Norwegian electronic duo Royksopp take the cake for trippy cartoon videos. You guys have probably seen the video for "Remind Me" (if not, we've included it after the jump), but have you checked out their visual rendition for "Beautiful Day Without You"? Jellyfish float out of umbrellas! A giant squid launches itself from the sewer! Stingrays fly! Crazy!

Someone pass this on to Andrew Sullivan and tell him to pass it on left. The folk to the right just ain't down.

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Things certainly don't look good for Spanish doctor Joaquín Bermúdez Leal. Working in Norway as a hematologist, Leal's went missing three days ago and police have reason to believe he's been murdered by a deranged mental patient.

It all started when police pulled over a man for erratic driving. The man - who police say had just recovered from a mental breakdown - and the car were both covered in blood. Doing their detective thing, police discovered the car's registered in Leal's name, which led them to his equally gory apartment. Aftenposten reports:

[Leal is] believed murdered after the discovery of large amounts of blood at his home and in the basement of his apartment complex. Aftenposten.no has also learned that police found a blood trail from Bermudez's apartment to his garage, and the back seat of his car.

"The finds combined with the (arrested) man's unstable behavior gives us all reason to believe that the 49-year-old is dead," said Oslo police captain Finn Abrahamsen during a Wednesday press conference.

Yeah, we know the facts don't bode well, but that's one of the most hopeless police reports we've ever heard. At least try to sugar coat it. What about, "Yeah, there was blood everywhere, but it's not necessarily Leal's blood..." There's something to be said about the illusion of salvation.

A new Harvard-endorsed report contends that depsite the nominal success of women's liberation movements and more inclusive politics, not one in 115 survery nations have bridged the gender gap in terms of education, salary, politics or health.

Sweden has gone farthest in eliminating inequality between men and women, followed by Norway, Finland and Iceland. The Philippines is the only Asian country in the top 10 and the United States comes in at 22. Yemen ranks bottom.
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For economic participation, for example, the researchers measured the proportion of men and women in work, pay gaps and the ratio of women to men among legislators, senior officials and managers.

The study shows the gender gap for health and survival is very narrow across the world. Based on a score of 1 meaning full equality and 0 a complete lack of equality, the range for all 115 countries is just 0.9796 to 0.9227.

But when it comes to political empowerment -- the ratio of women to men in parliament, ministerial positions, and heads of state over the past 50 years -- the best performer is Sweden with a score of 0.5501 but Saudi Arabia is last with zero.

So, ladies, we advise you to steer clear of Saudi Arabia and Yemen if you're looking for equality. The US ain't looking that great, either. Perhaps a mass exodus to Sweden? That's looking pretty good. Plus, they have great music.

They don't use the American Red Cross excuse that all gays are infected with AIDS, but somehow the Norwegian national sperm bank in Oslo offends us even more. They do not allow sperm donations from gays because we are "psychologically unsuitable." They make the assumption that any gay man who would donate sperm is doing so purely as a means of "spreading his genes" as opposed out of a desire to "help people."

We, however, think that the whole issue is perhaps a cover-up for a larger problem: lack of gay porn at the Oslo sperm bank.

Norway rejects gay sperm [PinkNews]

Lesbians are twice as likely to smoke cigarettes as their heterosexual sisters, a new Norwegian study says. 42 percent of lesbians smoke compared with 27 percent of straight women.

"Although there is little Norwegian research on this area, American data indicate the same," Lund told Oslo daily Aftenposten, adding that the tobacco industry specially targeted lesbian and gay men to start smoking.

"The reason lesbian women smoke so much more than heterosexual women has an explanation. Cigarettes are used to cope with stress, a survival strategy," Lund said.

So, is this study for real or just bull? Next time we’re at a dyke bar we’ll keep our eyes peeled for proof. Who knows, maybe lesbians need something to suck on just like the rest of us.

Lesbians puff away [Page One Q]