Trailer med norsk tekst https://dovesmediatv.no/video/730464-salt-and-pepper-offisiell-trailer

Trailer with English subtitles https://dovesmediatv.no/video/730463-salt-and-pepper-official-trailer-(english-subtitles)

I'm disappointed it took over a week for this news to reach me! Hell, I'm disappointed I didn't hear about this movie before it premiered! This is HUGE for the Deaf community of Norway and really the world in general. Actual theatrical feature films where most or all of the dialog is in a sign language, where ≳95% of the cast and crew are Deaf, are already incredibly rare for more widely-used sign languages. Certainly even more rare for a sign language like Norwegian Sign Language, which, let me remind you, is the first language of only about 4,000 people (and second language of ~11,000 people)

Different leftist organizations in Norway seem to have different stances.

Tjen Folket referred to opposition to wind turbines as a "just campaign", but it's not clear to me in context whether this is referring to opposition to wind turbines in general or just opposition to specific wind farms. The Communist Party of Norway seems to support floating wind turbines but does not mention wind turbines on land. The Young Communists, its youth wing, does not appear to have anything about wind power on its website. The Red Party is opposed to wind turbines in general, on land and on sea; however the Red Youth, the Red Party's youth wing, supports the construction of wind turbines provided that this is done in a "responsible" way. Revolusjon.no and marxisme.no seem to oppose the construction of wind farms in general, focusing on Norway's relationship to the EU in general and Germany in particular, saying that these wind turbines are essentially being built to generate profits for capitalists to the detriment of locals in these areas. They have a number of articles that I would like to eventually read in full.

So there seems to be a range of opinions within the Norwegian left, but the general trend seems to be against the construction of wind turbines.

Wind turbines are a topic of growing prominence in Norway as plans for more and more wind farms are unveiled across the country. I was recently introduced to this blog post that presents a number of arguments against the construction of wind power in general, providing sources for everything and even some responses to common counterarguments. However I am of course skeptical to this blog post, because sourced or not, it is a lot of claims to reflect on and research, and the single brief remark about "population growth" (apparently quoting the UN) seems a bit sussy. I would also like to look more into the organization Motvind and criticism against it, and get through everything on the Wikipedia article "Environmental impact of wind power".

Still, interim, I figured I should hold a "fact-finding meeting" to see if anyone here has any thoughts on when the construction of wind turbines should be supported or opposed, especially if you have experiences with wind turbines being built or opposed in your local area. When is opposition to wind turbines "NIMBYism in environmentalist clothing", and when is there more to it? What do you all think?

I'm surprised no-one's ever shared Yothu Yindi on this site before. The band name means "Child and Mother" in Yolngu, a language of Arnhem Land. The band was formed in 1986 from the merger of two earlier bands, one was a folk music group with all Yolngu members and one was a rock band with all white members, so Yothu Yindi's music combines like traditional Yolngu music with pop/rock, and their lyrics are mostly in English with a bit of Yolngu as well. From the songs I've heard (this, "Djapana", and "Treaty") the lyrics tend to concern Indigenous issues.

But yeah, this particular song, "Tribal Voice", makes me think of an anime OP. Like you can hear the part where the logo would go "thud".

Three days ago I said that I tried soy milk for the first time. I finished the entire carton pretty quickly, and decided that at the next opportunity I would buy more plant milk, to try different brands and types, and to figure out where I could find plant milk at different stores.

I noted last time that the plant milk was hidden in a random out-of-the-way corner of the store — in the store I went to this time, the plant milk was in a section called frifor (also spelled fri for, fri-for), a play on fri for which means "completely without (dairy, gluten, etc)". I'm assuming the plant milk in the other store I went to was also in this section and I just didn't notice the sign. I just expected to find plant milk in the same place you'd find dairy milk, rather than in its own little section of the store for people with dietary restrictions.

Anyways, I bought chocolate oat milk this time. The brand is called Oatly. The soy milk I bought last time was Alpro brand. The oat milk was a few kroner cheaper than the soy milk, but I forgot to compare prices with dairy milk.

What I'll say right now is... Oatly brand chocolate oat milk is kinda how I expected plant milk to be like before I tried the soy milk from the previous post. By no means "chemical-y," like a lot of bozos seem to think, just... "bouba"...? I don't know how to put it, exactly, but it's a taste that's distinctly "I'd rather not"

So, Oatly is drinkable, in small amounts, but it's not nearly as good as the Alpro soy milk; I poured a glass of Oatly for myself and actually spat out the last bit because I "needed a break". I also noticed that while Alpro didn't smell at all, Oatly has a distinct scent to it, mild but I still don't favor it; on the other hand Oatly resembles dairy milk slightly more in appearance (not a major concern for me), and it doesn't stain the cup nearly as much (which is a positive).

Oatly brand chocolate oat milk is serviceable enough that I'll drink the whole carton eventually, but I think the next time I'm shopping for plant milk I'm not gonna go for Oatly again. I'd rather pay just a little more for better-tasting moloko. I'm not sure if I'll go for rice milk or almond milk next time, but I do think I'll have the milk be plain rather than flavored in any way.

One last thing I'd like to address is just the packaging.

I haven't actually thrown away the Alpro carton yet, so I have that to compare as well.

So on the Alpro the only words of Norwegian/Scandinavian are the contact information for customer service on the proper right bottom third of the carton, and the product information / ingredients / nutritional information on the reverse. There is also text in Finnish and Romanian in these same places, and some other Romanian fine print on the obverse and proper right. But as a whole the entire carton is covered in big, bold, flashy English, and I do not like this.

Because if the reverse assumes that anyone buying the milk necessarily speaks Scandinavian, Finnish, or Romanian, then why should the package assume that everyone buying also speaks English? Conversely, wouldn't the vast majority of the packaging being entirely in English lead one to believe that one should also be able to find the ingredients and nutritional information on the back in English?

The obverse has plenty of room to in fact entirely replace the English text with translations into Scandinavian, Finnish, and Romanian; the sides, too, could cut out the marketing flourishes and convey the same information in all three languages as well. There is no reason for English to be there at all other than I guess to be trendy and to save the negligible amount of money it would take to localize the packaging beyond the literal bare minimum required by law.

I do have to wonder why Romanian, though. There are many far more widely spoken immigrant languages in Norway, Romanian is not a super widely spoken language on the global scale, and Norway and Romania are not particularly close to one another, so it seems a bit of a random choice, doesn't it? But whatever, it is a pretty language, so I can't object to seeing more of it.

Now Oatly on the other hand, there is a nice and clear "HAVREDRIKK SJOKOLADE" written on the front. In that regard, it's way better than the Alpro carton.

However... Again, most of the carton save for what the carton itself labels as "the boring (but very important) side" is written in English. Basically none of it is anything actually important, but it's just this really aggravating "corporate silly", you know the kind, the kind of writing that feels like it's a variant of that same vile disease that also brought us "wholesome adulting" and grown-ass characters swearing like 5th graders in Hollywood blockbusters.

Like I know I probably seem really petty by focusing so much on the packaging, but I don't want to feel cringe when buying abuse-free milk. Like I know there isn't really any other way to do it, but I don't want to be reminded that I'm buying from some corporation that's cashing in on people's desire to not support animal abuse and trying to turn veganism from a radical movement for animal rights to a qwirkee #aesthetic under their own Brand Image of corporate silly wholesome chungus English for the globally-minded youth. Just give me the fucking plant milk, in the local language, without marketing frills. No different from the store brand apple juice and instant ramen. No different from the dairy milk.

Is that really so much to ask?

Specifically it was chocolate-flavored soy milk. I figured that would be "safer".

The experience of drinking the soy milk went roughly like so:

[pours the milk]

"Hmm. Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me, but it looks ever so slightly opaque compared to dairy milk..."

[gives it a good sniff]

"...It smells like basically nothing. Just as I like it!"

[tastes it]

...

...

...

"...Yeah??? OK! I can fuck with that!"

[puts glass down]

"Well, it feels somewhat watered down, yet also a bit saccharine; and the chocolate flavor is clearly different from what I'm used to; but on the whole it's not bad, it's just different, and 'different' is exactly what I was expecting. Really, as a whole this milk is largely indistinguishable from a different brand of dairy chocolate milk I've had previously."

[gulps down the rest of the glass]

"I mean, you know, it's not like the flavor on its own is preferable to what I'm already used to — God knows this costs a bit more as well — but I would gladly only drink chocolate milk that tastes slightly 'off' if it means less animal abuse. This hardly counts as any sort of sacrifice."

[drinks two more glasses]

"Honestly, I take back what I said, this is just good. Why on Earth isn't this just the standard milk already‽ Why was this stuff just hidden away in some random corner of the grocery store, where I nearly missed it completely‽ I mean I know the answer already, I'm just saying it's messed up..."

October 21st through 27th

https://www.giellavahkku.org/

[NB: It took me a few hours to translate this article, during which the protest the article concerns already took place. NRK reports that the protest was attended by 1,000+ students; I can translate that article later. Also, if I got anything wrong here, please say something. I took more liberties with the translation than usual, adding extra context or rephrasing ideas more naturally.]

Thousands of protestors are expected in Hamar to protest the closure of multiple schools. The police comes with a clear message.

AWAITING TRAFFIC CHAOS: The police requests that people avoid driving into Hamar when thousands of protestors are expected to descend upon the city. Map courtesy of Google Earth.

By Magnus Kallelid, Annabelle Bruun, Bendik Hansen, and Kristoffer Solberg. Published Tuesday October 22nd 2024, 10:33 AM, last updated 10:40 AM.

HAMAR (Dagbladet): Prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre strongly reacts to the comments made on Monday by mayor of Lom municipality, Kristian Frisvolds, concerning the school structure debate, TV 2 reports.

— "For a mayor to call for a war, I think that's completely unacceptable," Støre said to the TV channel.

County-level politicians in Innlandet County, representing the Conservative Party, Labor Party and Green Party have proposed the closure of Dokka and Skarnes upper secondary schools as well as the school grounds in Dombås, Lom, Flisa, and Sønsterud.

This has caused outrage in Innlandet County. Several thousand protestors are expected to descend upon Hamar's downtown on Tuesday afternoon, according to the police.

According to Hamar Arbeiderblad (lit. Hamar Workers' Paper), several buses full of people from various places in Innlandet County are on their way to the city, which is located on the coast of Lake Mjøsa.

— "We're on the ball and monitoring the situation. These are people who desire to make use of their freedom of speech, which is by all means legal in democratic Norway," Ketil Enger of Innlandet police district, who is leading the police group assigned to the protest, said to the newspaper.

He said that it would in principle be possible for the protest to happen without a police presence, but that they will still be present on Tuesday. He wished for the time being not to say how large the police presence will be.

— "Some have notified us beforehand that they wish to attend the demonstration while others have not. There is both an organized and unorganized section that will join in this demonstration," Enger said.

He made a request for those thinking of going to the demonstration by car:

— "Avoid driving into the city if possible. There will be many people, and we may be forced to close individual roads and regulate traffic if the situation calls for it," Enger said to the newspaper.

Declared "total war"

On Monday evening, mayor of Lom municipality Kristian Frisvold spat fire, saying that "a total war is declared" and that there is no longer a need to be impersonal about the case of the proposed school closures, but that it is now acceptible to go after the politicians personally.

Frisvold has received much criticism for his commentary. He said in NRK's Political Quarter Tuesday morning that they have tried everything, but that this has been decided beforehand. [Does he mean "this was inevitable"? And who is "they"? The anti-school-closure movement?]

Kristian Frisvold is a member of the Conservative Party but in his capacity as mayor represents a different party, the Village List. The Conservative Party has distanced itself from Frisvold's comments, saying that they violate the party's ethical guidelines.

When Frisvold declared a total war, he stated that "all is fair game".

He said that he had contacted journalists to ask them to dig into members of the county council representing the Labor Party, Conservative Party, and Green Party. "We want to uncover all sorts of dirt," Frisvold said.

— "Can you as mayor say that all is fair game?" NRK's host asked.

— "I will utilize all legal means possible to stop [the closure of the schools]. I have only encouraged legal methods and nothing else," Frisvold replied.

On the subject of Conservative Party members contacting the police after his request, Frisvold said:

— "They can go ahead and do that. I have nothing other than legal methods to use, and I will use them. It is legal to investigate if people have nothing to hide."

SCHOOL CLOSURES: During the meeting of the Lom municipal council on Monday October 21st, mayor Kristian Frisvold declared "total war" against the county-level politicians in Innlandet County. Video courtesy of Lom municipality.

— "Completely unprepared"

The mayor's political party, the Village List, commented Tuesday on the mayor's strongly criticized remarks.

— "Mayor Kristian Frisvold must speak for himself, regarding his choice of words in yesterday's municipal council meeting, about Lom's situation around the school structure reform, and personal attacks on county-level politicians in Innlandet County", Trond Volden of the Village List wrote in a press release.

— "We the members of the Village List in Lom were all completely unprepared for the words that came from the mayor's mouth," Volden wrote.

I'm reminded of the old Lenin quote, "There are cours where nothing happens and there are episodes where seasons happen", because Toradora was roughly like this for me:

Episodes 1-11: "Hey this is pretty good, I can dig this: it's cute, it's fun, it's silly, and it's got just a pinch of drama that makes it feel more substantive..."

Episodes 12-20: "Alright this is kinda boring tbh, I'm not nearly invested enough in these characters to particularly care about their teen drama nonsense."

Episodes 21-24: "ACTUALLY I DO CARE SUDDENLY! HOLY SHIT! THEY'RE ACTUALLY DOING IT‽"

Episode 25: "And they... I guess sorta stuck the landing? I mean there were good parts of this episode, but I feel like pacing-wise it would've been better if they just didn't have any conflict in this episode."

The Circassian text goes like this:

Batsä ts1yk1w zish1wrä, shabäts1yk1w qofä
Batsä ts1yk1w zish1wrä, zighäsh1aghw qofä
Batsä ts1yk1w zish1wrä, daxäts1yk1w qofä
Batsä ts1yk1wr, qofär wey

In the original Cyrillic:

Бацэ цIыкIу зищIурэ, щабэцIыкIу къофэ
Бацэ цIыкIу зищIурэ, зигъэщIагъу къофэ
Бацэ цIыкIу зищIурэ, дахэцIыкIу къофэ
Бацэ цIыкIур, къофэр уей!

God knows what it actually means, though. The "oi-da-ri-da-rai-da" type stuff is just vocables.

The original Circassian song is this, by the way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2y08gVeJHs