What the Danish and European media misunderstand (and misrepresent) about America, and vice versa. And other stuff.
This is fascinating stuff: Female productivity decreases at lower temperaturesEditorial, TV2 News, Sept 23 …if the Danish workplaces lower the temperature, this could have negative consequences for women’s productivity, writes (the trade publication) Fagbladet 3F. Women are more susceptible when the temperature deviates from their preferred degrees, shows a study from the University of Southern…
It was reported in Denmark today—this morning—that natural gas prices had gone up 30%. It would be pretty painful if the price of natural gas went up that much every year! Except this wasn’t a year-on-year increase. It wasn’t even a monthly increase. It was an overnight increase. From TV2 News: Large price jump for…
I just want to lay down a marker: my advance transcript, posted hours before the transcript was even released yesterday, nailed it. Here’s the real transcript from the New York Times. Compare and contrast—and marvel at my powers of precognition. Which I had thought was just satire. I never would have imagined Biden’s handlers would…
We got back from “the the west” very early Wednesday morning. Cool, gray, drizzly Denmark was a welcome relief after our week without air conditioning in the sun’s European anvil. The Danish media are mostly dominated by stories about Jonas Vingegaard’s Tour de France victory, and the local celebrations of that victory, and the planning…
TV2 News published an interesting article last week. I only first came across it Monday morning. It was apparently based on a TV2 documentary called “Operation X: The Dark Side of Solar Panels.” I haven’t seen the documentary, but the article seemed balanced, interesting, and thoroughly researched. It was the kind of investigative journalism “60…
Candidate Joe Biden, October 2020 (my emphasis): Two years ago, Saudi operatives, reportedly acting at the direction of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, murdered and dismembered Saudi dissident, journalist, and US resident Jamal Khashoggi. His offense – for which he paid with his life – was criticizing the policies of his government. Today, I…
The World Health Organization (WHO) is worried about words again. WHO wants to give monkey pox new name to avoid discriminationRitzau, TV2 News, Jun 15 According to researchers, it is discriminatory to continue to keep referring to monkeypox as “African.” The World Health Organization (WHO) is collaborating with experts to find a new name for…
Yesterday’s post was about the stupid prizes we’re winning for the stupid games we’re playing with language. That theme continues today. We’re going to start with a recent decision of the Danish bakery chain Lagkagehuset (the name translates to “The Layer Cake House”) to replace two of their popular cakes, the so-called kagemand (“cake man”) and kagekone (“cake wife”) with the…
I always figured kids had a pretty easy time of it during war. Thanks to TV2 News, my eyes have been opened. A kid’s-eye view of war: “It’s all Putin’s fault”Sofie Synnøve Herschend & Alexander Østerlin Koch, TV2 News, Mar 19 Herschend & Koch are only writing about one particular set of children whose experiences…
I’ve been very critical of the establishment media in Denmark and the United States. I’ve called them “garbage media” and have used words like “execrable” and “disgusting” and “grotesque” in describing a lot of journalists and editors. I’ve called them hacks and partisans. I’ve avoided hyberbole because none has been needed: the establishment media new…
I’ve written a lot about Michael Crichton’s “Gell-Mann Amnesia” in the past. It’s the phenomenon of encountering a story in the media on a topic about which you’re knowledgeable, realizing the story has everything completely wrong, then relying on the same media for stories on subjects about which you are not knowledgeable and assuming they’ve…
Taliban representatives are right now in Norway for a three-day conference with representatives from western governments. The conference is scheduled to end today. I was startled to see coverage of the conference on a news segment Monday evening. Here were avowed members of the Taliban milling around a conference room in Oslo, doing their best…
Ladies and gentleman, the balanced Danish media: Do you remember the pictures? A year ago wild and angry Trump supporters stormed the American capitolAngelica Schou-Petersen, DR.dk, Jan 6 One year after the attack on America’s democracy: what’s happened since the storming of the capitol?Lillian Gjerulf Kretz, DR.dk, Jan 6 Trump’s people have put a large-scale…
Soldierly Language DR followed up on yesterday’s widely-run wire story about Swedish conscripts being sent home to recover from “rough treatment” with a little more depth later in the day. It doesn’t really add to or change the original story, or affect my initial reaction, but there was a bit more detail in one respect:…
Friday evening Danish time, Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted by a jury of his peers in Wisconsin. I was braced for the worst from the Danish media over the weekend, and TV2 didn’t let me down. Teenager shot and killed two and went free—why the case divides AmericaLaura Byager Rabøl, TV2 News, Nov 20 If you…
