PlanktonPunkt Designs puzzles available in CreateJigsawPuzzles
link to order print on demand PlanktonPunkt Designs jigsaw puzzles (printed in China)
PlanktonPunkt Designs POD products in Printify
link to order PlanktonPunkt Designs print on demand wares from the source
PlanktonPunkt Designs POD products in Etsy
A link to order from a selection of PlanktonPunkt Designs print on demand wares from Etsy
I now have also an Etsy shop for my Print on Demand produce from Printify. The link is in the header section.
Anything bought there by July 23rd, 2025 (or later) would boost my modest income. Not all my products have been harmonized between my three on-line Printify based shops, so there are every now and then novelties that are unique to a specific shop behind a given link.
PlanktonPunkt Designs is now also on eBay.
Hence, the banner above has a new shop.
This on-line store is connected to Printify and contains a subset of my designs depending on eBay sales policies and limits (and my whimsies.)
Beautiful lichens (palleroporonjäkälä) from Finland, photomanipulation.
Atomized people without knowledge of the past are easier to govern badly. If there are no reference points how things were better (in addition to worse), people will not demand it.
Atomized people lack social cohesion required for mass movements or revolutions. Every man forges his own fortune. Every woman is equal to man. The weak will get trampled in an increasingly predatory environment that used to be a society. As even family units are eliminated in gender wars and intergenerational conflict, it is no wonder that birthrates fall when atomized people concentrate on their own day to day survival.
I suspect that the loss of culture and traditions are a result of loss of intergenerational connection. When I was a child, we celebrated Christmas. The tree, the feast, the carols, the gifts (brought by some version of Santa or an elf, this was not all Westernized Coca Cola festival for us), the reading of Bible. Christmas was fun for children. Even in Soviet Union, where Christianity was suppressed, the powers that be had to bring back Father Winter and an associated winter festival, set to be the New Year’s Eve.
The world’s biggest shopping day is now the newly invented Singles’ Day from China, which began as a student response against Valentine’s Day but quickly ballooned into a massive hit, not only domestically but expanding globally, even having arrived into Finland. If you are lonely, why not have a day and buy something for yourself since the couples are having a day too? The popularity of the Singles’ Day is probably a troubling portent for future demographics and survival of the traditions, and by extension, history.
By the way, despite the lack of material manifestations of the culture and the breaking of social structures, there still remains an option for inner life – learn things and live your ideals. Become the culture you want to be.
P.S. Soon it will be Midsummer Festival / St. John’s Day / Summer Solstice time. I will not have a bonfire, nor will I go to a lakeside cabin to drown in a drunken boat accident. As cultural traditions go, I am neutral about bonfires, but against drunken boat accidents. Not all traditions need to be maintained.
A former deputy director of Caltrain had had a secret apartment built inside Burlingame train station, discovered by Caltrain 2022. Based on photos, it looks comfy, but about 40000 dollars of public funds were used and the historic building is not his property. Another apartment was found 2019 in Millbrae train station (8000 dollars were used on that), with another defendant was mentioned in connection to that case. Imagine, apartments for under 50k in San Francisco Bay Area! And close to commute!
While housing prices are crashing and you can find a condominium for under 300k in Bay Area if you are not picky about the commute, and right now Zillow advertises plenty of up to $1300 rentals in Bay Area. How many of these are actual apartments instead of shared housing is unclear, but right now it seems that the main constraint to housing is not the availability of units but of cash to rent or buy.
I thought WeWork which officially rented office space with amenities to startups and individual who wanted a workspace not at home was close to this, at least for some people who lacked self-discipline to work without bosses, but in China (the People’s Republic), there are now actual pretend-to-work companies, where people can for a small pay pretend to be office workers the whole day.
China is presumed to have high unemployment rate (official statistics are unreliable or missing) and there are social pressures for people to work. By paying for pretend-to-work day, people can LARP working in corporation, pretend to others that they are working, or just have an airconditioned space with computer terminal in which to spend time, like an internet cafe.
Morning in Finland, May 26th, the predawn chorus is in full swing. Edited with Clipchamp.
These type of noises typically greeted me when I woke up in Finland.
Turku is the old administrative capital in the south-western coast of Finland and the late spring/early summer were really beautiful.
Thank you to the friend who hosted me and allowed me to record and use the media.
California and Federal government are increasingly hostile in open. California has years of experience in ignoring Federal laws, some notable example issues being cannabis, immigration, and gender identity.
On the other hand, California has used its soft power as a major economy to enforce environmental and consumer standards on the rest of the states and even abroad.
During Biden(?) administration, Californian values seemed to become the US standard regardless of other states’ opinions, and California became more assertive also in foreign and trade policy, most notable event being the summit with president Xi and Biden in San Francisco (preceded by a climate lobbying visit of governor Newsom to Beijing.) Various California politicians were also courting China, although also opposite happened. Does anyone still remember 2022 when the then Speaker of the House, California representative Pelosi flew to Taiwan and caused jitters over potential armed conflict between USA and PRC? (Whether this was part of a policy by a bigger faction within the administration and if so, which one of them is murky to me.)
Now, the issues between quite untethered California and the Federal government have finally come to boil. The trigger to me seems to be the transgender athletes competing against girls, where the Federal government sees California Title IX application to this issue as violation and the regular people just unfair. California continued this practice, despite warnings from Washington DC, and the current administration threatened to withhold Federal funds for California sports. Thereafter, Newsom threatened to withhold the Federal share of California state taxes, a move somewhat reminiscent to the Nullification Crisis prior to the Civil War in 1800s.
Meanwhile, a group of Antifa or similar group(s) coordinated an attack on ICE that had done a raid in Los Angeles.
This attack is curious because of its organization and its timing coinciding with the spat over ideologies and money. Reminiscent of the coordinated wave of violent riots in summer 2020, there were clashes between pro-immigration protesters in New York on the opposite side of the continent.
More importantly, both the Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass and governor Newsom publicly refused to help to quell the rioters, even opposing the Federal efforts. The rioters were attacking Federal law enforcement with stones and were painting graffiti putting things in fire. In fact, a roster of California political people have come in defense of David Huerta who got arrested for participating in the riot, but their support to anti-Federal action.
President Trump has authorized the use of 2000 National Guard (update: now 4000 plus 700 marines), and the Department of Homeland Security is bringing in reinforcements.
I am writing this in Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, waiting for a flight that would take me back to California Bay Area via Frankfurt am Main and Los Angeles Airports. By the time I have landed, well before the time I can post this (I need to add links to sources), we will see if the California or Federal authorities have caved in. If the California stops protecting the violent mobs, removes transgender athletes from girls competitions and possibly even ponies up some tax tithes to Federal government, the incipient civil war will be averted. If the Federal government fails to enforce its rules also in California, I fear that this was the opening shot of the active phase of the disintegration of the United States. Worst case scenario, neither gives in, we may have active civil insurgency in multiple blue states by the end of the summer. The most likely outcome will be a frozen conflict, that is: both sides will pretend nothing significant happened but neither will acknowledge that the other side might have won.
I also predict there will be lots of pundits dissecting irrelevant minutiae from the utterances of either side, and thanks to the strong left bias of the main stream media, the reporting will mostly support California and its allies, meaning tailwinds for civil war or mostly peaceful disintegration of USA and headwinds for peace and prosperity. The biggest losers will be the regular people trapped in the middle, looting and violence disrupting supply chains, especially for groceries and fuel, and then collapsing the teetering economy in general.
Update: Much has happened since Sunday. California did not capitulate and the National Guard activated in Los Angeles is up to 4000 and 700 marines are in readiness. When I arrived on Sunday evening to Bay Area, I took the BART from airport to hometown. The train did not take or drop passengers at Embarcadero station due to political activism nearby, but let out a handful of burly police officers and while the train waited a couple of minutes next to the platform, I could observe the officers running and so did a couple of the people already there. There was still a crowd waiting for the next train or something, though the trains had started skipping that station for the duration. Sorry, no video footage of that.
More ominously, a Walmart heiress is funding (in a small part) a nationwide call for unrest June 14th, another weak indicator supporting my hypothesis that the riots that started last weekend are part of elites’ civil war, raging over who gets to loot the treasury.
In social media there are reports of incidents in Denver, Charlotte (NC), Boston (MA), Chicago, New York City and Atlanta, things are escalating fast. This indicates that this is not a question of secession (California from USA) but of civil war by proxy between the progressive left and the conservatives over the control of Federal government. The presidency and the Congress are currently held by Republicans, but vast swathes of the administrative state are governed by the Deep State currently (mostly) promoting leftist ideologies (reasons for that are too long to expostulate in a single post and in any case speculative to the tinfoil hattery territory.) Individual states and their administrative apparati are a hodgepodge of ideologies, but the Left Coast in general and California in particular is the current vanguard and bastion of progressive establishment, so troubles beginning here makes sense.
Meanwhile, governor Newsom and Federal officials are still discussing about who pays what.
On a side note, a major food distributor supplying thousands of supermarkets got hacked last week and food distribution is off kilter. When I yesterday visited a grocery, they had a sign on meat counter apologizing for ‘warehouse issues’. I did not ask the cause then because I had not then seen this piece of samizdata news yet. I wonder if the food shortages and riots at the same time are a coincidence?
Finally, whether true or not, the possibility of a fleet of robotaxis fleeing LA riots in order not to get burned by Mexican flag waiving ‘mostly peaceful’ protesters shows what kind of timeline we are living in. In any case, Waymo services have been suspended in downtown LA are for the time being.
Looks like I need to pick some canned meat while it is still available.
I have spent nearly two weeks in Finland and will be flying back to Bay Area this Sunday, powers be willing. The local airline is having strikes (hopefully not on Sunday) and the war in Eastern Europe is continuing.
Finland, a gray day (108 piece jigsaw puzzle, click on photo to play)
Finland is a beautiful country rain or shine, there will be more photos, hopefully videos and designs, too, in weeks to come once I have arranged my folders. I have also recorded hours of bird song (assuming the traffic and other noises did not overpower the morning chorus), just in case I need some soundtrack on videos I may compile in future.
Finland, sunset (80 piece jigsaw puzzle, click on photo to play)
Pollening (I suspect the pine) is strong right now – spend a couple of hours outdoors and your devise touch screen will show the dust. I have added here a photo of front porch tiles with accumulated pollen.
Pollen(?) on porch (40 piece jigsaw puzzle, click on photo to play)
I am thinking about joining TikTok and Pinterest, but those can wait until I am back in USA with my contact information back to normal.
Dear all, I have finally managed to set up PlanktonPunkt Designs on-line stores. They only have few designs yet, but the selection will increase!
https://www.createjigsawpuzzles.com/sell/planktonpunkt-designs
This is my main jigsaw puzzle sales site (products currently under review, the first three jigsaw puzzles, one 2-sided mini jigsaw, one 1-sided tube and one 2-sided postcard, will hopefully be accepted, and I am planning to design and upload more!) The products are on sale from China (tariffs to USA are now fluid, and GPSRs may be needed for EU sales – I’ll need to figure that out.)
https://planktonpunkt-designs.printify.me/
This is a Printify pop-up shop. In there, I am designing multiple types print-on-demand items, maybe including jigsaw puzzles. This shop currently has the first two T-shirts available. I have other products in development (more T-shirts, laptop sleeves, coasters, postcards, tote bags, key rings, etc.). Printify sells in USA, UK and EU, including Finland.
To paraphrase an old joke:
A rusty Honda Civic had stalled on the road side. The engine did not work, the steering just allowed the car to be pushed onto the shoulder, even most of the lights were out of order – only the left blinker still worked. The driver was trying to stop someone to who might help him, and eventually a Maserati stops. The Maserati driver and the Honda driver conferred for a minute and they agreed that the Maserati would tow the Honda to the nearest gas station and if the Honda had some additional trouble, the Honda driver would turn the left blinker on.
The towing started well, but soon the Maserati turned to a highway and a Lamborghini started flashing its lights and honking and revving next the Maserati, challenging it to a race. The Maserati driver forgetting about the Honda accepted the challenge and the race was on. The unburdened Lamborghini led but Maserati followed right behind and the desperate Honda driver was blinking furiously.
A highway patrol sees the trio speeding well over 100 mph and radios back about his intention to chase. “There is a Lamborghini versus Maserati race going well over 100 mph, Lamborghini is leading, but then there is a rusty Honda Civic following the Maserati tightly and indicating that it wants to pass the Maserati, over.”
The idea of a rusty Honda Civic overtaking a Maserati was supposed to be the joke, but for anyone who has driven on East Bay highways, often the fastest car to pass you seems to be a Honda Civic or a Honda Accord. These little vehicles (not all of them but the fast ones) weave along the four or five lanes finding gaps large enough to fit their car and disappear a few minutes later behind horizon. Assuming the traffic is not standing still or crawling bumper to bumper at 20 – 30 mph. I sometimes think the speed limits in Bay Area highways, especially near Hayward are aspirational.
Also, here are a couple of unrelated jigsaw puzzles
Pink roses (108 pieces)
Little tree branches (108 pieces)
There might not be hycean worlds, that is worlds with hydrogen rich atmosphere over liquid ocean.
A recent study could explain the spectral signature of another potential hycean world, TOI 270d, by an atmosphere over a magma ocean, an environment not conductive to our kind of oceanic of organic life. Bummer.
But a lava world with boiling atmosphere is interesting to me – those were the conditions of early Earth during Hadean Eon, just after forming. Once the lava cooled enough to form a crust and tolerate liquid water, we got our early ocean, either from meteors or from inside the mantle.
Earth was small enough to cool soon, now only the ferrous core is molten, maintaining the Earth’s magnetic field and volcanism, both essential for life. Magnetic field shields us from space radiation whereas volcanism recycles back to surface nutrients, gases and water that would otherwise have sedimented or seeped into ground.
The reason we have oceans in the surface is volcanism, which pushes water towards the surface. Yet, lithosphere contains water, maybe multiple times the amount in world’s oceans.
So, while a hycean world is not proven, it is not impossible, either. I wonder if maybe, once a large lava world with lots of hydrogen and water vapor cools down enough to have an ocean, a hycean world arises.
PlanktonPunkt 