Watching the “Sky Fire” while fetching some Fire Wood
Great Northern Lights Show Yesterday above Narvik (please click the picture for highest resolution)
Northern Lights Above the City and the clouds to the right in the picture (please click the picture for highest resolution)
5 dies in horrific mass-accident
Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa - Minister of Transportation (photo: Jarle Vines Jarvin)
A young boy and his father and three health-workers from the local hospital here in Narvik died in a road accident Friday between Tromsø and Narvik involving two buses and car. 6 more are in intensive care at the University Hospital in Tromsø. People die all the time along the roads in Norway. Politicians are more interested in building “systems” to secure their power-base. The minister of Transportation and Communication, Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa, is such an incompetent politician.
This part of the accident-proned road between Narvik and Tromsø should have been secured with spacers between the lanes – but quite incompetently nothing is being done other than hiring more government officials and spending taxpayers money on more laws and regulations.
The Accident Investigators are inspecting the scene and the cars involved. Friday’s Accident seems to have been worse than necessary because several of the passengers failing to use seat belt in the mini-bus involved. Seat belts actually improves your risk of survival by 200% It also decreases your risk of serious injuries just as much. I for one – would not have been here to write these lines to you – if it weren’t for seat belts! Use Seat Belts – Someone Loves You!
Stupid, ignorant, nepotistic politicians and seat belts aside – with this we let our warmest sympathies and heartfelt condolences go out to those who have lost their dear, to those who are struggling for life in the hospital while at the same time coping with the loss of their dear son and father/husband and to the hospital staff who found three of their employees dead in this horrific accident just minutes after meeting them at the hospital.
-The Heroes come from the North! Another Airplane Hijack stopped lats night by North-Norwegian!
TV2 News about the Kato Air hijacking and Heroes from Northern Norway
Last night a passenger (Turkish Airways) plane from Oslo, Norway to Istanbul, Turkey was hijacked by an expelled asylumseeker. A man from Northern Norway – 54 year old Dag Gjerstad from Kvænangen in Troms attacked the hijacker and held him down until the plane landed in Istanbul and the Turkish Police could evacuate the plane and arrest the hijacker.
Muslim terrorist almost killed the Captain and 1st Officer of Kato Air Flight
In 2004 a plane from this city, Narvik enroute to Bodø was hijacked by a muslim terrorist who almost killed the pilots with an axe. The Captain and 1st Officer both sustained serious head injuries and was blinded by blood and partially paralyzed by the violent muslim terrorist. The plane went into a death-dive, and calculations show that the pilot regained control and avoided crashing by some 20 meters… Trond Frantzen and Odd Eriksen – both North-Norwegians attacked the hijacker and battled with him until they managed to free the restrained pilots from their attacker. They almost strangled the hijacker to death until he gave up fighting.
Odd Eriksen broke his back in the following crash landing at the airport in Bodø. The Police couldn’t understand how the pilots managed to land the plane. They both sustained serious head injuries and wounds to their bodies and were partly blinded by blood. The cockpit instruments were soaked in blood. All four heroes, the Captain, 1st Officer, Trond Frantzen and Odd Eriksen and all the passengers survived.
Simple Explanation
Professor in Crisis Psychiatry Lars Weisæth believes the reason why men and women from Northern-Norway are so capable of acting in serious crisis, is because the live in a part of Norway where it is necessary to be able to take Care of yourself. In Northern Norway there is a – at times – violent climate and nature, there is often a long way to the nearest police- and firebrigade-station and the nearest doctor or hospital. Thus forcing us to be able to cope in serious crisis-situations.
-Witness Passivity – a problem
Professor Weisæth says witness passivity is a problem in dramatic events. If the 2004-hijacking had taken place between Oslo and Stockholm chances are the passengers would have been seated, doing nothing, waiting for someone to take action, according to a SAS – Scandinavian Airlines Captain. So being from a city lessens the chance of being a hero.
Some of the best know hero-headlines from Norway the past few years
- Rescued three children from the lit caravan
- Rescued elderly from fire inferno
- 12-year old girl saved three girls from drowning
- 15-year old rescued fisherman from sinking boat
- Tried saving drowned
- Rescued elderly woman from burning house
- Dived deep into capsized “Rocknes” to save seamen
- Busdriver stabbed
Read more in this article from NRK (Norwegian)
Further reading: The Norway Post – Norwegian stops highjacker
-22 degrees and a Great Show
I stood out in the cold -22° Celcius (-7.6° F) for nearly a couple of hours trying to get a picture of the meteor shower – The Quadrantids. The sky was filled with them but my pocket camera – a Canon IXUS 850IS simply doesn’t have the lens nor chip to catch these really fast specs of light as they flash across the sky in the fraction of a second. But it was a very nice spectacle though.
Meteor Shower and Solar Eclipse and Great Northern Lights Show!
Well, we are way north of the Arctic Circle, so the second biggest solar eclipse in Norway since 1954 won’t be visible here, but further south it will probably be a great show tomorrow!
Furthermore, the Earth is now passing the meteor shower, The Quadrantides, so step outside and watch for shooting stars! This site has advice for when to watch.
And finally, it has been a great night for watching the Northern Lights!
You won’t get more Northern-Norway than this!
My friend the biologist and natural photographer Mr. Bergersen has lend me a fantastic picture. Thank you so much Espen!
This time it is a Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) sliding down into the pitch dark deep of the oceans – leaving just the majestic white snow covered mountains of the second largest Island of Norway – Senja – as a backdrop.
It simply doesn’t get much more North-Norwegian than that! And the light captured in this classical photo is so indicative of the time of year: Just a few hours of pink and red skies, and apart from that: complete night darkness – one really has to be tough to adjust to such an habitat. Beauty and Love is what drives us – Beauty and Love – Beauty in nature and Love for nature and the bounty of meat and fish it provides us, and Beauty in each other and Love for one another. That’s what we in Northern-Norway find at the core of being a society up here. Yeah, that and a dash of Viking Blood – otherwise we couldn’t rough it out.
Humpback Whale descends into the pitch blach sea with the Majestic Senja Mountains as a backrdrop in the light hours in the middle of the day (no sun light here now). Photo: Espen Bergersen.
On Espens’ blogg you will find even more stunning pictures. Please go to: naturgalleriet.blogspot.com and enjoy a whole series of raw and delicate arctic nature that we love som much here in The Great North.
As light as it gets
We are so far north here, so this is as light as it gets this time of year. Apart from these few hours of dusky daylight, it’s pitch black the rest of the day. But the sun has eventually turned, and in a few months time the forrest will explode in a bonanza in green an birdsong and the sun will shine 24 hours a day. Welcome to the land of Contrasts – Welcome to Northern-Norway.
This is the most we get from daylight this far north - just a few hours - then pitch black darkness (apart from the stars, moon and occasional Northern Lights)
Unique Film and Pictures of Killer Whales by Espen Bergersen
The biologist and natural photographer Espen Bergersen has graciously let me borrow one of his amazing Pictures! His films has been shown on the state public channel NRK. No wonder! The films from Mr. Bergersen is absolutely breathtaking. These Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) are on the prowl for herring and in between there is time for some play and fun. The spectacle took place on Christmas Day outside of Kvalnes, Andøya in the county of Nordland.
There are also Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the mix. Absolutely fantastic. I have seen a lot of whales in packs, but this is really special. An enormous number of animals gathered for this Christmas feast on Christmas Day.
Killer Whales dancing after the herring hunt. Photo: Espen Bergersen
Silent Days and Cozy Nights by the Fireplace
Three logs of really dry birch being eroded by the licking of hungry flames
Dear Reader – This is a Christmas Present for you!
For many of us this will be a special Christmas. We have lost someone very dear to us and there is an empty space in the otherwise festive occasions.
This beautiful song was presented to me by my friend Amethyste (who is Amethyste? Read a previous article on Northern Blogosphere to find out!) for free to share with all of my readers. Thank so you very much Amethyste.
The song “Leaving in a Touch of Silence” is a song to commemorate those dear friends and family that are no longer with us. Don’t miss out on this breathtakingly beautiful song from Amethyste!
Merry Christmas from The Northern Blogosphere and Amethyste Lyne Langdeau-Spardel!
Christmas Present for the Readers of Northern Blogosphere (please click the image to open).
Crispy cold weather
The weather is nice. It’s been really cold lately and it is good to be in Northern Norway.
Crispy cold weather
LKAB celebrates 120 years with gigantic firework
The iron ore company LKAB which founded the city of Narvik (1903) celebrates 120 years and displayed a gigantic firework from the center of the city yesterday:
The iron ore company LKAB celebrates 120 years of business
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