Dithyramb

Support a free and open internet

Google has launched a campaign in support of a free and open internet against those who would hand over control to the United Nations and corrupt and oppressive governments.

I've just signed. Hope you will too!

Kyle Bass on the European economic crisis

via Amit Ghate

 

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.

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...

Kringla Heimsins

So which is it?  Amazon tablet ships later this year or no improved displays this year? I'm quite satified with my Kindle 3. It has excellent battery life and has a nice readable display even outdoors in bright sunlight. I don't really care that much that it's not in colour...what is really needed is better note-taking capability.

Some more happy news...when they killed Bin Laden they also got hold of his computer files. Now...killing one man, doesn't kill the terrorists' ideology... The battle rages on...

Christopher Hitchens has some thoughts on the death of Bin Laden....a fitting eulogy :-)

What "really" went down at Osama's compound!!! :-)

 

Ohhh! Catharsis...

Finally...

...Bin Laden is dead! Shot while hiding behind a woman...like a complete coward.

The Objective Standard...

...is now on Twitter and has its own LinkedIn group for discussion of TOS-articles and networking. The Fall issue is out now (I'm looking forward to receiving it in the mail shortly. It takes a while before it reaches Norway by snailmail).

Financial crisis: causes and possible cures

John Allisons talk Financial crisis: causes and possible cures is now available online by courtesy of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights.

Harry Binswanger on Alan Greenspan, leftist and conservative smearing of Ayn Rand and capitalism

Essential reading: Alan Greenspan vs. Ayn Rand and Freedom by Harry Binswanger.

The End is neigh or is it?

While some people are celebrating Obama...

...the Russians take advantage of the situation to deploy missiles along NATOs borders in Europe. Whether we are talking nuclear warheads is still not clear. What is clear is that the Russians view the US as weak.

On the election

Feeling a bit depressed. There were no acceptable, semi-decent candidates for president of the USA. There are no winners, only losers: America and the rest of the free world.

My condolences

On that note:

It's the final countdown (Cello-style)

Over at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, Amit Ghate has written an editorial entitled Let them fail arguing the case that governments should not bail out banks or other businesses.

Financial crisis

Brian P. Simpson has written a nice piece on how governments first create a crisis by regulating capitalism and then blames it on capitalism when the effects of government regulation screw up everything "requiring" more so called "government action".

Gold and a Free Market: The Solutions to Our Financial Crisis

The Financial Crisis

The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights has a web page with a collection of  articles, op-eds and videos relating to the financial crisis.

The Russian bear...

...is awake and flying strategical missions towards US airspace!

Interview with Craig Biddle

Objectivism, the Journal and the Future: An Interview with Craig Biddle

Interview with Tore Boeckmann

Via Noodlefood

An Interview with Tore Boeckmann: Ayn Rand's Creativity

Priestly ascension - reaching "heaven" by balloon?

Brazil priest carried aloft by 100s of ballons disappear

Watch out!...

Penis-snatchers about!

As Buffy says "Note to self.:Religion: Freaky"

Today is...

Exploit the earth or die! - day

I'm proud to be wearing my green t-shirt that I bought from The Objective Standard

And I've been walking all day with my head in an upright position taking photos and enjoying the sights of this wonderful world!

I'm proud of humanity's achievments, what about you?

The Undercurrent is out with its spring issue (Pdf)

Paris-Dakar Rally canceled..

...due to fear of terrorist attack.
A damn shame.

Tribalism

Closing of Norwegian Consulate upsets Minnesotans

"The consulate - opened in 1906 and upgraded in 1946 to its current status as consulate general - is a point of pride for the Upper Midwest, which is home to more Norwegian-Americans than any other region of the country.

It is hardly a question of their needing a nearby office to get passport updates or the like. The families of most, after all, have lived in America for generations, and many confess that they have never actually set foot inside the consulate. Rather, this is a matter of respect, of recognition.

"We're very proud of our roots, and we've tried really hard to preserve them," said Shirley Hansen, another knitter at a table bursting with the bright geometric patterns Norway is known for.

"Norway is near and dear to us, but now we feel like maybe they haven't considered us quite so important.""