And now, The latest Weather....

             More weather right after this word...

                   “A dangerous storm is ripping across our region. Stay tuned for further developments!”

This type of weather news would cause enough worry to stay ‘tuned-in’ and want to know more.

But when conditions are normal and calm, what can weather forecasters do to add some interest to their reporting? A Norwegian weatherman had a crazy idea. He decided to talk about the weather for an extended uninterrupted time and managed to talk for a record of 24 hours..Setting a record about weather!

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This caught the attention of a 41 year-old  Norwegian TV broadcaster who thought that might be an interesting touch to add interest to her weather broadcasts. Eli Kari Gjengedal from Leikanger, a municipality in the county of Fjordane, Norway, decided to try to break that record and get into the Guiness Book of Records.

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 Little is known of this weatherlady except that she is married, and well known in Norway for her many unconventional ideas on how to present the weather forecast. She has previously reported the weather in a space suit, and in an earlier broadcast ,suddenly

invisible.The record attempt was to be broken in a glass TV studio at Domkirkeplassen Square in Oslo. Her plan, in her words was to "talk about every small valley this country 's got; we'll move out into the world and have a look at different weather phenomena. Two meteorologists are going to sit beside me. We're going to analyze the weather and simply milk the world's biggest subject for conversation - the weather.”

 and her monologue began.

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   During the world record attempt, Eli was allowed to take a five-minute break for every 60 minutes that she was on screen. Under those rules, Eli Kari Gjengedal began to talk uninterrupted weather to set a new world record for continuous weather news on a Norwegian television.

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During her time on air, she put on a bathrobe, let her hair down, chilled out on a chair, and drank a lot of coffee, but kept the nation of Norway informed on what was going on, which, at the time, was a quiet period between mild, partly sunny, and partly cloudy. Not much to report!
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Gjengedal stayed on the air until her goal of minimum 24 hours was past, smashing the old record  and continued to set a new record of  33 hours of  continuous weather broadcasting in November, 2014. News reports stated : “Norway’s Weatherwoman ,Eli Kari Gjengedal, holds claim to setting a new record of the longest weather broadcast, earning a place  in the Guinness Book of Records!”

But, stay tuned.  More after this...

For reasons unknown at this time, ‘Guinness’ hadn’t declared the event as “Official”.

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Meanwhile, here in the USA, Al Roker,a well-known TV personality was involved in  fund-raising to benefit the USO,(United Service Organization). To bolster his efforts, he jokingly announced to the TV listening public “ If you donate enough money, I’ll come to your front lawn and I will do a forecast”. Learning of  Norwegian  Eli Gjengedal’s effort, his joke evolved into a plan. Using her record time, Roker decided to break HER record of ‘on TV air’ time. To be successful, his goal was to talk ‘weather’ for OVER 33 hours. His goal was to raise funds to aid  the USO, United Service Organization, a non-profit and non-political organization well-known to military service people and their families while overseas  on duty or at home.

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   The rules were to be the same: 5 minute breaks allowed after every hour, however any ‘unused’ breaks could be ‘banked’  and combined for later use.
  As his broadcast team organized for the event, plans for staying active for such a venture were established.   Roker stated, “I’ll probably change shirts and undergarments and things like that. Maybe change a jacket. Just kinda, you know, freshen up.”  Roker didn’t plan on using a razor or

worry about how ragged he’d look  on camera. “I don’t look that great to begin with,” he claimed. He went on to say:“I don’t know if it’s gonna lure viewers, I think it’s just kind of a fun thing to do if people tune in. It’s more about trying to raise money and doing something that hasn’t been done before.”He began talking ‘weather’ November 19th at 9:55 PM EST to continue the broadcast for the next 34 hours or more...

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Al Roker is best known as being the weather anchor on NBC's Today Show. Born in Queens, New York, he is  the son of  Albert Lincoln Roker, Sr., a labor relations negotiator, bus driver and dispatcher, of Bahamian descent. Al’s mother is of Jamaican descent . His career with NBC began in 1978 when he was hired at WKYC-TV in Cleveland. Roker's wife, his third, is fellow journalist Deborah Roberts who has reported for both ABC and NBC.

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'Al Roker Entertainment'  started in 1994, with programs produced for The Food Network, and has since grown to include a number of popular television channels including NBC, The History Channel, TRU TV, Animal Planet, GAC, The Weather Channel, Discovery, Spike, and many others.

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 As 'Today’s' weatherman continued his monologue, current weather conditions of polar vortexes and arctic blasts bringing early snow to US landscapes was making Al’s ‘Rokerthon’  job a bit easier. When the digital timer wound down to 000.000 at 8 AM EST Friday, November 14th , ending  the record-breaking weathercast,  Al Roker was visited by a representative of  The Guiness Book of Records.

 He did it!

After 34 hours, Al Roker  now, officially, holds the Guinness World Record for longest uninterrupted live weather report”.       A highlight was a surprise congratulatory call from the US Vice President  Joe Biden who stated, among other things,

"All that money for the USO!  Thanks buddy!"

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Al's marathon raised over $82,000 for the 'USO' .  All of this was made possible due to efforts of a Norwegian weatherwoman Eli Gjengedal. Thank you, Eli.  Thank you, Al ...and congratulations!

And now, we take you back to our regularly scheduled broadcast!

It's Over!

Hvor mye koster det?

Loosely translated, “ What’s the cost?” The United States 2014 midterm election is history and is proving to be the most expensive election in US history. Never mind that a presidential choice was not to be made. What’s the cost?

           How about SIX BILLION DOLLARS?

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Six billion dollars was spent to complete the process. Can you imagine the joy of charities, states and the economy if   any portion of six billion dollars is received rather than observe it being  given to a select few individuals? Obviously, the donors can afford the contributions and expect the recipient, after winning, to “ do them a favor”. In many cases, these billionaire donors are looking far ahead to future election gains . TV sets in the US have been inundated with political half-truths, negative, misleading and sometimes truthful ads. It’s finally over for a short time before it begins anew..

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How much should it cost to choose our leaders? Six billion dollars for an ‘off-year’ is unthinkable in other countries. Rich US ‘Super-PACs’ pour in their money from secret sources for special TV biased ads.What do our neighboring countries do?  How do our Scandinavian friends do it fairly?

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In 2010, 74% of Norwegian campaign funds come from Norway’s government subsidization. The Scandinavian process, which depends on public funds rather than private funds for campaign financing, is believed to promote greater transparency in the process and reduce the dependency on corporate money. This is public fund campaign financing!  There are many different political parties in Norway. Norway has a multiparty system. When people go to vote, they have many alternatives from which to choose.
                                           21 parties!

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Norway's  current government  is a coalition of the Conservatives and The Progress  Party. They don’t have a majority alone, but are supported in parliament by the centrist Liberal and Christian Democrats.  The European Union Committee of Ministers issued suggestions in 2003  requiring political parties of member nations to make their donations public, keep accurate records, prevent conflicts of interest, and maintain a fixed ceiling for donations.
And unlike in the U.S., where candidates and their supporters can buy as much television time as they can afford, political ads are banned from television and radio.   

 Political ads are banned from Norwegian television and radio?! 

And in Sweden....

 

Since the Great Depression, Swedish national politics has largely been dominated by the Social Democratic Workers' Party, which has held a plurality (and sometimes a majority) in parliament since 1917. The last Swedish general election was held on 14 September 2014.Unlike in many countries where voters chose from a list of candidates or parties, each party in Sweden has separate ballot papers. The ballot papers must be identical in
size and material, and have different colors depending on the type of election: yellow, blue,  and white for municipal elections and elections to the European Parliament.---Sweden has a problem--Swedish election policy of always displaying the ballot papers for voters to select in public, making it impossible for voters to vote secretly. This has been criticized as undemocratic. To confuse onlookers,  many use subterfuge and select bunches of additional ballots which they do not actually intend to use.

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Denmark is roughly the size of Maryland in population and geography.and there are eight parties in their parliament  In the 2007 election, Denmark’s two leading parties combined, including their public financing, spent less than $8 million – a fraction of the $5.3 billion candidates spent on the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Danish law only requires political parties to file annual reports of contributors. Even then, parties need only name contributors who gave more than 20,000 Danish kroner (about $3,770). Anonymous contributions are also allowed, but only if the party does not know the identity of the donor. .But the biggest difference in a campaign season between our two countries is the money. With a ban on political TV ads in Denmark, cash plays a much smaller role in the blitz for votes here.
       And yes, again, Denmark bans political  TV ads.
There are eight political parties and every political party  in Denmark backs the ban on political ads. One major party leader recently called the ban “the best thing ever.”

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As we all know,  campaign advertising is the use of an advertising campaign through the media to influence political debate, and   ultimately, voters. In the EU, many countries do not permit paid-for TV or radio advertising for fear that wealthy groups will gain control of airtime making fair play impossible and distort the political debate in the process. In both the United Kingdom and Ireland, paid advertisements are forbidden, though political parties are allowed a small number of party political broadcasts in the run up to election time.

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In Nordic countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland and Iceland, which have high numbers of women in parliaments, political parties receive state subsidy or some form of assistance (e.g. free, equal broadcasting time on TV and radio for campaigns or party-related activities such as research.Public financing of campaigns is seen as democratic, fair and equitable as both women and men candidates and parties that qualify for government support are given equal amounts for campaigns, thus not only the “wealthy” or those with access to party coffers.

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Other countries encourage women to join the party!

In France, political parties which do not include 50% women in their party lists face sanctions such as reduction or withdrawal of campaign funding support from the government. Generally, public financing of campaigns refers to campaign money provided by the government to a candidate or political party. Public funds may be provided to cover a portion or all of the campaign costs by the candidate or political party. This seems to work well for our neighbors.

             Or, we can let rich corporations continue funding our future.