If you live in Kuopio, or you are an attentive tourist, you are likely to notice a peculiarity of the city in a matter of days, weeks at most. Most locals I have talked to agree: Kuopio lacks a few cozy coffee shops with opening hours beyond 7pm that have a warm interior design, comfortable chairs and couch, jazzy background music, good coffee, tea and pastries. (A library with books, free wifi and owners that are editors of a blog with the latest & coolest curiosities and news of a living in Kuopio.) Most locals I have talked to agree, this is unfortunate. I think, there are at least two coffee shops that match the description best: Kahvilla Kaneli and Fado.

The first, and unfortunately up to now last, time I found Kaneli open while passing by a few weeks ago, I finally had a cup of tea and, out of curiosity, I just had to ask the waitress, a minute short the closing: “Anteeksi, what is the reason for the late afternoon or early evening closing?” She didn’t know exactly but her guess was that it would not be cost-effective.

Hard question. So, here is the experiment, drafted this evening with a friend while sitting on a park bench (and dreaming of an open Kaneli?). If you happen to live in Kuopio, we would like to hear your opinion. Write a comment. Would you like to see Kaneli or Fado open just a little longer during our endless summer evenings? Would it not be cost-effective? How can they attract clientele? We would like to hear what you think. (And don’t forget to invite your friends to the discussion here, a tweet will already do it!)

Here is the deal. If we get back some enthusiasm we will start an online petition to collect names and comments of locals who would like to see our cozy coffee shops to be open just a little longer, during the week or weekends, in the summer or winter, as it fits. We will inform the owners of both Kaneli and Fado about the online petition.

Can we motivate the owners? Or are they right with the cost-effectiveness argument?

Tervetuloa.

It was on Monday, but I expressed my first wish for a happy women’s day on Saturday. I happened to stand in a kitchen with an African woman. She was meticulously cleaning her dishes and everything she possibly got dirty as I had never witnessed before in this particular instance of kitchen. When she left, I said goodbye & happy women’s day on Monday. She had no idea a women’s day exists.

It came to me that I could wish every woman I know and I would meet on Monday, March 8th, a happy women’s day. Beside a well-meant wish, I must admit, I plotted a little experiment. How do women react to someone wishing them a happy women’s day? My next wish went to my mother on Sunday who replied she wouldn’t have recalled the day without me mentioning it. My first wish on Monday was to a woman from Spain who knew the day was sometime that week. And the day passed by me wishing a few times happy women’s day. Two reactions are memorable. A dutch woman replied “thanks, you are the first” — early afternoon, I wonder if I was the last as well. A Russian woman knew about the day and was sad in the evening as she didn’t get any flowers. Not seriously, I think.

For sure, I didn’t have a chance to perform a stratified statistical study but the experiment was interesting nonetheless. Aside from plain ignorance, I would summarize that the majority obviously didn’t seem to care about women’s day as much as I was expecting. On a side note. Did you know there is an International Men’s Day? Not followed by as many countries as women’s day, switching from February 23 in its early history to November 19 later, almost a century younger than women’s day, I can’t help but feel a little amused by such days which, at least for some, seem to have no space in personal calendars. But that’s just me (& now go and call me a jerk …)

But what about Pi-day and Pi-time? To celebrate the mathematical constant with the Greek letter π as its symbol and value 3.14 plus, computed, almost 2.7 trillion digits (as of January 2010) today, March 14 (3-14) some, perhaps the geeky more than the gender centric — not meaning to discriminate who is both geeky and gender centric — are likely to wear a Pi-shirt. Of course, one can extend the idea and introduce Pi-time on Pi-day, i.e. 3:14 on March 14; Dude, what time is? Dude, it’s pi time. And because in life the next link is typically only a small step away, today marks Albert Einstein‘s 131 birthday.

I have been shaving my beard roughly 75 times a year using constant flowing water. This is, well, nonsensical. The water used, for the purpose of cleaning the blades once every other stroke, is minimal compared to the water wasted, which flows unused down the sink.

It took me half of my life to realize this.

Recently, I adopted a slightly modified technique. Instead of using constant flowing water to clean the blades, I fill up the sink with some water and clean the blades in the little reservoir. It works perfectly.

Today, I did a short experiment. The question is, how much water do I save with the slightly modified procedure? Of course, the result depends on a number of factors, blade quality, water pressure, beard length come to mind.

The results of the experiment. For the new technique, I need roughly 0.5 liter water. For the old technique, replicated this morning, I need the amount of water that equates to filling five times the sink. The capacity of the sink is 7 liter. This results in consumption of 35 liter for a single shaving session. The new technique, is an optimization of 2 orders of magnitude. I need 70 times less water while shaving, from now on.

With my roughly 75 shaving sessions a year, I consume 2,625 liter water with the old procedure; I consume 37.5 liter with the new procedure, a year. Over 15 years, I consumed 39,375 liter; would I have been born a little smarter, I would have consumed 562.5 liter.

I hope the math is right. Of course, this is an approximation. Nevertheless, I think it is undeniable that using constant flowing water for the purpose of wet shaving is nonsensical.

Further, I believe this is a nice example on how we urgently need smart metering in housing. We need fine-grained information on how much resources each appliance consumes, energy, water, etc. I think, most of the time we unconsciously waste resources and smart metering could be a way to become more conscious about what comes in and goes out of our own four walls. Ideally, the smart system would not just tell us how much we consume but compare it with an average. If we are above the average, the system should suggest “what others do.” If we are below the average, it should ask “what are we doing.”

Aggregate the collective intelligence such that the next time I don’t need half of my life to realize peanuts.

The Obama administration will detail on Thursday a wide-ranging plan to overhaul financial regulation by subjecting hedge funds and traders of exotic financial instruments, now among the biggest and most freewheeling players on Wall Street, to potentially strict new government supervision, officials said. (NYT)

Share your thoughts: How will stock markets react on this?

I recently argued, massive capital moves by the big players of the financial industry is what moves stock markets, and stock markets reflect their opinion and confidence. Of course, I don’t know this, in fact I would say the statements are nothing but gut instinct. Nevertheless, my prediction is, markets will go down. My guess is, those folks don’t like government’s nose in their affairs.

We encourage you to invite friends to the discussion. Comments should be in English language. If you don’t feel comfortable writing in English, feel free to drop me an email (markus.stocker@gmail.com) with your name (or nickname), your email, and your comment. I’ll translate it and publish your original comment with the translation.