1.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
2.
Monarchy of Norway
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The Norwegian monarch is the monarchical head of state of Norway, which is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. The present monarch is King Harald V, who has reigned since 17 January 1991, succeeding his father, the heir apparent is his only son, Crown Prince Haakon. The crown prince undertakes various public functions, as does the kings wife. The crown prince also acts as regent in the kings absence, there are several other members of the Royal Family, including the kings daughter, grandchildren and siblings. Whilst the Constitution of Norway grants important executive powers to the King, formally the King appoints the government according to his own judgement, but parliamentary practice has been in place since 1884. Constitutional practice has replaced the meaning of the word King in most articles of the constitution from the king personally to the elected government. The powers vested in the monarch are significant, but are treated only as reserve powers, the King does not, by convention, have direct participation in government. He ratifies laws and royal resolutions, receives and sends envoys from and to foreign countries and he has a more tangible influence as the symbol of national unity. The annual New Years Eve speech is one occasion when the King traditionally raises negative issues, the King is also Supreme Commander of the Norwegian Armed Forces and Grand Master of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav and of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit. The King has no role in the Church of Norway. The position of King of Norway has been in existence since the unification of Norway in 872. In recent years members of the Socialist Left party have proposed the abolition of the monarchy during each new session of parliament and this gives the Norwegian monarchy the unique status of being a popularly elected royal family and receiving regular formal confirmations of support from the Storting. Prior to and in the phase of the Viking Age Norway was divided into several smaller kingdoms. Harald Fairhair was the first king of Norway, the boundaries of Fairhairs kingdom were not identical to those of present-day Norway, and upon his death the kingship was shared among his sons. Some historians emphasise the actual control over the country and assert that Olaf II, alias Saint Olaf. Olaf is generally held to have been the force behind Norways final conversion to Christianity. In the 12th and 13th centuries the Norwegian kingdom was at its geographical and cultural peak, the kingdom included Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Shetland, Orkney and other smaller areas in the British Isles. The king had diplomatic relations with most of the European kingdoms and formed alliances with Scotland and Castile, large castles such as Haakons Hall and cathedrals, the foremost being Nidaros Cathedral, were built
3.
Fertilizer
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A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soils or to plant tissues to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. Fertilizers enhance the growth of plants and this goal is met in two ways, the traditional one being additives that provide nutrients. The second mode by which some fertilizers act is to enhance the effectiveness of the soil by modifying its water retention and aeration and this article, like many on fertilizers, emphasises the nutritional aspect. The nutrients required for plant life are classified according to the elements. Instead compounds containing these elements are the basis of fertilizers, the macronutrients are consumed in larger quantities and are present in plant tissue in quantities from 0. 15% to 6. 0% on a dry matter basis. Plants are made up of four elements, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon. Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen are widely available as water and carbon dioxide, although nitrogen makes up most of the atmosphere, it is in a form that is unavailable to plants. Nitrogen is the most important fertilizer since nitrogen is present in proteins, DNA, to be nutritious to plants, nitrogen must be made available in a fixed form. Only some bacteria and their host plants can fix atmospheric nitrogen by converting it to ammonia, phosphate is required for the production of DNA and ATP, the main energy carrier in cells, as well as certain lipids. Micronutrients are consumed in quantities and are present in plant tissue on the order of parts-per-million, ranging from 0.15 to 400 ppm DM. These elements are present at the active sites of enzymes that carry out the plants metabolism. Because these elements enable catalysts their impact far exceeds their weight percentage, Fertilizers are classified in several ways. They are classified according to whether they provide a single nutrient, multinutrient fertilizers provide two or more nutrients, for example N and P. Fertilizers are also sometimes classified as inorganic versus organic. Inorganic fertilizers exclude carbon-containing materials except ureas, organic fertilizers are usually plant- or animal-derived matter. Inorganic are sometimes called synthetic fertilizers since various chemical treatments are required for their manufacture, the main nitrogen-based straight fertilizer is ammonia or its solutions. Ammonium nitrate is widely used. Urea is another source of nitrogen, having the advantage that it is solid and non-explosive, unlike ammonia and ammonium nitrate. A few percent of the fertilizer market has been met by calcium ammonium nitrate
4.
Politics of Norway
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Politics in Norway take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy. Executive power is exercised by the Kings council, the cabinet, legislative power is vested in both the government and the Storting, elected within a multi-party system. The Judiciary is independent of the branch and the legislature. The Norwegian constitution, signed by the Eidsvoll assembly on 17 May 1814, the 1814 constitution granted rights such as freedom of speech and rule of law. This parliamentary rule has the status of constitutional custom, all new laws are passed and all new governments are therefore formed de jure by the King, although not de facto. Changes to the Court of Impeachment, parliamentary system now part of the Constitution Norway is a constitutional monarchy, where the King has a mainly symbolic power. The Royal House is a branch of the family of Glücksburg. The functions of the King, Harald V, are mainly ceremonial, although the constitution of 1814 grants important executive powers to the King, these are always exercised by the Council of State in the name of the King. The King is also High Protector of the Church of Norway, Grand Master of The Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, the Council of State is formally convened by the reigning monarch. The Council of State consists of a Prime Minister and his/her council, parliamentarism has evolved since 1884 and entails that the cabinet must not have the parliament against it, and that the appointment by the King is a formality. The council must have the confidence of the Norwegian legislative body, in practice, the monarch will ask the leader of a parliamentary block that has a majority in the Storting to form a government. After elections resulting in no clear majority to any party or coalition, since World War II, most non-Socialist governments have been coalitions, and Labour Party governments have often relied on the support of other parties to retain the necessary parliamentary votes. Labour formed their first brief minority government in 1928 which lasted for 18 days only, after the 1936 election the Labour Party formed a new minority government, which had to go into exile 1940–45 because of the German occupation of Norway. After a brief trans-party government following the German capitulation in 1945, Norway was ruled by Labour governments from 1945 to 1981, except for three periods. The Labour Party had a party majority in the Storting from 1945 to 1961. Since then no party has formed a majority government, hence minority. From 1981 to 1997, governments alternated between minority Labour governments and Conservative-led centre-right governments, the centre-right governments gained power in 3 out of 4 elections during this period, whereas Labour toppled those governments twice between elections and stayed in power after one election. Elections take place in September and governments change in October of election years, Conservative leader Kåre Willoch formed a minority government after the election of 1981
5.
Knut Hamsun
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Knut Hamsun was a major Norwegian writer, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsuns work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to the subject, perspective and he published more than 20 novels, a collection of poetry, some short stories and plays, a travelogue, and some essays. The young Hamsun objected to realism and naturalism and he argued that the main object of modernist literature should be the intricacies of the human mind, that writers should describe the whisper of blood, and the pleading of bone marrow. Hamsun is considered the leader of the Neo-Romantic revolt at the turn of the 20th century, with such as Hunger, Mysteries, Pan. His later works—in particular his Nordland novels—were influenced by the Norwegian new realism, portraying life in rural Norway and often employing local dialect, irony. Hamsun is considered to be one of the most influential and innovative literary stylists of the past hundred years, isaac Bashevis Singer called Hamsun the father of the modern school of literature in his every aspect—his subjectiveness, his fragmentariness, his use of flashbacks, his lyricism. The whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun, on August 4,2009, the Knut Hamsun Centre was opened in Hamarøy. Since 1916, several of Hamsuns works have been adapted into motion pictures, Knut Hamsun was born as Knud Pedersen in Lom in the Gudbrandsdal valley of Norway. He was the son of Tora Olsdatter and Peder Pedersen. When he was three, the moved to Hamsund, Hamarøy in Nordland. They were poor and an uncle had invited them to farm his land for him, at nine Knut was separated from his family and lived with his uncle Hans Olsen, who needed help with the post office he ran. Olsen used to beat and starve his nephew, and Hamsun later stated that his chronic nervous difficulties were due to the way his uncle treated him. In 1874 he finally escaped back to Lom, for the five years he did any job for money, he was a store clerk, peddler, shoemakers apprentice, sheriffs assistant. At 17 he became an apprentice, at about the same time he started to write. He asked businessman Erasmus Zahl to give him significant monetary support, Hamsun later used Zahl as a model for the character Mack appearing in his novels Pan, Dreamers, and Benoni and Rosa. He spent several years in America, traveling and working at various jobs, working all those odd jobs paid off, and he published his first book about it, Den Gaadefulde, En Kjærlighedshistorie fra Nordland. In his second novel Bjørger, he attempted to imitate Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsons writing style of the Icelandic saga narrative, the melodramatic story follows a poet Bjørger and his love for Laura. This book was published under the pseudonym Knud Pedersen Hamsund and this book later served as the basis for Victoria, En Kærligheds Historie
6.
Norsk Hydro
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Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. Hydro is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide and it has operations in some 50 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state owns 43. 8% of the company through the Ministry of Trade, a further 6. 5% is owned by Folketrygdfond, which administers the Government Pension Fund of Norway. Norsk Hydro employs approximately 12,500 people, Svein Richard Brandtzæg has been the CEO since 2009. The company had a significant presence in the oil and gas industry until October 2007, the technology had been developed by the Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland. The method is known as the Birkeland–Eyde process. The process required large amounts of energy, and for this. Later also Rjukan Falls was developed and its power harnessed, in the establishing the city of Rjukan. Hydros first factory was built at Notodden followed up another at Rjukan. Then in 1912 production is established at Glomfjord in Nordland, in 1930 Norsk Hydro opened a plant at Herøya outside Porsgrunn. To begin with it was to function as a port for the fertilizer as well as a point to import limestone. From 1936 Hydro also started producing fertilizer at Herøya, there was also opened a railway, Rjukanbanen, connecting Rjukan with Hærøy. The railway opened in 1909 and consisted of a ferry across Lake Tinn, railway again with the Tinnoset Line. The canal was superseded by the Bratsberg Line in 1916, by 1945, IG Farben had become a majority shareholder in Norsk Hydro. The plant at Herøya was a result of no longer being dependent on immediate proximity to the power sources. This provided the advantage of being able to have the plants, the first steps towards light metal production came in 1940 when Hydro started construction of a magnesium carbonate plant at Herøya, but the German invasion of Norway stopped the plans. In 1941 the Oslo Consortium invested money equivalent to year 2014 Norwegian kroner 172 million, collaboration with the Nazi-German regime, did not result in any company employees being convicted after the war. During the Second World War Norsk Hydro collaborated with IG Farben, the construction was however ended on July 24,1943 when an allied bombardment completely destroyed the facilities, killing 55 construction workers
7.
Haakon VII of Norway
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Haakon VII, known as Prince Carl of Denmark until 1905, was a Danish prince who became the first king of Norway after the 1905 dissolution of the union with Sweden. He reigned from November 1905 until his death in September 1957, as one of the few elected monarchs, Haakon quickly won the respect and affection of his people. He played a role in uniting the Norwegian nation in its resistance to the Nazi invasion. He became King of Norway before his father and older brother became kings of Denmark, during his reign, he saw his father, his brother and his nephew, Frederick IX, ascend the throne of Denmark, respectively in 1906,1912 and 1947. He died at the age of 85 on 21 September 1957 and he was succeeded by his only son, Olav V. Prince Carl of Denmark was the son of King Frederik VIII of Denmark. Furthermore, he was a brother of Christian X, a paternal grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark. Prince Carl was born at Charlottenlund Palace near Copenhagen and he belonged to the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg branch of the House of Oldenburg. The House of Oldenburg had been the Danish royal family since 1448, the house was originally from northern Germany, where the Glucksburg branch held their small fief. The family had permanent links with Norway beginning from the late Middle Ages, several of his paternal ancestors had been kings of independent Norway. Christian Frederick, who was King of Norway briefly in 1814, Prince Carl was raised in the royal household in Copenhagen and educated at the Royal Danish Naval Academy. Their son, Prince Alexander, the future Crown Prince Olav, was born on 2 July 1903, gradually, Prince Carl became the leading candidate, largely because he was descended from independent Norwegian kings. The new royal family of Norway left Denmark on the Danish royal yacht Dannebrog, at Oscarsborg Fortress, they boarded the Norwegian naval ship Heimdal. After a three-day journey, they arrived in Kristiania early on the morning of 25 November 1905, two days later, Haakon took the oath as Norways first independent king in 518 years. The coronation of Haakon and Maud took place in Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim on 22 June 1906, King Haakon gained much sympathy from the Norwegian people. Although the Constitution of Norway vests the King with considerable executive powers, Haakon confined himself to non-partisan roles without interfering in politics, a practice continued by his son and grandson. However, his long rule gave him moral authority as a symbol of the countrys unity. Haakon, Maud and Crown Prince Olav became interested in skiing and this sport is often viewed as typically Norwegian
8.
Anne Stine Ingstad
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Dr. Anne Stine Moe was born and raised in Lillehammer, in Oppland county, Norway. Her parents were attorney Eilif Moe and Louise Augusta Bauck Lindeman, Ingstad was the sister of Norwegian art historian and pianist, Ole Henrik Moe and the aunt of his son composer Ole-Henrik Moe. She married Helge Ingstad in 1941, after which she became his scientific collaborator and she studied archaeology at the University of Oslo in the 1950s. In 1960 her husband discovered settlement traces at LAnse aux Meadows on the island of Newfoundland, between 1961 and 1968, Anne Stine Ingstad led an excavation of the settlement with an international team of archaeologists from Sweden, Iceland, Canada, U. S. and Norway. The excavation revealed the remains of an early 11th century Norse settlement and these remains included sod houses, a forge, cooking pits and boathouses. The settlement is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a National Historic Site of Canada, in the 1970s, Anne Stine Ingstad worked on the textiles from the Kaupang and Oseberg excavation sites. Anne Stine Ingstad died in 1997 at the age of 79, leaving behind her 98-year-old husband Helge and their daughter Benedicte Ingstad, for her efforts, in 1969 Anne Stine Ingstad was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Memorial University of Newfoundland. In 1992 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at the University of Bergen. She was a commander of the Order of St. Olav and was made a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and she appeared with her husband in the 1984 National Film Board of Canada documentary The Vinland Mystery. The Viking Discovery of America, The Excavation of a Norse Settlement in LAnse Aux Meadows, l’Anse au Meadows National Historic Site of Canada
9.
Kasper Idland
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Kasper Idland MM, was a Norwegian resistance member during World War II. He was born in Figgjo, the child of Karsten og Gudrun Berg Idland. He graduated as an sergeant in 1937, after 3½ years at Hærens underoffisersskole at Gimlemoen. He then attended the school for officers, later working at the Post Office in Stavanger. As Norway was invaded by Germany, Idland joined the Norwegian military forces at Sviland on 9 and 10 April 1940 and he was held as a prisoner of war by the Germans at Madla, but was later released. In September 1941 Idland travelled by boat from Egersund to Peterhead in Scotland and he participated in the Commando raid Operation Anklet to Reine and Moskenes in December 1941. Idland was noted for his role in the Norwegian heavy water sabotage in 1943, as a member of the Gunnerside team he was parachuted onto the Hardangervidda plateau on 16 February 1943. He was one of the four saboteurs who entered the Vemork facility right after midnight 27/28 February, after the mission at Vemork he escaped by ski to Sweden, together with four other members of the group. From 1944 to 1945 Idland was active in Egersund, as a member of the resistance group Vestige 4, the primary aim of the Vestige operations was shipping sabotage, but the Vestige 4 group never carried out ship sabotage. As a member of this group he participated in burning down the AT camp in Bjerkreim in January 1945, from March 1945 Idland was working to establish the base area Varg in the Setesdal area. Idland was leading one of the Varg resistance groups, located at the mountain cabin Langelona, the group received supplies from parachuted containers delivered from allied aircraft. The Langelona group was small when the war ended in May 1945. Idland lived in Stavanger until 1955, when he moved to the United States and settled in Huntington, a memorial of Idland was unveiled in his home village Figgjo in 1995. St. Olavs Medal With Oak Branch War Medal Defence Medal 1940–1945 with Rosette Haakon VIIs 70-Medal Military Medal Legion of Honour Croix de guerre 1939–1945 Medal of Freedom
10.
Sverre Granlund
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Corporal Sverre Granlund, DCM was a Norwegian commando during the Second World War. He was born in Sauherad, to a father from Øyer and he lived initially in Saltdal and later, Bodø. His job was at the Nordland Line and he was a member of the Norwegian Red Cross Youth, and served in the Norwegian Army during the Battle of Narvik in 1940. He fled Norway for Sweden in 1941, and later continued to the United Kingdom, here he joined the Special Operations Executive and underwent training for the Norwegian Independent Company 1. His first operation was on 27 May 1941 when he set the room of the fish factory in Bodø on fire. In 1942 he participated in the raid against the Glomfjord generator plant in Operation Musketoon. Erling Djupdraet were the two Norwegians in the twelve man team, the rest of whom were British and he and Captain Joseph Houghton had the role of scouts, ascending the Svartisen. Granlund was the member of the team who had to kill a German. After the explosions had torn apart the local dam, he sought refuge at Fykandalen, after the fight, with Djupdraet wounded by a bayonet, Trigg, OBrien, Granlund and Fairclough split off and managed to avoid capture, escaping to Stockholm, then London. Djupdraet died on 24 September at the hospital in Bodø and of the rest, only OBrien, the distance from Bjærangfjord to Sweden walked on foot by Granlund was 250 kilometres and took him over seven days, with practically no food and only wearing his uniform. He died at sea on 10 February 1943 in transit to Norway, Granlund was awarded Norways highest decoration for military gallantry, the War Cross with Sword. He also received the Norwegian War Medal and the British Distinguished Conduct Medal, in 1995, the Norwegian artist Laila Lorentzen commemorated his role in the war with a bust constructed for Saltdal Museum in Rognan
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