The Stig has been outed

The Stig, anonymus test driver for BBC's Top Gear, has his alleged identity revealed by a British newpaper according to Timesonline. Having for years been a devouted follower of Top Gear and the wits of presenter Jeremy Clarkson when I first saw the article i asked myself if I really wanted to know who The Stig was. Off record a BBC employee caracterises the revelation as "bloody enoying" adding with reference to the article "you wouldn't write a piece saying that Santa didn't exist." I can only follow in line behind these comments.

I will not tell you who The Stig (apparently) is, for that you will have to follow the link. I just know that watching Top Gear will not be the same again.

The Stig, I miss you.

We are not alone

We are not alone in the universe. NASA findings on Mars suggest the presens of alive micro-organisms. Yet helas, we've yet to find someone to play with. Next up is macro-organisms, or intelligent life. ET, we are waiting for you!

The lack of formality in norwegian

How do you introduce a formal letter or e-mail in norwegian? In english there's always Dear sir/madam, and the French have their Madame/Monsieur (la Directrice/le Directeur), but what do we have? Writing to the Prime Minister I can't start by Dear Prime Minister (Kjære Statsminister) which would be a missmatch in level of politeness and familiarity. I can't write Monsieur le Premier Ministre (Herr Statsminister) as the "Herr" is a relic of the fifties and an anachronism after 1968. Some would of course propose that I write Dear Jens (Kjære Jens), but as I (1) didn't vote for him, (2) is not very fond of him as a politician and (3) have never even met him nor communicated with him adressing him with "dear" and omitting his last name is slightly to cozy (or koselig) for my taste. Also I can't be properly polite any longer without sounding sarcastic. After we abandoned the "De", "Dem" and "Deres" (Vous and Votre) and replaced it with "du", "deg" and "ditt" (tu, toi and ton) I have a hard time adressing respectable people in a proper way. Just imagine adressing President Sarkozy with "Et toi, Nico, qu'est-ce que tu pense?" The only person(s) I can still talk to without feeling ashamed about my language are the royals, as they can be adressed in the third person. ("And how did Her Majesty find the exhibition?" "Oh, it was quite interesting. I especially liked the pictures by...")