Denseman on the Rattis

Denseman on the Rattis

An Old Harbour Where Strange Ships Still Dock ❦ Formerly Known as the Widmann Blog

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EN · POLITICS

Schengen about to expand

2006/12/06 23:06

According to this article in EUobserver, the Schengen area is likely to expand with some of the new EU countries next year. I have never understood why the UK won’t join – it just makes life so much easier.

EN · IT · LINGUISTICS

blazon2jpeg

2006/12/06 22:28

Some months ago, I spent a bit of my spare time reading up a bit on the language of blazonry and the fundamental rules of heraldry. I find it linguistically fascinating how English blazonry is still in a language closer to Norman French than modern English. For instance, the central part of the arms of the Clan Buchanan is described as “or, a lion rampant sable, armed and langued gules” rather than “on a yellow background, a black lion with red tongue and claws standing on its […]

EN · KIDS

Glockenspiel

2006/11/30 23:41

Xylophone Originally uploaded by viralbus. Because Pudge has got rhythm, I bought a xylophone (or more precisely, as Wikipedia informs me, a glockenspiel). He loves it a lot, and so does Charlotte, as can be seen from this photo (whereas Marcel seems to largely ignore it). He has definitely got the hang of it – he instinctively knows how to hold the sticks, and he’s quickly getting a more controlled touch. I wonder how long it’ll take before he starts playing tunes… 😉

EN · IT

Temporary email addresses

2006/11/29 23:01

Slashdot were running a story about 10 Minute Mail today. Basically, it’s a web page that gives you an email address that only lasts ten minutes. It’s extremely useful because lots of other web sites requires you to provide an email address, but you can’t be sure they won’t spam you later. Also, to get a permanent email address with Yahoo! or Hotmail or whoever, you normally need to provide a valid email address to get started, so this provides a nice starting point. However, this also […]

EN · FEATURED · LINGUISTICS

The difficulty of acquiring a Scottish accent

2006/11/21 22:54

When I moved to Scotland nearly five years ago, I imagined I would quickly acquire a Scottish accent. That hasn’t happened, however. This is due partly to the number of non-Scottish colleagues I have and to the other varieties of English I hear on TV. However, a big problem is not being able to guess pronunciations correctly based on my knowledge of RP. There are at least four major issues: Syllable-final /r/. In common with most varieties of American English, the /r/ is pronounced in words like […]

EN · SIGN

Don't sit down

2006/11/19 23:30

day4.2 – What the… Originally uploaded by digihuman. I just love signs like this. What is it that is forbidden? Sitting down? Using the toilet? Leaning forward? Holding the toilet roll?I suspect it’s reading, but what’s the point in that?

CULTURE · DA

Ænder

2006/11/17 23:04

My duck Originally uploaded by viralbus. For et par år siden havde jeg tre gode radikale venner på besøg herovre. De forærede mig en gul plastikand, som jeg stadig har (se billedet).Jeg undrede mig dog en del over, hvorfor de i alverden gav mig den, men de opførte sig, som om det var helt normalt og comme-il-faut.Men da jeg nu så på Anettes blog, at hun også havde fået en and, er jeg virkelig begyndt at spekulere på, om jeg er gået glip af noget…Er det blevet […]

EN · LINGUISTICS

Cocks, asses and gay people

2006/12/05 23:29

Donkey and Rooster Originally uploaded by 24hourmoon. English has, for better or worse, changed the semantics of some words. A cock used to be a male hen, an ass used to be a donkey, and gay used to mean “merry”.However, in modern English these words have almost entirely taken on new senses, and native speakers have adapted to this. However, I’m told a Parisian museum recently opened an exhibition of photos of cocks (and no, it was not a porn exhibition), and I have encountered language teachers […]

EN · LINGUISTICS · MEDIA

Worried stiff!

2006/12/05 00:02

When I was a kid, I really loved a TV series called The Tomorrow People (Fremtidsfolket in Danish). It was about kids who had the power to teleport around and who had a cool computer, and I remember running about in the garden shouting “Contact, Tim!” I’ve now rented the first few episodes on DVD, and it is very odd to watch: The actors are not very good, they speak with an exaggerated RP accent with odd idioms (one of them said his parents were worried stiff), […]

DENMARK · ECONOMICS · ELECTION · EN · POLITICS

Types of democracy

2006/11/30 00:01

The Economist Intelligence Unit has produced a really interesting survey of democracy in the world (in PDF format). It confirms my worry that political participation is horribly low in the UK, much lower than in any similar country. I suspect Denmark’s score is dragged down by the lack of separation of church and state. The survey splits democracy into five separate categories: Electoral process and pluralism Functioning of government Political participation Political culture Civil liberties I extracted the data and did some analysis of my own. The […]

DA · POLITICS

5 år med VK(O) :-(

2006/11/29 00:44

Jeg så i de danske netaviser, at den af Dansk Folkeparti støttede VK-regering nu har styret Danmark i fem år. 🙁 Det har jo været en deprimerende regering at læse om, men rent faktisk har jeg ikke oplevet ret meget af dens virke personligt, da jeg jo emigrerede til Skotland tre-fire måneder efter dens tiltræden (eller med andre ord lige så hurtigt, som jeg kunne finde et job i udlandet). Jeg håber ikke, den kommer til at fejre mange flere fødselsdage!

EN · FAMILY

Parents

2006/11/22 22:54

My parents are coming on a visit for the weekend – my mum will arrive tomorrow (Thursday) and my dad the next day, and they’ll go home together on Tuesday. They haven’t met Phyllis yet, so it’s good they’re finally coming. I hope the weather won’t be too dreich!

DE · EN · IT

Anhypostatic headache

2006/11/20 21:32

My dad is very fond of googlewhacks. He has now even found a nearly fool-proof way of generating them: Ich habe heute ein google-whack entdeckt, und fast so was wie eine g.w.machine. Wenn man theologische Spezialausdrücke und Krankheiten kombiniert, kommt man oft auf ganz wenige Lösungen. Anhypostatic headache ergibt 1 von 1.

EN · SIGN

Don’t sit down

2006/11/19 23:30

day4.2 – What the… Originally uploaded by digihuman. I just love signs like this. What is it that is forbidden? Sitting down? Using the toilet? Leaning forward? Holding the toilet roll?I suspect it’s reading, but what’s the point in that?

DA · FEATURED · FOODDRINK · KIDS · PHOTOGRAPHY

Hans første flødebolle

2006/11/18 10:44

The teacake monster Originally uploaded by viralbus. Jeg købte forleden en pakke flødeboller (Tunnock’s teacakes på engelsk), og hverken Charlotte eller Léon kendte dem. (Sjovt nok hævder Phyllis, det er en skotsk ting, men de smager nu ligesom danske flødeboller.)Først vidste Léon ikke, hvad han skulle stille op med den – den var for stor til at få ind i munden – men snart fik han dog bidt hul i den, og som det ses på billedet, blev han hurtigt overbevist om flødebollens fortræffelighed!

EN

All those flags

2006/11/17 21:44

On our first full day in Riga (11/11), we were surprised to see Latvian flags everywhere. At first we thought they were just very nationalistic, but we gradually realised it was some kind of public holiday. Phyllis saw a woman in a car, and when watching the news in Latvian during the evening, she realised it had been the president on her way to some kind of parade. And the next day, all the flags were gone, even from the trams.

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