Jacob Christensen

jacobchristensen.jaiku.com

• Ny Alliance – Program
  (tags: denmark politics nyalliance)
• SvD: Vinst går före kvalitet i friskola
  (tags: sweden politics education publicadministration)
• Microsoft Open Office XML: Worse than you thought
  (tags: microsoft standards productivity software)
• Microsoft anklagas för påtryckningar – sr.se
  (tags: microsoft productivity software standards)
• German universities embrace Linux – CNET News.com
  German state signs contract with Novell for the supply of Linux server and desktop products to schools serving 560,000 students.
  (tags: Computers linux operatingsystems opensource University)
• Environment | The Guardian – The looming food crisis
  (tags: economics environment)
• Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science – R-squared: useful or evil?
  (tags: statistics research politicalscience academic)
• Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | You are what you own
  The real problem with rap is that far from undermining society’s values it’s reinforcing them, and the most fundamental of all our society’s values at the moment is that you are what you own.
  (tags: music politics society)
• Economist’s View: “Cross-Country Comparisons of Inequality in Market and Disposable Income: Policy Matters”
  (tags: denmark sweden usa welfarestate socialpolicy economics politicalscience research)
• Jarl Cordua – Admiralspartiet
  Naser Khader kan meget vel ende med kors og bånd og stjerner på. Tankerne han fremlagde i går havde andre tænkt før ham og navnlig Anders Samuelsen. Skal Ny Alliance have indflydelse, så skal de også stemme med den største flok dvs. Venstre, De ko
  (tags: denmark politics blogpost liberalism nyalliance)

Tonight’s UEFA Cup qualifiers

FC Midtjylland 5 – 2 FC Haka (Total: 7-3)

AaB 3 – 0 HJK Helsinki (Total: 4 – 2)

OB 4 – 0 Dynamo Minsk (Total: 5-1)

Now we just have to hope that a bad repetition leads to a good premiere.

Bill Poser wouldn’t mind sitting beside Osama bin Laden in an airplane (as long as the security checks work). The advantage? Osama doesn’t drink.

I might as well admit that I’ve opened a profile on Facebook. As it turns out so have a lot of the PhD-students at my department as well. And Tariq Bacchus. (How did he show up? Oh, never mind, I added him anyway).

Incidentially, a search for “Jacob Christensen” yields no fewer than 38 namesakes. Perhaps I should add them all as friends and start a group…

Note: How about the family? I’ve been through Christensen/Sweden, Butenschøn, Harders, Lakatos, Myrup and Ytterberg. No catch.

Updated note: No First, either.

According to Sveriges Radio, Swedish universities and colleges will be cancelling one in ten of the programmes offered after the start of the fall semester. The reason is simple: Lack of students. Science and technology programmes are especially hit as are newer and smaller colleges and universities.

It is a bit difficult to say exactly how big the problem is by reading SR’s report.

One problem is that Swedish colleges and universities offer both programmes (3-5 years) and courses (one semester-packages) – another is that programmes and courses can be designed to varying numbers of students. So it could be that one in ten programmes is cancelled, one in ten courses is cancelled or that universities have seen a drop in admissions of around ten per cent. But that many institutions of higher education face economic problems in undergraduate education is a safe conclusion.

Here in Umeå the fall semester starts on Monday so it is a bit early to say how the numbers will look for the university as a whole and political science and peace and conflict research as subjects.

Swedish bears seem to have a grudge against people on bicycles. If you go ride out in the woods today, you better go ride in disguise.

Ny Alliance presents its programme.

Apparently, yesterday’s links post was eaten by the server monster, so here is a manual post:

• Finansministeriet – Finanslovsforslaget for 2008
• Retskrivningsvejledning for Folketingstidende
• Grading test-scores: Are children are left behind by design? | VoxEU
• Could the real conservative please stand up?
• Berlingske Tidende – Længe leve det britisk-danske venskab
• Slate Magazine – All the President’s Flunkies
• Die Zeit – Innovative Kaninchenzüchter

• Det Økonomiske Råd – Skatte og velfærdsdebat på afveje
  De økonomiske vismænd har derfor advaret om, at der ikke på kort sigt er kapacitet i økonomien til en stigning i det samlede forbrug. Situationen tilsiger tværtimod, at det samlede forbrug burde dæmpes. Det kan ske enten ved at sænke det offentlige
  (tags: denmark economics economicpolicy)