On June 19, 2006, the prime ministers of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland laid the "first stone" of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on Spitsbergen Island, Norway. The vault stores seeds from around the world, to provide security for the world's food supply in case of catastrophe, natural disasters, wars, etc.
Spitsbergen Island was chose since it has no tectonic activity and permafrost to help with preservation. It is maintained at a constant -18° C. It is constructed to keep seeds for thousands of years.
The first novel of Marsali Taylor’s Shetland Mysteries,
Death on a Longship, is a cozy mystery which takes place on a remote
Shetland Island. Taylor fills her story
with local color, culture, and the indigenous people of the area, to create a
vibrant backdrop for her story.
Her main character Cassandra Lynch, while in Bergen, Norway,
gets a job of her dreams, being the skipper of a Viking longship for a
film. The downside is she has to return
to the Shetland Islands, where she escaped some fourteen years earlier. Now she must face all the ghosts and skeletons
she left behind.
During the movie shoot, Cassie finds the starlet of the film
dead on the deck of the Viking longship.
Usher in a tired trope of identical twins. We’ve seen it before. Favelle, the actress had a twin sister Maree,
who routinely fills in for the star for certain shots. And has mysteriously disappeared.
The questions begin quickly.
Was Favelle the intended victim? Or was someone trying to kill her
stand-n sister Maree? Was Favelle mistaken for Maree? Where is Maree? As moldy as this trope is,
Taylor does manage to keep it new and not tedious.
Another breath of fresh air is the array of characters.
First, we meet a group of hardened sailors and fishermen in Shetland. Then in a slight dig at Americans (which we
probably deserve), the movie production crew descend upon the small village, rather
oblivious to the local customs and ways, giving the natives much to laugh
about. The crew includes the starlet
diva Favelle, her husband-director Ted, his guard-dog assistant Elizabeth, and
the twin sister Maree.
Albeit later in the novel, Cassie’s internationally famous
opera singer mother minces back into the scene, trying to wrest control of the
situation.
Taylor keeps the plot convoluted and confusing to the readers
to keep them guessing to the last minute.
In a scene, straight out of a Scooby-doo cartoon, Cassie is able to
unmask the killer.
If one enjoys cozy mysteries with a modern setting in a
colorful location, Taylor’s first foray into the mystery genre is a good
read. For fans of the grittier, rougher
stories, one might find this one a bit tame.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad, born November 15, 1945 in Ballangen, Norway, is one-fourth of the Swedish super-group ABBA. She's the only non-Swedish member of the group.
She had a moderately successful singing career in Sweden, but it wasn't until she joined ABBA that she reached international fame. She was married to fellow bandmate Benny Andersson for three years. ABBA went on to sell 150 million albums and singles world-wide.
Her first solo album following the end of ABBA, Something's Going On, was released in 1982 and reached #1 in Sweden, and the single went to #1 in Belgium and Switzerland. It is one of the best selling solo album of the ABBA members.
Clifton Wharton Sr., born May 11, 1899 in Baltimore, Maryland, became the first African-American ambassador and the first African-American Foreign Service Officer to become chief of a diplomatic mission.
He practiced law in Boston before joining the US State Department in the Foreign Service. He became Vice Consul in Monrovia in 1927, Consul in Las Palmas in 1932, Minister to Romania in 1958, and then Ambassador to Norway in 1961 until his death.
Wharton passed away in Phoenix, Arizona in September 1964.
Corey Shaw is trying to salvage what's left of his Baltic
cruise vacation by sleeping his way across the Netherlands and Norway. About the time he arrives in Amsterdam, the
largest yellow diamond ever discovered, the Lava Diamond, is stolen from a diamond
factory.
Corey is glad to leave the case in the hands of Dutch
authorities, but when he gets to Oslo, a paramour is murdered. For once in his lifetime, he is glad to see
the end of a vacation. But things get worse when he returns to Boston. The diamond shows up in an unlikely place and
a volcanology professor on sabbatical in Norway has disappeared.
Thinking the stolen diamond case closed, Corey heads back
across the Atlantic to help Norwegian police to search for the professor. Soon he uncovers more than a missing persons’
case. It is a plot to turn the diamond
world on its head.
The mission objectives of Soyuz 22, launched September 15, 1976, were stated to "check and improve scientific methods and means of studying geological features of the Earth's surface in the interests of the national economies of the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic".
However, many believe that its crew, Commander Valery Bykovsky and Flight Engineer Vladimir Aksyonov, was instructed to observe NATO exercises near Norway. Their high inclination had not been used since the Voskhod program n the 1960s.
Kristofer Hivju, born December 7, 1978 in Oslo, Norway, is most recognized for his role as Tormund Giantsbane in Game of Thrones. Both his parents are well-established actors in Norway, so he comes by it honestly. He starred in the 2011 version of The Thing, but despite his presence, the original 1951 film is the best.
