geekosystem

In what's bound to be one of the defining events of our generation, a Norwegian truck burst into flames after it's cargo -- about 27 tons of goat cheese -- caught fire. One day, your children will ask "Where were you, noble elder, when the Great Cheese Fire of 2013 struck?" Hopefully, you'll be able to say you were nowhere near the scene, because the truck and its payload have produced a dangerous mixture of toxic gasses that may leave the traffic tunnel it was driving through closed down for weeks.

Winter is a notoriously dull time of year for many people living in Norway, since there's not much one can do when everything is covered in a white blanket of snow. That is aside from the country's time-honored recreational activity: Sending out quadcopters rigged with video cameras to spy on the local moose population. Do they appreciate this unsolicited attention? Probably not, as moose are incapable of human levels of speech, but that should by no means stop you from watching some Norwegians laughing at a curious moose as though it were some cheeky Monty Python sketch.

All books are real! That's what we're taking away from the story of a rare white whale, just like Moby Dick, being spotted. To be fair, this is a humpback whale, and the one in Moby-Dick was a sperm whale. Also, these pictures were taken near Norway, and the whale that inspired Moby-Dick was in the Pacific Ocean, but this is still really exciting for literature geeks everywhere.

Though HBO is staunch in their decision not to give the U.S. a standalone HBO or HBO Go, relegating fans to pay for the premium channel on top of their premium cable subscription, they have announced that they're giving the Nordic region exactly what everyone wants: A standalone HBO product.

Judging from his videos, this Norwegian man is good at three things: Uploading HD videos to YouTube, ice skating, and drinking. Thankfully, when the three of these things come together, the result is magical. This video is all about the escalation, so it's worth watching it all the way through. Also, now that I've watched a good deal of his other videos I kind of wonder if this dude has a deal with Vikingfjord vodka. Either way, he's a hero.

The result of some recent solar storm activity was breathtaking aurora stretching over most of Europe. This spectacular sight was filmed in Norway by Helge Mortensen. If you're curious about spotting some aurora by you, don't worry: NOAA's got a map for that.

If you enjoy hot buttered toast, buttered pancakes, or my homemade macaroni and cheese (the recipe for which calls for a stick of butter), you'd do well to stay out of Norway. The Nordic nation is currently bereft of butter, a result of a wet summer that hampered dairy production, but also because of a high-fat low-carb fad diet. That's right, folks: In order to lose weight, Norway ate all the butter in the country.

Blogs blogging about things just because they're "going viral" is always a little echo chambery, but in the case of Norwegian artist Tonje Langeteig, it is totally justified. Her song "I Don't Wanna Be a Crappy Housewife" has exploded on YouTube over the course of the past week, with over 1,500 "dislikes" versus 133 "likes" as of posting, drawing comparisons to stateside phenomenon Rebecca Black. The real question is: Which song has the better rap solo? (via BuzzFeed)

Yesterday, we reported that Norwegian parliamentarian Snorre Valen [who looks like a totally cool bro -- Ed.] had nominated WikiLeaks for a Nobel Peace Prize. Writing on his blog, Valen has expounded in more detail on his reasons for nominating the whistleblower site; we've reproduced his essay below.

Vikings are already famous for their beards and badassery, not the least of which springs from their sailing prowess. Spreading from Sweden and Norway, the Vikings sailed and settled Northern England, Iceland, Greenland, and were the first Europeans to arrive in North America. They also pillaged and terrorized an unready European populace with their ferocity and totally sweet boats, but a lingering question faced by historians is how they managed to sail as well as they did with such limited technology. Navigation in the far north poses several unique problems.

If you thought 30 days of night sounded excessive, try two months: The town of Tromsø, Norway, north of the Polar Circle,  has been in a perpetual state of night since the 21st of November, and it's expected to remain dark until January 21st.

To mark the beginning of the ‘Mørketid’ as the period without daylight is called, hundreds of local kindergarten kids each brought a homemade candle to the city square where they were all lit…

With long periods of darkness come long periods of light, of course: "The Midnight Sun occurs from about 18 May to 26 July, although the mountains in the north block the view of the midnight sun for a few days, meaning that one can see the sun from about 21 May to 21 July. Owing to Tromsø's high latitude, twilight is long, meaning there is no real darkness between late April and mid-August." (Ordinary Finds via TYWKIWDBI via Neatorama)

JavaZone is Scandinavia's biggest yearly conference for software developers. The 2010 Program, which will be held in Oslo, Norway from September 8 to 9 and estimates over 2,000 attendees, is the ninth consecutive meeting since non-profit organizer javaBin was established in 1996. Earlier today, to promote the conference, JavaZone released the full teaser for the mock film Java 4-ever, about a young man who can no longer hide his suppressed love for Java from his orthodox .NET-loving family. Cue dramatic trailer tropes (the good ol' father-dropping-to-knees-in-utter-shock-upon-discovering-son's-secret always gets me), heart-rending music that never fails, and intense Norwegian thespians, and I'm sold. Video after the jump.