Archive for June, 2008
Language III
Brother, this is the Day of the Angry Copy-Editor. This time it is Karen Nielsen of Jyllands-Posten who makes two really basic errors:
Language II
While we are at it: The DSB Travel Agency has a problem with that Dutch city. Perhaps the creative writer had been smoking something?
Language
I am perfectly aware of the fact the my English isn’t always as good as it ought to be, but …well, Ekstra-Bladet published an article complaining about the lacking language skills of a bus driver and this happened.
Update: DR Nyheder is on the track as well. They screw up completely as well. (Click to view large)
links for 2008-06-28
-
Of all the requests made each year to the National Archives for reproductions of photographs and documents, one item has been requested more than any other. That item… is the photograph of Elvis Presley and Richard M. Nixon shaking hands..
-
Gordon Brown’s premiership is a year old today. So we asked: what, if anything, can he do to stop the rot?
-
Recent research attributes this ‘trading places’ to institutional differences: Arab cities were tied to the fate of the state while European cities were independent growth poles.
Tyler Cowen Wants Me to Get Rid of My Books
You know, Tyler, given that I have a 2000 km move ahead of me in two months’ time, I just might follow your advice. But Svante Ersson would be crying.
Could I really be so cruel?
But then again – course books from the 1980s? Nah, those will do more good in an incinerator.
links for 2008-06-27
-
Thanks to two opinion polls which were commissioned in a hurry after the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, we now know a little bit more about the profiles of those who voted yes and no on June 12.
-
Developments in housing markets in Ireland and Spain raise questions about the functioning of the euro area and how national policy frameworks should be adapted to allow member countries to respond more appropriately to asymmetric shocks.
Views on Immigration and Crime
One note on John Sides’ post about that subject: It is interesting to see that Sweden and Denmark have almost the same score when people are asked whether immigration tended to improve or worsen crime while the political approach to immigration differs wildly between the two countries.
There is of cause a second, trickier layer: The real impact of immigration on crime, as opposed to the perceived impact, which obviously may vary between countries just as the level of immigration varies. This quote sounds familiar:
The finding that incarceration rates are much lower among immigrant men than the national norm, despite their lower levels of education and greater poverty, but increase significantly over time in the United States for those who arrived as children and especially among the second generation, suggests that the process of “Americanization” can lead to downward mobility and greater risk of involvement with the criminal justice system for a significant minority of this population.
Update: Danish TV2 published this story where according to a study a) youths with an immigrant background are overrepresented in special security institutions but b) the significant variable isn’t immigrant but refugee background. I’m not really surprised: First, I would expect refugees to have a messier background than “ordinary” immigrants and, second, the often drawn-out asylum process only adds to the problems. This isn’t linked to immigration and immigration policies so much as to refugee policy.
(Oh, and there are no points to the reader who first post a comment about the Swedish elite conspiracy to hide the truth about immigration)
Men Are Pigs
I don’t consider myself a feminist, at least not in the radical version which was en vogue during my time in Swedish academia, but – and as always, what comes after the but is the real message – I would like to ask the same question as Tina Fetner:
Why is it that whenever men issue advice on how to avoid rape, it comes out sounding like a threat? Weird.
And this of cause does not only apply to Malaysia, in case you wondered.
For the record: I am perfectly aware of the fact that men can be victims of rape or sexual violence or whatever term is the most appropriate.
Turkey
Unlike a lot of people, I don’t have a problem with Germany reaching the final of Euro 2008: The 2008 edition of Germany is a sympathetic team, if a bit uneven in its performance. But like a lot of people I would also have loved to see Turkey in the final – the Crazy 11 sure added a lot of excitement and entertainment value to the tournament. And who knows: If Volcan Demirel hadn’t lost his mind in the final minutes of the match against the Czech Republic, then it might had happened. Or perhaps not.
But what about Russia vs. Spain? Spain is Denmark’s traditional nemesis but like most Danes I thought the Spanish side had earned every penalty kick it inflicted in the Machiavellian side in the quarter-finals. And Russia without Turbinsky, sorry: Torbinsky, … hmm.
Gideon Rachman and Jim Gibbon were also on the pitch as was Michael Thuman.