h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sorry if I came across as being a bit rough at the h2g2 campsite..

Netiquette is a bit complicated (there are some entries on h2g2 about it) but it basically means that you can, say, aim at someone with a crossbow and fire, but only the person who you aimed at can tell the outcome...

...so you can imagine something happening, but predicting the result is out of your hands since other researchers will probably be in... interv.. will get involved! (I'm a FinnoSwede, pardon my English)

Hello!

I have heard of 'netiquette' and I'm not aware that I actually tried to 'play a trick' on anybody; I remarked that the fire looked like it was spreading (as a joke), but I didn't say that it actually was spreading or igniting any tents.

Never mind, anyway. So do you speak both Finnish and Swedish? Where do you live?

I speak some Finnish, but I'm not very good at writing or grammar since I was born and grew up in Sweden. I'm currently living in Stockholm...

Is it a nice place to live? I believe Sweden is 2nd in the UN Human Development List (whereas the UK is 13th!)

Have you considered joining the new 'Language Thing' project (I forget where it's based) where one can share ones linguistic abilities?

Norway, Sweden and the UK are all Kingdoms aren't they? Is there a King or a Queen in Sweden? Have you considered writing guide entries concerning aspects of Sweden/Finland in that case?

Sorry to bombard you with so many questions and suggestions! But I recently made a suggestion in the Feedback forum that the site should appeal for a lot more 'international diversity' so that the guide entries could cover topics from all over the world. If you look at the UK category in the h2g2 browsing system you'll find that it is far more complete than any other place in the world, which is a clear imbalance!

Nice and nice - yeah, well... I guess Sweden is a pretty nice place over-all (lots of nature) but we also have a lot of taxes (ouch!) that help finance the 'nicety'

I think I have joined some language thing already...

I've thought about writing something about the monarchies of Europe, especially after having watched a TV series on 'Europe's father in law' - but I've got sooo many other entries waiting to be written before I get there... you might find the edited entries of a researcher named Ukkeli of interest

If you check today's front page, you'll find that the top entry is an entry on how to make a snow lantern, written by a FinnoSwede (me) and a Estonian (Hati) - how's that for diversity?

Well done on the Guide entry!

By the way - is there a Finnish-speaking minority in Stockholm, or do I mean a Swedish-speaking minority in Helsinki? I'm sure I read something along those lines somewhere but I can't remember what it was.

Where to begin, where to begin?

My parents (both Finnish) came to Sweden in the early 60ies. This was a time when Swedish factories/industry were lacking workers, so they sent out recruiters to mainly Finland, Italy, Greece and Yugoslavia (I think there was a lot of unemployment in these countries at the time). As a result, it's not unusual for Swedes of my generation to have parents from one of these countries - there were more foreign than Swedish surnames in my class at school!

Also, Finland used to belong to Sweden (I think Ukkely mentions this in one of his more recent edited entries) and for many hundred years Swedish was the 'official' language in Finland, used in administration, in courts and at universities. It used to be so bad that when the Finnish epic 'Kalevala' was published, there were few mong the so called 'educated class' that knew enough Finnish to read it!

And then there's of course the Finno-Swedish population in Finland - maybe those are who you were thinking of?

Yes, I was probably thinking of them. Thank you for explaining that.