La Norvege - Direct Hit
I'm grateful to my friend Lex for the news that northern Norway recently collided with a meteorite . Just as well that the Viking Longship and I postponed our plans to spend this midsummer on the North Cape. This does, however, provide me with the perfect excuse for providing a link to the Svalbard webcam - nonstop 24-hour entertainment at this time of year, though come mirktide the image is, shall we say, likely to attain that crisp minimalism one naturally associates with the Scandinavian aesthetic . . .
posted by Nick at 1:33 pm
3 Comments:
Phew, That was a bit too close for comfort....
Perhaps we should find out if there is insurance to cover this type of thing before our North of Norway trip becomes a reality?!?
There was an article about Longyearbyen, as featured in the webcam, in a recent paper over here. It is called Longyear after the bloke who founded it 100 Years ago and subsequently started mining the copious quanitities of coal there.
I have a feeling you're going to tell me that 'Longyear' doesn't actually mean 'long year' . . . (as opposed to 'long summer' or 'long winter' . . .)
Nick,
100 years ago workers from "The artic coal company", owned by John Munroe Longyear arrived on Svalbard with there tools to start digging for coal.
So dispite the apt name, "The Longyear Town" (as translated) has nothing to do with the artic conditions or extra days in the year......
Read all about it here
http://www.ssd.no/document.aspx?uid=827&title=Longyearbyens+100-%c3%a5rs+jubileum
If that helps........
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