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Showing posts with label FINLAND. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FINLAND. Show all posts
20 October 2008
13 October 2008
FINLAND - SUOMI
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland (Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland ), is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It has borders with Sweden to the west, Russia to the east, and Norway to the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland. The capital city is Helsinki. Around 5.3 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern part of the country.[1] It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. The native language for most of the population is Finnish, a member of the Finno-Ugric language family most closely related to Estonian and one of the four official EU languages not of Indo-European origin. The second official language, Swedish, is spoken by a 5.5 percent minority. Finland is a democratic, parliamentary republic with a mostly Helsinki-based central government and local governments in 415 municipalities. A total of a million residents live in Greater Helsinki (including Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen) and a third of the GDP is produced there. Other major cities include Tampere, Turku, and Oulu. Finland was historically part of Sweden and from 1809 an autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire. Finland's declaration of independence in 1917 from Russia was followed by a civil war, wars against the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and a period of official neutrality during the Cold War. Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and the European Union in 1995 and participates in the Eurozone. Finland has been ranked the second most stable country in the world, in a survey based on social, economic, political, and military indicators. Finland has seen very good results in many international comparisons of national performance such as the share of high-technology manufacturing, public education, the rate of gross domestic product growth, and the protection of civil liberties.
10 October 2008
02 October 2008
FINLAND - HARMAJA
Harmaja is an island and a lighthouse outside Helsinki, south of the Suomenlinna sea forteress. The island has been functioning as a landmark since the 16th century. A landmark structure was built on the island in the 18th century and a light house in 1883. The first lighthouse was only 7.3 m high and it soon proved to be too low. In 1900 the height was doubled by creating a rectangular brick building on a granite base. A large misthorn alerted ships in fog and in bad visibility. Harmaja received the world's first directed and undirected radiobeacon in 1936. The lighthouse is fully automated today. There is also a pilot station on the island.
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