24 February 2010

The Mystery of Norway

The Wall Street Journal 24 February 2010 comments on the many Norwegian triumphs in the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada:

The Mystery of Norway - Tiny Country's Athletes Rack Up Medals, but Skeptics Dismiss Them; 'Probably Born on Skis'

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22 February 2010

Kaisergruft - Facing the Future with the Habsburg Dead

The magazine Spieger Online International recently published an interesting article about Kaisergruft (Kapuzinergruft) - the imperial crypt in Vienna where many deceased members of the Habsburg family have got their last resting place.

Politics of the Crypt. Facing the Future with the Habsburg Dead (19 February 2010)

See also the official website, http://www.kaisergruft.at/.

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17 February 2010

The James Bond of Royalty

Crown Prince Haakon is - according to the US American business man John Hope Bryant - "the James Bond of Royalty"! Bryant continues: "He's the coolest prince on the planet! Humble, grounded and cool."

See Views and News from Norway's article of 16 February 2010.

You could also pay John Hope Bryant's website a visit.

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15 February 2010

Last Olympic Games for Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

It is not often you hear about Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (or just Hubertus von Hohenlohe if you like) in the media. Except when there is a World Championship or Winter Olympics going on. The media loves to write about the princely sporter, and easily forgets that the idea has been used over and over again. Every fourth year, or so. The weekly magazine Time is only one of many who has taken the bait.

The alpine skier, who belongs to the German princely family Hohenlohe-Langenburg, is born in Mexico and thus competes for Mexico, but also holds an Austrian passport. He took part in the Olympics in Sarajevo (1984), Calgary (1988), Albertville (1992) and Lillehammer (1994) and has participated in 11 championships. Prince Hubertus, son of Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Virginia (Ira) von Fürstenberg, is born in 1959 and says in an interview with the Swedish tabloid Expressen today that the current Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, will be his last. - I am getting too tired and too fat!

For more details about the prince, check out his website at Hubertushohenlohe.com.

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14 February 2010

The future Kennedys

Following Patrick J. Kennedy's decision to not seek re-election to the Congress, many has asked if this means the political end of the Kennedy dynasty, although Patrick Kennedy himself has said that "I wouldn’t count us out for good".

The Boston Globe claims in today's edition that "Kennedy's political future is murky", but mentions Joseph P. Kennedy III - a grandson of Robert F. Kennedy - as a possible prospect. Joe's elder twin brother Matthew Rauch Kennedy is, by the way, working in the Obama administration as an administrator to the counsel's office, but is said to be more inclined to pursue a business career.

Sources
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13 February 2010

Patrick Kennedy to leave Congress

It became public yesterday that Patrick Kennedy, the youngest son of the late Edward Moore Kennedy, will not seek re-election to the House of Representatives this fall. His retirement means that the Congress for the first time since 1962 - when Ted Kennedy filled the gap by being elected to the Senate two years after his brother John F. Kennedy was elected president - will not have at least one representative from the Kennedy family.

Many will ask if Patrick Kennedy's decision to step down represents the political end of the Kennedy dynasty. Others have commented somewhat sarcastically that the political dynasty ended already at Chappaquiddick. A rather strange comment considering how many members of the family that have been involved in national and regional politics since 1969. Even if Ted Kennedy's hopes of becoming President died following the Chappaquiddick tragedy, both he and other members have been rather influential on the political scene in the USA. Patrick Kennedy has himself commented to the Boston Globe that "I wouldn't count us out for good". Only time will show.

The 42 years old Patrick Kennedy became a Rhode Island state representative in 1988 while attending Providence College and was re-elected twice before heading for the Congress in 1994, representing the First District of Rhode Island. His eight period in Washington will in other words be his last. According to the Boston Globe his greatest contributions as a lawmaker were on mental health issues.

References
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11 February 2010

Reocities

The process of transferring all the files from my old website at Geocities.com to my new website http://www.hoelseth.no/ (or http://www.hoelseth.com/) is obviously taking more time than what I had originally planned. Hopefully the work will be completed during the spring. I need to do a "freshing up" of some of the pages as well, and new content will be added.

In the meantime, it is still possible to view the old website at Reocities. The exact address is [removed]. In other words, the [removed letter] has been replaced by a [removed letter]. As of now you will not be able to access all the pages of the former website, but at least some of them.

I will of course tell you here when the transfer to the new website has been completed. So stay tuned!

Updated on Monday 5 June 2023 after being informed by the Blogger team that the article had been depublished on 31 May 2023 due to links to expired websites that later have been categorized as "unsafe" or possibly "malicious". It is of course impossible to have control on all links made in articles published many years ago, but I have removed the links, as I can well understand and accept the reasons behind the depublishing, and hope the changes will be accepted.