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Just to be clear, the tree is found in Dalarna in Sweden, though this is indeed East of Trysil in Norway. Since Sciencenorway.no (!) is a Norwegian outlet, they
by kebman 4y ago
Just to be clear, the tree is found in Dalarna in Sweden, though this is indeed East of Trysil in Norway. Since Sciencenorway.no (!) is a Norwegian outlet, they need to at least attempt to make their articles relevant for Norway.
The outlet is the English version of Forskning.no. Forskning means research in Norwegian, but in this instance it really means science. Their focus is to bring news about what Norwegian scientists are up to with popular science articles for the masses. That's why some of their articles seem a tad tabloid at times.
The tradition in Norway is that the most tabloid articles are published during the main summer vacation, when newspapers employ interns and temp journalists. We even have a word for such articles: Agurknytt. It means cucumber news, and implies that the article is desperately trying to make news out of something that isn't.
- zrobotics 4y agoSo equivalent to popular science for the US crowd. I'm curious, why 'cucumber' news? Just due to the harvest time of the plant, or is there some cultural significance to the term?
- soegaard 4y ago"Cucumber time" is the season, where news paper doesn't have anything to report on than cucumbers. http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-cuc2.htm http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-cuc2.htm https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agurketid https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agurketid
- severine 4y agoOther examples would be, according to Wikipedia, "silly season" in english, "serpiente de verano" (summer snake) in spanish, "Sommerloch" in german, and a bunch of others. Very common phenomenon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season
- LeonM 4y agoIn Dutch it is "komkommertijd" [0], which also literally translates to "cucumber time". It has the exact same meaning. [0] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komkommertijd https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komkommertijd
- mikaoj85 4y ago«Silly season/cucumber time» Harvest time, indeed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season
- madmoose 4y agoApparently it's from German around 1780, for the time during the summer when the cucumbers ripen, everyone is on vacation, and business is slow. That's what the Danish wikipedia entry says, at least. https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agurketid#Ophav https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agurketid#Ophav https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season#Other_names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season#Other_names
- zrobotics 4y agoAh, so the US "dog-days of summer". Not going to lie, I prefer the silly-season nomenclature, it captures the lack of motivation and malaise that seems to set in during the height of summer much better. Thanks for the explanation, very interesting.
- adrian_b 4y agoEnglish "dog-days" is just a translation of Latin "caniculares dies", which came from the time of visibility before sunrise of the "Dog Star" a.k.a. Sirius.
- aerique 4y agoWe have the same expression in Dutch: "komkommertijd". The Dutch Wikipedia mentions English, German or Jiddisch as possible sources: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komkommertijd https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komkommertijd
- AndyJames 4y agoSame in Polish "sezon ogórkowy"
- KingOfCoders 4y agoEverytime tehre is a funny word in German E.g. "Hechtsuppe" I assume it to be Jiddisch or Rotwelsch.
- marttt 4y agoSame in Estonia, "hapukurgihooaeg". Literal translation of the German "Sauregurkenzeit".
- narag 4y agoIn Spain it used to be serpientes de verano (summer snakes) but not sure if Loch Ness is still popular.
- pengstrom 4y agoThe corresponding Swedish term is "burknyheter" (canned news) I believe. For slow seasons, news are pulled from the can.
- BurningFrog 4y agoThere is also "rötmånad", ("rot month") which refers to the time of year it's warm enough for things to go bad quickly.
- sleepyhead 4y ago> Just to be clear, the tree is found in Dalarna in Sweden They point it out in the introduction: "discovered a tree up on Fulufjället – in Sweden just east of Trysil municipality in Norway" also it says "near the Norwegian-Swedish border" in the headline.
- tuwtuwtuwtuw 4y agoAlso, it is only about 4km from the border. This is "near" in this context (context being relatively unpopulated area with not much things except for nature within 4km).