lang – Page 64 – Denseman on the Rattis

British surnames

2008/08/19 23:03

The distribution of the surname Gautier in Great Britain in 1998.

Some time ago, I blogged about surname distributions in Germany.

Unfortunately, there are too few Widmanns to show up, but there are more than a hundred Gautiers, it seems. 🙂

O Donnell 1 Norton Originally uploaded by jane_lyons2000 There’s an article in The Independent today about a guy who’s taken his wife’s surname. Although this practice is not that common in Denmark, I think the UK is quite a bit behind Denmark in this regard. I definitely find it utterly bizarre that anybody would assume that a wife had taken her husband’s surname without asking her. I also think Mr. Myddelton (né Dyer) should go to the European Court of Human Rights to get his £34 back […]

EN · POLITICS

The Russian war against Georgia

2008/08/10 15:07

… Originally uploaded by … Tina Fortunately, the war between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia has been featuring prominently in western media. However, I sense that many people have a tendency to let Russia off lightly. It is worth remembering that South Ossetia (and Abkhazia) legally are parts of Georgia. Russia are defending their actions by saying they’re defending their citizens, but they’re forgetting to tell the world that they have for many years now been handing out Russian citizenship to anybody from South Ossetia and […]

EN · FOODDRINK

Yoghurt-like products

2008/08/10 10:53

Home-made Yoghurt Originally uploaded by The eclectic Oneironaut In Scotland, the only thick and sour milk product I’ve seen is yoghurt (in several variants with varying amounts of fat). In Denmark, however, there are many alternatives: Ymer, tykmælk, A38, ylette, cultura, and – until recently – gaio. Tykmælk is the easiest one to make yourself. According to recipes I’ve found, you mix full-fat milk with some cream and buttermilk and put it in a warm location till it reaches the right consistency. Ymer and ylette differ by […]

CULTURE · EDUCATION · EN

The Danish school system

2008/08/06 14:36

My school days Originally uploaded by viralbus I blogged about the Scottish school system from a Danish perspective yesterday, so I thought I could reuse the same table with minor modifications to explain the Danish school system to Scots. The Danish school system starts much later than the Scottish one. Before this, there are nurseries (vuggestue for wee kids and børnehave for bigger ones), but they’re not obligatory and there is no curriculum. From “1. klasse” onwards, the kids have separate teachers for each subject, and the […]

EN · TRANSPORT

Stranded

2008/07/31 20:00

I’ve very often gone via Stansted on my way to Denmark, and I’ve always made the connexion, although Ryanair don’t guarantee it. Today seemed OK – we were supposed to land around 6pm, and the check-in didn’t close till 19:05, so it didn’t seem likely it would be delayed more than 30 minutes. But it was! We arrived here at 19:15, so now we’re trying to find another way to Denmark. Unfortunately, all flights are full, so the next affordable plane to Denmark is on Monday! We […]

BLOGGING · EN

Move completed!

2008/07/26 23:38

House Move – 26.jpg Originally uploaded by studio-d I’ve finally completed moving this blog from twid.bibulus.org to the new address, blog.widmann.org.uk. I didn’t just change the address, but I also moved it to a different hosting company, Prime Hosting, and I switched from using Blogger to running my own WordPress installation. I’m sure quite a few things aren’t working perfectly yet – in particular, I’m a bit anxious as to how the redirect from the old site will work – but I hope most readers will appreciate […]

EN · GADGETS · TRANSPORT · TRAVEL

Suitcase on wheels

2008/08/18 21:07

While we were waiting for our suitcases in Stansted two days ago, two kids walked past me sitting on pink suitcases. This looks like a great idea! Suddenly carrying their own luggage becomes a game for kids… Only problem I can see is to keep them away from slopes in all disguises, or your kids might suddenly travel a bit faster than is advisable at that age.

EN · KIDS

A trip to the rain forest

2008/08/13 08:31

DSC00955 Originally uploaded by PhylB Yesterday, we all went to Randers Regnskov. I mainly picked it because it’s fairly easy to get to using public transport (take the bus from Sdr. Vissing to Skanderborg, and then the train straight to Randers), but I actually think the kids liked it. In Randers Regnskov, most of the animals roam freely in the same area as the visitors, not just butterflies and snails, but also snakes, monkeys and vultures. The kids were allowed to help feed the manatees and the […]

DA · IT · WEB

Plaxo

2008/08/10 11:02

Jeg kan ret godt li’ Plaxo. Først troede jeg, det var endnu et social networking-site à la Facebook, men det er ikke sådan, jeg bruger det. Plaxos styrke er, at det kan holde styr på alle de sites, man lægger information på, såsom ens blog, Flickr, Twitter o.s.v., og præsentere opdateringerne i én samlet liste. Og naturligvis kan Plaxo også gøre dette for ens kontakter, så man altså slipper for at holde styr på, hvem der bruger hvilke sites. Det kan godt blive lidt uoverskueligt, men grundidéen […]

DE · IT

Mein erster Computer

2008/08/09 22:31

My first computer Originally uploaded by viralbus Wenn mir Leute fragen, was mein erster Computer war, denke ich normalerweise an meinen Amstrad CPC464, den ich für meine Konfirmation in 1985 bekam. Ganz richtig ist das jedoch nicht. Mein erster Computer war ein Kosmos CP1, den ich ein Paar Jahre früher erhielt. Es war ein fürchterlich schlechter Rechner: Kein Grafik, keine Buchstaben, keine richtige Programmiersprache. Nur Maschinencode und Zahlen. Wenn man schon programmieren gelernt hatte und schon viel Elektronikerfahrung hatte, war es möglicherweise eine gute Einführung in die […]

ECONOMICS · EN · POLITICS

Alastair Campbell and the Euro

2008/08/07 22:34

I still haven’t finished Alastair Campbell’s diaries. However, one bit that shocked me was the entry for Friday, 17 October 1997: EMU was our main problem of the day. Charlie Whelan [Brown’s press spokesman] and Ed Balls [adviser to Brown] wanted Gordon Brown to do an interview ‘clarifying’ the situation, saying policy was unchanged but making it clear we were clearly not going to be in the first wave [i.e., joining the eurozone in 1999], and therefore it was unlikely for this Parliament [1997-2001]. Jonathan Powell [Blair’s […]

CULTURE · DA · EDUCATION · FEATURED

Det skotske skolesystem

2008/08/05 19:50

Jeg kom til at nævne for min mor, at min datter vil komme til at lære at læse og skrive før sin kusine, Ursula, som er et år ældre. Det førte så til en længere samtale om det skotske skolesystem (som i parentes bemærket er forskelligt fra det engelske). Jeg har prøvet at sammenligne det danske og det skotske system år for år nedenfor. Der er mange forskelle. Ikke blot starter skotterne tidligere i skolen, men de forventes at kunne læse, før de starter i skolen. Og […]

EN · POLITICS

Heathcliff

2008/07/28 19:38

wutheringheights01 Originally uploaded by saraicat I forgot to blog this at the time, but what was Brown thinking about when he compared himself to Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights? As this brilliant blog posting says, many people haven’t read the book but instead know it from “the 1939 film adaptation, with Laurence Olivier playing Heathcliff in best matinee idol style”. So has Brown ever read the book, or was he comparing himself to Laurence Olivier? Or does he really see himself as the following? “A half-savage Gypsy boy […]

BLOGGING · EN · WEB

Succesful move

2008/07/27 22:24

Google Search Originally uploaded by Steven Combs As far as I can tell, the move to this new site has been successful. Perhaps I’m being optimistic, but at least my traffic statistics package tells me that I’ve had 83 views since last nice, which is roughly three times as many as usual for that amount of time. And how did people find it? For instance by searching for “iskaffe”, “all junk for sale”, “3 dages feber”, “normal weight”, “warehouse humor”, “udslæt”, “belly button men” and “spider man […]

BLOGGING · EN

Under renovation

2008/07/24 20:51

img_5948-1.jpg Originally uploaded by ciekawy I’m planning to move this blog to a different location, using different software and doing a lot of fancy things in the process. Unfortunately, I think I’ll need to freeze this blog in the meantime, which will mean no new blog postings and no access to the comments. It shouldn’t take too long, but of course there might be some unforeseen problems. I haven’t yet decided when to start the conversion, but if the blog suddenly seems eerily quiet, that’s probably what’s […]

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