“Solid Wood: All About Chopping, Drying and Stacking Wood — and the Soul of Wood-Burning” This best selling book by Lars Mytting highlights a passion for firewood and inspired a TV program in Norway about cutting, stacking and burning firewood.
The TV program, on the topic of firewood, consisted mostly of people in parkas chatting and chopping in the woods and then eight hours of a fire burning in a fireplace. Yet no sooner had it begun, on prime time on Friday night, than the angry responses came pouring in. “We received about 60 text messages from people complaining about the stacking in the program,” said [Mr.] Mytting .... “Fifty percent complained that the bark was facing up, and the rest complained that the bark was facing down."
posted by caddis
on Feb 20, 2013 -
81 comments
When a lorry transporting 27 tonnes of Norwegian cheese caught fire in the Brattli Tunnel at Tysfjord,
it kept burning for five days, with the tunnel still closed down for traffic. The cheese in question,
Brunost, is made by slowly boiling (goats) milk, cream and whey together until the water evaporates and the milk sugar caramalises, which gives the cheese its brown colour. As the Norwegian fire services found out the hard way, its high fat and sugar contents also means it burns well. Something that might have come in useful during the Dutch cheese wars between Edam and Woerden,
as immortalised in this commercial; Edammer cheese just couldn't get hot enough.
posted by MartinWisse
on Jan 23, 2013 -
44 comments
The BBC explore the
olfactory delights of
rakfisk, "trout sprinkled with salt and fermented in water for up to a year." But is it as
smelly as
Surströmming, fermented Baltic Herring from neighboring Sweden, or as
extreme as the Icelandic
Hákarl, basking shark buried in a hole and fermented for several months and tasting "similar to very strong cheese slathered in ammonia"?
[more inside]
posted by Wordshore
on Dec 2, 2012 -
52 comments
During the first weekend of October, at a Connecticut campground,
a group of women gathered. As part of a pilot program organized by the federal government, these women, self-arranged into groups of three called "triads," were finalists for an experimental parenting program. Two of the triads would be selected for the right to be artificially inseminated, the resulting child to be raised by all three women as equal co-parents. While no one was certain how the experiment might turn out, every one agreed that something had to be tried since
all of the men were dead.
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posted by GameDesignerBen
on Oct 23, 2012 -
25 comments
Fantastic Norway has announced details of their
New Utøya project, ‘a strategy for re-establishing a political camp on the island of
Utøya. "Our ambition has been to reflect and reinforce values such as commitment, solidarity, diversity and democracy, both through form and function. In short we have done this by establishing a small village with small streets, belfry and a town square on the very top of the island. The village consists of many small units that together ad up to a bigger community: A symbol of unity and diversity." say the project leaders, Erlend Blakstad Haffner and Håkon Matre Aasarød, who won the
Iakov Chernikov International Prize in 2010. The 22 July Fund of the Worker's Youth League raised $68 million to build the memorial to the 69 victims of Anders Behring Breivik's attack on the island. Via
Things Magazine.
posted by parmanparman
on Sep 9, 2012 -
14 comments
He turns to the girl. "It would be really nice," he says, "to have a cigarette now."
"Yeah," she says without looking at him.
"Do you think the shop is open?"
The girl laughs and Adrian laughs, and then they laugh about their water-wrinkled fingers and the cabaret scheduled for tomorrow night that probably won't happen, and they keep laughing, because there is nothing else to do until someone finally gets them off Utøya.
— Sean Flynn writes the story of
what happened on July 22nd a year ago [single page] when Anders Behring Breivik carried out a bomb attack and massacre in Norway that killed seventy seven people, and how those who survived and those who lost loved ones have dealt with the trauma.
[Warning: It's not the easiest read, emotionally]
posted by Kattullus
on Jul 21, 2012 -
42 comments
"
Euphoria", which won the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest (
previously), is a #1 in several countries, including
Ireland,
Austria, and
Switzerland Of course, it's not the only song charting internationally that you might never hear on US radio. It should come as no surprise that one can readily find international hits online.
For instance -
Sweden, #4: Panetoz -
Dansa Pausa
Sweden, #9: Mange Makers -
Drick Den
This doesn't purport to be an exhaustive list, but rather a jumping-off point.
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posted by LSK
on Jun 13, 2012 -
25 comments
Scandanavia And The World: A web comic of outrageous national stereotypes bluntly portrayed by cute little cartoon bobbleheads, that will nonetheless help outsiders learn to differentiate among the Nordic countries. With explanatory text.
posted by Diablevert
on May 21, 2012 -
48 comments
The eight fingered Polish-Norwegian artist
Andrej Nebb with his band, performing
Bo jo cie kochom in Oslo in 1980. How he lost two fingers? Cutting his guitar with a chainsaw. That’s why he had to play bass instead. Basically he fled communism to live a rock ‘n’ roll life.
Here he is back in Poland in 2002, at
Przystanek Woodstock.
posted by nordlys
on May 16, 2012 -
9 comments
"... if children could go to the polls then perhaps Fred Nile, the leader of the Christian Democratic Party in NSW [
New South Wales, Australia], wouldn't have the power that he has today." An 11-year old
Charlie Fine writes about an issue that affects children across the Australian state of New South Wales.
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posted by vidur
on Aug 1, 2011 -
58 comments
"People have travelled along the Norwegian coastline with
"Hurtigruten" since 1893. The journey is known as "The World's Most Beautiful Sea Voyage". Now everybody can travel along in the world's longest TV program! Spectacular fjords, midnight sun and genuine Norwegian scenery make the setting for a trip from Bergen to Kirkenes. We broadcast the whole trip live minute by minute for 134 hours!"
Watch the whole thing live here.
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posted by sveskemus
on Jun 16, 2011 -
26 comments
Norway's penal system has gathered some attention recently, as the new
Halden prison just opened. The $217 million facility will house 252 prisoners, some long-term and some short. The new prison is notable for, among other things, use of armoured glass instead of bars on windows,
natural lighting and single-inmate cells with private showers, TVs and access to a gym and a sound studio. There was also an art budget, and Norwegian street artist
Dolk was commisioned to decorate some of the walls. The Norwegian penal system is similar to the other Scandinavian countries', with no death penalty, and a "life" sentence of 21 years. In Norway there are no privately run incarceration facilities, and the opening of the rather plush-seeming Halden prison spurred some discussion, but garnered no big controversy.
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posted by Harald74
on May 27, 2010 -
111 comments
SomBy were the winners of the
Liet International 2009 song contest for minority european languages and cultures. Sámi rock, you say? But wait, there's more! There's
Alit Boazu from the Norwegian side, and
Tiina Sanila, a
Skolt Sámi singer from Finland. And yes,
there is Sámi metal, from the band
Intrigue. There are plenty other Sámi musicians across
Sápmi and outside of the genre of rock, of course. There's
Amoc, an Inari Sámi rapper from Finland;
Adjágas who are folky and bluegrassy at times;
Niko Valkeapää, who is more ambient and electronic; and of course,
Mari Boine,
recently knighted for her long career of artistic work (
translation). [Sound, MySpace warnings]
[more inside]
posted by taursir
on Dec 25, 2009 -
5 comments
