Fedora 8 released, upgrading to it this week

Fine picture, beautiful landscape, for me the Scottish highlands, the west coast has always been mini Norway (though the personalities of the people differ).

I'm a Norwegian, from West Norway, Sogn and Voss. I was looking at Norwegian Internet news from West Norway today; one mountain farmer in Sogn has decided to give up his sheep farm from New Year 2008, because 1/3 of his sheep have been killed by lynx/wild cat (gaupe in Norwegian) each year for the last years. The man was crying, he loves his sheep. He's not allowed by the provincial sheriff (fylkesmannen) to kill the lynxes that kill his sheep.

Another mountain farmer in Sogn, Steinar Mørkrid, with his farm at the foot of the Jostedalsbreen/glacier, takes his herd of around 200 sheep two days' scrambling with little rest up high rock faces up into the mountains, in places over hard snow, in mid June, into a valley where the sheep can graze. There isn't enough grass on his own land. (he cuts what there is for winter feed, hay or silo, as Norwegian - and Swedish and Icelandic - farmers have done for many hundreds of years). In his case it's not gaupe (lynx) that has killed a thousand sheep through the last years, but jerv (wolverine). a black, pear-shaped killer about 3 times as big as a badger that kills for the joy of it, only kills seriously in the autumn to ensure itself food for the winter and hide its prey. The sheep are brought back when the snow is due, at the end of August. Last year, the farmer engaged a herder with a large Pyrinean mountain dog that was trained to hunt wolverines and look after the sheep. This year, because of the dog, the farmer lost only one sheep. Although the sheriff had forbidden killing wolverines that had not been proved to have whelped, the farmer and his helpers were all carrying hunting rifles when they made their journey into the mountains to fetch the sheep back to the farm. They didn't need to use them, though.

People, especially Gavin, should at least look at the clip, even though they don't speak the language, just for the scenery.

Today, 14th Nov. 2007, the clip showing this is available for people with Windows Streaming Media (me with Linux Firefox and Mplayer plug-in) at http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/distrikt/sognogfjordane#, under the clip: "Jerveplage i Sogn" URI is mms://straumOD.nrk.no/f/Nyhetsspiller_NDSF/2007-11-08/JERVESAK_210907_SFNDSF_NDSF_600.WMV

I don't know how long it'll stay available. The commentator speaks West Norwegian, the farmer speaks Sogn dialect and the herder speaks Nordmøre dialect (compare it to Trondheim)