Norway So Fucking Rich They Don't Know What to Do With it All

[Holt]

Build second country underneath.

[Sgt-NiallR]

[QUOTE=Jodern;42129910]Free ice cream cars for the people![/QUOTE]

FTFY

[pr00ch]

[QUOTE=Chinook249;42127236]I'm no economist, but can't they just store it in a big bank somewhere and keep it 'till they need it? Kind of like a regular person[/QUOTE]

Actually that would be something along the line of wasting resources. It's close to a company, if you're the head of a company and have some extra cash, you don't usually put it in a bank for safekeeping or to get interest, but invest it in the company so it generates more cash, and repeat that as much as possible.

Basically, money is fuel that the company needs if it wants to expand. I suppose simiraly to this, a money could be well spent in a country. Let's expand of that fuel metaphor a bit. You don't usually keep fuel at home, right? I mean sure, you can have some for an accident, but generally you tank up and drive around 'till it's time for another tank up, and I think it's similar with money and running a country, you use that "fuel", because safekeeping it just doesn't bring you any good. What's a 50 gallon tank of fuel gonna bring you at home kept in the cellar, and what is it going to bring in your car tank?

[OogalaBoogal]

[QUOTE=Zeke129;42127754]Norway should use their oil cash to invest in alternate energy and forms of income that aren't oil. An oil crash is inevitable someday, Norway could become the only country that actually prepares for it.[/QUOTE]

Over 99% of power in mainland Norway is generated by hydroelectric dams.

[Legolas]

[QUOTE=NuclearAnnhilation;42128079]Use the money to drain the Baltic and find treasure[/QUOTE]
but it's the only beach we have :(

[Big Dumb Patriot]

[QUOTE=Zezibesh;42129330]Deep ocean is in many ways more hostile to human life than the hard vacuum of space.

That aside, Norway might be interested in finding out a way to stop the methane clathrate near their coast from melting, unless they want tsunamis to hit their coast when global warming gets bad enough to heat up the temperature at those depths by a degree or two.[/QUOTE]

In some ways, you're not wrong. Pure vacuum is easier to manage than massive pressure, from an engineering standpoint, and the relative frailty of the human body makes manned deep sea expeditions a lengthy and cautious process (though a safer one than riding an explosion into space), but it's also considerably cheaper, as most equipment is reusable. Additionally, new technologies are making deep sea exploration easier than ever before! A remotely operated submersible drone doesn't need to be launched into space on massive rocket. Just drop it off the side of an old deep sea fishing boat, and you can leave it down there to collect data and map the area for as long as you need to.

Ocean exploration is also just as important important as space exploration from a global perspective. Possibly even [I]more[/I] important, at least for as long as we plan to remain living on Earth.

The ocean is our planet's primary life support system. It is responsible for over 50% of the oxygen we breathe, large amounts of the food we eat, most of the planetary biomass, and the weather and atmospheric conditions that effect our planet. An astronaut wouldn't go into space without understanding his life support system, and so should we not be content to live here without understanding ours.

And, as you may know, we have done huge amounts of damage to our oceans over the past hundred years or so! Unspoiled choral reefs are all but gone, and over [I]90%[/I] of the large fish in the ocean have disappeared. Ninety percent! Our oceans are reeling, and we need to do what we can to learn everything possible about their complicated ecosystems so that we can better learn how to prompt their recovery!

Learning our oceans is important for preserving our way of life, but it also has massive economic potential. A resurgence of ocean exploration would drive the markets for tourism and science, provoking the same kind of innovation in technology, bioengineering, and job creation that space exploration does. It has an added benefit of discovering new forms of life and resources that could hold extreme value for their unique properties. A staggering amount of the medication and products that we use in the modern day are derived from marine life.

I'm not knocking space exploration here, because it is both super cool and super important, but ocean exploration needs a lot more love and a lot more budget than the 1/1600th of NASA that it's currently getting.

[theevilldeadII]

I would be happy with either bigger Space or Ocean Program either one would be very fucking useful

[efecanefe]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ddTwK.png[/IMG]
I am sorry :v:

[myon]

[QUOTE=efecanefe;42130673][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ddTwK.png[/IMG]
I am sorry :v:[/QUOTE]

Too accurate

[Sharo]

Invest it on a large scale research of forest wildlife. They need to find out what the fox says.

[Big Dumb Patriot]

The very first thing I would do if I suddenly became very rich is buy a golden crown to wear upon me noggin.

[asXas]

They should start fixing their shitty roads.

[Oskutin]

[QUOTE=asXas;42130991]They should start fixing their shitty roads.[/QUOTE]

And shacks.

[OvB]

[QUOTE=Coffee;42129905]I'm fairly this is what Stromberg said in The Spy Who Loved Me.[/QUOTE]

Then everything is going according to plan.

[pr00ch]

[QUOTE=asXas;42130991]They should start fixing their shitty roads.[/QUOTE]

Greetings from Poland

[IMG]http://topgearblog.blog.onet.pl/wp-content/blogs.dir/1262045/files/blog_ls_3672864_7245398_tr_polskie_drogi.jpg[/IMG]

[LoneWolf_Recon]

[QUOTE=Frisk;42127272]Yes, we'd have space vikings roaming the solar system.[/QUOTE]

[IMG]http://www.awesomenauts.com/Images/nauts/skolldir_1.jpg[/IMG]

???

[Jodern]

[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;42131538][IMG]http://www.awesomenauts.com/Images/nauts/skolldir_1.jpg[/IMG]

???[/QUOTE]

False, vikings didn't have horns

[demoguy08]

Well there are about a million things to be fixed with the environment, I'd start there. Like making the entire country independent from fossil fuels.

[MrJazzy]

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;42127597]Invest it in an ocean exploration program. Everybody looks to space, but here's a fun fact: as far as US funding goes, one year of NASA's budget could run NOAA for 1600 years under its current spending limitations.

Second fun fact: 71% of the planet is covered by oceans, yet only about 5% of the seafloor has been explored.

People are so eager to look the stars, but huge swathes of our own planet are still a complete mystery to us! It was only about thirty years ago that we discovered deep sea magma vents, and their possibility to support new life. It was only about two years ago that we got conclusive proof of the existence of the giant squid (an animal longer than a two-story house is tall, yet somehow managed to elude us for the whole of human history). There are still world-changing discoveries to be made in our seas. The magma vents, for instance, taught us that life can exist under far more extreme conditions than we previously thought possible. Marine biologists couldn't imagine that life beyond a microbial level could exist at such massive depths, because the crushing pressure and complete lack of sunlight made it impossible to support any of the conventional life that we were aware of! Then one day, by accident, we stumbled on these sea vents and discovered that not only did advanced life exist at the bottom of the sea; it was [I]thriving[/I] by feeding off the heat and nutrients being released by these smoking magma chimneys! It completely changed our definition of life! And again, this is [I]5%[/I] of the sea floor. That's all we've seen! Just imagine what remains to be found!

The oceans are still a huge mystery to us. We need to invest more money into exploring and protecting them. So, Norway: if you happen to be reading this, please invest a sizeable sum of money into ocean exploration and conservation. Not only will it provide a useful investment as far as scientific discovery goes, but it will drive technological innovation, create jobs, and allow us to learn more about our planet's primary life support system.[/QUOTE]

This, althought personally if I had the money I'd rather start a space program than an ocean exploration one, but really why not both? - I believe space exploration is overall more beneficial for humanity as a whole and even though it may be comparably expensive, it's economically very beneficial. We need to do these great scientific things, we need wonders, we need to make great discoveries. In the 1500th we went across the ocean to a new continent and back safely, in the 60's we went across space to the moon and back safely, we haven't done that since, we need to do more great things.

[myon]

[QUOTE=Jodern;42131544]False, vikings didn't have horns[/QUOTE]

Shh

[MrJazzy]

[QUOTE=Jodern;42131544]False, vikings didn't have horns[/QUOTE]

Those are obviously eyebrows, vikings did probably have quite long and thick eyebrows.

[Maruhai]

pls norway buy me I'm cheap

[krix_]

[QUOTE=Jodern;42131544]False, vikings didn't have horns[/QUOTE]
But they [I][B]will[/B][/I]

[Van-man]

[QUOTE=Derp Y. Mail;42127430]And yet a few years ago they suffered a butter crisis.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_butter_crisis[/url]

hum[/QUOTE]

I remember that problem, they've also had similar with bread and so on.
The core problem is that Norway [B]INSIST [/B]on operating on their own no matter what, until shit hits the fan.

[Craayy]

[QUOTE=Van-man;42131975]I remember that problem, they've also had similar with bread and so on.
The core problem is that Norway [B]INSIST [/B]on operating on their own no matter what, until shit hits the fan.[/QUOTE]

Norwegians are very comfortable with their own stuff. Had a Lidl in nearby town for a year, before it had to close down, due to noone wants to buy food with names they havnt heard about.

Also to the ones saying invest in renewable energy.
[QUOTE]Norway is a heavy producer of renewable energy, first of all due to good resources in hydropower. Over 99% of the electricity production in mainland Norway is covered by hydropower plants. The total production of electricity from hydropower plants amounted to 135.3 TWh in 2007[1] There is also a large potential in wind power, offshore wind power[2] and wave power, as well as production of bio-energy from wood.[3] Norway has limited resources in solar energy, but is one of the world's largest producers of solar grade silicon and silicon solar cells, much thanks to the activities of Renewable Energy Corporation.[/QUOTE]

Taken from wiki though, but still true.

[Big Dumb Patriot]

[QUOTE=MrJazzy;42131782]This, althought personally if I had the money I'd rather start a space program than an ocean exploration one, but really why not both? - I believe space exploration is overall more beneficial for humanity as a whole and even though it may be comparably expensive, it's economically very beneficial. We need to do these great scientific things, we need wonders, we need to make great discoveries. In the 1500th we went across the ocean to a new continent and back safely, in the 60's we went across space to the moon and back safely, we haven't done that since, we need to do more great things.[/QUOTE]

The literal survival of all life on planet Earth depends on better understanding our oceans, because they are dying rapidly as a result of our ignorance. It's hard to get much more "beneficial" than that.

Oceans are home to 90% of the biomass on our planet, they produce over 50% of the oxygen we breath, and the food and medicine and products that come from them would end life as we know it if they were to cease being provided. And they [I]are[/I] dying. Healthy reefs are a rare sight these days, over 9/10ths of the large fish in the sea are just gone, and the acidifying oceans are becoming more and more inhospitable to what still survives. And that's just why we [I]need[/I] to invest dramatically more money and time into researching their mysteries. You could write entire books (and indeed, many people have) about why we should[I]want[/I] to. Ocean research is every bit the economic, scientific, technological driver that space exploration is, and it comes with much more immediate and tangible results.

The Great Barrier Reef, for instance, pulls in over $5bn in annual tourist revenue. And the GBR is bleaching and collapsing at a frightening rate.

[img]http://australianmuseum.net.au/Uploads/Images/6121/DSC_2929_big.jpg[/img]

This is not to say that space exploration shouldn't get more funding. Space exploration [I]rules![/I] But it is so highly romanticized that people are forgetting a very important fact: without first saving our own planet, we won't survive to explore others.

[video=youtube;43DuLcBFxoY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43DuLcBFxoY[/video]

[Xavith]

[QUOTE=ishownomercy;42132524]

Also to the ones saying invest in renewable energy.

[quote]Norway is a heavy producer of renewable energy, first of all due to good resources in hydropower. Over 99% of the electricity production in mainland Norway is covered by hydropower plants. The total production of electricity from hydropower plants amounted to 135.3 TWh in 2007[1] There is also a large potential in wind power, offshore wind power[2] and wave power, as well as production of bio-energy from wood.[3] Norway has limited resources in solar energy, but is one of the world's largest producers of solar grade silicon and silicon solar cells, much thanks to the activities of Renewable Energy Corporation.[/quote]

Taken from wiki though, but still true.[/QUOTE]

Not to mention the thorium reactor research in Halden

[Derubermensch]

Hm, Norway managed to become an economic powerhouse and a successful social republic in Europe. What are they members of? Not the EU.

[mobrockers]

[QUOTE=Derubermensch;42133325]Hm, Norway managed to become an economic powerhouse and a successful social republic in Europe. What are they members of? Not the EU.[/QUOTE]

Yes that must be it. It has nothing to do with all the oil they have and don't use :downs:

[MrJazzy]

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;42133205]The literal survival of all life on planet Earth depends on better understanding our oceans, because they are dying rapidly as a result of our ignorance. It's hard to get much more "beneficial" than that.

Oceans are home to 90% of the biomass on our planet, they produce over 50% of the oxygen we breath, and the food and medicine and products that come from them would end life as we know it if they were to cease being provided. And they [I]are[/I] dying. Healthy reefs are a rare sight these days, over 9/10ths of the large fish in the sea are just gone, and the acidifying oceans are becoming more and more inhospitable to what still survives. And that's just why we [I]need[/I] to invest dramatically more money and time into researching their mysteries. You could write entire books (and indeed, many people have) about why we should[I]want[/I] to. Ocean research is every bit the economic, scientific, technological driver that space exploration is, and it comes with much more immediate and tangible results.

The Great Barrier Reef, for instance, pulls in over $5bn in annual tourist revenue. And the GBR is bleaching and collapsing at a frightening rate.

This is not to say that space exploration shouldn't get more funding. Space exploration [I]rules![/I] But it is so highly romanticized that people are forgetting a very important fact: without first saving our own planet, we won't survive to explore others.[/QUOTE]

I get what you're saying and I agree with you to a certain extent but the fact is that the reason for why space exploration is so important - I'd say it's underated rather than romanticized - is because by learning about other planets we learn about our own, by applying physics to space we discover the laws of the universe which has given birth to many inventions and concepts. Most of our modern technology has risen because of space exploration.

The green house effects, which are just as much of a threat as contaminated oceans, were discovered because of space exploration.

But then it's not about space exploration [I]or[/I] ocean exploration. If we choose one we'll certainly lose, both are equally important.