Neste Rally Finland, 2009

This is something we already did a couple of weeks ago when there was a World Rally Championship event in Finland. We drove some 300 kilometres (200 miles) northwards into a forest to watch cars slides and jump through narrow gravel roads at speeds close to 200 kilometers per hour (120 MPH+). When I was a kid we lived nearby the annual event and went everytime. 25 years later the cars still seem travelling at warp factor 9...

... until things don't go as planned, like in the end of this video of a Russian driver Evgeny Novikov. His co-driver must be the bravest man in the world.

Dolphins jumping

Here's some more material from the Särkänniemi dolphin show. I must say I was positively surprised after not really expecting that much going in. I've seen such shows in e.g. Orlando Sea World and I think this smaller-scale Finnish version more than held its own.

Amusement animations

Our trusty Panasonic digicam has this handy burst shooting mode for capturing image sequences. Maybe the old cams had this as well, but I just never figured how handy it is.

Here are couple of examples of what you can do with that. Both are from Särkänniemi amusement park in Tampere, Finland. The first is of two young dolphins high jumping and the second shows a water ride splashdown in one of the parks oldest rides. I remember queuing for ages to that when I was just a little kid. Somehow the years passed since have severaly shrunk the height of the last drop...