How? Well, of course, use a wooden butter knife! Apparently the mortar between the bricks on the outside wall of Hedmark prison, built in 1863 is so fragile you can easily scrape it out, and since the inside consists of plaster board and insulation material it didn't take much for an Albanian, charged with drugs offenses, to work it out! In addition, the break out was caught on the prison's CCTV cameras, but no-one was watching at the time (well it was early in the morning!). It was only discovered that he had escaped over an hour afterwards. The police and prison staff are suitably embarrassed!
Of course, being Albanian, he probably has no idea of just how good and supportive Norwegian prisons are - he probably should have stayed inside. The following link from an article in The Guardian from February seems to confirm this!
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/feb/25/norwegian-prison-inmates-treated-like-people
Interesting reading.
A blog about daily life in Bergen, Norway. We moved here in 2010 due to work commitments (my husband's). Now having survived the first winter I feel able to write about the place without too much negativity! it is amazing how a lack of light, freezing temperatures and general horrid weather drain creativity!! I've learnt Norwegian, and work part time - so this really is living in Bergen!
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Saturday, 5 October 2013
Filming in taxis?
A newspaper article today about filming in taxis caught my attention. What was it all about? Well, it is something that is being trialled in Oslo, and has nothing to do with trying to get yourself noticed for the next big TV 'wannabe' show!
The system consists of a camera in the back of the taxi, which can be activated by the customer. If you feel your taxi driver is not going to take you home straight away, but go via some out of the way, desolate area and attack you you can turn on the camera which will stream real time video direct to the taxi rank's office. It has been developed as a personal security system and will hopefully deter certain drivers taking advantage of their young female customers. The film will only be looked at if someone reports an incident to the police. Otherwise it will be deleted unseen.
Of course, the thought did cross my mind that if a taxi driver really wants to do something, I suppose he could just sabotage the camera so it doesn't record. Wonder if that is possible? You could get a bit paranoid about the whole thing I guess.
The inventors of the system actually started out with the idea that all taxi journeys would be filmed but once the Data Protection Agency heard of those plans the idea was scrapped. People don't want to be filmed when they have had too much to drink or a fight with their boyfriend or girlfriend - plenty of that on YouTube already! Although if the film is supposed to be deleted unseen surely that would not be a problem.
Data Protection have no problem with a system that allows the consumer to choose whether or not they want to be filmed. Hopefully, the little button that starts the camera rolling is easy to see and easy to press - alcohol does tend to have an effect on fine motor skills, as anyone who has tried to walk in a straight line or touch their nose with their index fingers (don't you just love the US police programmes when they stop drunk drivers!) might agree with!
The system consists of a camera in the back of the taxi, which can be activated by the customer. If you feel your taxi driver is not going to take you home straight away, but go via some out of the way, desolate area and attack you you can turn on the camera which will stream real time video direct to the taxi rank's office. It has been developed as a personal security system and will hopefully deter certain drivers taking advantage of their young female customers. The film will only be looked at if someone reports an incident to the police. Otherwise it will be deleted unseen.
Of course, the thought did cross my mind that if a taxi driver really wants to do something, I suppose he could just sabotage the camera so it doesn't record. Wonder if that is possible? You could get a bit paranoid about the whole thing I guess.
The inventors of the system actually started out with the idea that all taxi journeys would be filmed but once the Data Protection Agency heard of those plans the idea was scrapped. People don't want to be filmed when they have had too much to drink or a fight with their boyfriend or girlfriend - plenty of that on YouTube already! Although if the film is supposed to be deleted unseen surely that would not be a problem.
Data Protection have no problem with a system that allows the consumer to choose whether or not they want to be filmed. Hopefully, the little button that starts the camera rolling is easy to see and easy to press - alcohol does tend to have an effect on fine motor skills, as anyone who has tried to walk in a straight line or touch their nose with their index fingers (don't you just love the US police programmes when they stop drunk drivers!) might agree with!
Thursday, 26 September 2013
What does the fox say? Ylvis and the Law of being average
Newest music sensation from Norway consists of two brothers who form the comic duo Ylvis. Despite atrocious grammar in the lyrics 'what do fox say' (surely it should be foxes?) and more than a passing similarity (?) in some places to The Crazy Frog Song Warners newest signing has gone viral. They had 35 million hits in one week on YouTube!
Does this make the Norwegian media happy? Wel, no not really! The success of the two brothers both internationally and in Norway has caused some to look up and shake their heads in horror! The law of. Jante (Janteloven) is definitely alive and well!
What is Janteloven?
Well, Janteloven was a term coined by a danish-norwegian author, Aksel Sandemose, at the turn of the last century to describe the way that small communities, particularly Scandinavian ones, despise and mock anyone who shows themselves to successful or different. Even if you do become successful, the understanding is that you remain like everyone else, and don't advertise it. Individuality and achievement are not considered desirable traits, and it is best to be part of the collective and not try to make something of yourself. It can keep everyone deathly dull and average - here's a couple of sayings that describe the idea well: ''nails that stick out need to be hammered back in place', and 'never stick your head above the parapet'
So Ylvis are getting a hard time in some areas of the press as they are definitely showing off with all their success! It would be better if they apologised to the world about people liking their humour and then maybe admitted that really it isn't them writing it, but all their backroom team - then I think the Norwegian media would be a bit less unhappy, but only a tad mind!
Only in Norway!
http://youtu.be/jofNR_WkoCE
Does this make the Norwegian media happy? Wel, no not really! The success of the two brothers both internationally and in Norway has caused some to look up and shake their heads in horror! The law of. Jante (Janteloven) is definitely alive and well!
What is Janteloven?
Well, Janteloven was a term coined by a danish-norwegian author, Aksel Sandemose, at the turn of the last century to describe the way that small communities, particularly Scandinavian ones, despise and mock anyone who shows themselves to successful or different. Even if you do become successful, the understanding is that you remain like everyone else, and don't advertise it. Individuality and achievement are not considered desirable traits, and it is best to be part of the collective and not try to make something of yourself. It can keep everyone deathly dull and average - here's a couple of sayings that describe the idea well: ''nails that stick out need to be hammered back in place', and 'never stick your head above the parapet'
So Ylvis are getting a hard time in some areas of the press as they are definitely showing off with all their success! It would be better if they apologised to the world about people liking their humour and then maybe admitted that really it isn't them writing it, but all their backroom team - then I think the Norwegian media would be a bit less unhappy, but only a tad mind!
Only in Norway!
http://youtu.be/jofNR_WkoCE
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)