The nowegian kennel club faces sanctions from the federation of kennel clubs for refusing to accept china as the...

The nowegian kennel club faces sanctions from the federation of kennel clubs for refusing to accept china as the host for the world dog show 2019
http://web2.nkk.no/en/news/news/The+NKC+declines+meeting+request.b7C_wlzI4F.ips

The museum of cultural history in Oslo, Norway have released 3D scans of some viking artifacts through ShareMy3D.

The museum of cultural history in Oslo, Norway have released 3D scans of some viking artifacts through ShareMy3D. The page with the links seems to be available only in norwegian for now.


http://www.khm.uio.no/forskning/databasene/3d-viewer/osebergfunnet-3d.html

This is very well written.

This is very well written.

Both about slavery, the american prison system and about discovering how privileged some of us are. So privileged it is almost impossible to understand the views other people hold against anyone not a straight white male.

By listening to people like Rugger Ducky​ here you will be better prepared to see the ugliness around you. Stuff you don't notice today because you have no idea this still is a problem.

Originally shared by Rugger Ducky

I am a citizen of a nation in which slavery is legal. 

That’s a very hard thing for me to say, and a harder thing still to hear. Hard for me to say, because I have lived my life fighting for the idea that all citizens of our country are equal. Of course, I’ve always had the privilege of having white skin to hide me from the truth. Harder still to hear, because in a nation where slavery is accepted, no one is ever truly a free citizen. 

But I can’t hide from the truth anymore. Even the UN Report on Human Rights in the United States pulled no punches when released last week. 

http://www.upr-info.org/sites/default/files/document/united_states/session_22_-_may_2015/a_hrc_wg.6_22_l.10.pdf

I’m a lifelong, passionate student of history, and dreamer of the future. The song Imagine was released just before my birth. Born to an anti-Vietnam War hippie mom, who surely sang along to me in my crib the words of her favorite musician. I grew up listening to stories of those who had fought long and hard for equality. I read everything I could get my hands on about the struggles of this country to truly represent the freedom and rights enshrined in our laws. 

Slavery was stricken as constitutionally legal with the 13th Amendment. Yet the text itself left former slave owners with everything they needed to ensure they could continue prospering under the enforced labor of others. 

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

The system continued with Jim Crow laws. The “former” slaves were kept indebted to the land in the form of sharecropping. Requiring them to only get goods and seeds from the store associated with the landowner, and pay it off at the end of each growing season kept them too poor to leave. And if they did think about leaving, that’s when the laws against certain jobs, living in certain areas, shopping in certain places all applied. It was oh so easy to keep slavery going, because they had the force of law. A black man unknowingly breaking a Jim Crow law would find himself either lynched or imprisoned for a very long term. Almost certainly to work on a chain gang. 

And those prison jobs have always benefited the small local county sheriffs and police. They used the prisoners to staff their homes, care for their yards, and do labor for associates. While any profits were immediately pocketed by the police or sheriff. 

When Jim Crow officially ended, it was still decades before many could vote, or take any rights of citizens. 

But that pesky line in the 13th Amendment stayed there. 

The same sheriffs and police that fought to keep Jim Crow alive and well never left their cash cow behind. They stayed in office, and simply continued their normal practices. 

As a result, we now have a country that imprisons a far greater percent of our population than any other. That uses terms like “stop and frisk” as an acceptable practice to continue the enslavement and unfair imprisonment. 

You might say “Oh, what’s the harm in checking someone to see if they’re breaking the law?”. 

The harm comes in the violation of their 4th Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure. And in the overwhelmingly hard-handed use of these tactics against people of color. Even in “liberal” areas like the Bay Area.

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_28084891/sjpd-data-show-san-jose-cops-detained-greater

A young white man is just as likely to be carrying marijuana as a young black man. Yet that young black man is many more times likely to be arrested for it. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/04/the-blackwhite-marijuana-arrest-gap-in-nine-charts/

We’ve grown our prisons for many reasons. For profit prisons are thriving, and have created a huge lobby. That lobby does much to push for “mandatory sentencing”, to ensure that minor crimes or even victimless crimes are punished far longer--so there is more profit per prisoner to be had. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/how-for-profit-prisons-have-become-the-biggest-lobby-no-one-is-talking-about/

Private prisons especially, but also many publicly run ones are continuing to be heavily used for their free/cheap labor. Your business have call center needs you don’t want to pay much for, or outsource overseas? Here’s the place for you! They even take the time to point out to racists that these prisoners speak English!! And their services include a great note Furthermore our agent turnover rate is less than half of the industry norm and the absenteeism rate is practically zero. Because there’s no such thing as a sick day or personal day in prison, and the average prison term is longer than most people can tolerate working in a call center environment outside the prison industry. 
http://www.convictionleads.com/services/

The Sheriff’s Union and Police Unions continue to rake in their profits, and have absolutely no incentive to hand over power. And since prosecutors depend on police cooperation to do their jobs, the police don’t get prosecuted for breaking the laws and violating civil rights of citizens. When citizens do try and speak up about the injustice, its easy to shut them down when you control all the power. 

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/05/06/3654931/sheriffs-threaten-cut-off-prisoner-phone-calls-cant-get-kickbacks

Slavery is, and always has been, a monetary system. There’s huge profit in enforced labor. Black lives in this country have only mattered as far as the monetary gain that can be stolen from their labor. 

And the answer to young black men and others of color is still the same as what it was for Jim in To Kill a Mockingbird. If you refuse to be stopped and imprisoned, if you refuse to be held any longer for crimes you haven’t committed, but merely for the color of your skin, that’s an immediate death penalty offense. 

Slavery or death. That’s the inevitable choice of people of color in the US.

Interview with Wilhelm Mohr (97). In norwegian.

Interview with Wilhelm Mohr (97). In norwegian.

Flight instructor at "Little Norway" in Canada during the war. Leader of the 332 squadron. 

A man who hates being called a war hero, because it sorts people.
http://www.bt.no/btmagasinet/Reportasjen/Vingenes-herre-3341906.html

I will not hold my breath waiting for 'murica to answer these questions...

I will not hold my breath waiting for 'murica to answer these questions...

Originally shared by Ralph Gauthier

I think that I might have posted this before but it's well worth revisiting.
http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/is-this-country-crazy-inquiring-minds-elsewhere-want-to-know/#.VTuCA6Zx7CQ.facebook

Mike Elgan​ does a fantastic job analyzing the latest "g+ obituary".

Mike Elgan​ does a fantastic job analyzing the latest "g+ obituary". Read this to understand why some journalists will never want to understand what g+ is.

As for grannies posting cat pictures... We do have them on g+ as well. But in between those cat pictures the g+ grannies post stuff so awesome you won't believe it without finding them.

Originally shared by Mike Elgan

Steve Denning reveals how clueless he is about Google+... again!

Pro tip: If you want serious traffic to your column, say Google+ is dead. Your page will be hammered by hoards of passionate Google+ fans who come to disagree with you. 

It's a lesson Steve Denning learned for his first "Google+ is dead column," so now he's back for another helping of Google+ traffic in his latest missive, called "Has Google+ really died"? 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2015/04/23/has-google-really-died/

(I'm not criticizing Denning -- yet! -- I myself drive huge traffic from Google+ to my own columns. That's because Google+ is very much alive.) 

Anyway, Denning launches into a defense of his first column, but succeeds mainly in demonstrating a profound ignorance about Google+. 

I'm here to help. 

Here's what Steve Denning got wrong: 

1. Assuming public posts = active use.

Denning is relying on a spectacularly useless metric for defining active use, which is public posting (by relying on the Stone Temple Consulting report) 

It doesn't take into account the default kind of post, which is non-public. A huge number of users have stage fright about posting publicly, and a probably even huger number don't know their posts are public. (If you want to criticize Google+, here's one criticism you can levy -- the whole Public vs. Circles posting issue is confusing to new users.) 

It doesn't take into account people who mainly or exclusively engage through comments. Because Google+ organizes posts differently than, say, Twitter, comments are not viewed as "posts," even though people are fully engaged in social interaction through comments. If I comment on something posted on Twitter, my comment is counted as a full-blown "post" or Tweet. If I post the same comment to the same post on Google+, my comment is not counted as anything by Stone Temple. 

It doesn't take into account people who mainly "consume" content without commenting much, even though they feel they're active users of Google+. 


2. Trying to have it both ways on the accidental "users."

Denning again goes astray by relying on Stone Temple's skewed messaging on their report. Yes, when you get a Google password for some other Google property, that counts as a Google+ account. So most of the 2.2 billion Google users aren't really Google+ users in actual fact. They then go on to use "randomly selected" profiles knowing full well that most of these are non users. 

You can't have it both ways. Either they're users to be counted as users, in which case Google+ is vastly bigger than Facebook -- or they're non users, and not to be counted in numbers about how active the average "user" is. 


3. Failing to appreciate the nature of the Google+ "cult."

Denning points out that many comments on his first column "seemed to resemble that of people defending a struggling religious cult, rather than the users of a mere software tool."

The gratuitous word "struggling" is passive-aggressive spin to support his narrative. But the point is well taken. Google+ people sound like a cult. Just like Apple fans. Or Android fans. Or Reddit users. 

Unlike Twitter or Facebook, Google has created an army of truly passionate users. 

In fact Apple is a perfect comparison. Apple has less than 7% of the global PC market. Does anyone say Apple's PC business is "dead"? No, because they have the highest-quality PCs and laptops and the highest-quality customers (in terms of income and education levels) -- exactly like Google+. 

Nobody likes to hear me say this, but Google+ is the Apple of social networks. (Actually, I think Guy Kawasaki was first to say something like this.) 

It's not a place like Facebook for grandma to post cat photos. And it's not a place like Twitter for people to speak in hashtag code and URLs. It's the only place where you can pursue your passions will brilliant, like-minded people who are truly interested in the same things you are. 

Yes: Google+ is a "cult." Only the highest quality tech products produce "cults." 


4. Equating tech press echo chamber bias with the "emerging consensus."

Denning trots out a smattering of Google+ hater headlines to provide "evidence" for the "emerging consensus" about Google+. (And check the numbers: Those articles got HUGE traffic from the Google+ "cult," too.)

As I've said many times, the press hates Google+ precisely BECAUSE it's not a ghost town. Any post on Google+ by a prominent writer will be greeted by long, well thought-out criticisms, challenging the writer's assumptions and calling the writer out for mistakes. Google+ isn't easy and breezy for public writers like Twitter and even Facebook are. 

This is the last thing a journalist wants after writing and editing all day. 

What the tech press wants is Twitter, where they can dash off quick and clever lines off the top of their heads (like this one: https://twitter.com/MikeElgan/status/591584837347061762 ) that will be neither challenged nor heavily discussed. 

That's why the tech press feels so threatened by Google+. There's too much going on: too much argument, too much to read. And so they've been out to kill it from the beginning. 


5. Equating dismantling with abandonment.

Denning quotes more Twitter-loving echo chamber journalists who assume Google spinning off things like Hangouts or Photos would be evidence for neglect and decline. (These are the same kind of journalists who said that Google moving Glass into its own product group meant that they're killing it.) It's all just wishful thinking by Plus haters in the press.

Fact is, the unnatural integration of everything years ago was just a strategy Google was trying. It didn't have the desired effect, honked off a bunch of people who didn't want things to be integrated, so now they've changed the strategy. 

The experience of using Google+, and the benefits, haven't changed one bit. (In fact, It would be improved by further de-coupling, specifically if YouTube and their trolls were surgically removed.)


6. Pretending to have tried Google+.

Denning says his "own efforts to love Google+ were unsuccessful." Looking at his profile, I see that he's posted publicly twice ever, hasn't even filled out his profile or even uploaded a profile banner pic. Running a search, I see that he doesn't engage with comments or communities. 

Steve Denning is a non-user. He has NOT made an effort to love Google+. I imagine if he had only posted two tweets on Twitter, he wouldn't understand that social network either. 

And this item is related to....


7. Completely failing to understand Google+ fan opposition to yet another non-user saying Google+ is dead.

Denning is making the mistake of publically making the same mistake many people have before. As I've pointed out many times, you cannot understand the power and the glory of Google+ unless you really use it. 

Denning is just another Arthur Spooner: 

https://plus.google.com/113117251731252114390/posts/9LE3GM6sLBF

Denning and other Arthur Spooners are confused about why Google+ fans have an issue with this phenomenon. And so I'm going to make it so clear that nobody who reads this can retain their confusion. Here goes. 

1. Google+ is the best social anything ever. 

2. This can be only understood if you're truly active on G+ for weeks or months. 

3. Influential writers who have not taken the time to understand have slammed Google+ from a place of ignorance. 

4. Because this has been repeated so many times, many, many people think Google+ is "bad" in some way. 

5. Bottom line: Ignorant people are the biggest threat to Google+, and are hurting the reputation of best social anything ever. 

Is that clear enough? 


8. Failing to appreciate the importance of Google+ for Google itself.

Google isn't going to kill Google+ because the site provides huge benefits for the company. 

First, Google+ is a necessary social component for Google's wearable computing platforms -- you know, the future of computing? 

Google Glass and Android Wear and future initiatives rely heavily on Google+ for understanding user social graphs, displaying birthdays, sharing photos and videos and much more. 

Google+ is a great platform for Google employees, engineers and executives to brainstorm, announce things, and learn about their most passionate fans and users. (Where else would they do this, Facebook?)

Google+ is still useful for cultivating the most passionate fans of Google itself, as well as Android. Google+ puts the "cult" in cultivating. Google would be insane to cut their most loyal, passionate and enthusiastic users off at the knees. 

In a nutshell, Steve Denning is just plain wrong about Google+. 

(Photo is massively unrelated to the post)

It is that time of the year again.

It is that time of the year again. Time to get in shape. Time to use the nice, cool spring mornings for some exercise. Why not get a bike and start commuting to work? Save time needed at the gym, save money for both gym and gas/bus/train tickets... Be green!

But don't run off and buy a fast bike and expensive clothing. It will be a short-lived affair.

My recommendation for new commuters is to get a dirt cheap offroader first. Lots of gears in the low range lets you feel good about mastering uphills. Springs on the front can be nice. I am more sceptical to a sprung real wheel. If it's a long commute a cheap bike won't last long. My first one was so worn down after 3 months it was cheaper to buy a new than to fix it. Still it was cheaper than the bus for those 3 months and by then i knew i would continue biking.

As for clothing - those padded pants are great the first season. Then you don't need them anymore. The helmet on the other hand is a must. My last one definitely saved my skull. Always wear it. On the head, not the handlebars! Where i live none of the fastest commuters wear "tour de france" clothing. That is for the noobs. So don't go wild buying expensive clothing at the bike store.

After the first season get a faster bike whenever you spend too much time in the top gear. And buy at the autumn sales if you can. Bikes are dirt cheap then. I got a nice hybrid bike that way. It is still a good bike, but is now a winter bike with spiked wheels. For summer use i got a full-blood racer for a birthday. Thank you, Cecilie Selsvoll Monsen​. Now that i can utilize that beast it is fast, and i love it. I can get to work almost twice as fast as when i started commuting. Had it been my first bike it would have left me exhausted and disillusioned. Now it puts a big grin on my face when i ride it.