Books I've read in 2010 - October

Intimations of Immortality by Williams Wordsworth
(a Phoenix paperback)
Kurtby by Erlend Loe – AUDIO
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Collected Ghost Stories by MR James
True Blood and Philosophy by Dunn/Housel, eds.
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced
by Nujood Ali and Delphine Minoui
Idioten by Fjodor Dostojevskij – AUDIO
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
by Edgar Allan Poe – AUDIO
Where the Shadows Lie by Michael Ridpath
Hjerter dame by Chelsea Cain – AUDIO
Kobberhjertet by Leena Lehtolainen
Blodleie by Johan Theorin – AUDIO
Trumpet by Jackie Kay
Smile or Die by Barbara Ehrenreich
De døde by Vidar Sundstøl – AUDIO
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan
Hjerterått by Chelsea Cain - AUDIO
Jeg er Freyja by Kristín Marja Baldursdóttir

11 printed books
7 audiobooks

2,933 pages
73h 38m

Quote of the Week

Atheism without skepticism is blind.
Rebecca Watson

A thought

Day one of Kritisk masse today ... just one event tonight, a panel discussion about the media's coverage of the sciences and related issues. Relatively interesting, but too much applause. :-) I had a thought:

One of the panel members, the journalist Bjørn Vassnes, made the point that it's difficult to get anywhere with science reporting in this country because our school system isn't very good - children and young people don't get a grounding in scientific method and critical thinking, and so it's hard to build on previous knowledge, because it just isn't there. And this applies to our journalists too, because they go through the same school system as the rest of us. Another panelist, Ole Martin Ihle of Hjernevask fame, mentioned that he thinks it's a problem that when science is reported on in our mainstream media, it's only the finding that is reported, not the method. Ie, we're only told that a cure for illness X has been discovered, but not how. And here's my thought.

It's about the reason why this is a real problem. Here's the thing. When this type of news story is reported in this way, this makes it potentially very difficult for laypeople and those ignorant of the scientific method - which in a lot of countries, Norway sadly included, means a lot of people - to distinguish between real science and woo. Because if you present one story, that real scientists have developed a real drug that will really alleviate or cure illness X, in the way that I described ... this is the finding, and that's it. Nothing to say that this new medication is the result of years of rigorous research and strictly controlled tests, where potential sources of error have been meticulously eliminated. Then it's really not obvious to the average reader that this is what is behind it. Then you have another story saying that some alt.med. practitioner has discovered another cure for X, it's just as good and in fact even better because it's totally natural. Let's say it's their special patented potato extract. And again it's just this so-called finding that is presented, and nothing about the method ... nothing about the fact that the way this cure was invented was that this guy had way too many potatoes and had to get rid of them somehow.

One really negative side effect of the way these things are presented may be that those reading these articles, stories, whatever, are unable to distinguish between the findings,the quality of the findings, because they don't have the tools, and aren't presented with the tools, to differentiate between the way these results were arrived at. And so they may well end up accepting both as equal, and for whatever reason - because the potato extract is cheaper, or it seems healthier, more natural, whatever - they go with the woo option and not the real deal. So we all lose, these people as individuals and all of us as a society, because of this. The only winner is the guy with the potatoes. Sheesh.

Critical mass!!

Or, in Norwegian, Kritisk masse. No longer just a scientific term - now also the first ever Norwegian skeptics' conference. There's a shitload of woo conventions in this country every year, but there's never been a skepticism one, until now. So yay!! :-) This landmark event will take place over three days, starting tomorrow, at Chateau Neuf at Majorstua here in Oslo. The program tomorrow, Friday, is free entry; Sunday you will have to pay a small token fee; Saturday will cost between 650 and 950 crowns, depending on how much of the day's events you want to catch. The program is here - there are lots of great speakers, such as Simon Singh, Rebecca Watson, Asbjørn Dyrendal, Erik Tunstad and lots more. Iszi Lawrence will be performing on Saturday night. So don't miss it, if you're in Oslo. Get your tickets here or at the door on Saturday morning.

See you there! :-)

The very model!

Check out this video. I love it. People are so creative! :-) And this is so true, too. I really wonder at those who are saying - and who apparently genuinely believe - that president Obama has accomplished nothing. What do they think he is, a wizard? Apparently so. He isn't, though. Alas. But he is the very model of a modern US president!! :-D



Fullscreen here.

NORWAY 2000 - My Heart Goes Boom

A walk down memory lane ... :-)

I like this song more when I only hear it - there's something about those costumes that just make me go Augh ... and the colors on the screen behind them, ouch. Just the whole presentation of the contest here is pretty flabbergasting. This was seriously only ten years ago. Comparing then to now, the ESC has become a true leviathan, a behemoth. It is so massive now compared to what it was. I'm not entirely sure all that growth is a good thing. Not thinking of the number of competing countries, but the sheer scale of the show qua show.

Anyway ... this is the thrown together girl group Charmed performing the very catchy My Heart Goes Boom by Tore Madsen and Morten Henriksen, who competed for Norway in the Globe in Stockholm, the beautiful capital of Sweden, on Saturday, May 13th, 2000. Sadly we didn't get very impressive results with this song - we came 11th. Of course that's not too shabby out of 24 competing nations ... but Sweden did better, they came 7th. And what is the point of any Norwegian competing at anything internationally if it's not in the hopes of thrashing the Swedes. Sigh.



Lyrics here. Kinda fun when people who have English as a second language, if that, write lyrics in English, isn't it. Hey, I mean it as a compliment. Really.

Fullscreen here.

Yawn ...

Mandatory welding lesson tonight at work ... we got pizza and did some arc welding. It was fun, but pretty tiring. I don't know what I did wrong with that helmet, it really made my neck ache. I guess it may have been because it wasn't really sized for my head ... pretty much everything we stock, I mean everything that's wearable, is in men's sizes. Because we have hardly any women customers. Money talks. When it was my turn to weld, I made the guys laugh uproariously by just asking whether there were gloves in any other size lying around, and then just holding my hands straight down. The gloves just literally slipped off my hands. :-D Fortunately we also have another type of welding glove that is basically cheap semi-crap, and they're different sizes even though they're supposed to be all the same. :-D So we did find a pair that fit me pretty well, so I could weld.

Now tired and still slightly achey. Will sleep. But first - how can I connect this to Keanu somehow?

Umm ... by mentioning that I haven't seen The Prince of Pennsylvania, but one day I will ... and then I will discover if any welding actually happens in it?

OK, that was weak. I need to get some sleep. :-)

Gammelt nytt på nytt

Any fans of Have I Got News For You reading this ... ? Well, the Norwegian version, I mean. Yeah? Then check this out. It's their first ever show. They got piss poor reviews, but I don't think it was all that bad. But it's mainly worth watching for Jon and Knut's haircuts. I hardly even recognized Knut. 1999 ... ! :-D

On a more serious note: Yesterday was the national organ donation day here in Norway. No, it's not a day where you go donate your organs :-) ... it's a day to raise awareness of the issue. Which is such an important issue that every last one of us should give it serious consideration. It is an amazing feat of science that it's even possible to achieve something like this - that desperately ill people can be given a new chance in life with organs that are no longer needed by their original ... owner, shall we say. Here is an article about a teenage girl who saved seven people when she died unexpectedly ... her parents are so grateful for their decision now, which I can well imagine.

I have strong feelings about organ donation personally because I have someone in my family who would not be alive today if it wasn't for a pair of donated lungs. Seriously, not a snowball's chance in hell. But the thing is that we can all be in his situation one day - not for the same reason, but for so many others. You never know what's going to happen. And I think that this is true of almost every single person who will ever read this and everyone who won't: If we ever find ourselves in that situation - that accepting a donated organ is the only thing that stands between us and death - we will tell the doctors yes, to do whatever they can, we won't think twice. With that in mind, the only moral choice is to also volunteer our own organs for donation if that awful situation should ever come up.

Please visit this site, or the equivalent in your country, and print out an organ donor card to carry with you at all times. You really never know what is going to happen in your life ... either way.

Quote of the Week

We love television because television brings us a world in which television does not exist.
Barbara Ehrenreich

The problem with prequels ...

... is that you already know that the bad guy will win in the end. :-)

I wasn't sure that I was going to see Cold Prey III, I actually thought I wouldn't, but, well, things happen. KAS and I went to see it tonight and it was ... good entertainment. Quality craftsmanship for its genre, and nowhere near as speculative as it could have been. Plus of course that any movie is good at Colosseum 1. :-) But the tag line still annoys me. The end has been told. The beginning approaches. WTF? Yes, I know what they're saying, but it still sounds like nonsense.

In other movie news, I am now pretty psyched about two movies I wasn't that interested in before, after hearing that a couple of names have been confirmed. First, Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. OMG that is perfect!!1 Whee!! I haven't been very excited about this movie because, well, I'm not a Tolkien fan and I didn't like the LotR movies much ... they were pretty good up to the ending of The Return of the King, which literally ruined the entire trilogy. Now they're shit. Fuck 'em. But Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins!! Now that I just have to see. He is soo adorable, especially in The Office, and I think he'll be a fantastic Bilbo. Psyched to see The Hobbit now ... ! :-D

But even more psyched - ten times more!! - to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The remake, I mean. Sure, it's probably going to suck. Remakes are pointless and stupid and almost always suck. Plus I won't get to see the leads I would have wanted, and who I'm sure would have been much better than what they'll be giving us. Seriously, picture this. Katherine Moennig and David Duchovny. Seriously, they would have been perfect! Now we're getting Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig. Sheesh. But of course it could have been worse. Don't get me started. ;-) And in one case it couldn't have been better! Because, get this, they have got Christopher Plummer for Henrik Vanger!! Christopher Plummer!! I LOVE Christopher Plummer! He was almost the best thing in The Lake House. ;-) I was going to see this movie anyway just because I am such a fangirl and I have to see it even though it's probably going to suck ass and it's definitely going to be utterly pointless, but now I'm actually excited to see it. Who'da thunk it. :-D

Go Christopher Plummer ... !!!! :-D

Meh

I was going to write a nasty post about the French today, but now I'm too tired. I'm working on a project with some people and it's a little more complicated than we thought. :-) When it's done, or at least on its feet, I'll be posting about it, but so far there's not really anything to post about. Fingers crossed that we'll have gotten somewhere next week. It'll be fun ... at least if you understand Norwegian. :-)

Now I've got to get some sleep. I'll badmouth the French tomorrow.

Ireland in living color

Time for some more videos from Ireland. Take a look at, let me see ...

The Cliffs of Moher, spectacular!

Fullscreen, go here.

The charming village of Adare in County Limerick.

Fullscreen, go here.

Stunning scenery in Killarney national park.

Fullscreen, go here.

Archeology news!!

And potentially history news, too. Ooh, it's so exciting. For those joining us from abroad: Norway is a monarchy, as you may know, and has been throughout our entire history. We count our history back to the 9th century, to the reign of our first king, Harald I Halvdansson, called Hårfagre, which means Fairhair. I know, what a name! But he supposedly swore an oath that he would make himself king of the entire country, and would not cut or comb his hair or beard until he had achieved this. It took ten years, and during this time he supposedly had a different name, Harald Luva, 'tanglehead'. This is of course a legend, we have no way now of verifying such a story, and it has the hallmarks of legend, too. But what is supposed to have happened is that he did succeed in being hailed as king by the entire country, and that he then cut and brushed his hair and beard and became a rather handsome fellow, so then he got his new name, which is the name he is now known under.

Handsome fellow indeed, btw - if you look at his Wikipedia entry, under 'spouses', there is no info listed; it simply says 'see separate list'. :-D

What definitely did happen is that such a man did live - Harald, son of Halvdan the Black, born in or around the year 850. He was a great warrior and he did become the acknowledged high king of all Norwegians. His residence - and considering that this was medieval Norway, of course the royal residence was a farm - was at Avaldsnes at Karmøy in Rogaland. Some years ago, post holes were discovered and dated to the Viking age ... this was in the summer of 2006 ... and a few months later more evidence was found which showed that this is indeed the site of the home of king Harald I. And now, today's news. :-)

FINALLY the site is going to be excavated. OMG!! That is seriously exciting. The excavation will probably begin in May 2011. Here's what the site may well have looked like:

Not quite a royal palace, I know ... but who cares. What a place. And what an excavation this is going to be. Imagine what we'll learn ... !! :-)

Movies A-Z

I'm doing a series of ATC swaps on Swap-Bot that are themed around movie titles ... we're supposed to do all the letters from A through Z. So far we have done three. :-) Of course I have no choice but to use Keanu movies where possible. ;-)

For A I went with Anna and the King. The Animatrix doesn't really count and I haven't seen Act of Vengeance. Yet. :-)

Clive Donner: Babes in Toyland

Francis Lawrence: Constantine

When does life begin?

Here's a news story that brought back an interesting thought that I've had a few times. It's about how Young Labor won't accept any collaboration between their mother party and the Christian People's Party (KrF) because the latter call abortion 'murder'. That's what the news story is about, not the interesting thought. :-) This is the thought:

I started thinking about it again because of course, as anyone could predict, a fundie or two has already popped up in the debate section of the article, saying that life begins at conception and so on. This is something that a lot of fundies believe. And I have heard a number of them say that all life is sacred and even if it's just been conceived like right now, getting rid of it is still murder, because the soul entered the ... creature, I guess, at the moment when it was conceived, so it's just as valuable as any fully grown human being, you or me, whoever.

OK, so, if these people really believe that, do they also believe that identical twins only have half a soul each? Since the little lump of cells doesn't split in two immediately, but after some time, at least a day, I think ... usually several days ... and the soul by then has already entered it, according to these people ... wouldn't each twin have just half a soul? Or if it's triplets, then they'd only have one third of a soul. Or, ooh, the Suleman octuplets!! They would only have 1/8 of a soul each. What's the point of having just a tiny little bit of soul like that - they ought to just sell all of 'em, they could sell all their eight parts to one set of twins, then the twins would have 1/1 soul each and the octuplets probably wouldn't even notice, I bet, since they had hardly anything to begin with anyway.

I know, this is totally messed up, right? You'd have to be crazy to be thinking like this. Yeah.

Quote of the Week

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.
We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.
Carl Sagan

Read this book!

I'm reading it now and loving it. Wonderful read. :-)

Happy birthday to me

October 14th is traditionally the first day of winter here in Norway. On this day 34 years ago, there was a snowfall in the Oslo area, and that snow stayed on the ground throughout the winter and all the way till spring, March, I think. Snow on the ground from October till March. o_O Apparently it was quite hellish to be more or less housebound for half a year with an extremely colicky baby that hardly ever slept. I don't remember this, these allegations are my mother's. Made repeatedly. Well, that's what families are for, isn't it? :-)

Happy birthday to me, and thank you to everyone who's sent text messages and cards and emails and what not. :-)

It's not Berlin!!

It's Düsseldorf!! OMG!! But yay!! The host city for next year's Eurovision Song Contest was announced today, and the honor goes to Düsseldorf, thanks to its superior facilities. :-) The show will be held in the Fortuna Arena - the semis on May 10th and 12th, the final on May 14th. Only seven months to go ... !! ;-)

I absolutely love their logo and the color scheme they've chosen - it echoes the German flag in a completely fantastic way. Twelve points to the NDR's design department. :-)

Yes, I realize that the word 'echoes' doesn't really work well with a visual. :-D But it's late and I just finished a pretty exhausting project, my brain isn't working too well and it won't cough up any other word. Resonates? Other suggestions?

Things Only Idiots Believe, Part Nine

That they can taste the difference between tap water and bottled water, because bottled water is purer and goes through a rigorous cleansing process.

Seriously, you believe that? You are an idiot.

Don't humans suck?

I mean it, really, don't we as a species really suck sometimes? Or, to be truthful, often. I got an ATC in the mail, the theme was Africa, and my partner I guess read my profile where I mention that I love elephants. So she chose an elephant as her subject for the ATC. It's the first one she's ever made, I think she did a great job. I'd post a photo here, but it's dark now and my camera wouldn't manage a good shot of it, even with lamplight. Maybe some other time. That's not the point, anyway.

The point is that seeing this ATC of course I started thinking about elephants, and what amazing animals they are ... and the fact that elephants in Africa now have so much smaller tusks than they used to have a few generations ago. Which, at least IMO, is sad, because those tusks are so unique and so special ... they're part of what makes elephants such striking creatures. Just think about it, a big old elephant bull with his shining white tusks. It's an iconic image. You see it and you think 'Africa'. :-) But yeah, that image is fading from African nature now.

Why? Because humans suck. >:-( Elephants are being hunted, and have been hunted so much, that we're literally seeing evolution at work out on the great plains of Africa. Well, I assume it's true of forest elephants as well, although I only know specifically of it happening with Loxodonta africana. But since the ivory of Loxodonta cyclotis is especially hard, it is very much sought after, so I'm sure the same thing is going on with both species.

What is happening is that because the big tuskers are the most sought after specimens - since elephants have been killed more for the ivory than for the meat, infuriatingly (this seems to be changing in recent years) - evolution is selecting for small tusks or no tusks at all. Simple. And people still don't believe in evolution ... ! It boggles the mind. It can be seen at work in Africa, and we are controlling it, even among wild animals. It'd be pretty fantastic if it wasn't so sad.

Look at this amazing animal ... Duke the elephant, a resident of the Kruger Park in South Africa. He now no longer has his tusks, or at least not in their entirety - he has lost them the natural way, breaking them while fighting (left tusk) and digging up a tree (right tusk). Look at this fantastic creature. To the minds of coming generations, elephants may not look quite like this ... to them, it may be just a story that elephants once had tusks.

Or that such a creature as the elephant ever lived at all. :-(

My calendar wall, September-October 2010

Fun date today - 10/10/10. I'm glad I'm not too mature to get kind of happy over something so fundamentally meaningless. ;-)

September

October

Need postcards?

Unusual ones that not everybody's got? Then look no further! :-) Check out my brand new Zazzle store! I set it up a week and a half ago, so, pretty brand spanking new. :-) I basically did it to get some of their postcards with my own images on it ... I've received a couple of Zazzle postcards through Swap-Bot and they're pretty good quality. I can't say that they're quite up there with moo.com ... the paper they use is of a lighter weight. moo's got the most solid postcards I've ever seen - a cut above even what I buy in stores here, in fact. But Zazzle's got the one feature that I really miss at moo - you design and/or order just one card at a time, so that you can add descriptive info to the back of each card, unique to that image. At moo you have to get either 20 or 60, and although the images can all be different, the text on the back (if any) has to be identical. You know ... they have to all say, for instance, Ireland 2010. You can't have one saying The Dublin Spire, Dublin city center, Ireland 2010 and another Wildflower at the Burren, Co. Clare, Ireland 2010 ... or whatever. It all has to be the same, so unless you use all identical images as well, you can't get image-specific text. But you can get that at Zazzle ... so I decided that I just had to try it.

Another difference between Zazzle and moo is that the latter is 'just' a printing service - although they do have a good range of ready-made items too, where you don't need to have your own images - while the former is an online store as well, where you can both purchase other people's work in addition to selling your own. And of course you can buy your own work too. Just upload the image and make a product. Your products can be set to private so that other users can't see and buy them, of course. But I figured that if my photos are good enough for someone else to want as postcards or stickers or whatever, then why the hell not? It's worth a shot. :-)

And, ooh, get this, it works! I made my first sale today. :-o Someone bought one of my postcards!! That's actually pretty crazy. But also pretty cool. :-) It's impossible to tell who bought it, unfortunately - I'd love to thank that person! :-D - but someone out there did in fact buy a postcard made from a photo I've taken. And I made $0.12. :-D Hey, you gotta start somewhere. I've got, let's see, 23 different postcards in the store, as well as a few other items, and I think all the photos are good, but I wasn't at all surprised to see that this one was my first sale. :-)

So, where was I ... Yeah, I sold the postcard, and IMMD. :-) I'm waiting with bated breath for my own first order from there to arrive. Yeah, I've never bought anything from Zazzle until a few days ago, after I set up my store ... so I can only judge the quality of their products from what I've gotten in swaps, but now I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of 12 super cool postcards with designs I could never find in stores. I'll let you know if the quality lives up to my expectations. :-) And please let me know what you think of my store. :-)

Quote of the Week

Our fellow citizens have not sunk so low as we feared
because they have never risen as high as we believed.
Sigmund Freud

No sad story

At least not tonight ... I'm too sleepy tonight too. I'm sure you'll be very upset at missing my pointless story. ;-) Instead, a quote I just discovered - it's Emily the Strange, which I think is pretty dumb mostly, but this (it was a postcard) just really spoke to me. Paraphrased:

I'm not lazy, I'm just happy doing nothing.

OMG that is so me ... !!

Sigh ...

Tomorrow I'm going to tell you a true story that will be pointless to you and sad to me, but tonight I'm just too sleepy.

In the meantime, you can read about all the exciting new animals scientists have found in the Mekong delta. Dracula fish!!

What is to be done?

I'm serious, what is to be done with our society, with our system of education, I might even say with our media, when someone like Ryke Geerd Hamer isn't just walking around as a supposedly normal member of society - after going to medical school, people!! - but in fact has a following and makes a living off of the deadly scam he's running.

Yes, he may believe the quackery he's peddling. That is possible, although to my mind it is so batshit crazy that I have a hard time understanding how anyone with half a brain can take it seriously. (And this guy went to medical school! Did I mention that? Did he learn nothing? Argh!) I think his mind must have become unhinged by grief when his son died. Which of course was a tragedy, but seriously ... you do not deal with the death of your child by killing other people's children.

I really think that there is something wrong with the education people are getting in this country - and in Germany too, obviously, among other places - when someone can invent this kind of insane BS and actually be taken seriously. All serious illnesses are caused by mental or emotional trauma ... ? Overcome the emotional conflict and whatever ails you will go away ... ? Chemotherapy prevents natural healing ... ? 98% of all European cancer patients on chemo die ... ?* There is a worldwide Jewish conspiracy to kill as many non-Jews as possible ... ? They are slowly exterminating us using ... chemotherapy?? Big Pharma is part of the conspiracy?!

What kind of FUCKING RETARDS believe this shit??? Not only is it stupid nonsense, but it's so obviously dangerous too. And this guy is a killer. Susanne Rehklau is dead. Her parents ought to be in jail ... and Hamer too. He is a menace to society.

But he would have been so much less of a threat if people in general hadn't been so ignorant of the fundamentals of critical thinking ... !!! >:-(

Please note that when Hamer himself had cancer, he had surgery.

*I don't have the stats for other countries, but in Norway 60-65% of cancer patients who receive standard Western treatment are still alive five years later.

Happy birthday, damnit!

Growl. Today is Herman's birthday, he is seven years old today, and I was going to post a picture of him doing something cute and be all cheerful and happy. Also a picture of a Keanu-related ATC that I made, just to keep on topic. But now there's a problem with Blogger so I can't get my pictures to load, so, no luck. Damnit.

Well, what are you gonna do. Happy 7th, little fella. Here's to many more. :-)

In the meantime, the rest of you can read this Keanu interview. It's good, you'll like it. :-)

Kilmainhaim gaol, Dublin, Ireland

A place not to be missed if you're ever in Dublin. Definitely one of the highlights of my trip. A site of great historical significance - quite moving to be there - and also very interesting for the insight it gives into 'prison theory' as it were. Yay for progress.



Fullscreen here.

Must see this movie ... !!

I can't believe that I've missed this movie until now ... !! :-o I need to pay more attention. I usually don't use this word, but The Trollhunter, despite the typo, looks awesome. Just for the fact that it's a Norwegian mockumentary, I'm there. October 29th, who's with me??



Widescreen here. You can see a longer trailer at Dagbladet online, here.

Quote of the Week

Do I believe in ghosts? I am prepared to consider evidence and accept it if it satisfies me.
MR James