Dithyramb

Pictures taken at Sognsvann

Today I was testing out my new hiking shoes. I had initially thought about taking a walk around Maridalsvannet, but since it has only been 2 weeks since my cast came off (I broke my ankle on the 28th of May in a paintball-war) I decided to take a shorter trip. Sognsvann is a scenic little lake in Oslo. One thing that I really love about Oslo is that most of the city's territory is actually forests and lakes. So, yes,...whe are still within the capital of Norway...

So, I've been enjoying a sunny afternoon. Afterwards I met up with friends and family and had a picnic inn Slottsparken.

I'm feeling fine and my ankle I think is healing nicely, although it is a bit frustrating that I can only walk at a slow pace...but a slow pace is excellent for enjoying nature on a bright sunshiny day!

 

Pictures of a flowery downtown Oslo

These are some photos that I took walking in downtown Oslo earlier today.

The Henrik Ibsen statue outside the Ibsen Museum

Outside the Town Hall

...and in most buildings flowers are put into every nook and cranny...

Spikersuppa

 

Oslo Domkirke


  Youngstorget

Flower in the Crannied Wall

Alfred Lord Tennyson, (1809-1892)

                                Flower in the crannied wall,
                                I pluck you out of the crannies,
                                I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
                                Little flower -but if I could understand
                                What you are, root and all, and all in all,
                                I should know what God and man is.

I'm safe...

I had been in the area where Anders Behring Breivik set of a bomb in downtown Oslo about half an hour before it exploded. I thought that it might rain so I decided to make my way homewards. A lucky decision.

I was near Solli Plass when the bomb went off.So I was outside the blast-range. Initially I just thought that it was a lightning strike or thunder. I could not comprehend that a terrorist attack had been launched on my beloved Oslo. It took some time for it to dawn on me.

It's been 2 days since the cowardly attack and all I feel is a mixture of anger and sadness.

Sadness for all those who died or were harmed and their families and loved ones. Extreme anger at the vicious hatemonger who so coldy could walk around and shoot young teens at a summer camp.

I fear a new and terrible era is upon us.

Join the...

A classic form Not the Nine O'Clock News

 

A Capella version of Rammsteins Du Hast

Via Izismile

 

Delightful and ingenius

Of interest...

In the world of science...

Explenation of the Aurora Borealis phenomenon

 

Via

The Aurora Borealis from Per Byhring on Vimeo.

 

In the world of politics...

Christopher Hitchens asks some much needed questions to the "activists"(or the life-hating terrorist supporters in a normal persons vocabulary) on the Gaza Flotilla.

The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being shipped are in such negligible quantity. The chief significance of the enterprise is therefore symbolic. And the symbolism, when examined even cursorily, doesn't seem too adorable. The intended beneficiary of the stunt is a ruling group with close ties to two of the most retrograde dictatorships in the Middle East, each of which has recently been up to its elbows in the blood of its own civilians. The same group also manages to maintain warm relations with, or at the very least to make cordial remarks about, both Hezbollah and al-Qaida. Meanwhile, a document that was once accurately described as a "warrant for genocide" forms part of the declared political platform of the aforesaid group. There is something about this that fails to pass a smell test. I wonder whether any reporter on the scene will now take me up on this

I somehow doubt that he will get much of a rational answer.

 

In the world of entertainment...

The world will forever be changed for air guitar players!

Better lead off on a happy note, so...