My News and Stories.

10 most popular attractions in Copenhagen, Denmark

2006-11-06T02:13:00.000-08:00

Talking Elephant

2006-09-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

The amusement park ”Everland” in Seoul, South Korea, recently announced that their 16 year old elephant named Kosik is able to speak! – Or at least say 8 different words in Korean.

According to Kosik’s trainer through the last 10 year, Kim Jong-Gap, the elephant can among other words say, “Hi” , “Yes”, “No” and “Go lay down”.

At first it was very difficult to understand what he was saying, but I could see that he was trying to copy me, say Kim Jong-Gab.
Scientists has previously proved that elephants can mimic sounds, and according to Everland amusement park, it is the first time that an elephant have copied human language.

Vets and scientists are now going to study Kosik in order to learn more. We are still awaiting the elephants first interview.

International Talk Like a Pirate day.

2006-09-17T23:20:00.000-07:00

This Tuesday you will get the chance to let out your inner pirate and growl at people around you, as it is the international “Speak like a pirate day”.
There is no political agenda, just good clean and pointless fun!
It all began when a couple of young guys started using pirate phrases while playing racket ball in their local gym. Today the whole world is grrrr’ing away on September 19th as it is the international “speak like a pirate day”. The 3 friends John Baur, Mark Summers and Brian Rhodes began spreading the message after their Racket ball session, and the world followed with great enthusiasm.
Being the season of the second Pirates of the Caribbean film, is very helpful in the promotion of the day.

So when sitting in your cubic office, or standing in line at the local store on Tuesday, remember that it is okay to let out a “Grrrrr”, “Arrgggg” or a “Lets sink those land lovers”.

More info at www.talklikeapirate.com

Get your own submarine!

2006-09-14T05:57:00.000-07:00

It looks like a luxury yacht and have a top speed of 25 knots above water and 3 knots when submerged!

The civil submarine, “Proteus” is developed in Dubai and makes it possible to dive with the boat and not from the boat. Fixed chairs on the deck, allows for up to 15 divers to sit outside the boat when diving and a pressurized cabin allows for up to 8 passengers to sit inside the vessel while diving. Like any other modern luxury yacht, the “Proteus” comes in a modern design and with all the necessary luxury.

The vessel looks like an ordinary fibreglass hull and all of the 45 ton heavy vessel can be submerged. A 1200 horsepower diesel engine, drives the boat while surfaced and a 200 KW electric engine, powers the boat when it is submerged. The boat / submarine have an effective range of 50 miles when surfaced and 4 miles when submerged.

This is the top-of-the-pop in hobby submarines, and if you are willing to pay 6 million US dollars, she can be yours.

Fish aren’t as dumb as we think.

2006-09-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

The old story about how fish can only remember 3 seconds back, are not true according to Australian scientist Dr. Brown. The patient scientist has spent the last 10 years, studying and testing fish and their ability to remember. The results are very surprising and reveals the fish do very much remember. In one test, Dr. Brown placed a rainbowfish into a net with a hole in it. After about 5 attempts the fish escaped. A year later, the same fish was put into the same net again. This time the fish found its way in the attempt proving that the fish remembered the way.

The same behaviour has been found in fish living in the wild, a lot of things indicate the fish have special routes which they use when feeding, which then leads us to believe that the fish remembers these routes.
“My tests proves that fish has the same ability to remember routes as people do, says a very pleased Dr. Brown.”

Obesity can cause blindness.

2006-09-13T07:17:00.000-07:00

Recent studies from the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB), reveals that obesity more than doubles the risk of eye diseases that in the end can lead to blindness. According to the scientists you are considered obese if your Body Mass Index (BMI) are more than 30, and this will further more increase the risk of developing AMD which is the most common cause of blindness in western countries today.

Obesity also increase the risk of developing “wet AMD” which can lead to serious loss of sight and in some cases blindness within just a few months. If you are overweight, the risk is 11 times higher than that of ideal weight people.
Although smoking still is, the biggest causes of AMD incidents today.

Being overweight can also lead to diabetes type 2, which can also lead to serious eye diseases, according to the recent study. 90 percent of all diabetes patients are overweight. The number of obese people in the western countries continue to rise, despite massive improvements in the diets and weight loss products. The world health organization estimates the roughly 300 million people world wide are considered obese.

Aquarium fish causes fire.

2006-05-10T02:36:00.000-07:00

The killahenas family barely survived a fire caused by the aquarium fish "Kipper" in their home in Poole, England.As mentioned, it was the aquarium fish "Kipper" who caused the chain of events that lead to the almost fatal fire.
It all began when the fish "Kipper" apparently got into a fight with another resident in the fish tank, and in the heat of battle accidently splashed som water from the tank and onto an electric outlet.
This caused the aquarium light to shortcircuit and overheat, which caused the plastic lit on the fishtank to melt. The warm plastic dripped onto the sofa and it caught fire which quickly spread to the rest of the livingroom.
Meanwhile 25 year old Sharron and her two children Nicole and Kerry on 6 and 2 years where soundly sleeping on the 1st floor of the house.
Lucky for the family, the owner of the house Simon Justice was woken by the smokealarm, and managed to wake and save the family in due time.
The only loss of life in the fire were the fish "kipper" and the rest of the aqaurium residents.

The perfect child? - Genetic engineering.

2006-05-09T03:35:00.000-07:00

New statistics show that there has been a significant drop in the birth of children with downes syndrome in western world countries. The drop has been almost 50 percent in just a year.

This is because more and more people choose to undergo tests for downes syndrome, in the early stages of the pregnancy.
Doctors say that most people have doubts about abortion even if their child should turn out to be a downes child, but that almost everyone choose an abortion once they know that their unborn child have got downes syndrome.

As the popularity of these tests rise, the number of downes children fall, and if the trend continues, downes syndrome will soon be a thing of the past.

This does of course raise the question: How much should be left up to chance? and Have much should we interfere with pregnancy?

Is this the first solid steps toward genetic engineered super babies?

Is it far fetched to think that the next evolutionary step for mankind is to take evolution into our own hand? To perfect the human species and adapt it into the time of which we live in?

It is known that we have not developed much since the time of the cave-man, our body’s struggles in the new environment which we have today. We are still rather low intelligent, vulnerable to various diseases and the diet which are common today.

Although we already prevent children with downes syndrome from being born, we still leave hair color, height, mental and physical health up to nature. But for how long? Do we need to set boundaries? Or will boundaries simply be delaying what we can’t prevent. The perfect person created from genetic engineering.

Gasoline Jesus – Turning water into fuel.

2006-05-08T02:18:00.000-07:00

A team of international scientists gather at the Harvard University have recently received more than a billion dollars in project funding from the US energy department. This is a result of the US government realizing that the oil resources is coming to its end and that being dependant on middle eastern oil is making the US vulnerable to outside factors.

The team of scientists are working on a gene manipulated bacteria that will be able to create regular water from lakes, into gasoline. All you need is CO2, sunlight and some mineral salts.
Although the bacteria is not yet a reality, the scientists are confident that it will only be a couple of years before the actual bacteria is developed, within the next 20 years it should be ready to produce gasoline.

Aside from solving the lurking energy crisis and securing the USA's position as a superpower, the bacteria gasoline will help reducing the outlet of greenhouse gas and hopefully help to further reduce global warming.

Confidential report predicts global warming.

2006-05-05T03:17:00.000-07:00

According to a UN weather report that was leaked earlier this week, the UN weather experts predict a grim future for our planet.

By the year 2050 the temperature will have risen 3 degrees Celsius, it is still too early to say if it is caused by emission of green house gasses, or if it’s a result of the ever changing climate of the planet.

The rise in the world’s temperature will to begin with cause floods and draughts. It will also be the source of warmer oceans which in the end will feed larger and more violent hurricanes, making hurricanes like Katrina a common thing.

After a while, the increased temperature will have caused a significant melting of ice in the Polar Regions. This will not only be the end of many unique animals in those regions, but it will also cause a drop in the salinity of the oceans around the poles.

A drop in salinity will slow the Gulf Stream down, and in time, this will cause a drop in the ocean temperature that will be the start of a new ice age in northern Europe.

This may be the biggest challenge or threat to face mankind ever.

Russia on ethanol

2006-05-04T00:28:00.000-07:00

Russia is planning on opening a new factory that produces bioethanol, the factory is scheduled to begin production in 2007 and have an annual output of 300.000 tons of pure ethanol produced from 900.000 tones of grains.

It is the plan to sell this product to the European market who is currently experimenting on mixing gasoline with bioethanol.

Bioethanol is spirits gained from plant materials like wheat grains, and it is CO2 neutral. This means that it does not produce more CO2 than it would if it was left to rot in the fields. Furthermore, - The CO2 created by the plant material is equalized by the amount of greenhouse gas which the plant absorbs while growing.

Bioethanol can be mixed in gasoline in a 90/10 ratio (90 pct gasoline and 10 pct ethanol) thereby reducing the world consumption of gasoline by 10 %. It can also be used to replace the gasoline additive MTBE which is a major water pollutant.

The initiative by Russia is a small victory for grain producers, the environment, world oil and gas prices and to the world as a whole. It brings is one step close to ending our oil addiction.

Let us hope that this new factory will help as an eye-opener and make ethanol in gasoline popular.

Google in top gear.

2006-05-02T03:11:00.000-07:00

According to the Financiel Times, Google have become the second most popular place to work among MBA graduates. This helps to manifest Google as one of the most powerful IT companies in the world and there seems to be no stopping them.
Among common internet users, Google is the helpful tool which is used by them on a daily basis, on work and at home. It is a company that a regular internet user does not give much thought, the design of their page gives of an impression af a rather simple and modest company. In fact Google is a giant. It shapes the internet, and is big enough to influence mighty microsoft.
It has gone from beeing just a part of the internet, to being one of the blocks on which the net rests.
By introducing the "Google earth" it became more than a search engine. It became a tool. It will be rather interresting to see what the future holds for Google, and what they will use their influenze on.
Read more about Googles new position as the second most popular company at www.ft.com

Particle pollution, a modern problem.

2006-04-27T23:04:00.000-07:00

It is no secret that the exhaustion from cars, pollutes the air in our cities and causes thousands of deaths and sick people each year. Research shows that the exhaust particles can cause Cancer, various respitory disorders and heart disorders.

The same research also reveals and increase of air pollution in the morning and afternoon rush hours, along with and increase in the weekends.

It is the drivers themselves that are the most exposed to the deadly particles because the of the cars airintake is mostly placed in the from of the car in street level.
It is known that so called particle filters can reduce the particle pollution to almost nothing, and with no other effort than purchasing and installing the particle filter on the exhaust pipes of the car. The only reason this is still not common on todays cars are the lack of political will to legislate this.

8 tips on avoiding terrorist attacks!

2006-04-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

Please note that these tips are based on statistic calculations and risk management, made from terror incidents throughout the world and is based on the reader living in a large city in a country that have reason to fear terrorist attacks.

1- Avoid travelling with public transports (subway, busses, trains) Monday to Friday between 8 and 10 am.

2- Always take a seat in the far back of the buss, preferably a window seat.

3- Always seek to the far ends of the train or subway, and aim for a window seat.

4- Do not take seats near glass separators in trains, busses and subways.

5- Avoid crowds as much as possible.

6- Avoid travels to destinations in “risk” zones known to be crowded with western country tourists.

7- Do not sign up for Iraq.

8- When waiting for the bus, train or subway, stay at one of the ends of the station as they are less crowded and thereby a less chance to be targeted. This will also allow you access to the far end of the train or subway wagon which is the “best chance” seats.

Rising emission of green house gasses.

2006-04-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

Can one man stop a speeding train with one hand? No! Can one man stop increasing emissions in the US? Yes! Is he doing it? No!

George W. Bush wants to create more jobs, he also wants to cut the US emissions by 18 % within the next 6 years. But is it even possible to cut emissions and still have a growing economy? Experts say that it can not be done.

The US emissions of green house gasses are up 16 % from since 1990, and still climbing. This makes USA the biggest green house gas sinner. Further more, the USA have still not joined the rest of the world in the Kyoto agreement, which is designed to reduce the emission of green house gasses and combat global warming. But still, is it fair the point fingers at the USA? Just because they choose to protect their own interests, their workers, their way of living? After all, US companies do not only create work in the USA, their presence creates a lot of jobs worldwide.

Combating global warming and lowering the emissions of green house gasses can only be done in a united world, if the worlds largest emitter of green house gasses are not willing to join a global agreement. Then we must sit back down and come to an agreement that works for everyone.

If we took into consideration how many European jobs, US companies and US industry creates, im sure that an agreement could be made.

Man against machine!

2006-04-25T06:38:00.000-07:00

It is a struggle that is very much equivalent to the famous match between chess genius Kasparov and the computer “Deep Blue”. On the 5th of May 2006, a team of wine experts are going up against the wine tasting machine “Scanwine” in a contest of who is best at determining the price of the wine. “Winescan” is developed by the Danish company Foss who is leading in the development of measuring instruments for the food industry. The machine is designed for analyzing and controlling wines in order to perform quality checks, and checking that the wine is ready for sale. But the machine can also be set to determine the price on a given wine.

The contest is going to stay within the category “North Italian wines” as the machine is specifically set for wines in this region. Wines differ a lot depending on what region they are grown in, so it would not be fair to go world wide, although the machine can be set to any region.

“I will be fun to see if our machine can actually beat the experts in their own game, although I have my doubts, because it is a very competent team of experts that our machine is up against. Says marketing director Jesper Jensen.

Reflections on the Mohammed crisis.

2006-04-24T00:20:00.000-07:00

In the beginning of 2006, crisis struck Scandinavia, as the Muslim world launched a massive strike against Danish and Norwegian products as a response to the publishing of drawings picturing the prophet Mohammed in various situations.

The Muslim world demanded a formal apology from the Danish and Norwegian government and from the newspaper that printed the drawings. The attention was brought to the drawings by a coalition of imams in Denmark, who brought the drawings to the Muslim world with the intentions of bringing pressure to the Danish and Norwegian people and governments, making them abandon the principle of freedom of speech and submit to Islam.

Of course this created an impossible situation. Does the freedom of speech have boundaries? Can a government create laws against religious insults in the public media?

I do not think a government can or should do anything. The freedom of speech is a right we all have (or should have). But we should also use it with care and respect. What the Danish paper did was abusing the freedom of speech, using it to hurt peoples feelings and mocking their religious beliefs, and I hope it have been a lesson to anyone else not to play with religious feelings. Freedom of speech should be used to inform.. Not to insult.

All that aside, I think that the reaction from the Muslim world was childish and very disrespectful towards the various European countries that had their embassies burned and flags spit on.

A few weeks later it was found out that one of the Imams who started the whole crisis, had put forth bomb treats towards a Danish politician on hidden camera. When confronted with his own threats he simply replied the "He was just making fun" "He didn't mean any disrespect" .. Well "We were just making fun" "We didn't mean any disrespect".

This crisis does reveal that we need more dialogue between western countries and the Islamic world, and by dialogue I do not mean the kind that Bush is practicing in Iraq and soon to be Iran. I mean debating, and learning more about one another in order to prevent insults and misunderstanding one another.

Let’s see beyond the problems and fear that a few fanatics create, and let the majority prevail. Through dialogue we can build bridges that lead to a peace and understanding that no fanatics or warmongers can break down.

Swedish woman attacked by lion.

2006-04-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

During a safari in Tanzania, Africa A Swedish woman was attacked and bitten in the back by an adult female lion. The attack happened when their landrover got stuck in the mud and the five tourists had to get out and push the car. The lion jumped out from the bushes in the side of the road, and plunged its corner teeth into the female tourists back.

One of the men and the driver attacked the lion with wooden sticks, which made the lion give up on its afternoon snack.

Sources says that the female tourist is doing fine at a hospital in Nairobi.

(VG-Nett avisen, Norwegian language paper.)

Beer as gasoline?

2006-04-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

Fuel cells can create energy though simple chemical processes without a combustion process or polluting. This is why it is known as clean energy, and why it is so attractive to optimize this for commercial use.
The fuel cell is driven by hydrogen which among other things can be found in alcohol. This means that you can create a fuel cell that runs on whiskey or beer.

The only problem is that it is not yet energy efficient using hydrogen cells when compare to the regular fossil fuels we use today. There is no doubt in my mind that one day our cars will run on hydrogen when one day we have found a way to easily create hydrogen from water. Energy for hydrogen production could come from wind parks, or ocean wave energy.

There would be plants for hydrogen production, and gas stations would become hydro stations.

I know this is still a dream, a thought, a prediction… But that is imho where it all begins.

Blind man beats up deaf man.

2006-04-21T04:43:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share this one with you.

A 60 year old blind man from Sweden rang the doorbell to the house of a deaf man in his neighbourbood this tuesday.

The blind man had apperently had a bit too much to drink and wanted to find out what time it was. Eventought the blind man were drunk, the deaf man understood what the blind man was asking by reading his lips but he did not understand that he was blind so he reach out his arm in order to show his watch was.

The blind man took the silence as offence and punched the deaf man in the face and knocked him to the floor. After his first attack, the blind man lost his balance and fell to the floor himself.
This allowed the deaf man to escape and call the police writes the Swedish paper "Ekspressen".

Hitchhiking Cops.

2006-04-21T02:26:00.000-07:00

A female driver was waved to the side by two police officers yesterday morning in Copenhagen, Denmark. The two officers did not wan't to see license and registration or check for alcohol.
They wanted to catch a ride to a nearby car crash.

On the way to the scene their patrol car had broken down, and they had to obtain a "civil transport" as it is called in police language.

The story does not state if the two cops were put on "foot patrol" the rest of the day.

Oil Vs Hydrogen.. Which one?

2006-04-21T02:01:00.000-07:00

Wow.. What a debate i started here.. But an interesting one aswell!
You see suddenly it is not about cheap clean energy, it is about political orientation, coverups and corruption. The world is and addict, and it is buildt on its addiction.

Controlling the energy is controlling the world. If you no longer control the energy, you no longer have control. I suppose most people have doubts about what will happen and when it will happen and with good reason. What happens when we come out of our addiction, our happy ride on oil? will we go into depression? or will you see a more balanced and happen world?

What does happen when we no longer have to fight over resources? Will we ever stop fighting about resources? And still oil is more than just gasoline .. Its the plastic covering in your car. Its your sportsbag, its your childrens toys.. I dont think we will get rid of oil anytime soon. But i do believe that we will replace oil as a fuel.
All this are questions and thoughts.. What do you think?

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=26555484&postID=114552204876525083

Wind Energy goes out to sea.

2006-04-21T01:23:00.000-07:00

The best place to obtain optimal conditions for wind mills are at sea. Having wind mills at sea opens up for larger mills and more energy obtained per mill.

Around the world, wind mill sea parks have already been up and running for serveral years, and with very good results. (Maximum energy harvest and no envioronmental impact)

In Denmark there are plans of 4000 MW sea wind parks before the year 2030 and in England the construction of a new park at the Kentish Flats is just the first of many sea wind parks in England. The park at the Kentish Flats consists of 30 3 MW turbines, which gives a maximum output of 90 MW.

Meanwhile there are plans of designing even larger wind mills with output of up to more than 5 MW per mill and the development is far from over in this field.
Read more about the Kentish flats energy farm in the UK.

http://www.kentishflats.co.uk/

Norwegian wave energy with huge potential.

2006-04-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

Besides being one of the largest producers and exporters of crude oil in europe, Norway is also leading the research in wave energy.

With the stormy north sea in their back yard, Norway has one of the best places in europe for harvesting the energy in the oceans waves.

The union of the oil industry in Norway, estimates the crude oil resources to last for aprox 50 years. Finding alternative and cheap energy resources are therefore a priority in Norway.

In 2004 the Norwegian company "WaveEnergy AS" was established, and set out to develop a concept known as SSG or Seawave Slot Cone Generato).
A plant was established on the Norwegian island of Kvitsoy and this was based on "storage champer" concept.

The waves pushes the water up from the ocean into holding champers that a placed in different heights. This water is then lead back to the ocean via turbines thus creating power. The test construction is planned to be a 10 meter wide construction of the SSG concept with an estimated capacity of 150 KW.

Wave energy has a huge potential and it is estimated that wave energy alone could provide more than 10 % of the worlds energy demand.

More and more countries are showing interrest to this new energy resource. Government and private funding, along with studies like the one in Norway will help make wave energy a reliable energy resource within the next 10 years.

A note to this post.
---------------------------

Think about this.
What if 30 meters of waveenergy construction, placed at the coast or inside the pier of the habour could provide energy to a community of up to 1000 people? Think about the money saved and the enviromental aspects of this if most of the small coastal communities along the USA did have this?
Anyway, just a thought.

China wants alternative energy.

2006-04-20T04:50:00.000-07:00

The economical boom in China has caused a huge rise in the need for energy. The chineese government have among other things, buildt a large damn in the yangtze river, and are now planning on huge wind energy parks.

It has long been expected that China would order huge wind parks, and this was confirmed when an official order was placed at wind mill producer Vestas in March.

So far, China ordered 280 wind mills with a capacity of 850 KW a piece. This gives the wind mill park a capacity of 238 MW which is equivilant to a small coal plant. This is only the beginning and it is expected that china may purchase more wind mills later this year.

Students drive 15 miles on 0,35 ounces of Hydrogen!

2006-04-20T01:30:00.000-07:00

Students from the Danish college of technology (DTU) have develeped a new and innovative fuelsystem which eleminates the loss of hydrogen in a fuel cell.

By eleminating the loss of hydrogen in the fuel cells, the Danish students have made hydrogen power "cost efficient" and have layed a major piece in the hydrogen engine puzzle.

The new fuel system was developed while working on the new hydrogen car "DTU Dynamo". Last year the car set a new world record by driving 15 miles on 0,35 ounces of hydrogen. This equals to the 450 miles per gallon of gas.
This new invention has already been patented, and a new development is said to be underway.

Good job guys!

Rising oil prices creates fear of unemployment.

2006-04-20T00:36:00.000-07:00

With oilprices rising to more than $ 70 per barrel, economical growth seems far away, and companies plan to lay of expendable workers in order to keep their heads above water.
In many european countries we have already seen a turn in the economical growth, and a small rise in unemployment. It is feared that the price will rises to a new record of $ 80 per barrel.

Higher oilprices causes reduced consumption in the private sector, less production and investment and thereby less work. The high oilprices are caused by the current conflict with Iran and by new predictions from the US energy department.
This situation once again stress out the need for us to grow independent of oil from the middle east, and set our seights on alternative sources of energy.