Are oil companies destroying the rainforests?

Neste Oil 1, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Neste Oil 2, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

This posting has little to do with photography, except in the way of using photographs for documenting things. So beware. You may want to check instead the previous posting, which discussed photography.

Yesterday when I went to meetings in Helsinki there were a couple of dozen signs standing on the roadside, all claiming that Neste Oil - the Finnish oil company - is destroying the rainforests with their "palm oil diesel". I was quite surprised to see these signs (which might already be removed from the roadside).

Today I finally got the other half of the picture, namely a SUV had writing on the back window saying "Neste 100% Green Diesel". There must be an ad campaing happening, and someone had decided to fight against it.

This got me thinking about advertisements in general. I don't subscribe to any newspapers, and there is an "no ads" sign on the mailbox, which cuts down drastically the amount of ads I receive. And with digital tv you can record programs and skip all ads. Also, Firefox allows you to use ad blockers such as ABP, which cut the number of ads to a small number.

But the is no "opt-out" mechnanism for ads in public places. Perhaps we should have instead a mechanism for ordinary citizens to post their opinions, free of charge, to combat the commercial ads. Wouldn't work in practise? Then, we should get rid of all ads.

Take a leaf - or a photograph?

Autumn colors, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Autumn colors, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Fireweed, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Fireweed, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Has it ever happened to you that your brain suddenly asked you a question and you didn't have any idea how to answer. This happened today to me, when the head cold, which has lasted now a week, eased a bit so that I managed to go out for a walk.

I was preparing to take a photograph of a leaf when a question occurred to me: Why not just take the leaf? The leaf is much more beautiful than any photograph can be, and you can put it on your desk to look at, or on the wall.

I couldn't find an answer, and in fact I got so confused that I didn't take a photograph, or the leaf with me. And I'm still a bit confused.

But I recovered a little later, and did take some photographs.

Helsinki views

Helsinki, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

In Helsinki, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Today I hadn't time for much else than attending meetings and traveling in between. Here are two views of Helsinki, the first from the morning and the second from late afternoon. (About the second photograph, for those who can't Finnish: on the right is a shop for evening dresses and on the left undertaker's.)