Jacob Christensen » Boneheaded stupidity

Advice for Spin-Doctors

Jacob Christensen — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:27:33 +0000

Re: Okman-gate

The Prime Minister Speaks So Lars Løkke (here in Denmark we skip “Rasmussen”. After...

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Flash

Jacob Christensen — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:28:36 +0000

Web designers love Flash. I don’t.

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Derailed

Jacob Christensen — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:45:27 +0000

DSB’s goal is to provide reliable passenger transport on rail. Well, okay: DSB has messed up the commission and delivery of new long-distance trains in an epic way, the engines on IC3-trainsets catch fire and we shouldn’t even begin to talk about Kystbanen (even if that is technically run by a company called DSBLast – er DSBFirst).

So what to do? Concentrate on providing passenger transport or concentrate on discrediting media which reports on public transport.

Silly me: Discrediting reporters, not providing services for passengers are at the centre of attention for DSB’s management. The people who work at the delivery points and have to deal with frustrated passengers must feel pretty let down.

The Buck Stops … Somewhere From a political science (and public administration) perspective, these stories...
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The Clown Show aka The Danish Defence High Command

Jacob Christensen — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:48:09 +0000

Here is my proposal: Make Frank Hvam operational head of the Danish armed forces.

Seriously: He is less accident-prone than the clowns running the show at present.

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If You Are Going to Do It, Do It Right!

Jacob Christensen — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:35:30 +0000

Bad photoshop, baaad photoshop.

Considering that Microsoft has a more than reasonable reputation with regard to diversity, the blunder is pretty amazing.

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At This Point, My Jaw Not Only Dropped…

Jacob Christensen — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:54:40 +0000

… it fell through the floor and I had to fetch it in the cellar. Please understand that you will press “play” at your own risk. You have been warned. This guy is considered a serious political commentator in the US.

HT: Peter Santesson-Wilson.

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And Then They Said That the Danish People’s Party Was Too Extreme

Jacob Christensen — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:07:59 +0000

I’ll admit: Personally, I’m no supporter of the Danish People’s Party but the initial manoeuvring over the UK Conservative Party’s choice of partners in the European Parliament has something ridiculous over it. The Tories have stated that the Danish People’s Party were out of the question because it was too extreme politically.

So, which positions are not too extreme for the Tories?

We urgently need global chemotherapy against Islam to save civilisation. Fair and balanced. (Belgium)

Marching with local SS veterans? A-OK. (Latvia)

Women should not stand for parliament? Sure. The Tories are a modern party. (Netherlands)

Banning gay-rights demonstrations? No problem. (Poland)

I’m sorry, but the only thing to do about British politics is to shake one’s head in disbelief.

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Minister to Students: Get an Abortion

Jacob Christensen — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:48:39 +0000

I am generally the last person who should advise anybody about parenting but I used to think that it was a good thing that students had children while they were – well, students. Sure, students do not have that much money, but they have a certain degree of flexibility in their lives, and we also know that demographers and doctors yak about Danish women having their children too late in life.

But as a university person, I am now obliged to say to (female) students who announce their pregnancy:

I’m so sorry. As you know, this will delay your studies and we can’t afford this. So on behalf of the Minister of Science and Technology, I must advice you to have an abortion.

Surprising? Well, as part of the drive to turn universities from research and development units into units of production (we don’t educate people in this country – we produce ST?s), the minister has come up with a bonus for each student who finishes his (!) education within the time-norm. And – drum roll – this norm expressively does not allow for parental leave.

It’s not that nobody told the minister or the ministry – they have been made aware of the situation and decided to stick with their original proposal (but then, nobody gets the minister or the ministry to change their minds).¹

And that means that university lecturers and professors must now do their utmost to prevent female students to get pregnant.

Update: The Red-Green Alliance is on the track. Cf. footnote.

The minister’s excuse is that it is technically impossible to see if a student has been on parental leave. Yeah, right. This is Denmark where just about everything about everybody gets registered.

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In Case You Don’t Already Subscribe to BoingBoing

Jacob Christensen — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:13:48 +0000

Is London Police run by agents of the Danish People’s Party?

Probably.

Can we make fun of it?

Definitively.

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Yes, Someone Out There IS in Serious Trouble

Jacob Christensen — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:50:42 +0000

Tell me which damned file is in use by which application! Either that, or give me a name, an address, and an appointment so I can slap the OS engineer responsible for this behavior, for a minimum of 40 minutes.

Andy Ihnatko, re: The 25th anniversary of The Mac. I can already see the line forming.

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