The inaugural Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship were an unqualified success, with competitors from the US, Russia, Japan and beyond converging on Joensuu, Finland to thrash and knit: competitors such as Woolfumes, Bunny Bandit and 9" Needles thrashed to heavy metal music while knitting, for an audience of about 200. The winners were the five-person Japanese team Giga Body Metal. Scottish competitor Heather McLaren (a Ph.D candidate in engineering) told the AP, "When I saw there was a combination of heavy metal and knitting, I thought 'that’s my niche.'" Read the rest

A once-underground movement of Finnish girls who conduct elaborate dressage routines with toy hobbyhorses has gone mainstream, with coaches, competitions and trainers, and is spreading abroad. Read the rest

Maybe it's because I'm not doing any of the work myself, or perhaps how serene all of the craftsmen involved in the project seem to be, but this 25-minute video of a traditional Finnish log house being built, from soup to nuts, is one of the most relaxing bits of video that I've watched in weeks. Read the rest

In Deposition of respiratory virus pathogens on frequently touched surfaces at airports, published in BMC Infectious Diseases, a University of Nottingham team reveal that the airport security trays they swabbed in the Helsinki airport contained more infectious agents than the airport's toilets. Read the rest

The Chinese slang term jingfen means "spiritually Finnish." It was coined thanks to the popularity of an online comic called Finnish Nightmares. Liang Chenyu speculates why so many Chinese millennials identify with the comic. Read the rest

Finnish comedian Ismo Leikola makes a compelling case that "ass" is the most complicated word in the English language. Read the rest

In 1942, Hitler paid a secret visit to Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, Marshal of Finland and Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defence Forces in honor of Mannerheim's 75th birthday. Read the rest

This Finnish PSA never gets old, because it has everything: awesome music, great acting, edgy graphics, and brilliant practical advice. Watch this street cretin back down under the power of her mitten-encased palm! Read the rest

After a slew of imitators, badass YouTuber The Hydraulic Press Channel rebranded as Beyond the Press and started doing non-pressing experiments in his inimitable style. Here, he has to jump in a frozen lake to get some stuff he lost in a previous experiment. Read the rest

Caroline Slotte is a sculptor in Finland who layers old, decorated china plates atop one another, then carefully removes material from successive layers with precision masking and sandblasting and carving, created 3D scenes with gorgeous depth. Read the rest

Finnish photographer Oscar Keserci braved brutal temperatures in and around Kirkkonummi, Finland for his breathtaking Blue Night series of photos. Read the rest

When the heat goes out during Finnish winter, it's a matter of life and death, so when two automated buildings controlled by Valtia systems suffered DDoS attacks that shut off the heat, Finns were understandably alarmed about the new threat. Read the rest

A DDoS attack that incidentally affected the internet connections for at least two housing blocks in Lappeenranta, Finland caused their heating systems to shut down, leaving their residents without heat in subzero weather. Read the rest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIYDi4WxQpU

It's free for anyone to take, and Finns can get credit at the Open University of University of Helsinki (yes, that's what it's called). Read the rest

Cixin Liu's "Three Body Problem" is the first-ever translation to win Best Novel; meanwhile, the uprecedented effort to put together an organized slate of science fiction that appealed to sexist (Sad Puppies) and misogynist/white supremacist (Rabid Puppies) and homophobic (both) orthodoxy to sweep the Hugos was a flop. Read the rest

The researcher, "Lee," worked in Ganggye, Chagang, and escaped with what he says is 15GB of data detailing illegal human subjects biochemical research, which he is due to present to the European Parliament this month. (Thanks, Sulka!) Read the rest

Barry writes, "There's a thing called pattern flying, where pilots compete to perfectly execute an elaborate set of compulsory tricks." Read the rest