Have you ever used the service Stumbleupon? It’s basically a service where people add things they find interesting within a certain area, be it photography or humor, and by doing so recommend it to others with similar interests. I use it from time to time, when I have no idea what I want to read or if I am bored with whatever I normally check when I go surfing.

One of the really great things about this service, is that you will be sent to web pages you probably would not find yourself or through google – usually because you did not think of actually searching for it. I have experienced numerous times that I have an interest in stuff I did not know I had an interest in

When stumbling around I wast presented with a blog that asked me what my favorite things are. I was about to zoom on by when I realized that I actually didn’t really know. I am, probably like most of you, living in a society where we are overwhelmed by things – we basically have everything one could possibly want or need. By having everything its easy to loose track of the most important things among them. Not necessarily physical things, it could be thing you do rather than a thing you have, but still – what is most important? Is your computer, your TV, running in the woods, being with friends, diamond rings, your car, cool speakers, an iPad 3 or whatever the version is now? You are asked to only give two things. While most of us could probably name a dozen things that we like, it’s actually more difficult to name only two.

Frankly, I am not certain at the moment, so I have not written anything. Not many people have at the moment, as a result of low traffic or people just not being able to reduce it to only two things. It’s strange how such a simple question can result in not being able to produce an answer off the top of your head.

I will think about it and write something when its clear to me, and I urge you to challenge yourself in the same way; What are the most important things for you or in your life?

Not as simple as you thought, eh?

I does have an orphanage and a “school” – and this is where young people from various countries come to work for free to help out. I write school in brackets, as there are no trained teachers there and the aid workers do most of the teaching, but it is better than nothing. Unfortunately, the children have very little school material like books, pens, paper and the like.

When the son of my friends went there, he and the other young people collected money from their respective families and dug a new well for the orphanage, saving them hours of walking to get good water every day, they built sanitary toilets for both boys and girls and by doing so reduced the probability of disease, bought new cribs for the babies, mattresses for the older children, pens, crayons and paper for the children to use at school etc. Even on a very slim budget they were able to do a lot, as money go far in Africa. Have a look at the below pictures and you can see some of the things that were built. To the left are the original “toilet” and the two other images show the exterior and interior of the new ones. Quite an improvement, I would say.

Anyway, back to Christmas 2011. This family has decided to travel down to Ghana and bring clothes, toys and other things that children need that they have collected from friends, family and neighbors. The children at the orphanage has nothing or very little of everything, so anything children between birth and 12 years old would need is being collected. In addition they are accepting donations for the purchase of school supplies, mosquito nets, medicine, band aids, shoes or other things they are lacking. All the money collected will go to the children. The family is paying their own trip, room and board out of their own pocket and there are no administrative fees of any kind.

They have a plan to try to support one of the children at the orphanage on a long-term basis too – hopefully more than one, but it depends. There is a 1-year-old girl at the orphanage, as seen on the picture to the right, that has Sickle-cell anemia, a disease that is not that uncommon among Africans, and demands constant follow-up from medical personnel. At the moment this girl is not receiving any real treatment, something that will result in a much shorter life span and chronic pain and discomfort. Their plan is to try to transfer money regularly to see to that she is taken care of. If they are not able to establish some system where several persons pay a small amount on a monthly basis, they will cover this themselves – but that will reduce their ability to help all the other children. You can read more about Sickle-cell anemia here and here.

They will be leaving Norway for Ghana on the 19th of December 2011, celebrating Christmas at the orphanage and will make sure that the children have a great Christmas meal – just like most of us are used to.

If you have money to spare and/or want to contribute – please go to their homepage for more information. This page is in Norwegian only, unfortunately – but it does give you the possibility to practice your Norwegian You can also read it through google translate here.

If you are a Facebook user, and quite frankly – who isn’t, you can enter the event they have set up or go to the Facebook page they have set up – in English. It’s open for all, so feel free to invite your friends in on this project. There is information on how to pay from outside Norway into the project’s Norwegian account available on all the before mentioned pages.

As I understand it, any amount is welcome!

Those of us that are fortunate enough to be born in the rich part of the world, and have quite pathetic problems like obesity and laziness among youth, should take a step back from time to time, and look at the big picture. In the great scheme of things, many of our problems are minute compared to not having parents, not having food, not getting any schooling, living in a country with little or no security, having no hope for the future. Even though we can not save the world by helping a few kids in a country we have never been or even heard of, you can help a few children improve THEIR world, making them better equipped to save themselves and their own people and country. In my view, all the little things amount to all the big things – and when you change the little things – you are helping in making the really big changes.

Please consider setting aside an amount for something other than yet another unnecessary Christmas gift this year, give it to someone who really need it instead.

The newspaper Aftenposten published images of the nude Nansen, images he had taken himself and sent to his American lover/mistress/girlfriend, Brenda Ueland, in 1929 – one year before he died.

How we are used to seeing Nansen, on the old 10 kroner bill.

Some think that this was beneath the well-respected newspaper and that his memory and image should have remained untainted. I do not. So what if he wanted to show off his body (including the penis, as it is attached you see) to his mistress? Does that make him less of a national hero and important figure in our history? I do not think that it does, if anything it shows that even the ones we look up to, idolize, try to imitate and worship are just people with flaws – just like you and me – and the only reason you don’t see sex tapes with historical figures is that the technology was not in place.

Speaking of technology, the Facebook page of the newspaper had to remove the image, or risk being banned, due to the no nudity clause of the social media platform. 80-year-old images of 67-year-old men may be damaging to watch..

I find it liberating to see that even our heroes are people too, even national heroes

The CIRCAMP web page

Its a strange world that we are living in. People can communicate across borders, across ethnisity, across color and sometimes across language on the Internet – we can share thoughts, opinions, pictures and other files. Thats all well and good and probably the best thing that has ever happened to humanity, but as with all good things, it can also be used for really horrible things.

I just read a blog entry informing me that a system that has been in place in a number of countries for years is to be voted upon by the European Parliament, namely having Internet Access blocking against child abuse material (child pornography) in place or not. The post is written by the crimes against children team at Interpol – so one should think that they know what they are talking about. Its not a case of censoring the Internet or blocking illegal material in general, the EU are going to vote whether countries “must” or “may” block access to images of children being raped.

“Must” or “May”? If there ever was a no-brainer, this would be it!

Are there any countries that will choose not to prevent the distribution of images of children that are sexually abused? Are there any arguments against having such a system? Does any country want their population to have access to this, willingly or unwillingly?

Any sensible person would probably answer those questions with a thundering “Hell, no!” – but there are..

While some countries in Europe and the rest of the world have chosen to remove access to raped children, many or most have not. The countries that have such blocking have not crumbled, their Internet is not broken or reduced in speed and availability, their police or politicians have not chosen to block political sites, they are not on a slippery slope towards eternal damnation – they are actually rising above those that bend over backwards to civil liberties groups that demand that the Internet be free from any policing.

Civil liberties my ass, and for who? For you, you who surf the Internet from your nice house somewhere or civil liberties for the victims of the abuse? Those that choose their own right to access to all information, even if being criminal to produce, distribute and possess, over the basic rights of others and in particular the victims – are, imho, morally depraved.

Shame on anyone that is willing to protect the people that crave and produce these images – as they are all equally responsible for its existence and availability. Free speech advocates thinking that access to images of child victims is free speech are just plain stupid and should go back and read up on rights in general. Free speech is stating that you disagree with your government and why without the fear of being arrested, free speech is not protecting the rights of criminals spewing out pictures of sexually abused children.

I live in a country where we accept a level of policing, both in society and on the Internet. We accept that there has to be rules, regulations and some basic structure to how we can behave and treat each other. Personally I have never, ever accidentally come across images of child sexual abuse nor have I ever seen my country’s warning page. I use the Internet a lot, but I obviously use different parts of it than the ones that object to having such blocking because of its limiting effect on their “freedom”.

The Internet is now such an integrated part of our existence that not having rules that apply for our benefit seems dated and unrealistic. Would you accept that your bookstore on occasion displayed such images in its windows or that the mailman from time to time put it in your mailbox? Probably not. Would you accept that a house on your street had such images plastered all over its inside and outside and let people travel from near and far to access it free or for a small fee? Probably not. Still, this is basically what is happening on the Web today. You can choose to view a funny video on youtube.com or choose to view a rape of a baby – its equally accessible, as its using the same technology and the same information highway to your screen.

I think this is unacceptable and anyone that willingly let this continue should be held accountable.

Have a look at it and make up your own opinion.

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The video should work in your browser, depending on what you have installed on your computer. You might need a media player if you do not have this installed already. I prefer the “play everything” VideoLan, as it will play media in the Firefox browser and open the external player in IE, but any player capable of handling FLV-files should do the job:

If you are going to have sex with an untested partner, or if you have not tested yourself in a while – use a condom. They are probably the cheapest life insurance you will ever get!

On one hand, its hailed as the body of “normal” women and a healthy step away from the anorectic supermodels we have become accustomed to, while others see this as a normalization of overweight, unfit and a generally unhealthy female appearance. I think I belong to the latter category, possibly with some adjustments.

Firstly, I do not like the Popsicle look on many celebrities and models today, the twig bodies with the big heads and boobs – that’s just unnatural and frankly looks stupid. Neither do I like the soft, “flabby but skinny” or “fat but thin” models that roam the catwalks of the world, where its all to evident that they are only thin, not fit in any way – with soft behinds and flat chests. Well, then – whats left – or are we destined to become fatter and fatter?

What happened to the fit bodies of women that keep in shape, that do sports, that have muscles, that are toned, well shaped and healthy? Where are those bodies to idolize? I want to have healthy role models, with bodies that look like they have been used for something other than sipping Latte at the local mall or as extras in a concentration camp movie. Too much of everything is not good for us, not too fat and not too thin.

I must say that I admire Lizzie Miller – who daringly show off her unfit and/or heavily built and/or normal body for all to see, but I hardly find her body to be something to copy. She is slightly overweight, but more importantly, she looks unfit.

Lizzie Miller looking somewhat better

She is 20 years old and flabby – flabby like women in their late 30s have a tendency to be, or more correctly, like women in their late 30s was in the past. They say 40 is the new 20, but now it looks more like 20 is the new 40 when it comes to body shape and fitness level. Its sad, really – by promoting this body type as something to strive for, we are striving for the mediocre. The human anatomy has the potential for so much more.

I have added a few of them below, and you can find more on the Internet. I have seen many of these labeled as “Best headlines of 1997″, “Best headlines of 2002″ etc, and the only thing that is for certain is that somebody claimed that they were real headlines at one time or another, but I can not vouch for that .

I find many of them rather funny:)

• Include Your Children When Baking Cookies
• Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert says
• Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
• Drunk Gets Nine Months in Violin Case
• Iraqi Head Seeks Arms
• Is There a Ring of Debris around Uranus?
• Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
• British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands
• Clinton Wins on Budget, But More Lies Ahead
• Plane Too Close to Ground, Crash Probe Told
• Miners Refuse to Work after Death
• Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
• Stolen Painting Found by Tree
• Two Sisters Reunited After 18 Years in Checkout Counter
• Never Withhold Herpes Infection from Loved One
• War Dims Hope for Peace
• If Stride Isn’t Settled Quickly, It May Last a While
• Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
• Enfields Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide
• Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge
• Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
• Man Struck By Lightning Faces Battery Charge
• New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
• Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft
• Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
• Chef Throws His Heart into Helping Feed Needy
• Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
• New Vaccine May Contain Rabies
• Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors

If you have any more suggestions or other compilations of headlines, please feel free to post them in the comments.

While on the subject, I did a quick check for more newspaper related stupidity, and found the following headlines and clippings. Its amazing that some of this stuff was actually passed by whoever passes stuff.

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- Albert Einstein

Color challenged square

According to Times Online, there is a shift in language on the way, particulary in the public sector, as everybody eager to be most politically correct. A number or names and descriptions, sayings and the like is now, per se, viewed upon as racist or ethnically demeaning. I am not writing about the normal racial slander you would expect, various organisations have decided, out of the kindness of their heart I guess, to limit or ban the use of certain words – as they are sexist, racist or carry with them a “hierarchical valuation of skin color”. I assure you that I am not making this up!

Lets have a look at some of the examples of this:

Black day – Use “miserable day” as the color black is expressed as bad and therefore it indicates that the skin color black is bad.

Ethnic minority – Minority is something small, therefore less than the majority, and thus “smaller or less important”.

Gentlemans agreement – Potentially offensive to women, one should use “unwritten agreement” or “an agreement based on trust”.

Master bedroom – Indicating a man, and threfore bad and sexist against women.

Black sheep of the family, black looks and black mark – Does not really have anything to do with skin color, but makes “black” out as something less desireble and therfore reinforce the badness of “black”. Equally, everything “white” is positive and therefore bad.

The stupidity of this is almost beyond me, and I foresee great challenges in the future. If we can not use any colors that may have some resemblance to any ethnicity, how can we say “what a horrible black sweater”, “I got a sun burn and now I am all red and terrible”, “He is yellow (cowardly)” and so on? One should always fight racism and bigotry, but this is not the way to do it.

Whats your opinion on the subject, if any?

Firstly, even if you disagree, there is no need to destroy somebody elses livelyhood and/or hurt them. Secondly, animals raised in a cage for fur or meat does not have the basic skills to survive in the wild and will die of starvation or become the dinner for a more adept predatory cousin. Doing this is both illegal, unethical and immoral, imho anyway – but there may be better ways to achieve the same goal.

Fox puppy with a torn ear

The Network for Animal Freedom has “visited” 45 Norwegian fur farms and have documented what they saw there in images available on their Flickr page. They did a similar thing in 2008, documenting the conditions at 100 fur farms. The group claims that the images show inhumane treatment of bred-for-fur animals, and looking through them, its hard to disagree. The fur farmers have been reported to the police, and hopefully something will happen as a result of this. The group, however, claim that the Norwegian authorities have no credibility when it comes to cleaning up this industry.

I do not believe that we should stop using animals as a resource for food, clothing and other products, like the fundamentalists of PETA, but I do believe in treating the animals humanely. If decent living conditions and living quarters increase the price of said products, so be it. Anyone wanting to buy a fur coat can probably pay the small percentage price increase this would result in anyway.

Mink with bite wound

The police should look into these claims and investigate the validity of their claims. If true, the fur farmers should be fined, jailed or forbidden to operate and keep animals.

Animals deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and not like this.