Free Republic

Around the spring of 1290, bad-boy Norwegian nobleman Alv Erlingsson was broken on the wheel by a Danish sheriff. Sometimes remembered as the “last Viking”, Erlinggson (English Wikipedia entry | Norwegian) wasn’t only one of the great lords of the Norse kingdom: he was a prolific pirate. The 1280s saw Norway warring with the rising German merchant cities, the latter soon allied with Denmark. Alv Erlingsson made his sea-dog bones in this conflict, terrorizing Hanseatic League fleets and eventually raiding the Danish coast as well. His “Viking” reputation proceeds not only from this mastery of the waves but from his...

Nod to deep-sea mining sparks global concerns. Image: Shutterstock/Hermann Viria IN a historic move, Norway has become the first country to approve commercial-scale deep-sea mining, passing a bill in its Parliament on January 9. The legislation aims to accelerate the search for minerals crucial for green technologies, including electric vehicle batteries. This decision permits exploration in approximately 280,000 square metres of the country’s national waters, equivalent to the size of Italy, situated in the Arctic between Svalbard, Greenland, and Iceland. What Lies Beneath: Minerals and Green Technology While the Norwegian government asserts caution, Energy Minister Terje Aasland emphasised the need...

OPINION The USA, Canada, Australia, Norway and the UK which had the moral responsibility to rapidly phase out oil and gas production are responsible for planned expansion from new oil and gas fields for next decade and half. How can these countries advise India to cut on coal consumption? Our greenhouse gas emission is nearly 3 Giga tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually. We are distant third behind the two top emitters China with 14 Giga tonnes and the US with 8 Giga tonnes Among the important outcomes, COP 28 text proposes to triple renewable energy capacity and double the global...

At the beginning of last week, several bus services in Oslo were cancelled. The reason was that the new electric buses could not cope with the cold. On Monday, about 50 city buses were cancelled and taken out of service. The bus company Ruter reported that the range of the electric buses was not as good as usual because of the cold weather. It was about 12 degrees below zero. – The buses run out of power more quickly. We are now registering what happens day by day, and then we will see how we can improve this in the...

LUTEFISK DAY On December 9th, Lutefisk Day reminds residents in Norway, Finland, and Sweden to begin preparing their lutefisk for Christmas. The day is also referred to as Anna’s Day. In case you’re not Scandinavian, lutefisk is basically cod that gets soaked in lye. After the cod is caught, it’s dried to the point of becoming firm and leathery. To tenderize the fish and bring it back to its former condition, it gets soaked in lye. Once it’s nice and tender, the lutefisk is skinned and boned. Finally, the fish is boiled until it reaches a gelatinous consistency. Another way...

A "very rare" ancient gold coin found recently in the mountains of central Norway could be lost cash that once belonged to an early monarch, according to Norwegian officials. The gold coin was discovered by a metal detectorist in Vestre Slidre, a rural city known for skiing, in Norway's south-central Innlandet County. Technically called "histamenon nomisma," the coin was first introduced around 960 C.E. and used as standard Byzantine currency, the Innlandet County Municipality said in a news release. That means the artifact would have traveled more than 1,600 miles from its origin site to the spot where it was...

It’s about time Californians of all ideological persuasions wake up and stop what is possibly the most economically wasteful and environmentally destructive project in American history: the utility scale adoption of offshore wind energy. The California Legislature intends to despoil our coastline and coastal waters with floating wind turbines, 20+ miles offshore, tethered to the sea floor 4,000 feet beneath the waves. Along with tethering cables, high voltage wires will descend from each of these noisy, 1,000 foot tall leviathans, but we’re to assume none of this will disrupt the migrations of our treasured Cetaceans and other marine and avian...

Traditional bullets lose their deadly momentum within mere feet when submerged, rendering water a safe haven from gunfire. However, this paradigm is on the brink of an epic shift, thanks to an innovative breakthrough by Norway's DSG. Harnessing the enigmatic powers of supercavitation, DSG has engineered a projectile that defies the constraints of underwater physics. The CAV-X bullet, with its unique design, breaks through the watery barrier that has long shielded those seeking refuge beneath the surface, striking targets up to 200 feet away, and opening up the possibility for a new breed of underwater soldiers…

A new study out of Norway is exactly what was needed to shut down the climate alarmists. Its findings show that man has not set fire to his home planet. Right from the top, in the abstract not 10 lines into the study, the authors get to the point. “Using theoretical arguments and statistical tests we find,” the researchers say, “that the effect of man-made CO2 emissions does not appear to be strong enough to cause systematic changes in the temperature fluctuations during the last 200 years.” In other words, our words, the greenhouse effect is so weak that it...

A subsea gas pipeline and a telecommunications cable connecting Finland and Estonia under the Baltic Sea have been damaged in what may have been a deliberate act, the Finnish government said on Tuesday. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO was sharing its information over the damage and stands ready to support the allies concerned. Finland joined the military alliance in April, while Estonia has been a member since 2004. The Balticconnector gas pipeline was shut early on Sunday on concerns that gas was leaking from a hole in the 77-km (48-mile) pipeline. Finnish operator Gasgrid said it could take...

[SNIP] In a clear swipe at his predecessor, George W. Bush, the committee praised the “change in the international climate” that the President had brought, along with his cherished goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. [SNIP] But Lech Walesa, [SNIP], who won the Peace Prize in 1983, [SNIP], declaring: “So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far.” Mr Obama’s domestic critics leapt on the award as evidence of foreigners fawning over an untested “celebrity” leader. [SNIP] The Nobel Peace Prize is a notoriously difficult award to predict, but yesterday's decision was clearly a political choice, with...

When I first moved to Norway in 1999, I often heard the term amerikanske tilstander – “American conditions.” It was never, ever used positively; it didn’t refer, for example, to things like freedom and prosperity. No, it was always used to describe some dreaded social or cultural or economic phenomenon that was supposedly on the rise in Norway and that threatened to make the country look more like – horrors! – the United States. Evangelical Christianity? Amerikanske tilstander! Gun crime? Amerikanske tilstander! Rough-and-tumble election campaigns? Dumb TV shows? Private medical options? Growing economic inequality? Amerikanske tilstander! Back then, you never,...

Norway is an EV leader thanks to a generous pot of tax incentives. Today, battery-electric cars make up more than half of all new car sales in Norway. Schalk Cloete takes a detailed look at what those incentives cost, and how many tonnes of CO2 they avoid. Norway – a major oil and gas exporter – needs to sell over 100 barrels of oil (which emits 40 tonnes of CO2) to pay for the tax breaks it gives EVs to avoid one tonne of CO2. And Norway’s electricity is almost completely clean thanks to hydro power, so the CO2 avoidance...

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient bridle and other artifacts from a mountain pass almost 2,000 meters above sea level.Near a mountain pass, not far from Norway's highest mountain Galdhøpiggen, archaeologists have found traces of horse travel.A metal bit and parts of the leather straps that fasten around the horse's head have emerged from under the ice...Traffic through a mountain pass on Lomseggen was at its peak during the Viking Age.Snow and ice melting in the area has previously uncovered hundreds of ancient artifacts. They have revealed that Norwegians used this mountain pass for more than 1,200 years (link in Norwegian)...The...

Norwegian chief of defense claims Putin 'knows very well' NATO is not a threat to Russia Norway said Russian forces have pulled back from its border in the Arctic, claiming the number of soldiers Moscow has there now is "20% or less" compared to the start of the Ukraine war

Nine gold pendants with rare horse symbols, ten gold beads, and three gold rings from the 6th century were recently discovered by a metal detectorist in Southwestern Norway. Erlend Bore just wanted a hobby. So just before this summer, he bought a metal detector. To get him off his couch and go treasure hunting. He was searching around the shore of the island Rennesøy in Stavanger, in Southwestern Norway, when the metal detector started to beep. In a lump of soil, he saw something that looked like gold coins. “At first I thought I’d found chocolate money with a gold...

The directorate of agriculture in the kingdom considered that the Russian reindeer moss, eaten by the Norwegian deer, is now too expensive, and instead of paying for the damage caused in the Pasvik nature reserve, they preferred to destroy the northern beauties in the amount of 42 individuals. In the treasury of one of the richest countries in the world, 47 million crowns (approximately 420 million rubles) were not to be found to save the animals, settling the claims of the Russian side. Russian zoologists acted strictly within the framework of an agreement signed thirty years ago, which regulated the...

...at Vinjeøra in southern Trøndelag County... The first discoveries to make it to the surface... large pieces of flint that were highly reminiscent of early, pioneer settlements...When the excavations in Vinjeøra got under way properly... the researchers found evidence from people who came to Finnmark from the east around 9000 BC.The ice remained the longest in Scandinavia compared to the rest of Europe during the last Ice Age. The Norwegian coast only became free of ice around 12,500 years ago. The first people arrived in what we now know as Norway and Sweden about 1,000 years later.Skeletal analyses have previously...

First a word of warning. This story you are about to read is WORSE than you think. I did not believe this could happen in a democracy. This should not ever happen in a democracy. But then again, I am beginning to ask myself if we are actually still living in a democracy. Let's start from the beginning... This is about a Norwegian man named Trond Harald Haaland. He has long been outspoken about things like the World Economic Forum, climate change and vaccine passports. He has posted a lot about the excess death rates we have been seeing after...

Numerous reports Thursday said NATO-member Norway has rushed to follow the Netherlands and Denmark to donate U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Norwegian media outlets made their revelations as Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was visiting the Ukraine capital Kyiv. AP reports there was no official confirmation of the plan, which was reported by Norwegian broadcasters NRK and TV2. Ukraine has long pleaded for the sophisticated fighter jets to give it a combat edge, as Breitbart News reported.