My absence from the social media scene during summer, mainly based on a number of all-too time-consuming assignments, has lead me to realise that I simply do not miss it, save for blogging, as you will understand. And I think I know why, as I suspect I really tired of the social media more than a decade ago. “Hang on,” you say? “Social media didn’t exist at the time”?
Dear reader, I beg to differ.
The sudden enthusiasm for web 2.0 and, in particular, the scores of social media outlets emerging over the …

I am yet not departed. Actually, I’m not even sick, except perhaps, mentally. But I do struggle. With unimaginable loads of work, preventing me from blogging, twittering, facebooking – or leading a life of my own at all, truth be told.
For the better of a fortnight I’ve been my clients’ exclusive property 24/7, and am likely to remain so for most of summer, amid our family’s move from the Oslo region to the west coast.
I’m terribly sorry for late responses on comments, tweets, private emails and what have you, but …

Both Sweden’s minister of foreign affairs Carl Bildt and his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Støre confirm a joint effort to defend Iceland’s air space as of 2011, expected to be joined by Denmark and Finland as the Nordic foreign minister ajourn in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik on Tuesday.
The arrangement is considered controversial, as Denmark, Norway and Iceland herself are NATO members, as opposed to non-NATO countries Finland and Sweden.
Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas G. Støre.
In an interview on Norwegian national TV news Sunday evening, however, Norway’s minister of foreign affairs …

Some of us have mourned the apparent demise of CitJ site iNorden.org, a service we all hoped would once become the Scandinavian response to the Korean success OhmyNews, which, evidently, never came to pass. After about a year’s existence, iNorden flopped big time last autumn, at which time I decided to retire myself as editor, leaving it all to co-editor Øyvind Strømmen, who clearly didn’t have much time to spend on the project either.
The remaining staff, if that’s an appropriate term, was unable to uphold the regularity we came to …

I’ve never had the pleasure of counting myself among the Alexa elite (as a matter of fact, this blog holds a humble 8763rd place – among sites Norwegians visit). Never paid much attention to search engine optimisation, commenting wildly on other bloggers’ posts for requital traffic, unless I should, for other reasons, but I do appreciate frequent visitors and love the input you provide, unless you’re up to no good, that is.
In short, my insignificances are indeed highly insignificant, in the big picture that is the blogosphere, but I cherish …

British Holocaust revisionist and pseudo-historian David Irving, originally invited to the Lillehammer literature festival, arrived in Oslo on Monday, in spite of the festival’s cancellation last autumn, according to Norwegian news site ABC Nyheter (in Norwegian).
The initial festival programme contained an Irving lecture on the concept of truth, later to be withdrawn on account of massive protests.
It’s been rumoured later that Mr. Irving intended to attend regardless. He is currently confirmed present in Oslo, on his way to Lillehammer.
“Yes, I’m in Oslo, saying ‘tusen takk’ [thank you] wherever I go,” …

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 seem 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 …