I have to correct you on one glaring error. The name of the company is Tryg, not Trig. "Tryg" is Danish (Norwegian and Swedish spell it "trygg"), and means "safe, secure, protected". A better translation of the slogan would (in my opinion) be "When you are protected, you can protect others". The Danish company Tryg recently bought the Norwegian company Vesta-Hygea, which I think have a much more delightful name. It started off in the 1880s as two separate insurance companies: Vesta fire insurance and Hygea life insurance. Vesta was of course the Greek goddess of "Hearth, Home and Family", and as such a very fitting name for a fire insurance company. Hygea (Hygieia) was the daughter of Asclepius, and the goddess one turned to for prevention of sickness and continuation of good health. A proper name for a life insurance company. Then some Danes with a silly company name comes and strips all the nice Greek mythology links away. The object most Norwegians associate with the name Vesta is probably the lifebuoys. Since 1952 the company has placed more than 33,000 lifebuoys along the coast of Norway, on places where people gather to play and swim in the sea, or where accidents happens easily. Over the years, these buoys have contributed to saving more than a thousand people. Each buoy has a designated, volunteer caretaker, though maintenance costs are subsidized. All in all, it comes back to the main message. If you feel safe, protected and free to act, it is much easier to take that final decision and break that car window or throw that buoy when the situation calls for it.
Not that I expect them to put up Tryg emergency bricks om parking lots in case of doggie distress, but it might work as a publicity stunt...
Contrary to what the article implies, there are far more than 23 sculptures in the park. The sculptures, friezes and fountains are in the Vigeland Park, which lies inside the larger Frogner park. Gustav Vigeland is the genious behind every single one of the works. The sculpture LisaL mentions, the girl on the reindeer (not deer), is from the nearby Vigeland museum, where copies of sculptures placed elsewhere in the kingdom is displayed, and is not found in the park. An interesting piece of trivia is that the Frogner park was originally bought by the city of Oslo to be used as a graveyard, but was repurpoused as a public park because there was too much stone in the ground(!).
Thanks for noticing! I first heard of this in an interview with the Norwegian National Broadcasting correspondent in Russia (and before that, Soviet), regarding who would become the next president. He then gave the line starting with Lenin, which was the line I used when unraveling my mental floss thread. The spelling killed me, though, so I failed the test. I was, however inspired to check out the bald/hair rule, and found this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAPY9Yyqboo), which went back further, to Nicholas I! The next step is of course to stretch it as far as possible, and with the help of the wig fashion and the poor Ivan IV alternating with the Tsarinas, I'm pretty happy with the result. I couldn't find a picture (of a painting) of Peter I with even as much as a receding hairline, so of course the mythos started with him.
I'm pretty sure most russians don't consider Malenkov part of the line of sovereign leaders, and that Khrushchev followed Stalin. It all has to do with the hair, you see. Ever since Catherine the Great took over for Peter the Great, the pattern has been:
Catherine I - Full-haired Peter II - Bald (shaved for wig) Anna I - Full-haired Ivan IV - Bald (infant Emperor) Elizabeth - Full-haired Peter III - Bald (shaved for wig) Catherine II - Full-haired Paul I - Bald(ing) Alexander I - Full-haired Nicholas I - Bald Alexander II - Full-haired Alexander III - Bald Nicholas II - Full-haired Lenin - bald Stalin - Full-haired Khrushchev - Bald Brezhnev - Full-haired Andropov - Bald(ing) Chernenko - Full-haired Gorbachev - Bald Yeltsin - Full-haired Putin - Bald(ing) Medvedev - Full-haired
This also dictates that the next President should be bald, giving Putin an excellent opportunity to regain (formal) power. Especially since his main opponent, Mikhail Prokhorov has a head full of hair...
Mosquitos rely on hair tube physichs and intravascular pressure to get their blood, afaik. They also mix the blood with a thinning agent to get it to flow easily through their system. It's this thinning agent that makes us itch afterwards.
As Acromion has already pointed out, mare's milk is absolutely vital for the Mongolian nomads, and fermented mare's milk, Kumiss, was probably vital for the ferocity of the Hun and Mongolian armies of old. Another thing that irks me in this article is the paragraphs about the Aurochs. The 's' in 'Aurochs' does not indicate plural form, so a single Aurochs is still an Aurochs. The 'ochs' part is the same as the English 'ox', and means exactly the same.
In Norway, we say "kron eller mynt", which translates to "crown or coin". This is because the lower value coins only had an engraving of the crown, not the King's profile. The other side had the coin value.
"Or you could just blow on it like us non-idiots would." ^^^^ This.
Although I'm sure you could make a small fortune if you made a similar mechanism to a western saw; having the most expensive tools is more important than having the most reasonable tool for a lot of people...
Matt Smith (Doctor Who) was the first actor to audition for the part of Dr. Watson in "Sherlock". I'm glad Martin Freeman got it.
"Tryg" is Danish (Norwegian and Swedish spell it "trygg"), and means "safe, secure, protected". A better translation of the slogan would (in my opinion) be "When you are protected, you can protect others".
The Danish company Tryg recently bought the Norwegian company Vesta-Hygea, which I think have a much more delightful name. It started off in the 1880s as two separate insurance companies: Vesta fire insurance and Hygea life insurance.
Vesta was of course the Greek goddess of "Hearth, Home and Family", and as such a very fitting name for a fire insurance company. Hygea (Hygieia) was the daughter of Asclepius, and the goddess one turned to for prevention of sickness and continuation of good health. A proper name for a life insurance company.
Then some Danes with a silly company name comes and strips all the nice Greek mythology links away.
The object most Norwegians associate with the name Vesta is probably the lifebuoys. Since 1952 the company has placed more than 33,000 lifebuoys along the coast of Norway, on places where people gather to play and swim in the sea, or where accidents happens easily. Over the years, these buoys have contributed to saving more than a thousand people. Each buoy has a designated, volunteer caretaker, though maintenance costs are subsidized.
All in all, it comes back to the main message. If you feel safe, protected and free to act, it is much easier to take that final decision and break that car window or throw that buoy when the situation calls for it.
Not that I expect them to put up Tryg emergency bricks om parking lots in case of doggie distress, but it might work as a publicity stunt...
Pure wisdom.
The sculpture LisaL mentions, the girl on the reindeer (not deer), is from the nearby Vigeland museum, where copies of sculptures placed elsewhere in the kingdom is displayed, and is not found in the park.
An interesting piece of trivia is that the Frogner park was originally bought by the city of Oslo to be used as a graveyard, but was repurpoused as a public park because there was too much stone in the ground(!).
I was, however inspired to check out the bald/hair rule, and found this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAPY9Yyqboo), which went back further, to Nicholas I!
The next step is of course to stretch it as far as possible, and with the help of the wig fashion and the poor Ivan IV alternating with the Tsarinas, I'm pretty happy with the result. I couldn't find a picture (of a painting) of Peter I with even as much as a receding hairline, so of course the mythos started with him.
@ted: Thanks for pointing that out.
Catherine I - Full-haired
Peter II - Bald (shaved for wig)
Anna I - Full-haired
Ivan IV - Bald (infant Emperor)
Elizabeth - Full-haired
Peter III - Bald (shaved for wig)
Catherine II - Full-haired
Paul I - Bald(ing)
Alexander I - Full-haired
Nicholas I - Bald
Alexander II - Full-haired
Alexander III - Bald
Nicholas II - Full-haired
Lenin - bald
Stalin - Full-haired
Khrushchev - Bald
Brezhnev - Full-haired
Andropov - Bald(ing)
Chernenko - Full-haired
Gorbachev - Bald
Yeltsin - Full-haired
Putin - Bald(ing)
Medvedev - Full-haired
This also dictates that the next President should be bald, giving Putin an excellent opportunity to regain (formal) power. Especially since his main opponent, Mikhail Prokhorov has a head full of hair...
Also, "SAFFTY". The creator didn't bother proof-reading his/her video. But I guess that makes him/her super creative...
They also mix the blood with a thinning agent to get it to flow easily through their system. It's this thinning agent that makes us itch afterwards.
2 degrees of separation for The Jazz Composer's Orchestra is comprised of 1470 bands:
There's got to be more!
2 degrees of separation for The Dedication Orchestra is comprised of 1163 bands:
Any higher still?
Another thing that irks me in this article is the paragraphs about the Aurochs. The 's' in 'Aurochs' does not indicate plural form, so a single Aurochs is still an Aurochs. The 'ochs' part is the same as the English 'ox', and means exactly the same.
^^^^
This.
Although I'm sure you could make a small fortune if you made a similar mechanism to a western saw; having the most expensive tools is more important than having the most reasonable tool for a lot of people...