Saturday 10 November 2001

Pic of the day: Fall fields. It is just a random picture.

Random news

Well, today I'm relaxing so no heavy philosophy! Let's see what in the news. Well, gee, Osama is in the spotlight again! What a surprise! "I have nuclear weapons and I'm not afraid to use them!" Eh, I'd expect a bit more cunning from someone who has successfully planned several terrorist attacks. (Let us at least hope that it takes some cunning to do that and not be discovered until afterwards.) Come on already. We know that this guy takes a maniacal glee in killing as many innocents as possible, Americans or not. (One will remember that when he bombed those embassies in Africa, he also killed off people in the surrounding buildings and street. And WTC was not exclusively American, or even exclusively western.) If he had a nuclear weapon, he would not wait five minutes before thinking of some way to use it, preferably to kill as many innocents as at all possible. The sad thing is that he'll probably have nukes, though, if he gets to live long enough. Each day counts.

On the bright side, sort of: The Northern Alliance seems to have taken Afghanistan's second largest city (Mazar-i-Sharif). This is not only a strike against Taliban, but just as important, it should open up most of Northern Afghanistan for humanitarian aid of all sorts. Mazar-i-Sharif has a functional airport, and is within reasonable distance from the former Soviet republics which are now tentatively allies of USA for the duration. If all goes well, there should be massive help before the winter covers the land completely.

***

Back in Norway, most people have much smaller worries. This is the last day of the 2001 census. Or "people-counting" to literally translate the Norwegian word. It is a rather simple one, not too detailed questions. Though I guess they can be hard enough for some. Each time, there are some who try to evade the census out of some noble principle. Personally I don't think the current government is the Great Beast of Revelation. Now, if you told me it was Babylon the Great Harlot, I'd consider it ...

On a vaguely related note, the central bureau of statistics has another article, about the decline in use of names with special Nordic characters. You may have noticed that the Norwegian language has three vowels not used in English: æ, ø and å. Evidently fewer and fewer children are given names that contain these letters. It has been speculated that this is an attempt to ensure the children don't have trouble with using their names abroad. But according to our central bureau of statistics, the downfall of the special vowels is mostly due to cyclical changes. They undergo the same patterns as other names (or groups of names) and right now this class of names are on the way down. We won't know for a while whether they'll return as usual.

I think it will take some more time. But almost every day I stop by a Narvesen kiosk in Kristiansand. These are small shops that sell snacks, pocketbooks and magazines, basically. And for each year, the English-language magazines grow a bit, and the Norwegian section does not. If anything, it shrinks. At one time, we had 3 popular science magazines. Now we have only one left. I expect that within a few years, it will be in Swedish or at best Danish, and then it will be gone.

In universities and colleges, English is seeping in wherever there is international collaboration. And there is. And even if not, you probably get a lot of the literature in English, because who cares to translate something that is only used once by a hundred students? Not to mention the Internet. Ooh, I just mentioned the Internet. Well, you can imagine what the Internet will do to the special Norwegian characters. Tee hee. Here's a glimpse at the future: http://www.bearstrong.net/blog1.2/. Oh, and the guy that makes that web site is named Bjørn Stærk. With special Norwegian characters.