Portal:Finland
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Tervetuloa Suomen teemasivulle!
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The Republic of Finland (Finnish: Suomen tasavalta Swedish: Republiken Finland) is a Nordic country in northeastern Europe, bordered by the Baltic Sea to the southwest, the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west. Finland has land frontiers with Sweden, Norway and Russia. The Åland Islands, off the southwestern coast, are under Finnish sovereignty while enjoying extensive autonomy. The Finnish name for Finland is Suomi; in Swedish it is Finland.
Finland gained independence from Russia on 6 December 1917. Prior to that, it had been part of the Kingdom of Sweden and an autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland under Imperial Russia. After fighting two wars with the Soviet Union in the mid-20th century, it has grown quickly from a largely agrarian society to one of the world's most developed countries. Finland has a high standard of living, one of the best educational systems in the world, and it has been the birthplace to many technological phenomena such as Nokia, sms, Linux, Angry Birds and IRC.
Finland has been a member of the European Union since 1995.
Selected article
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is a third-person shooter video game developed by the Finnish Remedy Entertainment and produced by 3D Realms. The game is a direct sequel to the 2001 video game Max Payne. It was released by Rockstar Games for Windows on October 15, 2003, for Xbox on November 25, 2003, and for PlayStation 2 on December 2, 2003. In Max Payne 2, the player controls Max, a detective for the New York City Police Department (NYPD). In the game's predecessor, Max Payne, the developers played all the roles, except for Max. In Max Payne 2, however, professional actors were used to model and voice all the characters.
Max Payne 2 continues the story of Max Payne, who was a fugitive undercover cop framed for murder in New York City at the end of Max Payne. Two years after the events of the first game, Max has cleared his name and is now an NYPD detective. He reunites with Mona Sax, whom he first met in the previous game. Max meets his new NYPD partner, Valerie Winterson, who later tries to kill Mona because she is a fugitive and had stumbled upon secrets that were not meant for her to know. However, Max kills Winterson first, and he and Mona set out to resolve a conspiracy of death and betrayal, finding the mysterious Inner Circle in the center of it all.
Video game critics gave Max Payne 2 generally favorable reviews. Praise focused on its action and story, while criticism targeted its short length. Despite the positive reception, the game sold poorly, leading Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two Interactive to cite Max Payne 2's sales as a cause for the company's reforecasted finances of 2004. Max Payne 2 received several industry awards, including Outstanding Art Direction at the Golden Satellite Awards 2004, and Editors' Choice Awards from GamePro, IGN, and GameSpy.
Selected picture
Photo credit: commons:User:Tanger
A lakeside smoke sauna ("savusauna") in Kannonkoski.
Did you know...
- ...that the Finnish company YIT was responsible for the construction of the Finnish National Opera house, the Helsinki Fair Centre and Cirrus, the tallest high-rise building in Finland?
- ...that the paintings in the Espoo Cathedral were painted over in the 18th century, as they were thought to be "crude and superstitious'?
- ...that there are three unilingually Swedish municipalities in one province of mainland Finland?
- ...that Maria, the Finnish form of Mary, is the most popular Finnish name used during the modern era?
- ...that Finnish film director Valentin Vaala was reportedly so disappointed with his first film that he dumped the original camera negatives into the sea?
Selected biography
Henri Toivonen (August 25, 1956 – May 2, 1986) was a Finnish rally driver born in Jyväskylä, the home of Rally Finland. His father, Pauli Toivonen, was the 1968 European Rally Champion for Porsche and his brother, Harri Toivonen, became a professional circuit racer.
Toivonen's first World Rally Championship victory came with a Talbot Sunbeam Lotus at the 1980 Lombard RAC Rally in Great Britain, just after his 24th birthday. He had the record of being the youngest driver ever to win a world rally until his countryman Jari-Matti Latvala won the 2008 Swedish Rally at the age of 22. Toivonen switched to driving for Lancia before finally signing up for a full WRC programme in 1985. Despite nearly ending up paralysed at a rally in Costa Smeralda early in 1985, he returned to rallying later that year. He won the last event of the season, the RAC Rally, as well as the 1986 season opener, the Monte Carlo Rally, which his father had won exactly 20 years earlier.
Toivonen, driving a Lancia Delta S4, died in an accident on May 2, 1986 while leading the Tour de Corse rally in Corsica. His American co-driver, Sergio Cresto, also died when the Lancia plunged down a ravine and exploded. The fatal accident had no close witnesses and the remains of the car were merely blackened spaceframe, making it impossible to determine the cause of the accident. Within hours of the accident, Jean-Marie Balestre, then President of the FISA, had banned the powerful Group B rally cars from competing the following season, ending rallying's popular supercar era. The annual Race of Champions, originally organised in Toivonen's memory, awards the winning individual driver the Henri Toivonen Memorial Trophy.
Finland News
- December 31: Helsinki court jails anti-drug chief Jari Aarnio for drug smuggling
- December 4: Gunman kills official, two journalists in Imatra, Finland
- October 5: World Wildlife Fund: 75% of seafood species consumed in Singapore not caught sustainably
- September 1: Biologist Nick Bos tells Wikinews about 'self-medicating' ants
- November 28: Finland passes law allowing same-sex marriage
- June 29: Medal-seeking Spanish men arrive at 2014 Goalball World Championships
- June 26: Belgian men's goalball team departs for Finland for World Championships
- March 10: Wheelchair curling enters third day at 2014 Winter Paralympics
- October 9: Japanese adults rank high in literacy and numeracy in OECD survey
- September 29: Finnish female politicians highlighted by World Bank's 2012 gender report
Things you can do
- Add {{Portal|Finland}} to existing See also sections of Finland-related articles.
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- Rate the Unassessed Finland articles in the Finland WikiProject.
- Stubs: Fix a Finland stub by expanding it into a full article.
- Help with the Finland articles needing attention.
- Look at Wikipedia:WikiProject Finland/New article announcements.
Wikiprojects
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You are invited to participate in Finland WikiProject, a WikiProject dedicated to developing and improving articles about Finland. |
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Selected panorama
Panoramic photo shot of Helsinki, Finland.
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