Culture

The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST)'s use of infiltration, which came to light in a NRK TV documentary, will be investigated by the Parliament's Intelligence, Monitoring and Security (EOS) Agency.

Two years ago, Norwegians had the highest scores in English language tests in the world. Now, however, both Sweden and Denmark are ahead of Norway.

Today, Wednesday February 6th is celebrated as the indigenous Sami People's Day in Norway and other Scandinavian countries. The day is official flag day in Norway, and the Sami flag is flown on all official buildings.

Nora has been among the "top ten" for the last twelve years before it finally became the most popular girl's name  last year. Lucas / Lukas has dominated the list for the past five years, and became the most popular boy's name in 2012.

The name Nora appeared in Norway in the mid-1800s. The name is a shortened form of Eleonore, but its meaning is unknown. According to the census of 1900, in 1877 , the year when Ibsen's "A Doll's House" was released, 132 persons were named Nora. It was mostly children who bore this name, and popularity rose steadily until 1900. Between 1950 and 1980 the name was almost gone, before its popularity again rose in 2000 and ended up at the current level.

Lucas / Lukas is a typical biblical boy's name. The name means 'man from Lucania'. Luke has been a well known name, but it has been little used. Figures from the census shows that there were 51 people named Lucas in 1801, while there were 57 people with that name in 1865 and 64 in 1900.  It was only in the 1970s that the name's popularity began to rise, and in 2000 it rose rapidly.

The past two years have seen many changes among boys' names. In 2012 ,  527 boys were named Lucas or Luke as first name. This is over 100 more than those who were named Emil and Mathias, who ended up on the 2nd and 3 place last year. The name Oskar / Oscar has climbed  twelve places in two years and ended up in seventh place in 2012.

The female  Emma far the most commonly used name in this millennium.

Here is the list of the 10 most popular Norwegian names in 2012


Girls names

1. Nora/Norah
2. Emma
3. Sofie/Sophie
4. Linnea/Linea
5. Sara/Sahra/Sarah
6. Ingrid/Ingri
7. Thea/Tea
8. Leah/Lea
9. Sofia/Sophia

Boys names

1. Lucas/Lukas
2. Emil
3. Mathias/Matias
4. Jonas
5. Alexander/Aleksander
6. William
7. Oskar/Oscar
8. Magnus
9. Marcus/Markus
10. Oliver
     

Half of Norway's population says they would sign up for volunteer work if asked, according to a survey carried out by the Ministry of Culture.

The Norwegian feature film "Kon Tiki" has been nominated for the Oscars in the category "Best Foreign Film."

He may be acclaimed in the art world and coveted by thieves but Edvard Munch is starved of recognition in his native Norway, where squabbles have delayed a new museum worthy of his oeuvre.

Next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of the expressionist master, who painted the now iconic “The Scream.” But the anniversary is clouded by the city of Oslo’s inability to provide a proper setting for the art gems the painter left in his will.

Munch, who died in 1944, bequeathed an enormous collection to the Norwegian capital, including 1,100 paintings, 3,000 drawings and 18,000 etchings.

But the current Munch Museum, constructed cheaply after World War II in a rather rundown Oslo neighbourhood, does not do justice to the priceless trove.

“It’s time to have something more modern that would enable us to better welcome the public and exhibit Munch’s work from other perspectives, in broader contexts, both his and ours,” museum director Stein Olav Henrichsen said.

While all agree on the need for a better museum, there are divisions over where to place it. Oslo’s city council agreed in 2008 to erect a building near the new, futuristic opera house on the shores of the Oslo fjord, but those plans were scrapped three years later when the populist right suddenly withdrew its support without a concrete explanation.

The issue has been at a standstill ever since, and Oslo has been unable to come to an agreement on any of the current options.

Cold shoulder to Munch

Failure to reach agreement could be interpreted as a Norwegian cold shoulder to the country’s most famous artist, in sharp contrast to his huge international appeal.

A million people recently visited a Munch exhibit that toured Paris, Frankfurt and London. And one of the four versions of “The Scream,” the only one in private hands, was sold this year at a New York auction for the record sum of $119.9 million.

By comparison, the Munch Museum in Oslo attracts around 126,000 visitors per year, even though it owns two versions of “The Scream,” the most famous expression of existential angst.

And it’s not certain the visitor numbers will soar even if Oslo gets a brand new Munch museum.

“I don’t think Norwegians really understand the power of Edvard Munch’s work,” Henrichsen said. “His cultural and economic importance is underestimated here.”
 

As Norway gets completely covered in newfallen snow, and with a mixed bag of weather conditions - to say the least, we send our best wishes to our readers around the world this Christmas.

Centre Pompidou in Paris wants to buy a self portrait of Edvard Munch - a photograph that he took of himself at his home at Ekely in Norway in 1930.

Ghana's King Otomfuo Osei Tutu II has had baggage that his country's embassy confirmed contained crown jewels stolen in Oslo, Norwegian police said on Friday. "On Wednesday around 1pm, a suitcase belonging to the king of Ghana was stolen in the lobby of a hotel (the Radisson Blue Plaza)", Inspector Marius Erlandssen, in charge of the investigation, told AFP.

 

Astrophysics

 

 

The Kavli Prize in Astrophysics is shared between David Jewitt, University of California, USA, Jane Luu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, and Michael Edwards Brown, California Institute of Technology, USA. They receive the prize "for discovering and characterizing the Kuiper Belt and its largest members, work that led to a major advance in the understanding of the history of our planetary system."

 

Neuroscience

 

 

The Kavli Neuroscience The Kavli Prize in Neuroscience is shared between Cornelia Isabella Bargmann, Rockefeller University, USA, Winfried Denk, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Germany, and Ann M. Graybiel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. They received the prize "for elucidating basic neuronal mechanisms underlying perception and decision."

 

Nanoscience

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Kavli Prize in Nanoscience is given to Mildred Dresselhaus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, "for her pioneering contributions to the study of phonons, electron-phonon interactions, and thermal transport in nanostructures."

 

 

Artist and former Minister of Culture Ã…se Kleveland, and the American actor, director and writer Alan Alda hosted the award ceremony.

 

The Kavli Prize

 

The Kavli Prize is a partnership between The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, The Kavli Foundation (US) and The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.

 

The Kavli Prize recognizes scientists for their seminal advances in three research areas: astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. The Kavli Prize consists of USD 1,000,000 in each of the scientific fields. In addition to the prize money the laureates receive a scroll and a gold medal.The Kavli Prize is awarded every second year by The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway.

 

The Kavli Prize was established to:

 

• Recognise outstanding scientific research
• Honour highly creative scientists
• Promote public understanding of scientists and their work
• Foster international cooperation among scientists
• The agreement to establish the Kavli Prize was signed in 2005 by the founder of The Kavli Foundation, Fred Kavli, Kristin Clemet, Norwegian Minister of Education and Research and Jan Fridthjof Bernt, President of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. The Kavli Prize was awarded for the first time in 2008.

 

 

The Norwegian defence ministry has given the all-clear for uniformed soldiers to wear religious headgear such as turbans, hijabs and kippahs.