Progress?

Steens oldsmobile
Originally uploaded by Peter Hesseldahl.

A Friend of ours just bought this mint condition Oldmobile 1959. It's an amazing artifact, getting inside feels like entering a time machine. The whole car oozes a completely different logic, a way different world view. It's BIG, it's got tail fins, massive use of chrome, everything is vast and heavy, including the enormous engine. The whole thing weighs in at 2400 kg.
Well, guess what: This happens to be exactly what the Porsche Cayenne SUV or the exceedingly popular VW Touareg weighs. But this is 2005 and our climate has gone haywire in the meantime! It's even worse here in Denmark, where the dealers have found a way of adding a few hundred extra kilos in order to make the Porsche get sufficiently heavy to be taxed like a truck (which happens to have a top speed of 266 km/h).
Sorry to spoil the party, but to me this is one of those totally perverted examples of absolute mindless consumption. A way of sending a very exact signal to everyone else on the road: I don't give a damn.

Folkeskolens formålsparagraf

More stuff in Danish:
Jeg snublede lige over Folkeskolens formålsparagraf. Ganske interessant læsnig i al sin poetisk - juridiske knaphed.
Jeg synes den er flot:

Undervisningsministeriets lovbekendtgørelse nr. 55 af 17. januar 1995
Folkeskolens formål

§ 1. Folkeskolens opgave er i samarbejde med forældrene at fremme elevernes tilegnelse af kundskaber, færdigheder, arbejdsmetoder og udtryksformer, der medvirker til den enkelte elevs alsidige personlige udvikling.

Stk. 2. Folkeskolen må søge at skabe sådanne rammer for oplevelse, virkelyst og fordybelse, at eleverne udvikler erkendelse, fantasi og lyst til at lære, således at de opnår tillid til egne muligheder og baggrund for at tage stilling og handle.

Stk. 3. Folkeskolen skal gøre eleverne fortrolige med dansk kultur og bidrage til deres forståelse for andre kulturer og for menneskets samspil med naturen. Skolen forbereder eleverne til medbestemmelse, medansvar, rettigheder og pligter i et samfund med frihed og folkestyre. Skolens undervisning og hele dagligliv må derfor bygge på åndsfrihed, ligeværd og demokrati.

Danish government searching for the experience economy

The Danish ministry of science and technology has had a think tank pondering the experience economy and what could be done to stimulate this aspect of industry and education. They just released a report with recommendations and a good general overview of the concept. It also has a good list of case stories. Pretty much what any regular reader of Business Week et. al. will have been confronted with - but put into a specifically Danish context, and with a focus on possible actions.
Sorry, it's all in Danish. You ought to learn that language.

What's wrong with this picture?

DSB tea
Originally uploaded by Peter Hesseldahl.

Well, it looks perfectly normal, it IS perfectly normal - and that's what's wrong.
I'm on a train, I ask for a cup of tea. So I get:

1 paper cup
1 tea bag
approx. 150 ml. Hot water
1 wooden stick to stirr
2 plastic container, sealed with aluminium foil, each containing 10 ml. Of low fat milk
1 plastic cup - to place the used tea bag in.
1 napkin

I hate it. I feel sad about it. Wasting the world for silly little things. Often I will simply not ask for anything, but as often I forget - and again I sit there with this pile of highly refined garbage. Certainly, I've tried FAR more consuming solutions to the problem of getting me a cup of tea or a bite to eat. It's out of proportions, but we've become blind to it.

TV debate on EU software patent directive

I participated in the Danish TV-program Deadline, commenting on the culture clash between those that want software patents and those that are opposed. I guess my main point was that if you're operating from a tradtional economic model it makes sense to seek to lock up the inventions you've invested to create. BUT; There's a completely different paradigm brewing, which feeds on some inherent characteristics of the networked, digital society. People are intereacting, building on each other's ideas, contributing, combining - the whole rip and mix thing - and it's my feeling that this will only become more prevalent, and it seems that this is where true new invention takes place. So by changing laws to give the established companies more protection, we weaken a very fertile common space of ideas - which in turn makes us all poorer.
Nothing original there, but it's hardly mainstream politics.
If you're Danish you might want to have a look.