I first started writing this blog many years ago, in Norwegian. I was too busy and probably insufficiently self-disciplined to devote myself seriously to a writing career, but a bit of flippant social commentary suited my mood perfectly, as will be clear from my initial (Norwegian) posts, including the page “Slik startet det”.

As years passed, however, things started to get serious, not so much for me personally, but for – you know – well, the world as a whole, and I found myself writing mostly in English, since the problems I worried about concerned more than my little corner of the planet.

One of the darker sides of modern life is some people’s abuse of information technology to commit all sorts of cruel and callous acts. I won’t go into details as I’m sure you have heard plenty of stories, but I do wish to make one point: I do not allow “comments”, not because I doubt the value of what you may wish to write, but because I am, perhaps, a little paranoid: There seems so very little, these days, that an accomplished hacker cannot do, even if the poison is encapsulated in an innocent little comment. You may ask: Why should anybody want to destroy my little blog site? Why, indeed. I can only put to you that this site is subject to some 100 “brute force attacks” every month, plus half a dozen or so more serious attempts to crack it.

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The bird on the title page is not my creation, but courtesy of WordPress.com. I am using it gratefully, as it reminds me of the touching optimism of the lovely little creatures that flutter around us in the wilds or on a porch. Those that are still with us have, fortunately, no idea what’s in store for them.

06.11.2022