. You, as holder of a Swiss bank account, are free and responsible to do the right thing, a privilege that comes with a price tag, i.e. to file a tax return faithfully knowing you could do differently. In the interview with NZZ, Mr. Schäuble argues that “he wants to assure the people of Germany that nobody can withdraw from tax liability.” I quote,

Er [Herr Schäuble] wolle vor allem den Menschen in Deutschland das Gefühl geben, dass sich niemand seiner Steuerpflicht entziehen könne. (NZZ)

Do we really trust an anonymous, transient, non-transparent, government made of people more than our neighbor or, for that matter, a random person, that it will not abuse of power? To me, Mr. Schäuble’s parental-like authority sounds more like the irate voice of a teacher who feels the urge to castigate students because (s)he has lost the attention of a few. My voice goes more along Pink Floyd’s lines “We don’t need no education//We don’t need no thought control,” Mr. Schäuble.

On the contrary, I wonder what speaks against introducing bank client confidentiality everywhere.

[1] Werner Vontobel und Viktor Parma. Schurkenstaat Schweiz?: Wie sich der größte Bankenstaat der Welt korrumpiert und andere Länder destabilisiert. C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Januar 2009, ISBN: 978-3-570-01083-9

A Case Against “All-Inclusive Lease”

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Markus Stocker, Recommended 0 | Recommend | E-Mail | Comment

There are different rental lease models w.r.t the structure of your monthly bill. Typically, I have been having the model where a fixed monthly rent was separate from a variable bill for the utilities, e.g. gas, electric, water, cable. In two occasions, including the current rental agreement, the total rent is fixed and includes the variable cost for the utilities. At first, this sounds convenient and it might look “cheaper,” as “there are no utility costs.”

There are a number of problems with the all-inclusive lease, though. Of course, utility costs have to be covered. I suppose, the property management distributes the expected costs according to the square meters to the individual apartments. You bet, the management won’t underestimate the costs. Further, with this model the frugal typically subsidizes the prodigal.

The bigger problem, however, is that with the all-inclusive model I have no incentive, at least not monetary, to do anything to reduce consumption. An example. In the cold of the northern winter a hot morning shower is even more enjoyable and I think, without having any data, my average time under flowing water increased significantly compared to my standard in warmer climates. Knowing how much my longer showers cost me and shorter showers having a positive effect on my monthly bill are likely the only two conditions that may motivate me to step out of the shower quicker, knowing that outside it is subzero. Even though I’m wasting time and resources, the thought of “just another few minutes” typically wins over all environmental concerns. Knowing magnitudes and the ability to influence spending, however, might trigger my self-interest more effectively. I think, this is perfectly fine and the rationale of most [1] of us wealthy. But to do so I need (a) to know how much my habit is costing me and (b) a lease model that reflects my true consumption — and doesn’t “penalize frugality.”

I think, this holds for a number of resources, not just water. It also holds for waste. The town council where I grew up charges a fixed tax for waste management. Other cities I lived in tax the single trash bag. The incentive not to throw almost everything — from kitchen waste to cans and newspapers — to trash is, to a considerable degree, greater if your trash bag is taxed.

[1] “The vast majority of Americans who have taken steps this year to make their homes more energy efficient, 71%, say they did so mostly to save money rather than to improve the environment.” (GALLUP, December 8, 2009)

Environmental Awareness

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Markus Stocker, Recommended 0 | Recommend | E-Mail | Comment

Thinking around environmental economics is starting to be my favorite spare time activity. Not entirely sure if that’s a good thing :> I have been writing about democratization of consumption data, the idea of providing accurate and real-time data and information on individual consumption of natural resources to consumers. Data on individual consumption — today largely hidden — would, thus, be accessible at the source. The naked numbers of data could then be presented as information, for instance, through software that supports individual benchmarking.

Recently, I read the Environmental informatics special issue editorial of the Environmental Modelling & Software journal [1]. I think, the idea of consumption data democratization is related to what the authors call environmental awareness, the “main effect of environmental information.”

In economics, one of the fundamental assumptions on individual human action is rational self-interest. I think, a necessary condition for rational self-interest is complete information, meaning that for an action to be rational w.r.t self-interest one needs to consider all the information associated with the action. Of course, this is impossible given that the information we typically have access to is inaccurate and incomplete. Thus, individual human action is likely to be rational w.r.t self-interest only to a certain degree of probability. An example. Assuming long life is in my self-interest the action of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day is likely to be rational to a different degree of probability depending on whether or not I have the information that I’ll prematurely die of lung cancer (no confounding).

Environmental awareness, of which knowing individual consumption might be a specific instance, enabled among others by information technology might deliver a further brick in the information wall towards more complete and accurate information, a necessary condition for rational human action. For instance, in knowing the cost of my TV on stand-by I might realize that for me the benefit of switching it off is greater than the associated cost (i.e. to poke my laziness). Switching off the TV might, thus, be the rational action w.r.t self-interest.

Knowing the magnitude of the opaque monetary cost of consumption is probably the single most important factor. I argue that, if anything, self-interest motivates most to optimize spending. Which, I think, is perfectly rational (at least on individual scale). The trouble from an environmental perspective is, however, that likely nothing is conserved; as some argue, conserving conserves nothing. I’ll spend the money elsewhere. Probably. However, my capital allocation is likely to be rational to a greater extent, which is good.

An action that is rational w.r.t self-interest is expected to maximize welfare. Typically, only the welfare of those involved in the transaction is, however, considered. Though, it could be that the action causes a problem to somebody else. A different, more informed, action would maximize total welfare, i.e. it makes somebody else better off without making me worse off, a state that, I think, is perfectly in my self-interest. The former case is suboptimal in that my action externalizes costs (borne by somebody else). Quantifying environmental externalities is a particularly daunting task given that the value of environmental assets is not directly reflected in a market [2]. Internalizing such costs is, I think, another necessary condition along the way toward rational human action.

[1] Lorenz M. Hilty, Bernd Page, and Jiří Hřebíček. Environmental informatics. Environmental Modelling & Software, Volume 21, Issue 11, November 2006, Pages 1517-1518, doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2006.05.016

[2] Michael Harris. Environmental Economics. Australian Economic Review, 1996

First Article On Wikipedia

Posted on January 21, 2010 by Markus Stocker, Recommended 0 | Recommend | E-Mail | Comment

Today, I started my first article on Wikipedia, on Environmental Informatics. Environmental Informatics has been around for awhile but Wikipedia had no page for it. I don’t think, there is a reason not to have an article for Environmental Informatics so I started one with a tentative description adapted from Hilty et al. The article doesn’t just look as if it is crying for improvement: that’s exactly what it needs. Thus, if you feel you can contribute, please do.

Even though it might sound silly, to start the first article on Wikipedia was kind of an event for me. After having used Wikipedia for many years, limiting my few contributions to the correction of typos, starting a new article was, well, a different interaction with Wikipedia — I suppose with the community, too.

An acknowledgment goes to an ex-colleague at HP Labs and friend who pointed out the inexistence of the article back in December 2008. Thanks.

The State Of World Religion

Posted on January 18, 2010 by Markus Stocker, Recommended 0 | Recommend | E-Mail | Comment

Recently, I watched Religulous, a documentary with a hint of comedy in which Bill Maher exposes his “take on the current state of world religion.” Maher clearly has his opinion and he does a good job in advertising the one-sided rationale, sometimes by demonstrating it with particularly easy targets (e.g. folks at a theme park). As such, Maher is probably not better than Michael Moore in his anti-capitalist crusade — which has a hint of religion.

Though, Religulous is worth watching, if nothing else for the final few minutes (loaded with flashy images that, once more, unequivocally support Maher’s case) and of those minutes perhaps a single paragraph. I quote,

If the world does come to an end [...] let’s remember what the real problem was: that we learned how to precipitate mass death before we got past the neurological disorder of wishing for it.

Indeed.

New Blog Features

Posted on January 15, 2010 by Markus Stocker, Recommended 0 | Recommend | E-Mail | Comment

This post is dedicated to some of the new features I recently deployed. First, however, I would like to thank the open source community for the uncountable lines of software code it has written and published and for freedom as the freedom to modify code such that it best fits own needs is, I argue, one of the greatest things in software development. Sometimes it takes awhile to understand the code written by others but modifying code is often an awful lot quicker than writing stuff from scratch.

I added some features that hopefully make the blog more interactive and fun to readers. Beside leaving comments, you can now recommend a post to other readers. The most recommended posts are displayed on the right. Thus, if you like a post, click the Recommend link you can find below every post title. (It is also displayed how many times a post has been recommended by readers.) I added the functionality to send a post per e-mail to your friends; to send, select the E-Mail link below every post title. At the bottom of every post, there are a number of icons that allow you to share the link to the post you are reading on social networking sites like Twitter & Co. Simply select the button of your preferred service. Finally, I simplified feed subscription. For both the blog posts and the comments, you can now add the feed directly to a set of services (e.g. Google Reader). If your service is not in the list, you can select the raw RSS 2.0 feed.

Enjoy.

keep looking »

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