Norway and Vegas hook up for the common good.

Superficially, it would seem that Sin City and one of the crown jewels of Scandinavia don't make for a good fit.

But Norway's Consul General was acting diplomatic and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman was playing the gracious host at a meeting of seemingly incongruous, desirable destinations.

"It's probably easier to find things that are different than things that are similar," says Sten Arne Rosnes, Consul General of Norway. "But I think we have one thing in common and that is attractiveness. The American lifestyle is very attractive to Norwegians. We try to learn from that in how we promote interests and Norwegian business."

Both officials agreed there was much to be gained from such an alliance.

"I'm sure we can learn from an economy that only has three percent unemployment right now," adds Mayor Goodman. "In Las Vegas we have 13 percent and we're suffering as a result of it."

While most foreign visitors head straight for the Strip, the Consul General from green-leaning Norway went straight in the opposite direction.

"We went out to the solar panels at Nellis. I felt that Norway is important, not because we have sun - we don't have 300 days a year of sun - but we have been introducing some of the products that are necessary for solar panels."

Norway is about the size of California. With just under five million people, it ranks near the top in quality of life surveys.

Norwegian govt re-elected - But only just

Norway's center-left coalition government has won parliamentary elections. The race was tight and turnout was lower than in 2005, but Norwegian voters ultimately credited the bloc with steering them through the economic crisis.

The left-leaning government has narrowly won reelection in Norway, official results show. The three-party coalition led by Labor Party Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg became the first sitting government to be re-elected in Norway in 16 years. With 99.9 percent of votes counted, Stoltenberg's bloc had taken 86 of the 169 seats. The final tally is expected to be announced later this week.

Voter turnout in the oil-rich nation was estimated at about 69 percent among the some 3.5 million eligible voters, around 9 percent lower than in 2005.

Stoltenberg's government, which has been in power since 2005, had campaigned against tax cuts and privatization proposals made by the center-right parties, arguing that such measures would be detrimental to healthcare, education and care for the elderly.

The right-wing opposition, dominated by the populist Progress Party, had vowed to cut taxes and launch a privatization program. Norwegian taxes are among the highest in the world.

Stoltenberg's center-left government has resorted to tapping a multibillion-euro oil fund to cushion the blow of the global economic downturn. Norway's oil fund, designed to finance the social welfare state, was worth 277 billion euros ($395 billion) at the end of June.

Is Think Still a Norwegian Car Company?

The Norwegian electric car maker Think is back on the road.

The company on Thursday said it had exited bankruptcy protection and secured $47 million in new financing to restart production of the Think City, a highway-capable urban runabout with a range of about 112 miles.

Think had shut down its assembly line outside of Oslo late last year when the global financial crisis cut off access to new capital.

But is Think still a Norwegian automaker? The company did get some local street cred Thursday: among its new shareholders is Investinor, an investment fund backed by the Norwegian government.

Still, in another sign of the globalization of the nascent electric car industry, the Think City will now be made in Finland at the plant of one of its new investors, Valmet Automotive. (Valmet assembles the Porsche Boxster and Cayman and will begin producing the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid electric sports sedan.)

Think’s Norwegian assembly facility will be shuttered and its 85 employees dismissed.

An existing investor, the American company Ener1, which owns the lithium-ion battery maker EnerDel, now becomes Think’s largest shareholder with 31 percent of the company. EnerDel supplies batteries to Think, and in July, the two companies began a joint venture to sell electric car drivetrains.

Other Think investors include General Electric and the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The company’s primary market is Europe, but Think plans to build a factory in the United States and has applied for an Energy Department loan guarantee to finance the project.

Think, which was formerly owned by Ford, took pains Thursday to emphasize its Norwegian roots. “Think, however, remains a truly Norwegian company, with its senior management, sales, marketing, design and engineering staff still located at the company’s Oslo headquarters,” the company said in a statement.

Think’s chief executive, Richard Canny, born in Australian, added, “This means we can restart production of the Think City as soon as possible.”

Preparing for Mars expeditions on Svalbard

The Norwegian archipelago Svalbard has been chosen as test bed for life-detection technology to fly on future missions to Mars.
The 2009 AMASE (Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition) will be taking place from August 1st to 24th.

Since 2003 six AMASE expeditions have been carried out. This year’s expedition includes more than 30 scientists and engineers from USA, Norway, Germany, Spain and UK. The participants come from different disciplines like microbiology, geology, biogeochemistry and robotics, SpaceRef.com reports.

The participants will carry out very different activities: from testing equipment that eventually would fly in future Mars missions to study the conditions in which extremophiles thrive in glacial ice and develop and test protocols to search for past and present habitable environments on icy planets.

The main research will be carried out in Svalbard fjords rich in carbonates, clays, basalts or water-ice that are considered good Martian analogue.

Norwegians tell of crop circle gun incident near Devizes

Two Norwegian crop circle enthusiasts have told how armed police officers swooped on a farm at Allington near Devizes after they were confronted by an angry man with a gun. But the farmer whose land it was says the gunman was legitimately shooting pigeons.

Norwegian language school teachers Eva-Marie Brekkesto and Guro Parvanova, were visiting a crop circle on land at Manor Farm, Allington, on Monday afternoon when they heard shooting.

Mrs Brekkesto, who is the founder of the Norwegian Crop Circle research group, said: “When we came into the crop circle formation we heard a gunshot, quickly followed by one more. We were a bit shocked, it was quite close, then a man appeared shouting ‘ get out of the field, you are on private land’.”

They started to leave the field but Mrs Brekkesto, 52, went back to speak to the gunman to find out what the problem was.

She said: “I said ‘sorry, why are you shouting?’ I asked him if he was the farmer. He said no but had been hired by the farmer to prevent people from going into the crop circle.

The Norwegian ladies have visited Wiltshire for the last ten years viewing crop circles and are staying in a holiday cottage in Devizes.

Introduction to Norway

The most accurate observation made about Norway is that it is a land of contrasts.

The landscape is both beautiful and brutal, barren rock gives way to soft fertile plains and majestic mountains tower above mirror like fjords. Norway is a truly enchanting land for one of the oldest civilisations in Europe.

The once war like vikings have given way to a people of peace where technology rubs shoulders with a passion for the environment and traditional values.

Join me as I try and discover more about this magical country, it’s people, places, language, culture and traditions.