Norway

Norwegian metal legend Fenriz is now "Councilman Gylve Fenris Nagell" for the next four years. He's officially an alternate, showing up when folks get sick or can't attend meetings at the local neighborhood council in Kolbotn, a suburb of Oslo.

According to Factmag,



What a cuddly potential Mayor:




We're all pretty psyched about it...

Plenty of us regularly dabble in the daily clandestine efforts of keeping that 'Clash of Clans' or 'Geometry Dash' or 'Candy Crush' on lock; and don't even think about reminiscing over the risk that went into trying to pull up a game at work or in the chambers of a lecture hall on the good 'ol laptop.

A quick look back at high school, and it seems something of a crying shame so many teachers were so adamant about shutting down that handheld/laptop entertainment. But I mean hey, kids gotta' learn right?

Well, it turns out students at Games High School in Norway pretty much have it made.

The Norwegian public high school in the city of Bergen, Norway plans to roll out an official school administered e-sports academics program.

Students enlisted in the program will devote five hours a week to playing games at school. The classes will include 90 minutes of physical training, which will be fine tuned for the e-games, and also incorporate reflex, strength, and endurance training exercises.

The school hasn't reached a final decision yet on which games its students will study, but there's talk about first-year games candidates being, 'Dota 2,' 'League of Legends,' 'Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,' and 'Starcraft II.'

Nature, y'all.

It's tough to believe this isn't some airbrushed design on a 1990s shirt. The world can pull out some crazy beautiful things sometimes.

This group of humpback whales bask in the northern lights of Norway in a super peaceful swim along the coast.

According to the video's description:

This Spectacular footage of a group of humpback whales swimming under the northern lights off the coast of Norway was shot by Norwegian cameraman Harald Albrigtsen, who works for the Norwegian media company NRK.

Large gatherings of whales like this are common in the waters off Norway, and this time of year is prime time to see the northern lights in the country.

The lights most frequently appear between September and March.

Thanks, Earth. This is great.

You know what we never get? Good news about climate change.

Well, not today!

Norway is making good on its commitment to give the country of Brazil $1 billion on the condition of reducing the deforestation crisis that claimed many square miles over the past fifty years.

Quartz has the details:

In 2008, when the Amazon was facing a severe deforestation crisis, Norway, a country made rich from oil and gas production (and the biggest donor to protect tropical rainforests), pledged $1 billion to the government of Brazil if it could slow down the destruction. Doing so would protect the forest's wildlife and also enormously reduce climate-harming greenhouse gas emissions, which are produced when forests are burned to make way for human development.

Brazil has more than risen to the task. By enforcing strict protection laws, promoting education efforts, and withholding loans to local counties that clear too much of the forest, the country has scaled back its forest destruction rate by 75%. It's estimated that Brazilian farmers and ranchers have saved more than 33,000 square miles (roughly 53,100 square kilometers) of forest—equivalent to 14.3 million soccer fields—from being cut down.

This week, an applauding Norwegian government said it will pay out the country's final $100 million—rounding out its $1 billion promise—to Brazil at a December UN summit on climate change.

Brazil gets money, the rainforest remains protected and the planet gets more trees to filter out the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

It's win win win!

Also, welcome to the club, Brazil!

Meanwhile in Norway…

Meet Harald V, King of the Trolls (also King of Norway).

In a recent interview with NRK TV, Harald said he will soon be going to Antarctica to visit his country's research station called "Troll."

The station was opened nearly 10 years ago by his wife, Queen Sonja, who is sitting next to him.

Watch the video above (with subtitles) for the punchline.

Oh Harald.

Fifty-year-old Tor Eckhoff lives in Norway and works in a paint factory.

In his spare time he does a lot of really weird/cool stuff, and he shares it with the rest of the world through his YouTube channel.

Here's his latest video showing you how Christmas is done in his neck of the woods.

The backsides of the new banknotes feature color palettes that look like digitally blurred versions of the images found on the fronts of the bills. Both sides of the bills were selected by Norges Bank during a competition held in the spring of 2014.