Norwegians follow the American news at a high level. When I was there, for example, several mentioned the current administration’s raid of the former President’s home and asked me what I thought of the current U.S. leader seeking to imprison the former U.S. leader. They also had heard about the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which a Mississippi law limiting on-demand abortion care to 15 weeks was found not to be in conflict with any Federal law or the U.S. Constitution.
What was interesting is how they perceived the ruling. All of the Norwegians who asked about this topic were under the impression that the Supreme Court had outlawed abortion care throughout the United States. I explained that the the law in Democrat-ruled states provided on-demand abortion at 24 weeks or beyond (e.g., Colorado).”You mean that there is all of this fuss when someone can just drive or fly to another state?” they asked, incredulously.
From reading CNN and other American media, they were under the impression that abortion care in the U.S. was less available than in Norway when, in fact, there are far more reproductive health care options for pregnant people in the U.S. than in Norway. Wikipedia:
Current Norwegian legislation and public health policy provides for abortion on request in the first 12 weeks of gestation, by application up to the 18th week, and thereafter only under special circumstances until the fetus is viable, which is usually presumed at 21 weeks and 6 days.
Abortions after the end of the 12th week up to 18 weeks of pregnancy may be granted, by application, under special circumstances, such as the mother’s health or her social situation; if the fetus is in great danger of severe medical complications; or if the woman has become pregnant while under-age, or after sexual abuse. After the 18th week, the reasons for terminating a pregnancy must be extremely weighty. An abortion will not be granted after viability. Minor girls under 16 years of age need parental consent, although in some circumstances, this may be overridden.
In other words, the Mississippi law (15 weeks) that was recently considered by the Supreme Court was actually less restrictive than Norwegian law (12 weeks), but those who had learned about the events from the media were under the impression that abortion care had been outlawed throughout the U.S.
Since we are informed that abortion care is health care, let’s look at the public health situation in Norway, a Science-following Land of Shutdown to some extent (they didn’t do the 1.5-year school closure that Science imposed on NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles). Here’s the hand-drying technology at the gleaming modern airport terminal in Oslo:
Should this machine be called “the Coronaspreader” or the “Monkeypoxer”?
How can Norway get away with this kind of public health hazard? If we consider “population-weighted density” (i.e., how dense is the average person’s neighborhood), the lived experience of Norwegians is almost the least crowded in Europe (source):
(And they want to keep it uncrowded. I didn’t find anyone who supported increased low-skill immigration. Norwegians said specifically that they valued open space and freedom to move around without bumping into hundreds of other humans. Even if someone could prove to them that they could get somewhat wealthier by growing the population they would reject the option.)
It looks like one use towel in the picture, or is it reusable? In first case it is safe, in the second – gross.
On the population density chart, how come UK is less densely populated then France, countries with about same population numbers but France having almost twice as much of land?
And how come the most populous European country, Germany, has relatively low population density? This chart is bogus, to rich 1000 people per square kilometer UK would gave to have over 240,000,000 people overall, it does not have a third of it. Or does this chart have no-go zones rightly subcontracted from host countries territories? Maybe it lost between converting square miles to square kilometers but even then it seems wrong.
perplexed: The chart is about lived experience, not dividing total population by area. If you divide total population by area, for example, you’ll find that the average person in Alaska has 1.3 square miles to him/her/zir/theirself. That has nothing to do with how the average person in Alaska experiences day-to-day life. More than half of Alaskans live in metro Anchorage, for example. Two countries with the same population density can have very different population-weighted population densities depending on their respective tendencies to live in cities.
I’ve been in restrooms with towels that looked similar to that. These that I experienced were large rolls of towel, such that you _could_ pull out fresh towel that no-one else had previously used, but you didn’t have to, and in all likelihood you would at least be touching / pulling on previously-used towel.
I suppose the idea was that, well, your hands were clean, right? So your clean hands wouldn’t dirty the towel?
I haven’t seen one of these for years though, thankfully. I’m surprised they still exist. I’m surprised they ever existed.
I remember roller towels from the days of my youth. They did indeed have large rolls of towel, but if it ran out the fallback was either to use the bit of filthy towel remaining or to rub your hands on your pants. I guess that’s one more option than there is with paper towels. At least back then the towels were launderable, so they took a while getting to a landfill.
The last one I ever saw had a warning label to the effect that putting one’s head into the loop of towel was unsafe and not advised. I suppose someone wanted to dry his hair and throttled himself by mistake. (Back then pronouns found in the mens’ room were quite predictable).
I used this towel in one of the gas station restrooms near Ocala, FL five years back.
[ I didn’t find anyone who supported increased low-skill immigration.]
Look at actions rather than words.
There is currently so much diversity in Oslo, that the majority of rapes are committed by people that are not ethnically Norwegian, and probably 90+% of rapes that are extra brutal.
What the regular Norwegians think about increasing the population is pretty irrelevant to the actual development. The reality is that the government that is entrusted to protect the borders will keep issuing new passport to low skill immigrants that don’t subscribe to such notions as free speech and other enlightenment values. Deportations due to criminal activity is unheard of.
When I left Norway in 1990, the population was 4.3 millions. Now it is 5.5 millions. Funny how that can happen in a country where the TFR has fluctuated between 1.5 and 1.9.
And in contrast with your hypothetical single mother with 3 kids who lives off the state in Massachusetts, there is no waiting period to get free public housing in Norway. A Somali refugee with 10 kids can easily consume the surplus taxes of dozens of Norwegians.
The legendary sovereign wealth fund is already spoken for in terms of future social benefit obligations originating from low skill immigrants.
https://datacommons.org/place/country/NOR?category=Demographics#
God Save The King! God Save The King! God Save The King!