Finland
Finland (fînīlend)
Abbr. Fin.
A country of northern Europe
bordering on the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland. Controlled
from the 13th century by Sweden and from the 19th century by Russia,
it became independent in 1919. Helsinki is the capital and the largest
city. Population, 4,893,748.
- Finīlander noun
Finland
Finland, country in northern
Europe, west of Russia and east of the Gulf of Bothnia and Sweden.
Nearly one-third of the country lies north of the Arctic Circle. The
area of Finland, including 33,551 sq km (12,954 sq mi) of inland
water, totals 338,145 sq km (130,559 sq mi). Helsinki is the capital
and largest city.
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Land and Resources
Finland has about 60,000 lakes. The Ahvenanmaa
archipelago, or Åland Islands, is a group of about 6500 islands that
projects southwest into the Baltic Sea. Most of Finland is a plateau,
about 120 to 180 m (about 400 to 600 ft) above sea level, with hilly
areas in the north and mountains in the extreme northwest. Mount Haltia
(1324 m/4344 ft) is the highest point.
Nearly three-quarters of Finland is forested, chiefly
with evergreens. Various kinds of wildlife, including bears, wolves,
lynxes, arctic foxes, and many bird species, live in the less-populated
northern regions. Freshwater fish, saltwater fish, and seals are
abundant. Surrounding bodies of water exert a
moderating influence on Finland's climate. Average coastal temperatures
in the south range from 15.6° C (60° F) in July to about -8.9° C (about
16° F) in February. Productive forestland is Finland's most valuable
natural resource. Spruce, pine, and silver birch are the principal
trees. The only natural fuels in the country are wood and peat. Finland
also has some rich ore deposits of copper, zinc, iron, and nickel.
Population
Of about 5,046,000 people in Finland (1995 estimate), Finns constitute more than 93 percent and persons of Swedish descent about 6 percent. About 2500 Saami live in the far north; other minority groups make up less than 1 percent of the population. More than half the people are urban dwellers, and more than two-thirds reside in the southern third of Finland. Helsinki is the intellectual, manufacturing, and trade center. Tampere and Turku are other industrial centers.
Finnish (a Finno-Ugric language)
and Swedish are the official languages of Finland. The Saami speak
Saami, a dialect of Finnish. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Finland is the national church, although freedom of worship is
guaranteed. Schooling is free and compulsory from age 7 through 16.
The University of Helsinki is the largest of 13 universities; the
country also has several colleges and teacher-training schools.
Virtually no illiteracy exists.
Economy
The Finnish economy is dominated by manufacturing, which in the late 1960s overtook agriculture and forestry as the chief source of employment. The paper, pulp, newsprint, and wood industries account for a significant part of the manufacturing output, contributing nearly 40 percent of annual Finnish exports. Mining is also important, and Finland is a significant source of copper, producing about 16,200 metric tons (metal content) a year in the early 1990s. Zinc, silver, chromite, lead, nickel, and gold are also mined.
Industry and business in
Finland are privately owned, but public utilities are government
owned. The basic unit of currency is the markka (4.84 markkaa equal
U.S.$1; 1996).
Government
Finland is a republic, with a democratic and parliamentary form of government and a minimum voting age of 18. It is headed by a president, elected to a six-year term by direct popular vote. The Council of State (cabinet), appointed by the president and subject to parliamentary approval, is headed by the prime minister. The legislative body, the Eduskunta, is composed of 200 members elected by direct popular vote for a term of up to four years. Finland's court system is divided into municipal, district, and appellate courts. The supreme court, in Helsinki, is the final court of appeal.
History
People have lived in what is now Finland since about
8000 BC. Throughout the Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages, various peoples
moved into the region. Among the later settlers of this era were people
speaking one of the Finno-Ugric languages, who migrated in from the east
and from Estonia in the south. Beginning about AD 1050, Finnish tribes
were converted to Christianity by the Swedes, who eventually took
control of Finland, administering it as fiefs. By 1557 Finland was elevated
to a Swedish duchy. In succeeding centuries, involvement in the many
wars that occurred between Sweden and Russia caused Finland to lose
large areas to Russia. By 1809 Russia had occupied Finland and
proclaimed it a grand duchy of the Russian Empire. Sweden then formally
ceded Finland to Russia. In the 19th century a nationalist awakening
took place among the Finnish population, centered on the resurgence of
the Finnish language. Toward the end of the century, however, Russia
reasserted its governmental control over Finland, and Finnish citizens
lost many of their constitutional rights.
Finland was not directly involved in World War I (1914-1918), although Russian troops were garrisoned in the country. During the Russian Revolution (1917), after which the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was established, a newly elected Finnish parliament assumed all powers formerly held by Russia and voted in favor of an independent republic. The new Soviet government had no choice but to accept Finnish sovereignty, and in 1919 the Finnish parliament adopted a new republican constitution.
At the outbreak of World War
II in 1939, Finland declared its neutrality. Because it refused to
cede certain territories to the USSR, Soviet armies invaded Finland in
November 1939, initiating the Winter War. The Finns fought back, but
superior Soviet power forced the Finns to sue for peace. Finland was
eventually drawn into World War II after German use of Finnish
territory led the Soviets to bomb Finland's cities. It then declared
war on the USSR, although not as an ally of Germany. Finland signed a
final peace treaty with the USSR in 1947.
After the war the main thrust of Finnish foreign policy was strict international neutrality and friendly relations with the USSR, yet without any reduction in Finland's independent status. The country remained firmly oriented toward Scandinavia and the West. After the dissolution of the USSR, Finland began restructuring its economic orientation and developing relationships with the former Soviet republics. In 1995 Finland became an official member of the European Union (EU).
Finnish anti-gravity
experiments in 1992 that was pretty much ignored.
It was reported in 1992 that objects appeared to weigh less over a spinning superconductor.
The experiments were performed in Finland by a Russian researcher named Podkletnov. There has not yet been a conclusive and credible test of this effect.
It's still an open
question. is looking into this one directly.
Specifically NASA Marshall Space Flight Center is attempting to
duplicate the experiment to see if the claimed effect exists, and if
it does, to determine what's really going on. These investigations
will probably take through the rest of 1997 before they have anything
substantial to report one way or another.
To be fully open minded about such things, one has to be equally ready to accept that there is, and that there is NOT new effects being discovered here.
What is wrong and premature is
to dub this effect a "
Gravity Shield."
It is better to call this an "
anomalous weight
change effect". We won't know for sure what it is until it has
actually been confirmed and more fully analyzed. The original reports
on this subject were unquestionably insufficient.
pOrtals:
pHinnweb
- substantial Finnish electronic music and theory site
Exogenic
records