It would seem not much happened in Norway today

En velvoksen elg brukte et isflak som surfebrett i Namsen.

A fully grown elk used an [isflak - what do you call a piece of ice that has broken away from a main sheet and is floating around on its own ?] as a surfboard in Namsen.

…

Isdemningen i Namsen løsnet ved Overhalla mandag. Kjell Grannes så på isen fra kjøkkenvinduet.

The ice [not sure what ‘Isdemning’ is, but the context would suggest this is pretty close … maybe -ed] in Namsen broke loose in the vicinity of Overhalla on Monday. From the kitchen window Kjell Grannes looked at the ice.

Svømte
Swamped … Swam … not sure exactly what they are getting at here -ed

Med ett kom en elg surfende nedover elva på et isflak, melder Adressa.no.

All of a sudden an elk came surfing across the river on an isflak [there it is again, still not sure that you’d call it in english … an ice flake ? -ed] Adressa.no tells us [apparently the newspaper that broke this front-pager -ed].

- Den kom farende nedover på et gjennomsiktig isflak. Det så nesten ut som om den gikk på vannet, sier Grannes til avisen.

It came a long way across on a piece of cross-flowing ice. ‘It almost looked as if he were walking on water’ Grannes told the newspaper.

Han kjørte ned til en bro like ved Overhalla sentrum. Der så han skogens konge komme surfende nedover elva. Like under broen falt elgen i vannet.

He drove down to a bridge close to the centre of Overhalla. There he saw the King of the Forest come surfing across the river. Just under the bridge the elk fell into the water. [Not sure what’s funnier, an elk falling off a piece of ice into a river or an old man driving into the city centre to watch -ed]

- Den kom seg heldigvis opp på land etter noen svømmetak, og så ut til å være i god form da den løp opp mot et byggefelt, sier Grannes.

Luckily it drew itself onto the land after a few swim strokes and looked to be fighting fit as it ran off toward the town said Grannes. [yes it would appear that the king of the forest prefers built up areas bygge=to build/built, felt=area/vicinity -ed]

from Aftenposten 31-01-06

As much as I originally thought to mock Mr Grannes for his enthusiasm, I can’t say I wouldn’t drive downtown to see an elk riding a piece of ice across a river - though obviously if this were happening in my local area I’d be more concerned about the 4 horsemen and keeping out the road of their hellacious steeds.

EDIT 01-02-06: I was kinda close, here is the official english version of that story. I’m happy enough with my effort.

hahaha is this Karmic or what ?

Bull fighting is an abomination of a passtime (this post is categorised ’sport’ very loosely) and I’m glad these spectators got some of what’s owed them.

Just a bit of slightly irreverent humour for a monday afternoon.

hat tip to mum

Cruising around the blogosphere this morning I came across Joel’s take on this recent piece from Simon World - I hadn’t read it before now and now that I have, I’ve got some thoughts.

In rare criticism, the People’s Liberation Army Daily has criticised the armed forces taking part in a major live-fire exercise for their lack of efficiency and failure to master the skills needed to wage information warfare. The criticism followed poor results from the recent Hanhai Storm exercises on the Kerqin grassland in Tongliao city , Inner Mongolia , according to the paper.

Three divisions, comprising about 50,000 troops, from the Shenyang military region took part in the four-stage exercises, in which the troops representing the PLA were defeated by the enemy Blue Army - believed to have simulated US battle techniques.

In the first stage, the Red Army was ordered to repel the attacking Blue Army. Despite its firepower being strengthened by the availability of six hi-tech aircraft, the Red Army troops were defeated because the army commander forgot to call in air support. The other three stages revealed the PLA officers were slow to respond and did not have a firm grasp of the advanced technologies needed to stage information warfare.

Antony Wong, president of the International Military Association in Macau, thought the exercises simulated a “ground battle” on the Korean Peninsula, with the Blue Army representing the US.

Simon World

I do hope somebody in the Washington/Seoul heirarchy is paying attention to this, not that a country conducting exercises to keep its soldiers in the practice of warfighting is necessarily worrying, but consider the location and capabilities of the groups concerned and this becomes something to keep an eye on.

Given that the Shenyang Military Region has a field strength of 250,000 it becomes fairly clear (well to me anyway) that this was an exercise of the command structure (look at the number of troops utilised) and it would appear they did not do so well. With any luck this means the command and logistical infrastructure does not yet exist to such a degree as to be able to effectively weild a quarter of a million soldiers in a field environment (no mean feat for certain) - chances are it doesn’t though, more likely is one or two of the commanders are just good old fashioned clusterf#c#s.

As yet there is nothing, as far as I am concerned, to be troubled by, however the recent tensions on and around the peninsula (NB: final emphasised paragraph) make it fairly clear to me that now is the time for diplomacy, not posturing (from both sides - don’t hear me wrong there). It’s time for the generally useless politicians of the world to step up and begin a dialogue of interaction and peace, start early before any (ok - too much more) bad blood starts running - please don’t fuck this up as well, it’s not in anyone’s best interests.

Hat Tip to Joel and Simon - linkage/emphasis inside article mine.

Driving home this evening I was listening to the radio, as is my wont on long (or for that matter short) car journeys when along came an advertisement for the Royal Military College Duntroon. Being a current (albeit part-time) student of this great establishment I was naturally interested and, it would not be unfair to say, more than a little disturbed by what I heard.

When (or I suppose if) you hear the advertisement you’ll know straight away which one I mean but the basic gist is that if a 4 or 5 year degree sounds like too much work come to RMC and get a job in 2. I believe the wording goes something along the lines of;

‘Haven’t got 4 years to wait around ? becoming an army officer takes just 18 months’

Is this really the type of advertising we want luring future professional officers of the Australian Army ? I bloody hope not.

‘So can’t be arsed putting in the effort to get a bachelors ? don’t have the stamina for an apprenticeship ? come join the army you’re our type of guy’

I am saddened to think that anyone would be allowed to lead Australian soldiers (arguably some of the finest in the world) with an attitude like that, though there is little cause for alarm, anyone joining under such a premise has little to no chance of making it through the RMC coursework IMO.

I was reminded of an article called Khaki ambassadors I read in the Herald Sun which sums up the crisis in military recruiting in this country quite well, give it a read because Mr. Bolt puts it far better than I could.

In case you’re wondering what kind of people the army is looking for in their officer ranks - here’s a thought;

…the 27-year-old lieutenant in Baghdad found the army didn’t issue the right equipment for platoons like his to break into houses during operations to clear urban areas. So he ordered two sets of door-breaking tools over the internet, using money scrounged from his regiment.

Khaki ambassadors Herald Sun 30 dec ‘05

It’s not every day you open the paper and a mate’s on the front page.

Mark is a lot stronger and more experienced a climber than I so it just goes to show nothing’s ever a sure thing in the mountains.

Moral of the story - stay switched on out there because you’re never better than the mountain.

Heal quick mate.

hahaha

hat tip to mum

Just stumbled across the Dram Man’s new blog over at blogspot. I get the feeling it has been around a lot longer than I realise (never read it until this morning) but it is cool (particular if, again, your interests are similar to mine).

you should all look at http://dramman.blogspot.com

in other news
The Marmot’s Hole seems to have changed it’s name to ‘From Nakdong to the Yalu’. It looks as though our good friend is still playing around with his layouts and such (as is a bloggers wont every now and then I guess) and his archives do not seem to have migrated to his www.rjkoehler.com URL, but new content is till arriving regularly and the comments section(s) are still in open season.

If you answered ‘not very fun at all’ you’re correct, come to the front of the hall and collect your book voucher and small shrub.

I’m helping a mate renovate his house right now, not sure how long it will take, but our combined borderline/rampant alchoholism and significant perfectionist tendencies mean it may be a while.

Just thought you all should know.

In case you didn’t know, most of the cases (all in the case of most of the forwarded e-mail’s) are rubbish and never happaned.

I learned this in first year, LAWS 101 or some such, but given the number of times people have forwarded me e-mails about how a woman tripped over her own son and sued a furniture store I figure maybe not everyone turned up to that lecture.

Most may be fabrications but rest assured a lot of unbelieveable things do take place in the legal halls of the world (though it should be said, mostly in America ).

It really is impressive what can be done these days.

She smokes fag after fag. It’s not perhaps the best thing she could be doing, but it’s her choice

and equally amazing how fucking stupid people can be, she was probably flicking ash in the dogs eyes to start with (read the article - you’ll get it).

I knew those pictures of Waka Inoue would pay off.

But why would someone spend 2 and a half minutes looking at them ? … on second thought - don’t answer that.

This is what the search returns if you’re interested … I’m very interested to think that, at least in theory, somewhere in those 2 and a half million links is this humble little world of filth.