Jacob Christensen

Notes from the Outside of the Inside

Archive for January, 2009

links for 2009-01-30

without comments

Written by Jacob Christensen

January 30th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Posted in delicious.com

Head of …

without comments

Politiken has a few problems with assigning incoming Icelandic PM Johanna Sigurðardottir (apologies for not getting all of the apostrophes right) her correct role.

Ms. Sigurðardottir will be head of government. The Icelandic head of state is Olafur Ragnar Grimsson.

I also learnt something: The Icelandic word for “political science” is stjórnmálafræði. Well… (And in case any Danish journalist reads this – the correct Danish translation of “political science” is “statskundskab”, not “politisk videnskab”!)

Written by Jacob Christensen

January 30th, 2009 at 12:35 pm

Posted in Politics

Tagged with ,

links for 2009-01-29

without comments

Written by Jacob Christensen

January 29th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Posted in delicious.com

Darwin – The Series

without comments

Speaking of birthdays, 2009 is also the bicentennial of Charles Darwin. Melwyn Bragg made a four-part special series of In Our Time to cover Darwin’s life and science. Unfortunately no longer available as podcasts but only as streaming radio.

Still: Well worth a listen.

Written by Jacob Christensen

January 28th, 2009 at 1:46 pm

links for 2009-01-27

without comments

Written by Jacob Christensen

January 27th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Posted in delicious.com

Cycles and Countercycles

without comments

From my time in Sweden, I, like my colleagues, had a tendency to view the financing of higher education as counter-cyclical: Basically, a recession would bring more students and more money, a boom fewer students and less money.

In the US, the tendency is the other way round, at least for private universities which now suffer under the financial crisis. And more bad news.

HT: Leiter Reports.

Written by Jacob Christensen

January 27th, 2009 at 4:04 pm

Happy Birthday to You, Dear Willie

without comments

Well, most Danes probably wouldn’t call Willie (i.e. Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany) “Dear”, even if he once during a visit to the Danish royal family famously declared that he felt like a son of the house of Glücksborg. Needless to say, the statement created some unease.

In the longer perspective, Wilhelm’s bad political judgement led to Imperial Germany losing World War I and the reunification of Northern Schleswig with Denmark, so maybe we still owe him a greeting in a warped way.

Aynway: Today is Wilhelm’s 150th birthday and it is accordingly not being celebrated in Germany. German-readers and -listeners may still enjoy two critical appraisals of the life and disastrous career of Wilhelm II published by DeutschlandRadio:

Kein Gedenken an Wilhelm II and Bejubelt und weggejagt.

Süddeutsche Zeitung also has a couple of articles: An interview with John Röhl, author of a massive biography of WII, and another critical appraisal.

Bonus question: Which political leader of the 2000s does this remind you of – “he was not a man of deeds, he loved the show”? (Here’s my immediate association)

Written by Jacob Christensen

January 27th, 2009 at 2:51 pm

Posted in Politics,Spare time

Tagged with , ,

links for 2009-01-26

without comments

Written by Jacob Christensen

January 26th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Posted in delicious.com

links for 2009-01-25

without comments

Written by Jacob Christensen

January 25th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Posted in delicious.com

Globish

with one comment

There has been a debate in recent weeks over the increasing use of English at Danish universities and at some point, when I have the time, I might make a comment about that issue. But in the meantime, the BBC adds a fascinating perspective to the apparent victory of English over national languages:

In a meeting with colleagues from around the world, including an Englishman, a Korean and a Brazilian, he noticed that he and the other non-native English speakers were communicating in a form of English that was completely comprehensible to them, but which left the Englishman nonplussed.

He, Jean-Paul Nerriere, could talk to the Korean and the Brazilian in this neo-language, and they could understand each other perfectly.

But the Englishman was left out because his language was too subtle, too full of meaning that could not be grasped by the others.

Written by Jacob Christensen

January 25th, 2009 at 9:56 am