Edit: Serbia won!

My favorites are Hungary and Serbia...

The commentary:

1 Bosnia & Herzegovina Maria SESTI Rijeka Bez Imena
Her dress looks like the top of some hut in Polynesia. Her voice is OK, but the song is slow and boring, and lacking any kind of real tune...

2 Spain D'NASH I Love You Mi Vida
Hah! A boy band! Disco fever baby!

3 Belarus Koldun Work Your Magic
Uh, WTF? Who do you think you are? James Bond? Well, guess what. You're not! Oh, and you need to learn how to match your makeup to your skin color. Or lay off that spray-tan shit. And button up your shirt please...

4 Ireland DERVISH They Can't Stop The Spring
OK. This is the first Irish singer I've heard who doesn't have a fantastic voice. Very off-key. Too bad, because the song is otherwise good...

5 Finland Hanna PAKARINEN Leave Me Alone
Yes. Please leave me alone... (actually, this isn't too bad)

6 FYR Macedonia Karolina Mojot Svet
Her short skirt doesn't really make up for the song being dull though. Apparently she has lots of friends in the former Yugoslav republic, so she'll get a few votes. Even though she doesn't deserve them.

7 Slovenia Alenka GOTAR Cvet Z Juga
Opera meets rock. Didn't Nightwish try this already? This will probably do well in the points, the ex-Yugoslav bloc and all. She does have a nice voice, but I think she could do better with it...

8 Hungary Magdi RÚZSA Unsubstantial Blues
Wow... great voice!!! Lots of power. I also like that she looks... um... normal. My favorite so far...

9 Lithuania 4FUN Love Or Leave
The singer is also normal-looking (i.e. not a skanky bimbette)... very nice ballad...

10 Greece Sarbel Yassou Maria
Ææææææ!!! The first "Hatten är din" of the evening. And this is also an example of why I want the return of the rule where the artists have to sing in their native language. Grenglish ick. The only thing this guy is missing is the unbuttoned shirt...

11 Georgia Sopho Visionary Dream
Very 80s... plus a touch of Björk-wannabe... the background dancers make it all the more amusing...

12 Sweden THE ARK The Worrying Kind
What. The. Fuck. Is. That. ?. She-male 70s glam... Think The Sweet... (OK, you can put your shirt back on. Please!)

13 France LES FATALS PICARDS L'amour À La Française
Oh my FSM. It just gets "better and better." Lots of black and hot pink. On men. French men, but still. It's nice to see that thte French have a sense of humor... and the song is actually quite good...

14 Latvia BONAPARTI.LV Questa Notte
Oooh, more opera. Charming... tuxedo jackets and shirts, top hats, with jeans. The song is quite nice, energetic for being a ballad...

15 Russia SEREBRO Song #1
Here come the skanky bimbettes... can't say much more...

16 Germany Roger CICERO Frauen Regier'n Die Welt
OK, he's dressed like 30s/40s Chicago, same musical style, but in German? (OK, he switched to English) But OK, he can sing...

17 Serbia Marija SERIFOVI Molitva
She's probably a lesbian (she has that anything-but-skanky-bimbette look), but she has a good, powerful voice and the song is very good... this is another one of my favorites...

18 Ukraine Verka SERDUCHKA Dancing Lasha Tumbai
What's Eurovision without a drag queen? ;-) The costumes are... um... silvery special. Sieben sieben ein zwei drei... charming... very old Soviet bloc meets psycho German nihilist Kraftwerk techno... I have my pocket calculator... this definitely wins the cheezefest, but I don't really get why it's one of the favorites...

19 United Kingdom SCOOCH Flying The Flag (For You)
Why is this song even here? (btw - this is the Eurovision example of what British Airways has been reduced to) *ugh*

20 Romania TODOMONDO Liubi, Liubi, I Love You
Very Vaudville... *shudder*

21 Bulgaria Elitsa TODOROVA & Stoyan YANKOULOV Water
Oh for the love of the FSM, is this another Björk wannabe or something?

22 Turkey Kenan DOULU Shake It Up, Shekerim
Hatten är din, hatten är din, hatt baby hatt baby...

23 Armenia Hayko Anytime You Need
Anytime I need to kick someone in the nuts... at least he had the decency to keep his shirt buttoned up...

24 Moldova Natalia BARBU Fight
Hike up your trousers, please. Nobody wants to see your skanky crack... you have to shave to wear trousers like that...

...to the frog who wishes to take up residence in my throat.

Don't.

If you do, I'll pluck you out and put you at the mercy of the owlets. We all have seen what they can do to lizards.

That is all.

Tonight's the semifinal for the Eurovision Song Contest, and Saturday night is the big night. We're going to have a little party here. No, I'm not kidding. We're going to serve lots of food and alcohol and have a good, cheezy time...

Tonight's the night we'll see if Guri Schanke will make it to the final. She's some 40-something woman who's going to sing some kind of Latino disco-inspired song. In a short dress. Apparently, she's been "caught" without panties, but nobody can confirm this rumor. The Danish tabloid press believes that she needs to get a grip on her botox injections. Denmark is sending a drag act. Let the bitchiness begin...

Among the drag queens, opera singers, death and glam rockers, and Israel's "Push the Button", Germany is tipped to win...

Mirrors cut moose fatalities

Small mirrors hung alongside a major highway in Oppland County are proving highly effective at keeping wildlife off the road and preventing accidents. Moose aren't the only animals being spared.

The use of mirrors has been so successful at eliminating collisions between animals and cars, reported newspaper Adresseavisen this week, that the national railroad agency Jernbaneverket is interested in adopting the practice to keep wildlife off train tracks.

The mirror idea came from Mentz Skjetne, who drives emergency vehicles himself and knows the financial, human and wildlife costs of collisions between animals and vehicles. He has also seen first-hand the effect that light has on animals, how it scares them and makes them run away.

Skjetne figured that hanging simple mirrors along the road would reflect passing headlights, bounce the light into the forest and keep wildlife away from the road before the vehicles pass.

Mirrors were strung up three years ago along a 500-meter stretch of the busy E6 highway at Krokan, north of Oppdal. The mirrors dangle freely about six meters from the road on both sides and move with the breeze.

Not a single collision involving vehicles and wildlife has been recorded in the area since the mirrors were hung.

"I would never have dreamed that the number of animals hit by cars and trucks would go from 25 to 30 a year to nothing," said Skjetne.

He was quick to stress that the most effective means of avoiding collisions between animals and vehicles remains the clearance of trees and bushes away from roadsides. But the mirrors seem to be a major deterrent as well.

"The results far exceed what we had hoped for," said Arild Hoel of Oppdal County. "If you look at the overall economics of this, the mirrors are worth their weight in gold, not least in relation to the injuries we avoid."

Clock ticks for Malta's spring hunt

If that wasn't enough to make you sick, take a look at the victims of the "hunt" (more like massacre... I think it would be an extreme insult to real hunters to call this a hunt).

What kind of barbarians do something like this? Well, you sort of get an idea when you have an organization that justifies the slaughter with "spring is the best time of year to enjoy the countryside" when large numbers of people can't even enjoy the countryside because of the hunters...

We had this for dinner last night. It's based on a traditional recipe in Provence (France). It's very simple and tasty.

Translated from Norwegian:

What you need:
1 chicken, ca. 1.75 kg
50 g butter, softened
40 whole cloves of garlic, including the skin
sea salt, freshly ground black pepper

What to do:
Place chicken in baking dish. Rub butter on the chicken skin and add salt and pepper. Place garlic cloves around the chicken and oven roast at 180 Celsius for 1-1.5 hours. The chicken is done when you stick in a fork/knife in the thickest part and the juices run clear.

Serve with steamed vegetables (I made a salad) and potatoes. And be sure to eat the roasted garlic! :-)

I'm back home from Trondheim. I was there for this big meeting of an organization I belong to. We were inside having discussions most of the time (and just as well because the weather was pretty much awful), but today was the first day I saw anyone with a trønderbart - a kind of moustache that the region is known for. Just as well... it's not very attractive...

Anyway, last night we had this dinner at an old farmhouse... in what used to be the pig sty actually (and the main course was a very tasty roast pork). Between dessert and coffee avec, the speeches started, and quickly after that, after a jibe at Finland, the Pekka jokes. First one person with a Pekka joke, then another, and another...

Pekka is walking around by the lake and finds an old vodka bottle. He rubs the bottle and a genie appears, granting Pekka three wishes.

"Oh no, no, no... I can't possibly..."

"You have to make three wishes!"

"OK, my first wish is that the water of this lake turns into the finest vodka!"

*POOOOOF* - and the lake was transformed into a lake of the finest vodka in the world. Pekka excitedly ran to the shore, cupped his hands and filled them with vodka, and drank in ecstasy.

"Now for your second wish!" boomed the genie.

"No, no, no, I don't need any more wishes. This is all I could ever ask for!"

"You must make a second wish!"

"Well, OK then! I'd like a woman, the most beautiful woman in the world. For me!"

*POOOOOOOOOOF* - and the most beautiful woman in the world appeared in front of Pekka. Pekka and the woman were enjoying vodka from the lake in between lovemaking sessions when the genie appeared again.

"And now for your third and final wish!"

"No, no, no, this is all too much. I don't need anything else, really. I'm fine."

"But if you don't make your third wish, then your first two will be annulled!" boomed the genie.

"Oh," said Pekka, and after thinking a bit, he exclaimed "I wish for more vodka!"

Yeah, yeah...

The trip home was rather uneventful. The flight was delayed by half an hour, but whatever. After the flight I managed to get my luggage quickly and get on a train right as it was leaving. On the train, this old guy carrying several plastic grocery bags was walking up and down the aisle. Had he been in town, I would have thought he was one of the local alcoholics. I was afraid he would want to sit in the seat next to mine, but all he wanted to do was wander up and down the aisles...

And since boyfriend of tuxette was at a wine tasting during the afternoon and nobody would have been up to cooking anything tonight, we got some take-away Indian food for dinner. Mmm... Indian food. It's probably going to make Ms. Stomach act up, but it's soooo goooooood...

In case you ever decide to chase after me with a knife, don't. I'll kick you. One way or other, I'll kick you. Back kick, side kick, turn around and roundhouse kick, I'll kick you. And if you start stabbing me with that knife while chasing me, I'll turn around, break your arm, and mash your groin with my knee.

Yep, that's what we did in training tonight. Defenses against psychos chasing you with knives.

We trained outdoors too, so we had plenty of space to run around. And most of us were in plainclothes; I was wearing tight jeans. (Another PSA - groin guards under tight jeans are reeeeeeeally sexy.) It was hard enough running around on grass with tight jeans, let alone executing the kicks. I managed most of the time. I think. Next time I'll wear a skirt...

Another interesting thing we did, at the beginning right after our warmup, was tumbling on the gravel path. I've done tumbling on the mats and on the grass before, but not on gravel. Worked out fine, as my tumbling technique is actually there. I saw that some of the others were having a hard time of it though.

For the last thing we did, I let to guys punch out the RoF. One of those 2-against-1 drills where the 2 attackers hit your torso at 50%. I let myself get hit, as I could have easily fucked up my finger again doing the defenses. It's kind of a good thing to build up "resistance"/"tolerance" anyway. RoF was not amused...

The weather was a bit chilly, but actually perfect for the intensity level of what we were doing, and there were still enough other people out walking, walking their dog(s), jogging, whatever, and when they passed by us, they would stop and gawk. Excellent ;-)

Oh, as I hinted to above, it was a damn physical training. We were literally sprinting back and forth, being the attacker or the defender, not stopping until the instructor told us to stop. We also trained for a little over 2 hours, as opposed to the usual 90 minutes. I'm pleasantly exhausted.

Now it's time for some well-deserved organic sparkling wine :-)

This is a downer of a story. Wrote about it on Multiply, forgot to put it here, so here it is...

Heartbreak Hotel as king penguin Elvis can't leave building

ELVIS is alive and well, but marine authorities say he can't go home.

The fellow is in a rehab centre on a windy headland in Cape St Francis and, every now and then, he throws back his head and croons his rather haunting song.

Elvis is a king penguin that washed ashore near Cape St Francis in January, many thousands of kilometres away from his home on one of the sub-Antarctic islands.

No one knows how he got here, but when Trudi Malan of the Ajubatus Marine Rehabilitation Centre in St Francis was alerted, she and a local nature conservator rescued the creature.

"I can't believe how well he's looking now. He is beautiful. My wish is to release him back home, possibly to Marion Island, but the scientists say we can't because of the risk that he will carry back diseases.

"I understand that from a scientific point they can't take that risk. But for us, it's a very emotional thing. Kings are very gregarious penguins, they breed shoulder to shoulder and they like to be with their friends," said Malan.

"And every time he calls, ah, I just want to die. He throws it back and makes this sound. It's beautiful but it's so sad."

She had hoped the penguin could hitch a ride on the Department of Environment's ship that took research teams to Marion Island, a habitat of king penguins.

Rob Crawford, an ornithologist with Marine and Coastal Management, confirmed yesterday that this was not permitted in terms of the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research.

"Any species that has been in captivity may not be released back into the Antarctic or sub-Antarctic Islands, because there is always a chance of introducing disease.

"It could be disastrous if that happened," Crawford said.

Asked if the penguin could be released off the Eastern Cape coast and left to take its chances, Crawford said he was not sure it would survive in the warm Agulhas current.

"My personal opinion is that it would be best if it could be with another captive population," Crawford said.

Malan said the Edinburgh and Zurich zoos were interested in taking on Elvis.

"The Zurich Zoo has a world specialist on king penguins. He says they've got to be with friends or they fall into depression. They have about 20 but they really wanted a female.

"The Edinburgh Zoo was interested but they can't take him because of the bird flu ban," she said

Two Oceans Aquarium is also interested in taking him for their Antarctic and Islands display, yet to be built.

"I've tried everything. Sometimes I feel if I ever found another one, I would quietly euthanise him," Malan said.

They had some very nice hjerteskjell (cockles) at the fish monger's, so I made this traditional Portuguese dish for dinner last night. I used a version of the following recipe. I used 1/2 a (400 g) can of tomatoes instead of tomato paste, and olive oil instead of butter...

I served the dish with oven-roasted potatoes, a salad, and a lovely Portuguese white wine...

Ingredients
300 ml white wine
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp paprika
1 clove
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper

450 g loin of pork, cut into 1 inch cubes
450 g leg of pork cut the same way

110 g lard (or 2-4 Tb butter)

1 tsp concentrated tomato paste (or 1 sun-dried tomato, soaked, mashed)
2 Tb olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 sprigs parsley, chopped
675 g (1 1/2 lb) cockles (Long Island littleneck clams, or any small clams)

Procedure
Marinate the meat 4-5 hours. Drain meat, reserving marinade, & fry
gently in lard until golden brown all over. Strain the marinade &
add to pan. Cover & boil with the meat until it is very tender and
the sauce is reduced by half.

Meanwhile, make another sauce with the tomato paste, oil, onion,
parsley, salt & pepper, simmering it on low heat for 6-8 minutes.

Add the cockles & simmer until they open (discard any that do not
open). Shake the pan & transger contents to the top of the meat.
Cover. Simmer gently for 3 mins & serve in same pan.

Source

other versions of the same recipe

Moose taste test road salt

Sweden's road administration wants moose opinion before deciding what road salt to switch to.

A series of studies in Sweden, Finland and Canada reveal that wildlife are drawn to roads in order to try and lick road salt, Swedish news agency TT reports. Swedish road authorities will now try to choose a salt that does not tempt animals to risk heavy traffic, as well as use a type that is more environmentally friendly.

Moose at Skansen in Stockholm will taste varieties, and will first get a choice between the current salt in use and one with a higher sugar content. Reindeer are also 'participating' in the taste test.

If the new, sweeter variety is not less popular, then the roads administration will have to assess other possibilities.

"Then we will sit down and have a think," said Göran Gabrielsson, a technician for the Swedish roads administration.

Norway also has problems with traffic accidents involving wildlife, but not to the same degree as in Sweden.

"We have long known that salt and Cervidae (the deer family) is a bad combination, but this is seen as a relatively minor traffic safety problem in Norway," said Bjørn Iuell, a biologist and engineer at Norway's Public Roads Directorate.

At least 1300-1500 moose are killed in traffic every year, and Iuell believes the total could be twice as high since not all collisions are reported. For roe deer the numbers are at least twice as high again. Although the problem costs around NOK 250 million (USD 41.5 million) a year, it is not a priority, but reducing salt use on roads is an environmental concern.

But a new Public Roads Administration project in 2008 and 2009 will reexamine the links between salt and animal collisions and other measures that can protect wildlife from traffic. Iuell said that the extensive salting of Norwegian roads would make it difficult to draw conclusions.

"We have a good cooperation with the Swedish Public Roads Administration, also environmentally, and we will monitor the Swedish findings," Iuell said.

Lately, I've been training plyometrics quite aggressively, as part of my strength/power training routine, to supplement Krav Maga. Sometimes I do plyometrics-only, sometimes in combination with weights. I'm really enjoying these exercises, especially for the variety factor, but dang - they can really punish the legs! Especially after 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps ;-)

I had a really good killer squats+plyos workout this morning. Neither my legs nor the RoF were amused. I'll be feeling it tomorrow and Wednesday hahaha...

It's too soon to determine to what extent this is benefitting Krav Maga. I still have the damn finger injury, and it's really cramping my style. I can't train properly. (It also makes things difficult to do upper-body work.) Bah. And training starts up again tomorrow, after a long Easter break. I wonder what we'll do... hmmm... if it weren't for the damn finger, I would want to do a lot of ground work. Wrestling and throwing off attackers who are on top of you and the such... perhaps with weapons... good fun...

Anyway... how are your legs doing today?

Forget about goals in life. After reading this article and its related links, I've decided I want to be turned into a diamond after I die, and haunt everyone and everything that possesses me. Kind of like the Hope Diamond, though only more sinister.

That is all.

Hahaha... enjoy!

Im Zoo bin ich geboren, so mitten in Berlin,
ich hab schon viele Freunde hier, sogar nen Pinguin.
Doch toller ist mein Daddy, das ist`n cooler Typ,
der hat kein Fell und nur zwei Bein, und trotzdem kann er geh`n.

Ich werd das auch noch lern` ich hab die Welt so gern, ich heiss Knut, Knut ist gut!
Ich werd das auch noch lern` ich hab die Welt so gern, ich heiss Knut, Knut ist gut!