So what is happening in those barely populated areas linked to the North Atlantic ocean?

The Nordics were like the Yanks as they go bananas and like emotional children. I am not seriously concerned and you would think this was 1939 all over again. Talk about us in the West losing the plot. 

When the first bananas came to Norway, 1905

This is actually one of the first batches of banana that was sent to Norway. It had the weight of 3000 kilos and came in crates/boxes. One of the persons in this picture is Christian Mathiessen, the founder of Norways biggest fruit importer, Bama. Norway was actually the second country to import bananas in Europe, after the UK. It's very interesting that before global trading became as it is today, people really didn't encounter many products that weren't made locally. Seeing an item made in China must have seemed exotic to someone living in Mexico during 1832.

The bananas in the photo are Gros Michel bananas. Gros Michel, often known as Big Mike, is an export cultivar of banana and was, until the 1950s, the main variety exported to the United States. His variety was once the dominant export banana to Europe and North America, grown in South America and Africa. In the 1950s the Panama disease, a wilt caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum, wiped out vast tracts of 'Gros Michel' plantations in South America and Africa, but the cultivar survived in Thailand. The original 'Gros Michel' is said to have a unique fragrance. The Panama disease inflicted enormous costs and forced producers to switch to other, disease-resistant cultivars. However, new strains of Panama disease threaten the production of today's most popular cultivar, Cavendish.

Portugese sailors brought bananas to Europe from West Africa in the early fifteenth century. Its Guinean name banema, which became banana in English, was first found in print in the seventeenth century. The original banana has been cultivated and used since ancient times, even pre-dating the cultivation of rice. While the banana thrived in Africa, its origins are said to be of East Asia and Oceania. The banana was carried by sailors to the Canary Islands and the West Indies, finally making it to North America with Spanish missionary Friar Tomas de Berlanga.

In this regard, bananas were a bit like the Internet. The UK and Norway were the first two countries to connect to America in 1972.

The Nordics were like the Yanks as they go bananas and like emotional children. I am not seriously concerned and you would think this was 1939 all over again. Talk about us in the West losing the plot. 

Well, 1939 was real. And as then, so also now Germany and Russia threaten the continent first, while you on the isles can be safe. Have you even seen a Russian? Or a German?

Here's how Balts and Nordics look like:

No Russia does not threaten the West. Guess who is always marching about the world with massive military bills to keep the money barons rich? Germany likes the EEC because it unofficially runs the damn thing and I just want my country out the corrupt mess it is in. Thank goodness we kept the pound as that European lot cannot get out of the mess and we are doing best financially re Europe.

in Sweden you can buy a submarine over internet no problemo.

Here, too.

Thanks for that.

Last summer I was walking in a public park and a wee lad had a remote controlled speedboat. That reminded me when I was wee I would have liked a submarine. Now you have reminded me again so must see about getting one. Thanks

Make sure it'll fit in your bathtub.

 

Make sure it'll fit in your bathtub.

I have a better idea. Put a Russian flag on it and guide it into Scandinavian waters

Make sure it'll fit in your bathtub.

Don't be silly. It's already full of coal.

I will leave the coal to you Yanks as you still persevere with the aftermath of coal. We on the other hand have been moving to something cleaner. As for that Scandinavian thing there is no proof of what was under the sea and the Swedes were dithering about like a lot of ex-colonists at the election meetings that look like carnivals. Anyway the Russians have an awful lot of catching up on you lot over the pond you spy on just about everyone including your own phone calls, messages, - as well as the world. Talk about hystericals.

From Norway: Assassin fined for not killing the intended target, nor having any intentions of doing so, thereby defrauding the client. Good to know that customer protection is strong in Norway. There should be honour among assassins.

Google translated here.

Assassin (21) got fined for not killing

The contract killer got 10,000 kroner in fines for not killing. Police believe it was fraud against the client.

The 21-year-old had received up to 60,000 kroner from a same-aged man to kill a 17-year-old he was in love with. The 17-year-old had rejected the advances.

The contract killer took the money and knives, but never performed any murder. Now the client is sentenced to two years in prison for having ordered the killing, while the assassin is fined for not having done so.

Cheated customer
Police believe he deliberately cheated the contracting party and thus was guilty of fraud.
- He was fined for having enticed a man to disburse money under false pretenses, said District Attorney Per Halsbog in Vestfold and Telemark public prosecutor.

The deceived client claims he paid assassin 60,000 kroner, who claims to have received 40,000 kroner.

- Just wanted the money
He was fined for having received 18,000 kroner. The basis of the fine is a violation of Penal Code Section 270, fraud provision.
- The investigation showed he never had any intention to kill. He only wanted the money, says Attorney Per Halsbog.

"Why is he still alive? '
Buyer nagged at him several times to finish off murder pact he thought the two had agreed on. In an agitated SMS exchange he wrote:
"Why is he still alive??? Are you not able do a job !!!" "He should have been killed !!! Stop making excuses. Why the hell is not it done?" and "Yes, you do it now! You got damn enough money now !! Run in a knife or something"

Eventually the assassin said that he would only beat up 17-year-old, but he had a buddy who could commit murder if he got another 30,000 kroner.

- He only kept talking to get more money, says Attorney is Halsbog, who also was the prosecutor in the case against the client.

It sounds like the fraudulent "assassin" still came out on top with over 10,000 kroner in his pocket.

No proof it was Russian krake the head scramblers have effected you!
And begorra to tt92...he should understand that.

http://www.thelocal.se/20150102/swedish-security-service-goes-viral-in-first-tweet

Sweden's Security Service Säpo posted its first tweet on Friday [two weeks ago], with a cheeky enough message to make headlines across Sweden.

I like it! NSA and the CIA should be so upfront.
Mad Magazine could do no better.

Losing and finding yourself in Iceland, Missing woman unwittingly joins search party looking for herself

A group of tourists spent hours Saturday night looking for a missing woman near Iceland's Eldgja canyon, only to find her among the search party.

Is that Mad mag still going??

Is that Mad mag still going??

It remains alive in spirit through your posts.  

Losing and finding yourself in Iceland, Missing woman unwittingly joins search party looking for herself

A group of tourists spent hours Saturday night looking for a missing woman near Iceland's Eldgja canyon, only to find her among the search party.

Everybody is searching for themselves at these pathetic times.
News will be when finding someone not searching for himself.

No proof it was Russian krake the head scramblers have effected you!

Argh! You should have a better detection for invisible irony tags.
Besides, your sub with the suggested flag would be the best proof. Imagine Google's satellite photos and the headlines.

Don't give me the credit for the magazine Colonel when it is yours over there. I could not be that greedy as don't need to be not being an ex-colonist.

Glasgow reacts to being named 'UK's most violent area'
by UK Peace Index



Vice city: Glasgow's knife culture has seen it named 'most violent urban area' by the Peace Index.


The UK Peace Index report in full, which lists Glasgow as the
"most violent city in the country"

"Violent crime in Glasgow is less about gun crime than it is in some other cities. Knives, feet and fists prevail here," says Professor Mike Nellis.

An ex-social worker and expert in criminology at Strathclyde University, he was deliberating on a damning report by the UK Peace Index that names Glasgow as Britain's most violent urban centre.

Just 24 hours after Glasgow City Marketing Bureau launched their campaign to rebrand Glasgow, the city was saddled with the title of 'Britain's most violent area' - another scar on the reputation of the city, scored next to its previous moniker of
'Murder Capital of Western Europe........'

Glasgow has been ranked as the UK's most violent area in a new report.

Problems with gangs and knife crime contributed to the rating in the UK Peace Index produced by the US and Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

The index has drawn together more than 10 years of data, looking at levels of violence across the country as well as the cost to the economy.

Areas were ranked according to the number of homicides and levels of violent and weapon crime, public disorder and numbers of police officers per 100,000 people.

The report describes Glasgow as "the least peaceful major urban centre in the UK", with London and Belfast in second and third place.

Scotland has the highest homicide rate of any of the four UK nations, as well as the highest violent crime rate, at more than 1500 per 100,000 people, the report said........

Want your throat slit, or a shiv shoved in your gut, Glasgow is the place to go says this report

I see you are still using childish stuff in your threads like giant text and daft symbols. Just a pity jimbro wasn't your teacher then you wouldn't be giving your country a bad image and advert for head shrinking. Kind of funny stuff coming from a land of overcrowded jails and real gangs.Any bad areas we have are kindergartens unlike in the ex-colonies. Having a well organised police force that doesn't go around full of themselves shooting people willy-nilly is an advantage. You could learn from ours but what passes for city police over the water would cry without a gun to kill someone irritating.

I'm just gonna have to have a li'l chat with some of my fellow aliens before this sort of thing gets out of hand. Turning good, upstanding citizens into Scotsmen has to stop before the island is entirely over-run with Scotsmen.