In Norway's scenic Geiranger Fjord fire fighters and clean-up crews have been trying to gain control of a major oil spill from the Bahamas registered cruise ship "Spirit of Adventure" on Sunday.
Several boats have been engaged in placing oil booms around the spill, in order to try to prevent the oil from reaching the shore along the fjord, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Police have boarded the ship in an attempt to find the cause of the oil spill. First reports blame it on a malfunction of equipment in the engine room. The ship was later permitted to proceed to Bergen.
Every year around 150 cruise ships visit the Geiranger Fjord, which is one of Norway's most important tourist attractions.
The ground under the Urnes stave church is sinking, and this national treasure in Sognefjord has begun to sink at its northern end.
During the summer of 2008, researchers from NTNU worked to determine how much the church could be lifted and stabilized without beeing ruined. At the same time, dendrochronologist Terje Thun took tree ring samples from the oldest wood. The samples confirm that the chruch was erected over a longer period in the 1130's.
At the same time it was shown that a portion of the church, - including the northern wall, with its spectacular carvings, was actually recycled material from another church that previously stood at the same spot. The youngest of these timbers were felled around year 1070.
Based on the wood samples, it is concluded that The Urnes Stave Church is the oldest Norwegian Church that has been dated.
Hurtigruten or Hurtigruta (literally "Express Route", but sometimes referred to as Norwegian Coastal Express in English) is a Norwegian passenger and freight line with daily sailings along Norway's spectacular western and northern coast. Ships sail almost the entire length of the country, completing the roundtrip journey in 11 days. The trip has been described as the "World's Most Beautiful Sea Voyage." Highlights include the Hanseatic League city of Bergen, the Geiranger fjord (summer only), and the Lofoten Islands.
Norwegian youth are gradually phasing McDonald's out of their lives, with a healthy lifestyle becoming more fashionable.
Young people are afraid of getting fat and the hamburger chains are associated with a lifestyle that is wrong and outdated.
The new statistics also show a strong decline in consumption of sweet carbonated drinks, with sugar-free alternatives and bottled waters taking their place. Here in Norway the golden age of traditional American fast food has past.
Trollstigen, in the heart of Romsdal, has a new lookout point. This is one of the most visited attractions in Norway.The mountains which encircle the Trollstigen road are enormous. Names like Kongen (the King), Dronningen (the Queen) and Bispen (the Bishop) confirm their majesty in this mountain world.
Trollstigeplatået has by far been the largest focus area for the National Tourist Routes Project, both by scale and budget. Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter (RRA), based in Oslo, won the invited competition for the project in 2004. The look out point is situated by a dramatic mountain pass between the deep fjords that cut into the west coast. This panoramic site can only be visited in summer season since weather conditions in winter makes it impossible to get there. The project consists of a series of elements: Flood barriers, water cascades, bridges, paths, landscape furniture, pavilions and panoramic platforms. All the elements are moulded into the landscape, something which allows the visitor an intimate experience of this stunning place. The architecture is like a thin thread that lets people observe the landscape from various spatial positions. The construction materials are corten steel and in-situ concrete.
Southern Norway is in its second week of a heatwave, with daytime temperatures up around 30-33C.
On Sunday the maximum temperature at the Met Office in Oslo was measured at 31.3C, and the forecast says there will be more of the same the whole week, possibly interspersed with a few cooling thundershowers here and there in the afternoon.
Beaches are crowded, and there have unfortunately been a few fatal drowning accidents this past weekend.
I love summer time because it's hot, the sky is blue ! The sun brings so many fun in our life ! And people are always happy when it's sunny ! Also there are many flowers everywhere.
The walk over Besseggen is one of the most popular mountain hikes in Norway. About 40 000 people walk this trip each year. The most common route over Besseggen starts at Gjendesheim, up to the trails highest point, Veslfjellet (1,743 m), down Besseggen, further over the relatively flat area Bandet (at the foot of Besshø), and ends at Memurubu, where one may take the regularly scheduled ferry route back to Gjendesheim. The trip is estimated to take about 6 hours to walk.
Researching family bonds lost in the mists of time is becoming Norway's largest and fastest growing hobby. The increasing amount of information for amateur genealogists doing detective work can also help those abroad with Norwegian roots learn more about their past. Once the memories and records of living family members have been exhausted, there are a number of avenues to pursue. Armed with basic facts - birth dates and places, maiden names, death dates and dates of other major occasions - church and local records can help document the path back to the roots of the family tree. Other official sources, such as various archives and censuses, are becoming increasingly available as they are registered electronically and them presented on the Internet. If you are reading this, then your computer and Internet connection already represent the two most important tools you need to start the hunt for family forefather.
The group of friends had all they would need for a successful Easter vacation; cabin, skis, snowmobile, toboggan, copious amounts of beer and a fertile mix of the sexes. Certainly, none of them had anticipated not returning home alive! However, the Nazi-zombie battalion haunting the mountains surrounding the aptly named Øksfjord (Axefjord) had other plans…
“There is a storm of scary fun to be had in this Scandinavian splatterfest” writes Rolling Stone Magazine, while The New York Times says Director Tommy Wirkola “doesn’t just hit every horror beat; he pounds it to an indistinguishable pulp.”
1945: Northern Norway is severely stricken by the German invasion, but few places worse than Øksfjord. The German soldiers rape and pillage with sadistic zeal, and ultimately the civilian population has had enough. They attack the occupants armed with any available weapons and an escalating thirst for revenge after years of abuse. Soon they have slaughtered almost everyone, but Colonel Herzog and some of his men escape into the mountains where they freeze to death …
Several years later, eight medical students go for their Easter vacation to the mountains around Øksfjord. They are bringing skis, snowmobile and copious amounts of beer, so expectations are high for a pleasant vacation. Perhaps some of them might even get laid? Sara, who has traveled in advance, is the one most familiar with the mountains. She has picked a different route to the cabin, and none of the others find it strange that she hasn’t arrived before them. Maybe she was trapped by the weather and had to dig a snow cave. Certainly, none of them fear that she could be the victim of an inconceivable cruelty hidden in the mountains all these years. That is, until they are visited by a rather shady hiker who tells them the story about the German occupants’ cruel fate. Suddenly, the cabin is surrounded by a battalion of German zombie soldiers, eager to rip them apart. A long night is ahead of them. Can anyone survive this painful ordeal?
Tonight, the evening of June 23rd is celebrated as Midsummernight Eve in Norway, also known as 'St.Hans Aften' or 'Jonsok-kveld', depending on where you are in the country. Huge bonfires are burned as part of the celebrations. St. Hans or Jonsok both reveal that the festival has been named after St. John the Baptist, as the 24th is his birthday according to the Festival Calendar of the pre-reformation Church.
As with so many of the church festivals, it was introduced in order to replace an old heathen festival on that same date, thought to be the Summer Solstice, or the longest day of the year.
In Norway, the evening is celebrated with partying, good food, music and dancing, and the burning of huge bonfires. The burning of bonfires has of course survived from heathen times, when it was believed that the fire had special cleansing powers, and was also used to drive away evil powers, witches included.
Medical herbs also had special powers at Midsummernight, and so did water. Dew that fell on that night was believed to have healing properties, particularly for ailments of the eyes.
Midsummernight Eve was a public holiday in Norway until 1771, and has as a matter of fact survived as a day off in several communities to this day.
P.S. "Skibladner" (pron. shee-blah-d-ner) is the pride of Norway's inland, and one of Norway's best-loved tourist attractions. This preserved and restored paddle steamer is over 150 years old but continues to run a timetabled service in the summer months.
Every summer, Skibladner draws her broad wake across Lake Mjøsa, Norway's largest inland lake, an hour's drive north of the capital, Oslo.
A voyage on this unique vessel is an experience not to be missed! Skibladner sails between the villages and towns around Lake Mjøsa as she has always done: Lillehammer, Moelv, Gjøvik, Hamar and Eidsvoll — idyllic country towns basking in the Norwegian summer sunshine.
A woman went down to the Welfare Office to get aid. The office worker asked her, "How many children do you have?" "Ten," she replied. "What are their names?" he asked. "David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David, David and David," she answered. "They're all named David?" he asked "What if you want them to come in from playing outside?" "Oh, that's easy," she said. "I just call 'David,' and they all come running in." "And, if you want them to come to the table for dinner?" "I just say, 'David, come eat your dinner'," she answered. "But what if you just want ONE of them to do something?" he asked. "Oh, that's easy," she said. "I just use their last name!"
The police in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden on Tuesday carried out a major joint action code-named Operation Viking against persons suspected of having collected, stored and distributed child pornography.
Altogether 81 persons were arrested in the early hours of the morning, 15 of them in 11 police presincts in Norway. Five of these have admitted to the charges.
The Norwegian police have since May 7th been monitoring 40 distributors of child pornography who use file sharing services. They have confiscated a number of computers and related equipment.
In addition to child pornography, police are also looking for indications that Scandinavian children have been subjected to pornographic and sexual abuse.
Figth Child Porn
I feel that child pornography is the biggest crime you can inflict on a child.
I encourage everyone to help me fight websites by reporting them .
A new survey shows that 43 per cent of Norwegian children play an instrument. Girls are more active than boys, and the older children are more active than the younger ones.
Whether or not a child plays an instrument has apparently no connection with neither the parents' education nor income level.
World record again on Norwegian hands!! - The Sykkylven furniture makers this weekend built a sofa measuring 890 metres in length, beating last week's record of 80m made by Polish competitors.
The Sunnmoere furniture makers started out last year by making a sofa measuring 61.52m, but this record has been beaten several times since.
A representative for Guinness World Recordin London was in Sykkylven this weekend, to check the measurement.
Led by Beach Volleyball pairs from Brazil, Germany and the United States, a total of 96 teams from 32 countries and all five confederations have been seeded for the 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Championships presented by ConocoPhillips to be held June 25 through July 5 in Stavanger, Norway.
The winning teams will share the $60,000 first-place prizes. The pool play match schedule will be announced on Friday as the ninth-seeded Norwegian team of Nila Ann Hakedal and Ingrid Torlen will play the opening match June 25 during the opening ceremonies against 40th-seeded Stine Andreasen and Lotte Vestergaard of Denmark. The match will be the first-ever meeting between the two teams.
The moose population in Scandinavia has exploded, causing harm and danger in many places.
There has been an increase of 30 times the moose population since the turn of last century, meaning there is now perhaps the largest moose population since the ice age. And many are worried about what the effects will be on the ecology, not to mention the rapidly increasing traffic accidents. A record number of moose have been run down on roads and by trains this winter, while the future’s forests are being eaten up by the majestic animals, complain landowners.
On Friday 5 June the exhibition “Can We Forgive Darwin?” opened at the Zoological museum in Oslo. The fossil named Ida became a sensation when it was revealed on 19 May 2009, and this exhibition will be the public’s first chance to see it.
Ida is the fossil of a primate that lived 47 million years ago. Ida is the most complete early primate fossil ever found, and the discovery is significant because it gives unprecedented information on early primates. Ida’s skeleton has some traits that foreshadow physical features which later appear in monkeys, apes, and humans.
The year 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the first publication of his book “On the Origin of the Species”. In the book he described what is now known as the evolutionary theory, which is the basis of all modern biology. It is also used in the fields of medicine, technology and psychology.
The exhibition “Can We Forgive Darwin?” will look at the background for Darwin’s theory, some of the results of evolution and why many have a problem accepting the theory.
The police in Drammen have charged an imam from a local mosque of having used violence against children. He has allegedly hit children with a stick if they came late or failed to learn their assignment.
Three mosques have been investigated by the police after a Drammen public school informed them that children were afraid to be spanked when they attended the Koran school.
The children have reportedly been hit over the fingers or the back with a stick. The police have received reports about children having been exposed to violence from as far back as 2002.
The reports have been received from anonymous sources, as parents have been afraid to come forward, fearing reprisals. The imam in question this time has denied the charges, according to the police.
Norwegian parents spend on average 40 hours a week together with their children, according to a survey carried out by Eurofound.
The survey ranks Norwegian parents at the top of this European ranking, ahead of the Netherlands in second place, with just under 34 hours. Denmark ranks fifth with 16,5 hour, while Finland and Sweden are way down with only 14 and 13 hours respectively. Experts believe some of the reasons for Norway's high ranking are Europe's shortest average working week, coupled with legal rights to leave at birth and during children's sickness for both men and women.
Saltstraumen is a sound with a strong tidal current located some 30 km east of the city of Bodø, Norway. It is the strongest tidal current in the world. Up to 400 million m³ of seawater forces its way through a 3 km long and 150 m wide strait every six hours, with water speeds reaching 20 knots. Vortices up to 10 m in diameter and 5 m in depth are formed when the current is at its strongest; this feature is commonly known as a whirlpool.
Norwegian scientists and researchers are warning against the harmful effects on the environment on Svalbard by the increasing number of tourists visiting the Arctic archipelago.
This summer cruise ships carrying more than 30,000 tourists will be visiting Ny-Aalesund. The researchers are of the opinion that the cruise ships release greenhouse gases which affect the vulnerable Arctic environment on Svalbard.
A troll is a member of a race of fearsome creatures from Norse mythology. Originally more or less the Nordic equivalents of giants, although often smaller in size, the different depictions have come to range from the fiendish giants.
Nordic literature, art and music from the romantic era and onwards has adapted trolls in various manners – often in the form of an aboriginal race, endowed with oversized ears and noses. From here, as well as from Scandinavian fairy tales such as Three Billy Goats Gruff, trolls have achieved international recognition, and in modern fantasy literature and role-playing games, trolls are featured to the extent of being stock characters.
Norway's Opera Software overtook Apple's iPhone browser in May as the most popular mobile browser in the world. Of all Internet pages that were downloaded to mobile devices globally in May, 24.6 percent were downloaded through Opera's browser and 22.3 percent via iPhone. Opera sells its browser to many cellphone makers and operators, and consumers can directly download it for free, while the Apple browser's ranking reflects only iPhone users surfing the Internet.
Elleven beavers from Telemark in Norway have arrived in Scotland, as part of a historic plan by the Scottish Wildlife Trust to reintroduce the mammals to Scotland for the first time in more than 400 years.
Beavers are native to Britain but were hunted to extinction over 400 years ago. Beavers hold the potential to create new wetland habitats which in turn increases the appeal to other native species.
However, according to BBC, the scheme has not been without controversy: The Association of Salmon Fishery Boards has called the project "recklessly irresponsible" and asked ministers to block further releases until the impact on fish stocks can be assessed.
The beavers spent six months in quarantine before being released.
The Scottish Natural Heritage will conduct scientific monitoring to assess the environmental impact of the beavers.
Business information website www.business.dk recently released a ranking of the top 100 employers in Europe.
Among large-scale enterprises, Microsoft was ranked first for its flexibility when it comes to work hours and location. Among medium and small enterprises, four Norwegian companies ranked in the first 50.
Webstop, a Norwegian information technology company, ranked No.30, making it the best among Norwegian enterprises. Bond and share company Optium ranked No. 36, while business consulting enterprise Umeo Consulting got 38th place. Tandberg, a video production company that employs about 100 workers, ranked No. 40.
The list is produced by Great Place to Work Institute and surveys are done by 285,000 employees from all over Europe.
My name is Rolf and I’m 61 years old. I’m married and have five children and four grandchildren. My wifes name is Anne. My hobbys are computers, the Internet and outdoors activities.
