With Finnish names, a simple trick makes English speakers sound almost native: if the name has double consonant, put micro-pause between them, voice both consonants. Mik-ko, San-na, Os-si, Jan-ne...

think why that is, before I was able to give a useful answer to "how do you pronounce your name?". Because the better question is "how do *I*, a person who rarely even hears your language, pronounce your name?"

Just repeating the name often does not help, because human brain simply does *not hear* the relevant nuances of phonetics in a very different language. I had to listen where exactly English-speakers get it wrong, and

I've noticed (in academic and scholarly publishing policy & tech events) a marked increase in how often I'm asked. It's nice.

But figuring out how to answer that when English is not my native language took time!

Ha, scrolling down I read only the headline and immediately thought, hey I need to tag @eleanorlennox.bsky.social on this, she'd really like it! Then checked who posted it... 😄

It also why I am not a fan of David Lynch's work [unpopular opinion, I know]: I am not convinced there is anything we're meant to understand, any epiphany he wanted to convey, any intended emotion, underneath the surrealist surface. There's no there, there.

In Finnish, we may reply to a how are you with: "Nothing but standard misery".

It means everything is OK.

Mixed?

On one hand, usage of those tools is (for now) priced low enough for almost everyone to be able to afford to do stuff with them on their own.

But ability to build a LLM is absolutely in the hands of few uber-capitalists, so true ownership of "means of labor" is no different from 1800's.

Get to this roadside cafe near my home village. I mean, Finns don't talk unless under extreme duress, but the crowd there is *really* silent. (it's a somewhat spooky art installation of a large field full of scarecrows in donated clothes)

earth.app.goo.gl?apn=com.goog...

I know you joke, but "patriotic rocks" actually on sale was literally one google search away. Screenshot from Etsy. Low on stock, only 3 left.

Well, because food and shelter depends on that writing, in that sense it's professional. Not necessarily good, but always desperate.

Old joke, but more true than we'd care to admit:

Scientist write professionally in two genres:
1) non-fiction
2) grant applications

At age 10, I read the fantasy tome named "Old Testament". All of it. Probably had a personality impact, as at that point I thought (and the fundamentalist adults around me claimed) that it's not fiction. Imagine reading LOTR or Earthsea series, or indeed Hitchhiker's Guide, and thinking it's real.

Is metal. (though new single Damocles takes until half-way mark to show that.)

Metal is an aesthetic. In music, or in lyrics. So, though nobody will agree with me, I say Smith & Thell have some metal songs. Like Nagilima: song about a suicide pact, and references The Brothers Lionheart book.