Thursday 1 April 1999
Pic of the day: A slightly cloned rodent from Daggerfall...
Believe it or not, the Norwegian government will prohibit cloning of mice and other mammals. The Storting, the legislative body in our country, actually asked for such a bill to be brought forward. This will hamper Norwegian cancer research, which is fairly advanced, and people are gonna die painfully for it. I'm sure our vainglorious politicians will be able to explain it all when they meet their victims in the afterlife. And the mice are certain to stand up for them.
OK, we all do stupid things, and probably more often than we know other people suffer from it. Generally we stumble around in the dark with only the light from our luminiscent wristwatch to light our way. Some of us are gifted with the ability to connect the factoids we hear or read, so we get a kind of coherent picture of the world. But in general, people would be lost if they couldn't feel the butt of the person in front of them. I guess there is little reason to pass judgement, and more reason for mercy. But sometimes I wish mercy was distributed slightly differently.
At least representative democracy works. A majority of Norwegians who were asked, said that they do not believe there are genes in everyday food. So our government (the least educated in the civilized world) is fairly representative.
Sadly, none of the above are April fool entries, much as I would like them to. The one foolie I noticed in the news today, was the decision to implement NetNanny in the Net feed into Norway, making all porn sites unavailable unless one happened to have the IP adresses. And even that was fairly realistic, with the current "Christian"-"Democratic" government supported by socialists eager to control all aspects of life in minute detail.
On the bright side, the weather is comfortable. I went for another of those walks, complete with my favorite music. Today I particularly enjoyed hearing the West Norwegian artist Olav Stedje singing "Svart rose" about black roses and white love, all to a very haunting melody. For a while it even displaced the songs from Knutsen & Nellie Neuf, that have accompanied me for days and days on end now. Given that I've not played the CD for quite a time, I bet it's my subconscious trying to give me a hint, though I don't know what. My brain has been through a large part of the CD now.
There must be an incredible store of stuff up in that there brain. If it started throwing other things than songs also out on the carpet without asking, things could get pretty cluttered. I wonder if that's how ordinary humans have it? All manner of memories and perhaps even emotions just bubbling up, barely under control at the best of times? Having my brain fall in love with that CD is certainly a thought-provoking experience.
Actually the song that most often returns is the one where Knutsen sees a cute woman in a shop and wants to ask her out but at first he doesn't dare to. It's sort of funny, not least because she sees him hanging around with flickering gaze and concludes that he's there to steal sweets. "Sugar in the morning."
You have bookmarked the Nova Notes I hope? I must admit that I like that journal better than my own, and I don't even know the guy. That's impressive. And he must have a terrific wife, too!