Tuesday 1 September 2015

Flight times


I recently came across these that I made last Christmas. It's one way to pass time in an airport...



Monday 31 August 2015

Kävelytunnelit Helsingin keskustassa

When weather is against us, it can be nice to use some of Helsinki's tunnels to walk from place to place. But it can be hard to navigate underground. So I made a map of some key underground and covered walkways in Helsinki city centre.

Naturally there are simplifications to keep the map readable. But I'd be happy to hear about any key things to add to or remove from the map. I assume I'll make another version...

Sunday 30 August 2015

English speakers in Europe


  • Overall no big surprise: more English-language speakers in north and west Europe.
  • I was surprised how 'low' Finland was. But I am perhaps biased by living in Helsinki!


Data source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population

Friday 28 August 2015

Sunshine in UK and Finland

  • Not only is there less daylight, but also it is much more cloudy in winter. Thus sunny less than 20% of the time!
  • The spring and summer is quite nice though - sunshine around 50% of the time.
  • For comparison, the south cost of Spain has around 60-70% of sunshine (most in summer).
Data sources: http://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/climate, http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate

Saturday 22 August 2015

Friday 21 August 2015

The sit-and-reach test



Some conclusions:
  1. Youth and females have greater flexibility than elders and males (perhaps obvious).
  2. For my group (33-year-old males) the 50-50 point by coincidence is '0 cm', i.e. touching one's toes. Meaning that about half cannot reach their toes (although 80% of young girls can!). 
  3. As for my own story, I used to be 13 cms short of my toes. This meant that I was at about the 20% mark (4 out of 5 men could reach further than I could). BUT NOW, after weeks of exercise, I can exceed my toes by 7 cms - this means that I am over the 60% mark and only 2 out of 5 men can reach further than I can!

Data source: http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/SitReach.html
Image source: http://oncourt.ca/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/1.jpg