Academic Freedom?

Again there is fuzzing and fighting about the holy ganja. According to the Boston Globe British national drug advisor for the last 10 years Dr. David Nutt was recently fired for criticizing his gouvernments drug laws. Basically he just pointed out that 1 in 350 gets damaged by horsebackriding and 1 in 10 000 get damaged by smoking the holy ganja.

I was planning to write about this, but now the discussion already reached Norway; where Norwegian scientists points out that a gouvernment advisor who did'nt speak up about such reasearch should be fired. Anyways, now I have to push my post. Like the Norwegians say: "Ja, ja."

Now, I don't have complete faith in this ranking; for instance it does'nt divide between methods of 'getting high'. An easy example is the difference between smoking your tobacco and using nicotine patches or gum. I have never seen anyone get in 'real' trouble from sniffing amphetamines - and I've never seen anyone walking unscathed away from shooting it.

With that said scientists Ole Røgeberg (with the Frisch center) and Hans Olav Melberg with the University of Oslo and Sirus (Norwegian Insitute of Alcohol and Drug Research) has a good summation of some of the most important de-criminalization arguments in todays Dagbladet. I'm not going to go through their article - you can check it out if you're still in doubt. I will, though, quote the now unemployed Dr. Nutt who calls the practice of jailing people for cannabis use "infantile and embarrasing".

The Time Travelers Wife

I read The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger last year after beeing urged by both my wife and by my mother. A romantic story of love, loss and free will in that modern you-obviously-learned-to-write-in-the-author-academy style that is so perfect and easy to read and lacks that little something great litterature used(?) to have.

Great book. Cried like baby. Felt cleansed then. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that make them cry like babies in night.

Just saw the movie with the wife. It's not as good as the book, obviously, but it's a great movie. Romantic like, perfect for a first or N'th date with someone you're serious about. It did make me cry though, so if you tend to do that and feel unmanned by such displays of emotion it might be better to steer away from this one the first few dates ;)

The Lost Symbol - Laus Deo

A LAtimes review of Dan Browns lates novel states that "Brown's narrative moves rapidly, except for those clunky moments when people sound like encyclopedias". I find my facination with Brown to be the exact opposite. As a suspence-writer mr. Brown suck, his 'rapid narrative' is superficial and as intriguing as your ugly neighbours realdoll love affair. But as a lecturer he is actually quite good, even if you have to take everything he says with a grain of salt.

For instance he promotes one website in his book theintentionexperiment.com whos creator Lynne McTaggart also (according to wikipedia) is the model of the books heroine Katherine Solomon. But when I check out the intention experiment I find that it belongs to a moneyhungry woman who intends to sell me books; to make money and not at all to change the world.

Mr. Brown has developed somewhat as a writer, which is good. The book has some long techno-optimistic speeches that fills one with some hope for the future; and I still find mr. Brown to be a fine communicator of the gnostic 'faith'. He is not a prophet, not even an evangelist - but its not unlikly he has sparked more interest in gnosticisim than any other individual. And do keep your eyes open for mainstream news of noetic breakthroughs... that would indeed change everything.

An easy read; highly recomendable if you like thriller and detective novels.

Library Fail

Small expedition downtown yesterday to get a new passport and some litterature on Santiago de Compostella. The last time I got a passport I thought they took the pictures at the police station, but they did'nt. This time I thought they don't take pics at the police station, but they do. I just love throwing time and money out the window. (But then again, you can never have to many passport photos).

Click pic to enlarge!

Santiago is aparently very popular this year - there was not a single book on the subject that was'nt let out. So instead of preparing my mind and soul for my great adventure, I decided to go library slumming instead: The two first books on Y The last Man (promising, but I should'nt say anything more untill I've read the whole series), Ozamu Tezuka's Buddha vol. 4 (as good atleast as the first 3, still highly recomended), Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (which I'm reading right now), Marvels classic 'Secret War' and Jasons 'My life as a Zombie'.

It's embarrasing, ofcourse, to lend stuff like this; but damn it! Lowbrow is fun!

The Wrestler

I always had a soft spot for old warriors who outlived the fray; but – to quote myself – even greater strength must fail in the end. The Wrestler is a painfull and depressing movie; and unlike an other painfull and depressing movie I saw recently, namley Precious, I must stop myself from simply stopping the movie several times during its almost 2 hours.

Mickey Rourke was offered Bruce Willis role in Pulp Fiction. It took 15 years to get back in the game from that blunder. Unless you're counting Sin City, which I guess you should.

The raving reviews of Mickey Rourke's fantastic comeback is'nt all hype. He is perfectly casted (well, aparently the role was written for him), and he does an amazing role. I love (the old) Sylvester Stallone so much I sometimes fantasize of writing a script for him – he is the perfect old warrior. And while I guess I'd love to see him in this role aswell; Rourkes portrayal of the fallen 80's hero shows a tender superficiality that portrays a whole decade. A portrayal I'm afraid Stallone would have been unable to do. Bravo!

There is a scene between Marissa Tomei and Mickey Rourke, the whore and the wrestler, where they discuss how great the eigthies were, how great the music were... 'and then Curt Cobain had to come and ruin everything'. The times left them behind, and both are so stuck in their patethic roles they can not even comfort eachother. Had they only been able to let go of that which already is gone, they could have had great lives. They could have lived happily ever after. But they don't, ofcourse.

The Wrestler was written escpecialy for The Wrestler by Bruce Springsteen. A beautifull piece... "Have you ever seen a one trick pony you've seen me/have you ever seen a one legged man try to dance his way free?"

Its a great and gritty movie. But its sadly overdone. Director Aronofsky (the man behind some of the truly best films of the last decade+ like Requiem for a Dream, Pi and The Fountain) is one of those directors I love to hate. Not because he sucks, but because he usually is ->this<- close to making true immortal masterpieces. Rourkes character The Ram is a showman. Even when reduced to whorking in the dheli-counter in a supermarket that seems to have frozen as much in the 80's as himself The Ram is still a showman.

But I don't belive it. Not that he is'nt a showman, just that he would be working in such a place. I'm not saying life would'nt be shitty for someone like this guy; a guy who never cared for nothing but himself and the show. But then a guy like this, a charismatic guy, a fighter, could always get a job as a bartender, a salesman and a whatnot. When Aronofski drag him through the gutter and I suddenly start feeling very very very fucking gratefull for living in the Norwegian Wellfare State... I know he is trying to tell me something else.

And in my humblest of opinions he should'nt have. We all know life sucks in the wake of the american dream. Aronofski&Co could have made immortal art; but "destroyed" it trying to do politics.

Boiled white bread

As mentioned in a previous post I'm (still) systematicly reading virrvarr's blogg from back to front (@p. 48 of 70) - and here is another little gem she pointed me to... fjordfitte. Sadly, for linguisticly challenged, she, as does virrvarr, refuses to write in the common speach (e.g. English) and insists on using the holy and most beautifull high speach (e.g. Norwegian).

This is fjordfitters intranslatable recipe for boiled white bread.

Oppskrift på kokt loff.
Vask hendene og frottér nøye mellom fingrene. Husk at korte negler er mer hygienisk enn lange. Bruk saks, ikke neglefil. Kinesere på death row nektes jo bruk av neglefil. Vis solidaritet! Ta en renskrubbet panne ut av kjøkkenskapet. Helst av aluminium for det bruker de fattige. Hell vann i panna. Ikke bruk varmt vann fra springen for det er det bly i og da kan De dø av toksisk sjokk noe som virkelig ville ha vært så uhorvelig trist. Sett den på plata. Legg på lokk. Skru bryteren på 6. Pass på at De ikke skrur på feil plate! Det er brannfarlig. Skjær opp noen loffskiver. Ikke skjær rett på benken, bruk fjøl. Ikke pyr hvis De finner en lighter. Og pass på å ikke lemleste Dem med brødkniven. Hvis De er uheldig: sett på plaster eller dra rett på legevakta. Ikke snakk med junkiene. Obs! Husk i så fall på å skru av plata. Og å trekke ut alle stikk-kontakter tilfelle tordenvær. Legg loffskivene i panna når vannet har kokt opp. Skru ned varmen på 3. La loffen koke i 1 time (hardkokt) eller 3 timer (bløtkokt) avhengig av hva De foretrekker. Pass på at det ikke koker over! Servér. Ikke salt loffen, for da kan De få diabetes. Bon appétit!

Give Blood

If you could, you should. Who has'nt fantasized about saving a life? Well - the absolutly simplest way is to become a blood donor. But, instead of messing with your guilt: I'm gonna be all novel-like and appeal to your fawning egosentric soul... Giving blood is healthy! Barring that you meet with an accident (or a vampire) the first 48 hours after giving blood your odds of surviving are increased. Your body is 'trained' to produce more blood, the blood you have is fresher and fitter... and your chance of dying a horrible and painfull death due to leukemia are drasticly reduced!

If you live in Norway you can sign up at giblod.no - if you live elsewhere Im sure you can figure it out. Since its lazy sunday you can think about it while you check the coolness below. Take note of the phattest trumpet&trombone zzzzound ever.

P.S: xkcd's excellent illustration of why you should be a organ-donor aswell.