from the hip

You really have to admire Times. Being stubborn is, after all, at least partly a virtue. And being willing to take a risk is also, up to a point, a virtue.

Times is insisting that you have to pay to read the paper online. They must have known they were taking a huge risk when they started the experiment. I mean, all those who have tried that so far, as we all know, have lost on it. They succeeded only in shredding most of their loyal readers. People are willing to pay for content online. But not for news. There’s too much available. But Times still think they should try it. That’s risk taking for you!

And they still persist. That’s enormously admirable! I check in every once in a while, as it was a newspaper I used to read before the experiment, but their experiments is still running. That’s being stubborn! Every day, every week, every month they are loosing readers. And they still march on.

Well. We see it all the time; newspapers and magazines that have to close shop. Most go under because they are unable to compete in the new, hard, environment with online news from everywhere. And some, as Times, as it were, commits suicide.

So there you go. Being stubborn is OK, up to a point. Being willing to take a risk is OK too, again up to a point. But the two in combination is bad. Seriously bad.

Unless, that is, you happen to be The Independent, Guardian or Daily Telegraph. Then it is excellent. The more customers Times decides to get rid of, the merrier.

Chocolade? Hot chocolade? Pretty chocolade!

I think I like chocolade. Like this, I definitely do. And I even think chocolade can be quite artsy! This is art? No? Yes!

The US economy is not longer the largest in the world. Numbers from 2009 IMF for 2009 shows that the European Union had a GDP of 16,447,259 mill. USD while the US had a GDP of 14,256,275. Figures from the CIA World Factbook shows the same, even though the figures are slightly different.

With respect to GDP per Capita, things are even worse for the US. According to IMF, Luxemburg is on top with USD 104,512 in GDP per capita, Norway on second with USD 79,085, while the US is on ninth with USD 46,381 for 2009. The CIA World Factbook has Lichtenstein on top, with the US on tenth place.

The US is declining on other key indicators as well, for instance with respect to broadband penetration. The Netherlands, Denmark and Norway are on top among the OECD countries, while the US is on fifth place. The US is not among the top 10 as far as mobile telephone penetration is concerned either.

The US economy has been severely weakened by the 2009 crisis, and as of now the unemployment is around 10% according to official statistics, but most likely around 17% all included. When the numbers for 2010 come in, it is therefore reasonable to assume that the position of the US will be even weaker on a number of dimensions.

Are we witnessing the end of American hegemony? And – will the EU step up and take over the role of the US globally when the US can no longer manage and afford to play this role?

Most European countries have experiences with totalitarian regulation. Censorship was implemented during World War Two in Germany and all German occupied territories by the Nazis. Italy had the same under Mussolini. And in Eastern Europe it was in place until the Berlin wall fell and the Soviet dominated communist states were smashed and censorship was finally abandoned.

Today we witness a new kind of totalitarianism. This time implemented by men unknown in the corporate offices of the American corporations Google and Apple. Behind closed doors executives of these two corporations have decided that American moral standards must be imposed all over the globe. Rarely, if ever, have we witnessed more self-righteous and cultural imperialist corporate decisions than these.

Apple has decided to block what it considers “objectionable content” from being shown on iPhone. And “objectionable content” here refers to nudity. Completely ignoring the fact that moral standards differ considerably from country to country in the world, it is, of course, American moral standards that are the ones being implemented – standards which most Europeans consider completely silly. No nude legs, breasts, bodies, or – heaven forbid – female nipples can be shown on an iPhone. Despite the fact that European newspapers and magazines – Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, German, French, and so on and so forth – bring such photos all the time and nobody raises even an eyebrow.

And Google has actually done the same thing for a long time without being explicit about it. If you look at some of the posts in this blog that contains beautiful pictures of women – perhaps even showing their nipples – you will notice that the content of the Google ads disappear (as a matter of fact, all images shown on this site have also been published in European newspapers and magazines). It is the same on millions of websites all over the world. And what defines what is appropriate and what is not? The views predominant in the country where the website is located? The views common in the country of the person looking at the blog or magazine article? No! You guessed it! The American puritan moral standards!

I don’t know why corporations feel they ought to use technology this way. And I certainly don’t know how to stop it. I do know that I am appalled by it. And I hope the EU or some international organization will put an end to corporate censorship and cultural imperialism. We don’t need it. We don’t want it.

PS: See also:

• The excellent article about this in New York Times: In Germany, a Nude IS No Big Deal, Except on an iPhone, in today’s paper, page B4.
• Gizmodo.com: It is time to declare war against Apple’s censorship
• Apple discussion forum about “Is censorship really needed” – which has strangely been closed for comments
• Cult of Mac: Apple censorship reaches new levels of stupidity
• Seth Finkelstein: Google Censorship – how it works
• See the censored version of “Nudity in Art” at YouTube

Is this really the welfare state people wanted in Denmark? Less than 50% of the people in Denmark are now working to provide for the other half – more than 50% now get their income from the Danish state, reposts Danish newspaper Politiken today.

To me this sounds pretty bad. It raises a lot of questions, even if – as is the case with Denmark – everybody are provided for economically. To me, participation in the labor market is an important thing – that 50% is outside the labor market does not sound so good.

Also – how fair is this? How does it feel for the half that provides the goods? Not my kind of welfare state!

I always though curling was a boring sport. The game itself is OK, but it takes place on ice with players who are not all that attractive. I thought. But I may have to revise my opinions on the game. Maybe things have changed, or maybe I simply did not see the beauty or the beauties of the game?

The two curling players below certainly are beautiful. They are from a calendar full of similar curling players. Female, that is. And good looking!

Danish newspaper Politiken reports that pre-pubescent Danish girls develop breasts a year earlier than previously. And this seems not to be as a result of their own hormones, according to a new survey from the Rigshospitalet’s Department of Growth and Reproduction. Politiken writes:

“We believe this is a result of environmental factors – hormone disrupting substances that have a strength to develop breasts despite the fact that the girls do not enter puberty. These substances are everywhere – in cosmetics, foodstuffs, paint – everywhere,” says Sr. Lise Aksglæde one of the authors of the report, naming parabenes and phthalates as two of the substances under suspicion.

More than 2,000 Copenhagen girls between five and a half and 20 years of age have taken part in the puberty survey. Half were surveyed in 1992 and 1993 and the rest between 2006 and 2008. Results have been published in the American scientific journal Pediatrics.

Sunstorm is a movie based on the crime fiction novel by the same name, written by Asa Larsson. The movie has English subtexts, but be warned that it is in a non-USA format format, PAL, Region 2.

Starring in this movie are Antti Reini and Göran Forsmark. It is directed by Leif Lindblom. It received rave reviews in Scandinavia.

• Actors: Antti Reini, Göran Forsmark, Henrik Gustafsson, Izabella Scorupco, Jakob Eklund and Leif Lindblom
• Format: Import, PAL, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Subtitles: English, Swedish, Danish
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Run Time: 100 minutes

This movie it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD players. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: Swedish with Danish, English, Finnish and Norwegian subtitles.ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Alternative Footage, Deleted Scenes, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Trailer(s).

SYNOPSIS: On the floor of a church in northern Sweden, the body of a man lies mutilated and defiled – and in the night sky, the aurora borealis dances as the snow begins to fall.

Links: Sunstorm at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon DE.

A young Norwegian couple in their 20’s has proved that it possible to drive at a speed of 123 kilometers an hour on a highway and have sex. However, they were unfortunate and were stopped by the police between the cities of Drammen and Asker on their way to Drammen. The police observed that the car was not driving straight, turned on the video, followed them for a little while, saw that there were two people in the driver seat, and stopped them.

As it turned out, the young lady was sitting in the man’s lap, and they were in the middle of an intercourse. The man lost his driver’s license, while the young lady kept hers and was allowed to drive the car home after the little incident!

A new report from the the Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees (TCO) cited in Swedish online newspaper The Local, reports that there is considerable ethnic discrimination in Sweden.

The results show clearly that foreign-born graduates of Swedish universities have less chance of finding a job that equates to their qualifications than their Sweden-born counterparts. Those that do find work, are often over qualified and have to work harder to find it.

The study was performed by integration researcher Lena Schröder based on Statistics Sweden (SCB) data compiled on all those graduating from a Swedish university in 2003 and their employment situation in 2006. The Local writes:

The report does however show that education pays, for all. But a Swedish university education pays less for those born in eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America and especially for those arriving in Sweden after age of seven (when primary education begins).

These findings raise questions about the Scandinavian welfare states’ integration policies. In the US, companies are forced to monitor their hiring and promotion decisions closely in order to avoid very costly law suits. So to a large extent, non-discriminatory policies are enforced by the legal system. In Scandinavia much softer methods have been used to promote integration, relying to a large extent on labor unions and voluntary compliance.