"Beautiful places, generous government programs... but beautiful in the frozen wasteland for long periods of time kind of way."

Love the people, it's pretty, but it has the worst weather on earth. No kidding.

I was up there in may and booked a cabin in the mountains I was going to hike in to. My buddy said "nope. you'll die."

He has told me that on several occasions.

"Norway over Ivory Coast as we speak. I wonder if Megan Kelly does not mourn the lack of immigration from Ivory Coast to the US?"

ROW!!!

"Then move ---- ----. We won't miss you at all."

Norway needs people. You could likely get a job in Tromso or Vardo with little problem.

Most of the low-skilled people working in Norway are from Africa. At least in Northern Norway. I don't really like it up there. I think they probably like it even less.

"Is it illegal in Germany? Or is it just certain historic homes not allowed (without heavy permit fees)?"

No. It is not illegal.

A lot of the new builds have A/C. It's the older ones, those built prior to the last 3-5 years that don't. And European homes don't have central heating, which means they can't have central cooling.

I do question why a house with heated floors couldn't have cooled floors though.

Anyone here eaten whale? I think it's more popular in NOR than Lutefisk. Stockfish seems to be the most popular.

I have a chunk of smoked whale in my fridge right now.

"All the ---- you NEED to survive in Norway is the same price, cheaper or free."

Telling me you've never been to Norway without telling me you've never been to Norway.

C. Oops.

Daily forecasts are between 30-35C for the next ten days or so.

It was 41F here in Kaiserslautern on Saturday and Sunday. And NO air conditioning.

As an answer to the Bluesky question...raise your hand if you want the US to implement a VAT.

In Norway, it's 25%. The cheapest beer I've seen at a Restaurant is 10 EUR.

I went to go buy a small notebook at a stationary shop when I was there last month. It was 22 EUR.

Now you know the answer.

We do have Norwegians coming to the US. There is a mixed Dutch/Norwegian F-35 squadron at Luke Air Force Base in AZ. There is a Finnish F-35 squadron in Little Rock, Arkansas.

You'd be surprised how many Norwegian fighter pilots have US passports. A lot of them are legacy. Their dads were pilots, and so they spent a lot of their youth in Tucson.

One of the Norwegian pilots I work with grew up almost entirely in the US. His dad was a USAF F-15 pilot. Mom was a Viking.