If Men Educated Children

Danish Elephant Trick

Materials: none

Instructions: Give your friend these instructions:

• Think of any number from one to 10.
• Multiply it by 9. [Pause while they do this]
• If it's a two-digit number, add them together.
• Now, subtract 5 from the number in your head. [Pause again]
• Now, think of the letter in the alphabet that corresponds with the number you are thinking about. For instance, if you are thinking of the number 1, it would be "A". Number 2 would be "B". 3 is "C", and so on.
• Now, think of a country that starts with the letter you're thinking of.
• Spell the country in your head. [Pause here]
• Think about the second letter in that country's name. Now, quickly think of an animal who's name begins with that letter.[Pause here]
• Now, think of the animal's color.
• [Pause and concentrate] That's funny... this can't be right... there ARE no gray elephants in Denmark!

(The country will always start with D and they will always choose Denmark, so the animal will start with E. It will fail if they think of Eagle or Emu, but that's a chance to take.)

Danish Google search

People from Denmark must be real stylish, as their top search term was evisu (Japanese designer brand). Other important things for the Danes: rd (Danish mortgage company) [rd.dk], papillon, dolphin olympic (wtf?), ingeniøren (The Engineer, Danish weekly engineering paper), wozniacki (Danish tennisplayer), krone (the Danish currency, DKK), fredericia kommune (Danish municipality), morten andersen (multiple record-breaking Danish NFL kicker) and det moderne gennembrud (Nordic literature in the late 19th century, Georg Brandes). Jesus, these searches seem pretty focused on their own country! It’s gotta be pretty difficult and tough to gain a big danish audience on your blog if you are not danish yourself or live there.

Denmark surpasses Sweden for world's highest tax burden

When it comes to choosing a place to live abroad, we all know the Scandinavian countries have it made. The standard of living is high, upper education is subsidized and everyone seems to have a job and a nice living situation. But all of this comes at a price; it's called taxes.

Sweden has long been known for its high taxes, the highest in the world in fact. But Denmark recently beat out it's northern neighbor for first place according to Danish newspaper Dagbladet Børsen (a daily business and finance paper). Based on a figure giving by tax authorities in both countries, the Danes have the highest tax burden in the world at 48.4%, compared to the 47.8% that Swedes pay. As an interesting side note, Swedish and Danish salaries are paid in krona and krone; both countries still use their own currencies instead of the euro.

Although the percentages for taxes may seem high for those of us that don't live in more socialized countries, the Scandinavians certainly aren't feeling an economic burden; the standards of living in these countries is quite high. In the most recent United Nations Human Development Index, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden were all ranked in the top 15. Add to that government structures that provide for universal health care and paying near 50% for taxes seems to make a little more sense. Health care, Volvos, vikings, IKEA and moose; who wouldn't want to live there?

Source: gadling.com

Danes: Ikea guilty of "cultural imperialism"

A low-price furniture storm has been brewing on the other side the Öresund bridge over the past week with newspapers accusing Sweden's Ikea of trying to walk all over the Danes.
Popular daily Nyhedsavisen led the charge on Valentine's Day with a front page headline accusing Ikea of "bullying" Denmark.

Why is it, the paper wondered, that Swedish and Norwegian place names are always associated with the shiniest, comfiest furnishings in the Ikea catalogue, while the names of Danish towns are reserved for doormats, rugs and carpets?

"It seems to be an example of cultural imperialism," Klaus Kjøller, Assistant Professor in Political Communication and the Danish Language at the University of Copenhagen, told The Local.

"Ikea has chosen the objects with the lowest value and given them Danish names," he added.

Doormats and rugs such as Köge, Sindal, Roskilde, Bellinge, Strib, Helsingör, Bröndby, Farum and Nivå are all "seventh class" citizens in the hierarchical world of Ikea furnishings, according to Kjøller.

"Ikea is a very professional company. I don't think this can be a coincidence," he said.

But according to Ikea spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson, that is exactly what it is.

"It has never been our purpose to name carpets in a way that would be considered negative by anyone," she told The Local.

While expressing regret that anyone might have taken offence, Magnusson stressed that "it is just a coincidence that it happened to be carpets that were given Danish names."

But Klaus Kjøller is not convinced.

"It's hard to imagine it's not intentional," he said.

In an unrelated but interesting aside, the Copenhagen academic also pointed out that "it is exactly 350 years since the Swedes took the Halland, Skåne and Blekinge regions from Denmark."

Source: The local

An Interview with Kurt Westergaard

Kurt Westergaard is the cartoonist/illustrator who drew the most famous of the Mohammed cartoons. Because of death threats, he has moved around constantly under police protection. The German publication Der Spiegel has a very good profile of Westergaard. (in german) (in english).

The History of Denmark

WIREC 2008

WIREC 2008 is the third global ministerial-level conference on renewable energy, following events in Beijing in 2005 (BIREC 2005) and Bonn in 2004 (Renewables 2004). The first renewable energy International Action Plan, which contains 197 non-binding commitments to foster growth in renewable energy, resulted from the Bonn conference.

Conference focal points are organized around four themes: Market Adoption and Finance; Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development; Technology, Research and Development; and State and Local Government Initiatives, each intended to provide a forum for examining policy initiatives that can facilitate a rapid ramping up renewable energy sources.

Denmark Pledges
The Danish government, for instance, has already announced the following pledges for WIREC 2008:

• Reduce the use of fossil fuels by a minimum of 15% by 2025;
• Increase the share of renewable energy to at least 30% of energy consumption by 2025;
• Increase energy efficiency by 1.4% per year from 2010 to 2025;
• Double funds for research and development of new energy technologies by 2010

Danish Apology

(Click the photo to enlarge)
Source: DanishMuhammedCartoons.com

Hansen Living kitchens

The Danish furniture company Hansen Living has just announced three new eco-friendly kitchen designs by the architect Knut Knapper. The Series 100 leans to the more traditional look and feel, and the Series 200 is inspired by Japanese minimalism. The Instant Kitchen is for small spaces, incorporating the cooktop, oven, dishwasher, refrigerator, mixer (faucet) and mechanical entries into one freestanding unit. Everything is made of solid woods from managed forests: choose between plantation-teak, walnut, ash or oak. The finishes used are an all natural wood treatment, based on renewable plant materials. Since the furniture is solid wood, maintenance is a snap - just lightly sand and re-oil.
This stuff, years from now, has developed their own beautiful, rich patinas as they age and have been used for what they are: honest-to-god, handcrafted well-used furniture. Warm, natural modernism at it’s best.
Hansen Living is now in the USA.

Police harassment triggered unrest in Denmark

A group of youths who have been torching cars and waste containers in the Danish capital said the wave of unrest started as a protest against police harassment.

In a letter published in Copenhagen newspaper Politiken, the youths accused police of "brutal, racist" behavior.

It was the first time that rioting juveniles had offered any explanation for the fires that have raged for nine consecutive nights mostly in immigrant neighborhoods across the country. The authors of the letter said they would now stop rioting.

"Basically the unrest is about the way we are treated by the police, who are brutal, racist and totally unacceptably insulting," the group said in the letter.

The authors called themselves "Boys of inner Nørrebro," referring to the immigrant neighborhood in Copenhagen where the unrest started on Feb. 10.

Police said 21 fires were set overnight Tuesday for a total of about 600 since the wave of arson started. The youths have burned cars, trash containers and schools. In some cases, they have pelted firefighters with rocks, but no serious injuries have been reported.

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen defended police and firefighters and put the blame on the rioting youths and their parents.

"The youths have a responsibility and now they must stop. Their parents also have a responsibility," he told reporters Tuesday.

Fogh Rasmussen said he had asked the Danish justice minister to examine whether the parents could be held financially responsible for damage caused by the fires.

Some observers have said that the reprinting of a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad may have aggravated the situation.

However, Tuesday's letter did not mention the prophet drawing, which Danish newspapers reproduced Wednesday in a gesture for free speech following the arrest of three men accused of plotting to murder the cartoonist.

Copenhagen police chief Hanne Bech Hansen said she met Monday with the youths who wrote the letter, and would investigate their concerns about police harassment.

The Pursuit Of Happiness

In The Science of Happiness, author Stefan Klein at this phenomena and comes to some conclusions on a meta-level on what creates happiness in a society and the results might surprise you. He finds that there are three critical standards that must be met: a civic sense, social equality and control over our own lives. The more participatory the democracy, the more equal the social and income distribution among the citizens and the more self-determination (meaning not being forced to do a job you dislike because you have to pay the bills), the happier the society is.

You can get the full segment and transcripts on CBS.com

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