BlingYou

I have some friends that are doing a very commendable thing this Christmas. Rather than eating and drinking too much, in sync with the traditional Norwegian Christmas celebration, they have chosen to spend both money and time on something better. One of the members of the household worked as a voluntary worker at an orphanage in the village of Darmang, north of the capital Accra in Ghana earlier in 2011.  You will not find the village on any maps, not even Google has passed it by with their street view, as its tiny and largely goes unnoticed.

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.

There are very few things Norwegians are more proud of than our explorers. I have written about Roald Amundsen in this blog before, but this time it is our polar explorer, Nobel peace prize winner and all around good guy Fridtjof Nansen that has stirred up an interest. The usually calm and collected Norwegians have even, in some cases, been angry that the images was published.

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.

There is a controversial ad campaign getting ready to be showed down the throat of German TV viewers and movie goers from next week until World Aids Day on December 1st. They use strong images and messages  to make people open their eyes to HIV and AIDS, stating that somebody dies from AIDS every 15 seconds. It turns out that British research has found that one in four HIV positive does not know that they are infected with HIV, and keeps spreading it to others – multiplying the damage and suffering. Some people will be offended by both the sexy video and the real mass murderers used in the posters below. Still, if only a few – or even one, takes precautions, protect themselves and as a result does not infect another – its all worth it.

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!

There has been some discussion lately, regarding the weight and look of 20 year old Lizzie Miller – published in Glamour Magazine.

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.

The Gwent Police in Wales has paired up with local talent to produce a “what if”-video of young people texting while driving. It turns out that this is a huge problem amongst young drivers, and is potential disastrous – as it may take away up to 35% of your attention. With todays complicated traffic and amount of idiot drivers, you need that 35%!

Chief Inspector John Pavett from Gwent Police Roads Policing Unit hopes the serious message in this film will hit home to viewers and sais: “I hope that after watching this film motorists will think twice before picking up their mobile phone when behind the wheel and realize that a quick reply to a text message or answering a phone call is never worth putting theirs and other people’s lives at risk.”

If you have a drivers license, you should really spend the few minutes it takes to see this video – it will definitely make you think. You may have to confirm your birth date to see the video, as the content is not for minors.

Surveys have shown that six our of ten use their mobile phone while driving, either by calling or sending SMS messages. Among young people under 30, seven out of ten have SMS’ed while driving. Men use their mobile phone more than women while driving.

We should all stop using our cell phones while driving unless equipped with a complete hands free setup, and we’ll all be around much longer.

A few days ago I posted some images of Matt Damon from the period he was filming the movie “The Informant!“. Many of these, well all actually, showed a relatively fat and unfit Matt Damon, as the part he was playing was just that, fat and unfit. Being the method, or at least dedicated, actor that he is; he got fat to be able to play the part better.

End of story? Eh, no..

Today I received a complaint! Someone I know contacted me off blog, in what adults call the real world, or IRL for short, and complained about just posting pictures where Matt Damon looks less hunky than his normal self. To please this person and stop the yelling and crying, I had to promise to post some pictures where he looks good too, so here is – for your viewing pleasure – a sexier Matt Damon

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The famous, at least in Norway, espionage case against Arne Treholt is finalized, at last. Arne Treholt, dob December 13, 1942, was a sub department head and press spokesman for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs when he was arrested on the 20th of January 1984, charged with espionage.

The case was handled by Eidsivating Lagmannsrett  between 25th of February and the 20th of June 1985. Arne Treholt was sentenced to 20 years in prison for espionage on behalf of The Soviet Union and Iraq. The case was later appealed to the Supreme Court, but Treholt later withdrew his appeal.

Treholt has several times applied for a retrial, in both 1986 and 1990. The appeals were turned down by Eidsivating Lagmannsrett and later the following appeals to the Supreme Court was denied.

Arne Treholt was pardoned on the 3rd of Juli 1992 due to health issues, after having served 8 years and 5 months of his 20 year sentence. Treholt later filed a third appeal for a re-opening of his case to the Gjenåpningskommisjonen (Norwegian Criminal Cases Review Commission) but this was denied on the 23rd of January 2005.

Since the case now is over and done with, and there are no more possibilities for appeals or retrials, the Norwegian Police Security Service, the PST, have released some images that has not been made public before. The PST has also put together an overview of the case with more images, unfortunately only in Norwegian, but if you are interested you can find it here.

Anyone in Norway old enough to read newspapers or watch TV in the 80s know about the Treholt case. We have only had a couple of them in our country’s relatively short existence, one other being the Galtung-Haavik case, and the controversy relating to his pardon and later books and interviews has stirred up much debate.

Arne Treholt himself is states that “there are no new information in this case” when asked to comment the new images. Treholt would like more openness regarding the whole case, and has several times asked that the whole verdict be made public. He then continues “.. the only secrets in this verdict is that it does not contain anything secret“. Treholt has admitted gross misconduct during his service in the Ministry of Foreign Affaris, but has never admitted guilt for espionage.

According to the director of communications at PST, Trond Hagubakken, no more of the extensive material related to the Treholt case and trial will ever be published.

At last this case is over, and in the gallery below you can see the images that are “new” in this case.

As the title indicates, this is more of Matt Damon. Not necessarily more information or many more images – but certainly a Matt Damon that is more by himself. I am a big fan of Matt Damon, so I am not trying to put him down or anything, I just find it interesting how some actors will go through just about anything to fit the part in movies that they play in. The images below are taken while Matt was filming The Informant. Luckily he is now back to his attractive, hot and slender looking self

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If you would like another, and more extreme, example of transformations, have a look at the things Christian Bale has gone through for his movies.

The movie poster for the Informant

Matt Damon is by many viewed as one of the sexiest men alive, but he will still adjust his body to fit any part he plays in a movie. In the Bourne trilogy he was athletic and buffed, in the upcoming movie “The Informant!” – he is downright fat. According to Damon he gained 30 pounds (13.6 kg) to play the role of the company vice president turned whistleblower, Marc Whitacre.

“I definitely got doughy” sais Damon, now back to his leaner, slimmer self, according to EW.  “I started eating like crazy and drinking dark beer. Between meals on set, I’d eat a No. 1 Value Meal at McDonald’s and then Doritos on top of it. It was absolute heaven.”

Well, many of us do exactly that, but more for pleasure than high profile roles in movies, and many of us have problems getting back too..

Anyway, have a look at the trailer for the movie “The Informant!” – I am looking forward to it this September.