Sorry I didn't update yesterday. My parents were visiting, and I feel it is bad form to be spending time on the computer when they come here to visit. I am sure you agree.
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Now some of you may have noticed that Norwegians rearly have anything positive to say about Sweden. This is because of our history. Sweden had a nasty habit of invading us, ever since we helped found the Swedish state (ungrateful bastards). All wars, save 3, that Norway has taken part in have been against the Sweeds. During WWII Sweden let Germany move troops through Sweden into Norway on Swedish Raillines, and didn't break off diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany until spring 1945.
In all fairness, let me rush through and tell you that Sweden was in a very tough spot. Had they in any way opposed the German demands, they would most likely have been occupied themselves. And a nations government is obligated to look after the interest of it's own people first and foremost.
I must also add that Sweden was very generous in reciving Norwegian refugees. And in 1945, when Germany capitulated, Norwegian police-soldiers, trained in Sweden, were ready to cross the border to take over control.
And speaking about Sweden and WWII one can not get around Raoul Wallenberg, who saved the lives of 10 000 jews.
But what I was going to write about today was Swedish police. Scandinavian police are not LAPD, and there have been no Rodney King cases here. But in Sweden there was a sudden surge in cases of police violence claims. Internal Affairs investigated the cases very seriously, because the reputation of the police force is taken very seriously in Sweden (and Norway). It turned out that most cases were bogus - a way for the criminals to get back at the police for arresting them. And now comes the spot of genius: The police "hit back" (pardon the pun) by answering every claim of police violence with a charge of violence against a police officer and resisting arrest. This put an effective end to the false charges, and lets face it - it is often both parties who do violence in a fight.
Another spot of genious from the Swedish police: They invented the self-solving case; There was a series of rapes in the Stockholm erea. In every case there was DNA evidence left on the spot (this was in the early days of DNA). But the statements of the victims were very contrary to eachother. The guy was tall/short, skinny/fat, light/dark and Swedish/foreign. In other words: The DNA was the same in each case, but other than that the police had absolutely nothing to go on. Then some genious in the Stockholm police came up with an idea - Why not put all the DNA in a database? So that if they should catch a suspect they could quickly see if this persons DNA was tied to other crimes? It seems obvious today, but as with every major progress it takes a genius to think of it first. (If engeneers were to make all inventions, we would have perfect oil lamps, but no electricity. - Albert Einstein) So now the self solving case was invented, sparing a lot of work for the police, and making it easy to link cases. So back to the rape series: One sunny morning two pilots caught a rapist with his pants down - literally. He was brought in to the police, and his DNA matched the unsolved rapes. And thus the first self solving case was a fact. Thank you Sweden.
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Have you ever wondered why computers are female? Most talking computers have a female voice, wether it is in Star Trek or real life. Here is the reason:
The original meaning of the word computer was a person who did simple, but time consuming mathematical computations. Computers were usualy females.
Under the leadership of a mathmatician the human computers were working from morning to evening on making eg tidal charts and navigation tables and calculating the movement of the planets. The women who did this tedious work were heavily underpayed.
During WWII in the USA, calculating capacity were not measured in megahertz, but in kilogirls.
Usually a task was solved by a team, where each computer got an isolated part. Then the results were gathered and checked by the expert controling the project. In the beginning the computers had no other tools but their own head, but as time and progress went by, they got help from steadily more advanced calculators.
During WWII the computers had their finest hour. In the US the government set up the Mathematical Tables Project, where they made calculations connected to radar, navigation and nuclear bomb explotions. At the end of the 1940s the computers of this project made economical calculations. The mathmatician John von Neumann checked the result on the worlds first electronic computer, ENIAC. The calculations that had taken 25 women three weeks to complete, ENIAC did in nine hours.
Shortly afterwards the human computers had to give way for the electronic ones.
But in memory of them computers are female.
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A real Norwegian!
Once again war ravaged Europe, and Ibsen was pissed off that Norwegian soldiers were not taking part. In protest he took a longer vacation in Sorrento, Italy.
It was while he was sitting outside the hotel with a banana daiquiri, watching the sun set, that he got the idea for Peer Gynt. Ibsen wanted to write a play that highlighted the less positive sides of his countrymen. To be on the safe side he decided that the play should be so full of special effects that nobody would ever play it. Unfortunately he couldn't help himself, but had to fill the text with snappy lines. People who read the play started quoting it to eachother. Many students learned the text by heart, like many students in the late 20th century learned the texts of Monthy Python by heart. People came together in Gynt-clubs to quote Peer Gynt to eachother, and it became a puplic demand to see the play on stage.
The new head of Nationaltheateret, Hans Heiberg, could see no way around it. Peer Gynt premiered in 1876.
Peer Gynt is the story of a conman who lies to his mother, can't keep his fingers off other mens women, meets some trolls, ends up in a mental hospital in Cairo and dies rich and unhappy. All the while Solveig is waiting for him at home, singing her song and gradually loosing her sight.
No wonder generatons of theatre goers - not only Norwegians, but all over the world - has recognized themselves in Peer. "Be yourself" Ibsen writes. And in a way we probably all are ourselves.
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NAA no 9: The national skiing team - Olympic gold, silver and Bronze in the 30 km distance.
Norway invented skiing, but still we were unable to win the 30 km distance.
What: Norway were a super power in the 1992 Winter Olympics, and more than anyone else the menns natoinal skiing team were responsible for that. With gold in all individual events plus relay, it is actually impossible to do any better. And this time, oddly enough, they did best in the 30 km distance.
Where: Albertville, France
Why: As I said, Norway had never won the Olympic 30 km before when Vegard Ulvang (to the right in the picture), Bjrn Dhlie (to the left) and Terje Langli made the fight for medals a purely Norwegian battle. That it was the eternal no 2, Vegard Ulvang, who had the honour of taking the gold, while Dhlie, who won everything else came second, didn't lessen the Norwegian joy.
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Now some of you may have noticed that Norwegians rearly have anything positive to say about Sweden. This is because of our history. Sweden had a nasty habit of invading us, ever since we helped found the Swedish state (ungrateful bastards). All wars, save 3, that Norway has taken part in have been against the Sweeds. During WWII Sweden let Germany move troops through Sweden into Norway on Swedish Raillines, and didn't break off diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany until spring 1945.
In all fairness, let me rush through and tell you that Sweden was in a very tough spot. Had they in any way opposed the German demands, they would most likely have been occupied themselves. And a nations government is obligated to look after the interest of it's own people first and foremost.
I must also add that Sweden was very generous in reciving Norwegian refugees. And in 1945, when Germany capitulated, Norwegian police-soldiers, trained in Sweden, were ready to cross the border to take over control.
And speaking about Sweden and WWII one can not get around Raoul Wallenberg, who saved the lives of 10 000 jews.
But what I was going to write about today was Swedish police. Scandinavian police are not LAPD, and there have been no Rodney King cases here. But in Sweden there was a sudden surge in cases of police violence claims. Internal Affairs investigated the cases very seriously, because the reputation of the police force is taken very seriously in Sweden (and Norway). It turned out that most cases were bogus - a way for the criminals to get back at the police for arresting them. And now comes the spot of genius: The police "hit back" (pardon the pun) by answering every claim of police violence with a charge of violence against a police officer and resisting arrest. This put an effective end to the false charges, and lets face it - it is often both parties who do violence in a fight.
Another spot of genious from the Swedish police: They invented the self-solving case; There was a series of rapes in the Stockholm erea. In every case there was DNA evidence left on the spot (this was in the early days of DNA). But the statements of the victims were very contrary to eachother. The guy was tall/short, skinny/fat, light/dark and Swedish/foreign. In other words: The DNA was the same in each case, but other than that the police had absolutely nothing to go on. Then some genious in the Stockholm police came up with an idea - Why not put all the DNA in a database? So that if they should catch a suspect they could quickly see if this persons DNA was tied to other crimes? It seems obvious today, but as with every major progress it takes a genius to think of it first. (If engeneers were to make all inventions, we would have perfect oil lamps, but no electricity. - Albert Einstein) So now the self solving case was invented, sparing a lot of work for the police, and making it easy to link cases. So back to the rape series: One sunny morning two pilots caught a rapist with his pants down - literally. He was brought in to the police, and his DNA matched the unsolved rapes. And thus the first self solving case was a fact. Thank you Sweden.
---
Have you ever wondered why computers are female? Most talking computers have a female voice, wether it is in Star Trek or real life. Here is the reason:
The original meaning of the word computer was a person who did simple, but time consuming mathematical computations. Computers were usualy females.
Under the leadership of a mathmatician the human computers were working from morning to evening on making eg tidal charts and navigation tables and calculating the movement of the planets. The women who did this tedious work were heavily underpayed.
During WWII in the USA, calculating capacity were not measured in megahertz, but in kilogirls.
Usually a task was solved by a team, where each computer got an isolated part. Then the results were gathered and checked by the expert controling the project. In the beginning the computers had no other tools but their own head, but as time and progress went by, they got help from steadily more advanced calculators.
During WWII the computers had their finest hour. In the US the government set up the Mathematical Tables Project, where they made calculations connected to radar, navigation and nuclear bomb explotions. At the end of the 1940s the computers of this project made economical calculations. The mathmatician John von Neumann checked the result on the worlds first electronic computer, ENIAC. The calculations that had taken 25 women three weeks to complete, ENIAC did in nine hours.
Shortly afterwards the human computers had to give way for the electronic ones.
But in memory of them computers are female.
---
A real Norwegian!
Once again war ravaged Europe, and Ibsen was pissed off that Norwegian soldiers were not taking part. In protest he took a longer vacation in Sorrento, Italy.
It was while he was sitting outside the hotel with a banana daiquiri, watching the sun set, that he got the idea for Peer Gynt. Ibsen wanted to write a play that highlighted the less positive sides of his countrymen. To be on the safe side he decided that the play should be so full of special effects that nobody would ever play it. Unfortunately he couldn't help himself, but had to fill the text with snappy lines. People who read the play started quoting it to eachother. Many students learned the text by heart, like many students in the late 20th century learned the texts of Monthy Python by heart. People came together in Gynt-clubs to quote Peer Gynt to eachother, and it became a puplic demand to see the play on stage.
The new head of Nationaltheateret, Hans Heiberg, could see no way around it. Peer Gynt premiered in 1876.
Peer Gynt is the story of a conman who lies to his mother, can't keep his fingers off other mens women, meets some trolls, ends up in a mental hospital in Cairo and dies rich and unhappy. All the while Solveig is waiting for him at home, singing her song and gradually loosing her sight.
No wonder generatons of theatre goers - not only Norwegians, but all over the world - has recognized themselves in Peer. "Be yourself" Ibsen writes. And in a way we probably all are ourselves.
---
NAA no 9: The national skiing team - Olympic gold, silver and Bronze in the 30 km distance.
Norway invented skiing, but still we were unable to win the 30 km distance.
What: Norway were a super power in the 1992 Winter Olympics, and more than anyone else the menns natoinal skiing team were responsible for that. With gold in all individual events plus relay, it is actually impossible to do any better. And this time, oddly enough, they did best in the 30 km distance.
Where: Albertville, France
Why: As I said, Norway had never won the Olympic 30 km before when Vegard Ulvang (to the right in the picture), Bjrn Dhlie (to the left) and Terje Langli made the fight for medals a purely Norwegian battle. That it was the eternal no 2, Vegard Ulvang, who had the honour of taking the gold, while Dhlie, who won everything else came second, didn't lessen the Norwegian joy.
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btw--kitty's name is Ronin.