fourth edition

“Denmark is losing its reputation for being a good world citizen.” – Naomi Klein
Danish police arrest 150 demonstrators as world leaders arrive at Copenhagen conference. Mainstream groups such as Friends of the Earth have been barred from the conference centre (“Every delegate from the international environmental campaign group arrived at the centre this morning to [...]

Twenty years ago today my mother woke me up early. She was crying. Last time she woke me up crying, Olof Palme had just been assassinated. This time, though, my mother’s tears were not angry, horrified and sad tears. She was crying with joy. The Berlin Wall had fallen.
I went to school that day. My [...]

Yesterday marked the first time I could vote in Scotland.
I clutched my polling card, brought ID with me and walked down to the polling place fully expecting to queue for maybe five or ten minutes.  I was the only voter, of course, and in no need of  ID either. I told the poll official that [...]

This year’s Worldwide Knitting in Public event in Glasgow is going to take place on Saturday the 13th of June in the Kelvingrove Rockery, Kelvingrove Park at 1pm.
We’ll be having a picnic, so bring blankets, water, sunscreen(!), knitting/crocheting projects and something to nibble on.  In case of rain, the tentative backup plan is to meet [...]

Dead Ronald Reagan appears to wife, Nancy:

She told Vanity Fair magazine: “At night time, if I wake up, I think Ronnie is there, and I start to talk to him… And I see him.”
(..)
And she mentioned that the present First Lady, Michelle Obama, called for advice on running the White House.
Mrs Reagan’s suggestion was to [...]

It’s going to be a beautiful day so the bluebirds sing.
I have booked myself a short, but much-needed flight home to Denmark in May. I need to spend time with the Danish part of myself, I have decided. Going back is always odd because it invariably ends up being a long series of meet-ups with [...]

The Amazonfail aftermath, then.
Amazon itself says that the company suffered “an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error” following speculation that the company had been hacked or been pressured by right-wing groups to create a “family-friendly filter”. The New York Times covers the story nicely if you are looking for a a good summary. I still have [...]

Let me introduce two new concepts to you: Amazon Rank and Amazon Fail.
In short: “Amazon.com de-ranked a number of books (..) on the basis of “adult content.” According to the Amazon Dictionary, this definition includes books that have anything to do with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) characters, authors, issues, or references. In addition [...]

Congratulations are long, long overdue to Francis and his husband.
On a related note, this makes me very, very happy and hopeful for the US (via):

The times, they are a-changing.

Image by Shepard Fairey.
It seems to me that today contains multitudes (to misquote the great American poet, Walt Whitman).
Today marks History in different ways.
To some, it is about George W. Bush leaving office after what I would politely describe as a shambolic, histrionic and incompetent presidency.
To some, it is about the first [...]