Da jeg i sin tid startede med at blogge, var det kun for at skrive om tekniske ting. Allermest for at skrive om Emacs, et 20+ år gammelt stykke software, som de færreste overhovedet ved hvad er, selv indenfor IT-verdenen.

Desuden havde jeg lige genopaget glæderne ved elektronik og andre ting, der kan loddes sammen, og det skrev jeg også lidt om.

Men med tiden har jeg fundet ud af, at jeg også har lyst til at skrive om personlge ting. I termer af de tags, men kan sætte på hvert indlæg her på WordPress, er den slags indlæg “danish, other”:

“Danish” fordi jeg egentlig startede med at skrive alting på engelsk, men det virkede kunstigt og unødvendigt i de mere personlige indlæg, der temmelig sikkert kun bliver læst af danskere. De tekniske indlæg var det stadig smartest at skrive på engelsk, så jeg besluttede mig for bare at tagge hvert indlæg med sprog.

“Other” fordi den slags indlæg egentlig faldt udenfor hvad jeg oprindeligt havde tænkt mig at blogge om.

Det er gået op for mig, at så forskellige indlæg egentlig ikke hører hjemme på samme blog. Så nu splitter jeg min blog op i to: En blog på engelsk om tekniske ting (chop-mode) og denne blog på dansk, der udelukkende vil handle om mere personlige ting. Men det er ikke nogen garanti for, at der ikke kommmer lidt nørderi ind imellem, eftersom jeg vel i bund og grund er en nørd

the raveonettes – last dance.mp3

slaraffenland – polaroids.mp3

Watchman, tell us of the night,
What its signs of promise are.
Traveler, o’er yon mountain’s height,
See that glory beaming star.
Watchman, does its beauteous ray
Aught of joy or hope foretell?
Traveler, yes—it brings the day,
Promised day of Israel.

Watchman, tell us of the night;
Higher yet that star ascends.
Traveler, blessedness and light,
Peace and truth its course portends.
Watchman, will its beams alone
Gild the spot that gave them birth?
Traveler, ages are its own;
See, it bursts o’er all the earth.

Watchman, tell us of the night,
For the morning seems to dawn.
Traveler, darkness takes its flight,
Doubt and terror are withdrawn.
Watchman, let thy wanderings cease;
Hie thee to thy quiet home.
Traveler, lo! the Prince of Peace,
Lo! the Son of God is come!

John Bowring [Sir] died this date, 11/23/1872, at Devon, England.  His trade/ manufacture was in woolen goods.  It was so extensive that it increased his natural abilities in languages.  One report has him flu­ent in over twenty (20) lan­guages and speaking eighty (80) more.  Another report would place his speaking skills as high as a hundred (100) languages with a limited knowledge of up to two hundred (200).  In either case he had a phenomenal God–given strength and seems could carry on business in following named tongues: Boheman, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish. 

He served twice in Parliament, held several high government positions to foreign countries including being the governor of Hong Kong, and was knight by Queen Victoria.  In addition to all the worldly fame he had a deep interest in God as the above hymn shows and as his additional twenty (20) some others show.  His more famous one is “In the Cross of Christ I Glory” – see 10/17/2009 of this blog.

Os acordáis de las Alberto danish mid century modern , pués ya están donde tenían que estar:

Y así de bien acompañadas. Esa mesa , lámina y lámpara tan adecuadas. Todo un acierto.

Muchas Gracias a Juan por la confianza y las fotos.

_______________________________________________________

No hay como una casa bonita para un Cachi Vache Vintage de los Quiroga-Páez.

So it’s taken me almost a month to finally remember to take a picture of these Danish beauties because it gets dark so early! Both are Craigslist gems – not quite as cheap as I’d have liked ($600/$650), but they were funded by wedding $$$ so you know. The blue one is a collector’s piece by Borge Mogensen, one of the founding fathers of Danish design. You can check it here selling for $3,600 (its listed in Australian dollars). It just needs a little TLC. I threw some lemon oil on both of them once they were home and that already made a BIG difference. Someday we’ll refinish and reupholster them. Mmmmm…someday.

PS I bought the rusty-colored couch from a guitarist in this band. He’s the dude with the baby blue Strat

Imagine biting into this apricot danish, from The Cafe at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, and not being able to enjoy it in all its glory?

That’s what happens everyday for smokers.

A study of taste buds in Greece found that smoking actually flattens out your taste buds. So I imagine, for a smoker, there’s not much difference between cardboard and a pastry.

So if you don’t quit because of your heart or lungs, do it for your taste buds.

Practice going without  today which is the Great American Smokeout.

Did you know that a standard danish has 243 layers?

That’s right ladies and gentlemen. 273 layers of delicious dense and chewy yet still light and fluffy puffiness that comes from 5 single turns.

Today I put myself to the challenge of making some danishes. (Or rather, one huge danish that I wasn’t expecting to get so huge.)

The process itself is fairly easy and fun. The dough was easy to work with and it tastes pretty frigging good if I may say so myself.

I started the morning by measuring all the ingredients and putting them in the fridge to get cold. Including the flour, but not the yeast.

Then I dissolved the yeast in the cold liquid. Oh you bet you read that right! In the COLD liquid. Not warm. Cold. Ever had someone tell you yeast won’t rise in cold liquid? They were lying to you. It will, it just takes longer than if it were in warm liquid.

Then I mixed everything together until I had a nice soft sticky dough. I put the margarine block inside. Another weird thing, margarine. You might be wondering why margarine is used instead of butter, and I wondered that too. Until I read the little blurb in the book* I was using that says: “margarine is used for this dough because it produces a lighter and flakier texture than butter. Also, because the fat and the dough need to be at the same consistency to give the best layered structure and margarine has a higher melting point than butter, margarine is preferable with such a soft dough.”

*The book, I think I may have mentioned before, is The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry, 4th edition. I love this book SO SO SO much. I have never been disappointed by a recipe and there isn’t any useless part of this book. I have read every page of information and learned so much. It’s definitely worth the money.

If you have wanted to make your own danish or danishes, don’t be afraid! It’s fairly easy and will turn out wonderfully if you follow the recipe (:

Here is the recipe I used (small batch, because I didn’t need 12 pounds and 8 ounces of dough!)

Danish Pastry Dough: small batch (From The Professional Pastry Chef)

1 1/3 cups of cold whole milk
3 large eggs
1 pound and 6 ounces of margarine  (I used a store brand of hard margarine. The ones that are packaged like butter.)
1 ounce of active dry yeast OR 2 ounces of fresh compressed yeast
2 ounces of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt (adjust accordingly to the salt content of your margarine. If it’s high in sodium, lessen it to 1/2 or 1.4 tsp. You can even eliminate it all together if you are worried about a salty dough. I left the salt in and found no adverse affects.)
1 tsp cardamom (I left this out mainly because I absolutely despise cardamom)
1 pound and 6 ounces of bread flour

• Mix the milk and the eggs, then refrigerate the mixture, and the flour, for at least 1 hour before making the dough.
• Shape the cold margarine into a 5 inch block and place in the refrigerator until needed.
• Dissolve the yeast in the milk and egg mixture. Use your hand to speed this up since yeast dissolves slowly in cold liquid. Stir in the sugar, salt and cardamom. Reserve a handfull of the flour and mix the rest in until a soft sticky dough is made, using the reserved flour as needed.
• Place the dough on a floured table and shape it into a 7 inch square. Place the butter block on it diagonally so you see 4 dough triangles are showing. Fold in the triangles toward the centre and seal in the margarine.
• Roll the dough as carefully and evenly as possible into a rectangle measuring 12″x8″. Use as much flour as you need to prevent sticking.
• Give the dough a single turn (fold it like a letter. one third into the middle, and the last third on top of that) Cover and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
• Roll the dough to the same size and give it three additional single turns, resting the dough for 30 minutes in the fridge between each turn.
• Roll the dough out to about 1/2″ thick, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
• Do whatever you want with the dough! Read below to find out what I did with mine.

Cherry Danish

• Roll the danish dough to about the size of a half sheet pan. (rolling on the actual the pan lined with a silpat is easiest.)
• Cut 1/4″ strips about the length of your middle finger all down the long sides of the dough.
• Spread your filling in the middle but don’t get too close to the ends or sides.
• Bring up the cut strips into the middle so that the strips from opposite sides are overlapping, locking them in place and are sort of hiding the cherry filling.
• Sprinkle with coarse sugar, and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes, turning the sheet around halfway through baking.
  
• When the pastry is done, take it out of the oven and brush with with simple syrup all over.
• Then drizzle on a simple icing made of icing sugar and water and some flavourings. Almond and vanilla work well with cherry (:
• Eat it and enjoy it!!!
  

In 1919, a famous case was brought against a man, Charles Schenck, in the United States. The case, farcically titled: ‘Schenck V. United States‘, came about as a result of the Defendant’s actions in distributing leaflets (in Yiddish, no less) attacking the draft in the 15,000 documents he printed – to persons either eligible for the draft or – get this – also opposed to the draft.

Anyone worth his salt has at least perused the history of the First World War, the unnecessary slaughter of some 40 million due to some inbred monarchical quibbling (the Kaiser and King George were first cousins – grandsons of Queen Victoria) It may not be said, after all, that there was some kind of nobility of justification for the war. With no Nazis or Holocaust on which to retrospectively rely when the necessity of the war was called into question, it remains an uncharged disgrace – the product of imperialist jingoism. It was unwarranted and thus contemptible. To have forced draft young men (having guilted them with propaganda and Uncle Sam’s accusatory finger in the States) is callous beyond belief. It is a war crime.

Anyway, so Schenck is hauled before the court and charged with violating the Espionage Act of 1917. Where Schenck argued that the draft was ostensibly tantamount to slavery, the court countered by alluding (he was not charged with treason) that he was a spy. In his preposterous, unreasoned and unsound judgement, the famous (infamous?) Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes Jnr. speculated that Schenck’s crime had exempted itself from the protection of the First Amendment. Holmes posited that he could not be exculpated using the old ‘freedom of speech’ chestnut because, as he now infamously suggested, it was equivalent ‘to shouting “fire” in a crowded theatre’. Schenck posed a ‘clear and present danger’ (the source of the famous expression) that would precipitate ’substantive evils’ – he was sentenced to 6 months in prison and found dead shortly thereafter.

In 2005, David Irving, the controversial historian, was apprehended and sentenced to 3 years in solitary confinement for violation of the Austrian Verbotsgesetz law committed 16 years prior, in 1989. The Law’s specifics are ambiguous, it being an over-reactionary Stalinist-era piece of legislation – but essentially denying or diminishing the Holocaust (capital h?) is against the law. This is reminiscent of the German law, Volksverhetzung, where ’stirring up the populace’ is prohibited. Perhaps something is lost in translation. In 1992, Irving was convicted of this crime also – principally due to his ‘denial’ of the Holocaust.

Now I have just read an excellent book called ‘History, Justice and the David Irving Libel Case’ by D.D. Guttenplan wherein he gives an account of the libel action brought by Irving on an American historian, Deborah Lipstadt – for labelling him a ‘Holocaust denier’ in her book ‘Denying the Holocaust‘. In the case, Irving forced Penguin (the Defendant – against the Claimant – not Plaintiff, a relic of old English law) to essentially prove or establish the literal veracity of the Holocaust (or really parts of it, as it was claimed that Irving had denied the Holocaust in his published works) Now I have not read Irving’s work, but from the transcript of the case, the term ‘Holocaust-denier’ is not one I would attribute to Irving. Anyway, I’m not defending Irving’s very controversial stance on history. The fact is that, for questioning, for example, the numbers involved in the Holocaust (or Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek etc) or questioning eye-witness testimony, or indeed Irving’s attempt to make Himmler, not Hitler as its sole architect – one can be thrown into prison.

Let me illustrate my point: If I were to wander around Grafton Street with a megaphone, and with ‘The Famine Never Happened’ or ‘The Famine Was Grossly Exaggerated’ emblazoned across a cardboard sign I was wearing, I would be heckled, ridiculed (like those religious fellows) or even assaulted. However, I would be allowed to express my revisionist view, despite its insensitivity to a probable majority. Notwithstanding the populace’s understandable objections, I retain the right to express my opinion. I revel in it. Hopefully, unlike the evidently featherweight U.S. constitution, Ireland’s courts will have the balls to stick to their guns should the occasion ask it of them.

Finally, I would just like to express my disgust at what I’m going to call ‘ecclesiatical-correctness’. Once again, as with a plethora of other issues, it is the Muslims who are at fault and are the bullseye in my metaphorical idealistic dartboard once again. When, in 1988, Salman Rushdie published his (from what I hear) literary masterpiece: the Satanic Verses, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran (of whose literacy I am gravely skeptical), who claims to be a ‘Shi’a scholar’, issued a ‘fatwa’: a grotesque, antediluvian death-order. Now before I continue, I have researched the matter and yes, it is rare that the word ‘fatwa’ carries this meaning, but in this instance it most certainly DID. Thus began a murderous campaign that resulted in the death of the Japanese Publisher, Hitoshi Igarashi (stabbed multiple times) and three other foreign-language interpreters or publishers were stabbed repeatedly, but lived – just about. On the whim of a demagogue, a rabble, half-a-billion strong, was roused. If the common-sense view that fanaticism is correlated with lack of education is taken, it follows that the vast, vast majority of these ‘people’ were illiterate and could not possibly have understood/interpreted the book itself. It was based entirely on the supposition that the Ayatollah was the moral dictator (a man whose father lowered the marriage age to 9 years old)

in 2004, Danish cartoonists drew several hilarious strips depicting the prophet Mohammed in various hilarious situations (including the one about heaven running out of virgins) that I’m sure were the subject of hilarity to all those who read them. Except the barbarous cretins (the same is true of all religious people who believe in proselytism) who called for the death of the publishers as well as a kind of Danish Kristallnacht. This sordid behaviour was met with outrageous moral ambivalence. The mainstream media lamented the lack of sensitivity, and indeed, went as far as implying Rushdie was deserving of this Bronze-Age Muslim attack, being a Muslim himself.

An islamic troll/mullah in Pakistan offered $1,000,000 as a reward for the cartoonist’s head. Do you think this incitement to murder will be/was punished? Think again. It is incidents like these that cause the word ‘Muslim’ to be regarded as pejorative. That an obscure Danish magazine – expressing free speech, no less – could cause the muslim community to attack all things Danish with such acharnement beggars belief. It testifies to the Islamic contempt for free speech and deviation from the direct word of an illiterate Arabic merchant.

So, in closing, I believe that freedom of speech is all-to-often taken for granted. Those miscreants who oppose freedom of expression should be extirpated from social discourse, if not shunned from society all together. The allusion should not be wasted on you! Without seeming to state the obvious, remember that in the aforementioned cases, as recently as 2005, legislation exists that forbids free expression. This must stop.

Director
Casper Balslev

DoP
Rasmus Heise

Edited
Aleksander Hørup

Produced and commisioned
Jeppe Kolstrup

Director
Peder Pedersen

Director
Peder Pedersen

Director
Peder Pedersen

In sommige situaties is het beter te zwijgen en het geleverde (kunst)werk zijn ding te laten doen.
Ik versta zeer weinig van wat deze dame allemaal vertelt, maar de boodschap komt zeker en wel aan! Ik zou zeggen: laat u eens gaan, geef er een spreekwoordelijke lap op, maar denk er ook zeker eens over na!

ps: Chris Brown, your an idiot!!

You guys have got balls!

When you’re Danish and your political party is named, in part, after a male sexual organ, why not have stickers shaped like penises. Oh and why not then plastered all your opposition party’s campaign posters with them. Come on people, there is no such thing as bad advertising! The P.I.K. (Penge i kommunekassen) party admitted to being the dicks responsible for sticking the yellow phallics all over the place but are pleased with the result. They now have had over 10,000 visitors to their website and have now got 500 new Facebook friends. So who’s the PIK dick now?

Tuesday November 17th will see the release of more than half a million private messages recorded on the day of the September 11 attacks upon World Trade Center and Pentagon in the USA.

Julian Assange who has obtained this material from unspecified sources, feels the material sheds more light on the governments reaction – or lack thereof, on 9/11:
“I have only read a few messages, but what I have read, demonstrates how delayed and unprepared the government was at dealing with the situation at hand.”

Julian Assange of Wikileaks has already shown some of the messages to the Danish paper Berlingske Tidende:
“2:20:30 PM A ALPHA. Honey wanted to tell you how much i love you. I was alittle worried.I Don’t want to lose you now that I got you back. You mean everything to me. You have my whole heart and life. Ilove you so much”

popupshop is a danish clothing line for kids that focuses on sustainability while still being stylish. i’m incredibly jealous because the clothes is so cute and very “me”, but only in kid sizes! i love the styling of the clothes and the utilitarian feel to the collection, while the leopard print and two-tone tights add a bit of fun. plus the little girl who modeled is adorable : )

coat // leggings // top // dress // skirt // tights // boots

First it was Sweden with their bespoke and mind- warpingly quick Koenigsegg. But at least that was plausible, given Sweden’s long-standing stake in the automotive industry. Now it’s Denmark’s turn, with a car more powerful than the Bugatti Veyron and from what we know, just as expensive.

On a recent trip to Sweden via Copenhagen airport to drive the Koenigsegg CCX, we all agreed that Denmark has the world’s best hotdogs and more blondes than any of their Scandinavian neighbours.

But what we didn’t know at the time, was that the Danes had well and truly entered the Supercar business, in the form of the hand-built Zenvo ST1.

Folks from this part of the world don’t like to blow their own trumpet, which is probably why you’ve never heard of this thing.

We found out by accident. Moments before we were due to hop on a plane in Italy bound for Denmark, we read an email from the Koenisgsegg PR who said the client had taken his CCX to Spain, and well, there was no car to drive!

A quick Google search of “Danish supercars” revealed a surprise, and what’s more, it wasn’t far from the rather average pension we were holed up in.

The guy on the other end of the phone said the Zenvo was real all right, but that they were bypassing the prototype phase, and going straight into production, which meant, we were a month too early for a test drive.

In the end, Koenigsegg called us way too early in the morning to be anything but important news, to say that she had a car we could use, so the Zenvo was placed in our archives and forgotten about.

That was a pity, because with its 7-litre turbo and supercharged V8 pumping out a head-spinning 1,103bhp (822kW) or 103bhp more than the Veyron, the Zenvo ST1 is absloutely the real deal.

Torque output at 1,430 Nm is simply off the charts, and when working in concert with that outrageous power figure, acceleration from 0-100km/h should (will) be less than three seconds, and substantially so.

But keep your right foot hard up against the firewall for just 8.9 seconds, and you’ll see 200km/h on the dial. That’s rocket ship quick.

Top speed has been electronically limited to a mere 374km/h, for safety reasons!

Wider than a Lamborghini Murcielago, and longer than a Porsche Carrera GT, the Zenvo STI is the definition of extreme.

Designed by Christian Brandt, a graduate of the Royal College of Art, his brief was to make the car look fearsome. We think he followed his instructions to the letter.

Supercars are usually 80 percent sports car and 20 percent race car, but Zenvo boss Jesper Jensen, wanted 40 percent race car.

He said, “It wasn’t important to be the fastest car in the world, we didn’t want to be compromised in the wind tunnel”.

As you would expect of a supercar with a price tag north of AUD1.3 million, carbon-fibre makes up the body panels on a steel chassis, while the transmission is an oil-cooled six-speed manual using a Zenvo developed twin-plate clutch.

Suspension is an exotic double-wishbone set-up on all four corners, and the top shelf adjustable gas-hydraulic shocks are by Ohlins.

Massive 335/30 tyres on 20-inch rims help put the lethal dose of power to the ground, as it’s not so light at 1376 kilograms.

Inside the cabin looks as good as anything from Pagani or Koenigsegg, with superbly styled switchgear and layer upon layer of Alcantara and leather.

Just 15 Zenvo ST1’s will make up the first series production although, we have heard that there are several more models on the way, including a slightly more affordable car.

CarAdvice hopes to be able to bring you a review and video of the Zenvo ST1 next year.