The Kiwi software development company Dinther Product Design launched the first version of its free ship simulation, Ships, the other day, which leverages on the browser-based Google Earth plugin as the primary graphics engine, according to the Google Earth Blog.
First of all, let me point out that I was never much of a gamer, save for a brief Amiga period some 20 years ago, but this one actually had me impressed. Not so much by the game’s features and functionality perhaps as by its availability, as a free of charge …

We all seem perfectly agreed that the credit crunch has to take most of the blame for the current media crisis, threatening to overthrow the press we’ve become so dependent on over more than a century or so, but didn’t the media’s frantic search for cost reductions really begin years and years ago – some time around last fin-de siècle?
I, for one, still harbour vivid memories of my very first job in the business, an almost 20 year old novice in a provincial Norwegian newspaper, which happened to keel over …

17 May bears special meaning to all Norwegians. Of course, why shouldn’t it? It is, after all, our Constitution Day, which we tend to celebrate perhaps a little more than what is considered normal in most countries. Which again is to do with the mere fact that we’re convinced we have so much more to be proud of than anywhere else on the planet – a conviction we set out to reinforce every 17 May, by way of much pomp and elaborate circumstance, even in the smallest communities, such as …

Norway has never been “blessed” with an auto industry, save for its role as provider of parts to car makers throughout Europe, not exactly in demand these days. With an international auto industry threatening to file for bankruptcy, drastic measures have been made to keep it afloat, both in terms of governmental bailouts and a massive reorientation towards environment-friendly cars.
One would think that electric vehicle producers have a field day, all things considered. In Norway not so. In spite of the country’s apparent financial success amid global recession (I suggest …

Amid what up until recently was considered a newsprint crisis, commercial TV stations in Norway take drastic budget measures, of which TVNorge’s (TVNorway) appears overly dramatic, as it on Monday announced the shut down of its news, sports and weather forecast department, effective by the end of this year. The channel’s local programming for the Oslo area, OsloTV, is affected, too, taking effect on 19 June this year.
The decision won’t affect the number two commercial channel’s presenters, but third party provider Mastiff, in charge of content and production, took quite …

Amazon’s Kindle DX launch stirred enthused response in the media business the other day, which shouldn’t come as a surprise really, seeing how the old media for the time being seems to be on a desperate search for ways out of the current downturn.
The Kindle DX, Amazon’s generation 2 ebook board, with a larger screen, specially designed for newspapers, is by many expected to be the salvation for a newspaper business in utter distress. The very idea is, of course, brilliant. Save the forests and reduce costs! But is it …

Today, the 8 May 2009 marks the 64th anniversary of my country’s (i.e. Norway’s) liberation from five years’ German wartime occupation, reminding us how fragile a country’s freedom actually is – of which we are constantly informed, through perpetual global unrest.
We were all shocked and appalled as Russian forces poured into Georgian South Ossetia – and well into the very heart of the country – last August, threatening to occupy the young nation in the long haul.
Allegations would have it that Georgian forces themselves provoked the invasion in their search …

Safar Angooti (19) and Amir Khaleghi (18), scheduled to be executed by hanging Wednesday morning, both escaped the gallows for now. Their sentences, which fell when the boys were 17 og 16, still stand, leaving few hopes of their survival, as 22 yo Delara Darabi, hanged last Friday, originally scheduled to be executed on 20 April, was granted a two-month stay, shortened to a week and a half, without prior warning.
Safar Angooti (19).
According to Iran Human Rights, four offenders were however executed by hanging Wednesday morning, the female prisoner Zeynab …

Not a week after the appalling hanging of Delara Darabi (22) last Friday, two minor offenders, aged 18 and 19 (16 and 17 when convicted) are to be executed by hanging in Tehran tomorrow, according to Iran Human Rights in Norway:
According to Mohammad Mostafaei, lawyer of several Iranian minors on the death row, the two minors scheduled to be executed on Wednesday are Amir Khaleghi and Safar Angooti.
Amir Khaleghi (18) is convicted of an alleged murder when he was 16 years old. According to his lawyer, Amir was heavily drunk …

It’s been two days since news broke of Iranian prisoner Delara Darabi’s (22) execution in the Rasht prison Friday morning; a sentence originally scheduled to be carried out on Monday 20 April, postponed for two months, following massive international protests.
The international community and human rights organisations, such as the Amnesty International, mourns the all-too premature death of the young artist, whose painting, The prisoner of colours, is shown here.
Delara Darabi received her sentence at the tender age of 17, which, according to international law, ratified even by Iran, renders her …

Twitter rumours Friday morning would have it that 22 year-old Delara Darabi’s death sentence was carried out today – by hanging. There’s been little evidence to corroborate the news, except (at 11:45 Norwegian time) these tweets – among several others:

LilyMazahery @DelaraDarabi was hanged to death by the terrorist government of Iran today. 01 May 2009 from TweetDeck

DelaraDarabi It is. She was hanged not too long ago. RT @dakster9: I hope this is not true. RT @LilyMazahery: @DelaraDarabi was hanged to death by t … …

About a week after New Year’s Eve, amid Israeli warfare in Gaza, I wrote a post on Palestinian blogger Sameh Akram Habeeb, whose life was in immediate peril as he remained at home to report on the Israeli advances.
Palestinian blogger Sameh Akram Habeeb (photo from Gaza today)
Needless to say, we were all severely shocked by the atrocities the Palestinians were forced to endure, even though most fled their homes to take shelter. Unlike Sameh Akram Habeeb, who provided us with the latest developments – a true and passionate journalist at …