Trials and tribulations in a busy world..

Goodbye Grandma

State of religion

Fascinating and thought-provoking new study from Gallup: What Alabamians and Iranians Have in Common

A few quotes:

"the 10 least religious countries studied include several with the world's highest living standards, including Sweden, Denmark, .."

"Americans span a range that invites comparisons to some predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East and tribal societies in Southern Africa, .."

Though, I'm sure that for anyone from secular northern Europe this hardly comes as a surprise.

Bacon Explosion

Awesome: Bacon Explosion

For a nice writeup about this fabulous invention see this New York Times article or just search for Bacon Explosion for plenty more commentary. By Internet standards I'm hopelessly behind the craze on this one (I found it not through blogs but the N.Y. Times for goodness sake!), but it was too good not to share.

All hail the pig!

Backwards day

Now this is something you don't see every day: a magnitude 4.7 earthquake in southern Sweden, a mere 40 miles from Copenhagen. And this on a day where it was cold and rainy all day in Redlands, California. Now if that isn't just all backwards I don't know.

Los Angeles: the destination of choice for international fugitives

You will have been hard pressed to avoid reading articles about IT Factory and Stein Bagger if you've read any Danish newspapers the past week and a half. The short story for the non-Danes: Bagger is/was the CEO of the now bankrupt company IT Factory. The bankruptcy came after it was revealed that the vast majority of IT Factory's revenues were faked and part of a leasing scam totaling upwards of $170 million.

This morning came the news that Bagger, while wearing a $3000 Armani jacket and a $65.000 Rolex watch, turned himself in to the LAPD at the police station in Skid Row. A choice quote from the L.A. Times article:

"You never know who's going to walk through the door,' said LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon, head of detectives for the central division. "Today we got the millionaire next door -- the only question is, whose millions does he have? "

I can't help wondering something.. When you enter the U.S. as a foreign citizen, you are given the full workup: your passport is obviously scanned and registered in some vast network of government computers, your fingerprints are taken (yes, all 10 fingers; it's a wonderful way to be welcomed to the country), and so forth.

For all the wonderful Big Brotherness of it, the U.S. authorities didn't realize Bagger was in the country until he turned himself in? The Interpol warrant had been out for several days by then, and I assume it includes such basic information as his passport number. Is it too high-tech to imagine an automatic cross-reference between new Interpol warrants and the passport information of recent entries into the U.S.?

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everybody. While the origin and celebration of this tradition is distinctly American, the "giving thanks" thought behind it isn't half bad. I'll ignore the whole "but the pilgrims killed a lot of Indians" debacle. Everybody should take a second and consider what they're thankful for.

Personally, I'm thankful that it seems people over here got the message this summer when gas prices went over $4/gallon (approx. 6 DKK/liter at the current exchange rate- which is much higher than what is normal for the U.S.). So while gas prices have plummetted to below $2 per gallon (approx. 3 DKK/liter) hopefully the current focus on producing and buying more fuel efficient cars is here to stay.

And staying on the topic of overconsumption - don't say I don't have great segues - we are doing our part to keep up the U.S. economy (and over-consuming in the process, sorry). Facing facts and realizing we'd never be able to cook a proper Thanksgiving dinner, we've cheated. Together with the rest of the Danish crowd, we've bought an Ultimate Whole Turkey Feast [PDF] from Marie Callender's. In case you're hungry, and too lazy to click through, here is the full list of ingredients:

• 10-12 lbs. whole oven-roasted turkey
• 2 lbs. apple-sage stuffing
• 2 lbs. fire-roasted yams (with cranberry streusel topping)
• 16 oz. cranberry sauce
• 3 lbs. fresh mashed potatoes
• 32 oz. turkey gravy
• 1½ lbs. Chef’s vegetables
• 9” round golden cornbread
• 5 oz. honey butter
• Whole pumpkin pie
• 2½ oz. Marie Callenders’s special blend coffee

Enjoy! (we will)

Thoughts the day after

Last night was historic.  After eight years of one of the worst presidents in U.S. history a new dawn is rising.

Random thoughts:

• Think about how wonderful it will be to have a president you can actually listen to while he's giving a speech without wanting to rip your ears off.
• Poor McCain. His concession speech last night gave a glimpse of the old McCain that I actually respected. After a horribly divisive and ugly campaign the last 2-3 months, he showed why people liked him in 2000. Had he stayed true to himself and his ideals, this race could have been very different. Shame on the jeering followers in his crowd.
• Also shame on California. I expected so much better from the most progressive of states and bellwether for the rest of the U.S. on so many things. Boo!
• What a mountain of expectations for Obama. He can almost only disappoint after such a hope filled campaign.. I really hope the mountain of problems he is inheriting from Bush doesn't keep him from being able to get some real change done.

I can see clearly now

Turns out the rain was there to wash away eight years of dirt.

I Voted Kang

Oh, and I naturally voted for Kang in today's U.S. elections.

Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over

As most of the U.S. votes today, I thought it appropriate to highlight The Onion's take at a George W. Bush speech days before he assumed the presidency in 2001. Note that this was written in January 2001 and compare to events as they've actually transpired the past eight years.