Remarks by Vice President Cheney and President Saakashvili of Georgia After Meeting in Tblisi

From the snake's mouth: How the US was, is and will be propping up Georgia

Army: soldier suicide rate may set record again - Most people don't understand what it's like in a highly dangerous combat environment where violence is the daily routine. Seeing other soldiers raping mothers and holding guns to the father's heads, shooting mothers in the head walking down the street, the child made an instant orphan, whole crowds mowed down by high-caliber weapons. And no one wanting to go to to get all that stopped. It is incredibly stressful, and you have to be on the inside to truly understand it and empathize with these guys. Sure, they signed up for it, but it is way more difficult to get out than in. Much like the Mob and CIA, both the same organization at the higher levels.

Pentagon to shift forces to Afghanistan - It's starting....

N Korea's Kim died in 2003; replaced by lookalike, says Japanese professor

U.S. appeals to Ukraine to unite with West

Moldovan splinter territory Transdniestria lifts moratorium on contacts with Moldova - At the czar's decree.

Transdniestria: Russia and Moldova's Secret Deal

Al Qaida warns of more Denmark attacks in new video

Gordon Brown asked by Former Home Secretary Charles Clarke to step down with honor

Obama secretly met with Fox News executives - Hillary Clinton still meets with Roger Ailes for hours each week. Big dinner, no one knows what's going on. This should be instant disqualification for the presidency in any nation daring to call itself free. A presidential candidate meeting with the media before an election? I can't believe this.

The Internet video featured senior al Qaeda leader Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, who was reported to have been killed last month. The compilation was dated August 2008, although it was made up of segments recorded at various dates.

Source

Easyjet's passenger numbers rise

Eayjet's passenger traffic is up despite difficult market conditions

Easyjet has said that the number of passengers it flew in August this year rose 24% on the same month last year.

Europe's second-largest budget airline said it transported some 4.6 million passengers in August 2008, compared to 3.7 million in August 2007.

Aer Lingus also saw an increase, flying 8.8% more passengers this August than in August 2007.

On a rolling 12-month basis to August 2008, Easyjet increased passenger numbers by 16.6%.

The number of seats filled also increased to 91.3% from 87.4% last August.

At Aer Lingus the load factor was 80.5% in August, a slight dip on 81.7% a year ago.

Easyjet shares were down 2% at 1005 BST, while Aer Lingus shares were down 0.9%.

Industry turbulence

The figures for Easyjet and Aer Lingus are relatively strong compared with those released on Friday by Scandinavian airline SAS.

SAS, which is partly owned by the governments of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, said traffic for August measured in revenue passenger kilometres, fell 0.7% and demand was weakening further.

Airlines worldwide have been effected by the economic deceleration and several airlines, including business airlines Silverjet, Maxjet and Eon and budget airline Zoom, have folded.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), global airlines will post losses in the region of $5.2bn (£2.96bn) this year and $4.1bn in 2009.

Listen podcast #4

This had to be a special moment for the crown princess. Her mother, Henrietta, died of heart disease in 1997 at the age of 56.

Mary said she was "honored" to be opening the new facility. It is located in the Lowy Packer Building and is named after Victor Chang, a renouned heart specialist. She is an honorary governor of the Victor Chang Institute, and is a patron of the Danish Heart Association.

"Clearly much remains to be done, as heart disease remains the leading cause of death and disability in our communities, and affects not only men and the elderly but also women and children," Crown Princess Mary said. 

Mary said she was delighted when the executive director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Centre Professor Robert Graham contacted her shortly after the birth of her son Christian to discuss the establishment of a Fellowship in the young Prince's honour.

The Fellowship, currently taken by Filip Knop, allows a young Danish scientist to work at the Victor Chang Institute.

"Australian and Danish researchers have a long shared a common bond of excellence in biomedical research," she said.

During the opening, Mary - along with Chang's wife Ann - pulled a curtain back on a bronze sculpture of Victor Chang. He was murdered in 1991.

 Later that night, Crown Princess Mary returned to the hospital with her husband, Crown Prince Frederik, for a celebration dinner attended by 100 guests. Westfield boss Steven Lowy introduced the royal couple to the guests, which included Roz Packer, her son James and his wife, Erica Baxter, former premier Neville Wran and Fiona Coote, who, in 1984, aged 14, became Australia's youngest heart transplant recipient thanks to Chang.

I attempted to fight off the din for an hour or so managing to get a few minutes of shut eye during each pause pregnant with the possibility of an even greater pandemonium. I even managed a quick dream in which I was trying to cross a desolate two lane blacktop under the cover of night only to be repeatedly discouraged by the threat of nearly invisible motorcycles racing by without headlights on. Though I'm not quite sure what it meant...I think the motorcycle noise just came from the jackhammering and the crossing the road part was me trying to get back to sleep.

Defeated at 9:20am I awoke to face the week...the summer gone...but this is not a moment to fret over the passing time. It's time to celebrate that which has most recently passed as is the tradition with all weekend recaps.

The lengthy labor day festivities got off to an early start on Thursday night as a group of friends gathered at Kishore's to watch Andy and Jeff's latest television triumph, Jacked, a reality show about the vehicle theft police unit in Newark, NJ. Prior to the airing of the show we did what we usually do when the weather is nice and we're in a Fort Greene apartment with a back yard and grill...and barbecued up some meat and burgers and various other forms of tasty goodness.

When the time came we settled in Kishore's sunken living room, Jayvalyn, Jeff, Andy, Andrea, Enisha, Suli, Miller, Flosario, Rich, Lina, Dmitry, and Nina to watch Jacked on A&E projected on the living room wall. I have to say, I think if you have a big blank wall a projector is a more than quality investment. It makes watching anything on TV that much more enjoyable and cinematic. The show itself was interesting enough. It was semi-fascinating to see how Cops in Newark spot stolen cars and then go about boxing them in, but I can't believe that any of the episodes are going to be drastically different from each other. That being said, I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I'm sort of thinking that the show will end up going into the category of yet another of the long list of shows about professions we don't need to know about, but seeing as my friends work on it, I remain cautiously optimistic that it will end up being better than that.

After Jacked ended we watched Barack Obama's nomination acceptance speech. Miller left because he has insane political beliefs and was just going to end up saying stupid things all speech that no one wanted to listen to. I sort of give him credit for not staying around and ruining it for everyone else.

I'll say this, whether you like Barack Obama or not or believe he can do the job of President of The United States of America or not, the man can give an eloquent and stirring speech. I think he hit on all of the key points he had to in order to give himself a bit of a boost in his race for the White House. I still remain pessimistic of his chances, despite being the slight front runner for the sole reason that the Republicans are better at mobilizing people out of fear of things they should not be afraid of.

Political blah-blahs aside...after the speech, it was time to walk home after that and ready for the rest of the weekend. While everyone got the remainder of their work week out of the way on Friday, I sort of gave myself a day off from responsibility because I had been very productive the day before. I had sent out a book proposal and felt really great about finally just sending it to someone. To celebrate my forward progress, I met with my brother for lunch at Delicatessen and took a walk to Strand where I picked up three new books on the cheap: Salinger's Franny & Zooey, Twain's Roughing It, and Murakami's The Wind Up Bird Chronicles. It always feels good to have a nice little reading queue all ready.

I returned home to Brooklyn after my Strand run, ready for the evening. I waited it out a few hours before making it to Filler and Jenny's at 7pm for our friend Robert's 26th birthday. The party didn't start at 7pm, but me, Filler, and Arby grilled up some sausages for dinner and watched the Mets game before the proceedings began.

Slowly but surely partygoers arrived and Marie and Abbi began to fashion Robert's birthday cake. During our time watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, I learned that Robert was fascinated with Denmark, and in tribute to Robert's fascination with Denmark, the birthday cake was done up in the shape of a castle with Danish flags complete with a champagne mote, and a graham cracker drawbridge. It was quite the cake-complishment.

The party itself was quite the pleasant and amicable affair, with plenty of enjoyable conversation in the backyard and I believe we may have even delved into the merits of Guns 'n' Roses "November Rain". There were certain a wide variety of pop culture conversations, much of which was between myself and Robert's roommate Megan about our 3am HBO2 viewing habits. Undoubtedly though, the star of the night was the birthday boy Robert and his Castle Cake with Champagne Mote.

I'm not sure what time I left but it was probably around 2am or so. I didn't sleep as late as I thought I would on Saturday. I suppose that's because we had a party to get ready for. My housemates and I were having our end of the summer bash to celebrate my roommate Mike's 30th birthday as well as the arrival of our new roommate Sarah and there was cleaning to be done. Mike and Laura did a bang up job on the deck making it cleaner than it has been on years. I cleaned the grill and some of the chairs, a little bit of the kitchen, and of course my room which could perennially be described as in a state of squalor.

The first person to arrive on the scene were Pete and Dan. I was a little out of it at the time they showed up, but I think they played a role in getting the keg to the house as well as the projector. The get together was supposed to start at 6:30pm, but Suli showed up at 6 thinking he was fashionably late only to be rebuffed with the fact that the party hadn't yet begun. We sat on the porch for a little bit hanging out, but then joined Dan and Andrew who had just shown up in projecting cheesy music videos off of youtube from Dan's computer onto the wall, which was hilarious. As the party began and people started to file in they saw Paula Abdul's Opposites Attract playing on the wall, as well as the theme from Vanilla Ice's "Cool As Ice" amongst various other past hits. That later gave way to the DVD of The Song Remains The Same, which seemed to have lasted the duration of the entire party.

Soon enough our apartment was overflowing with people. Many were familiar faces and many I had never seen before. i guess that's what happens when you have four other roommates and they invite their friends over. Nonetheless, it was a peaceful, fun, get together. I felt like I was running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying to talk to everyone and so I didn't really spend any quality time with a single person. Either way, I spent the evening fully entertained as I intermingled with various groups of my own friends and others. There's worse ways to spend a saturday evening than being surrounded by great people. There was even some live band karaoke type thing going on as Mike played the drums and Pete the guitar for a sing-a-long rendition of Baba O'Riley.

Towards the end of the night after the beer well had run dry, some time after what might have been called the witching hour, there was more fun to be had with youtube projections as we dance and rocked out to Phil Collins "Easy Lover". Andrew, Dan, Pete, Laura, myself, and an unknown mystery girl who knew our names despite us not knowing hers were somewhat out of our minds as we put on the "November Rain" video and performed along with it.

After the last element of sing-a-long disintegrated, someone thought it would be a good idea to go to Union Hall and get a drink. As we arrived there they announced last call. We all grabbed a beer to finish the exhaustingly fun evening. However, I was still oddly curious as to who this mystery girl was. I asked Pete, Dan, Laura, and Andrew, and none of them knew her name even though she was one of the earliest and last people at the party. It was funny that a stranger had been so active in the waning hours of the evening, but as long as she was having fun I suppose. A few days later I learned it was Marissa and was a friend of someone that Mike worked with or something. Whatever, it's cool.

I woke up close to 2pm on Sunday afternoon. The previous evening at the party I had told my friend Lauren and her brother Nick that there was a 95% chance of me attending their get together the next day. When I awoke I knew that number was closer to zero. Thankfully, we had dealt with most of the bottles the evening before and by the time I woke the apartment had been cleaned, because I had no energy with which to do so. I more or less spent the entire day in the safe confines of my bedroom recovering. I did walk to get food and eventually around 10pm, my roommate Sarah joined me to watch Be Kind Rewind.

My slovenly Sunday made for a slightly more active labor day. I woke up at a reasonable hour and futzed around for a bit. I went to the upper west side for lunch at 3:30 with my cousin steve and from there I found my way over to Morwin's for a labor day BBQ that had much of the same cast as the get together that kicked off the long weekend on Thursday. Again, we partook in meat and enjoyed each other's company. I only stayed for about three hours but it was quality time, much of which was marked by my hummin of the guitar part to "November Rain". I even got a new book idea out of it. It never hurts to have a bevy of projects you want to work on. Anyway, that was it...that was Labor day weekend. Everybody get back to work and stop reading this. It's business time, not summertime.

Hai sa-ti povestesc cum a fost primul curs, marti, de la ora 8:15 pana la 11:45. Este vorba de PROJECT MANAGEMENT, o materie care deja mi-a starnit interesul, o sa-ti spun aici si de ce.

Cred ca multora daca le-as spune ca preda un profesor de peste 60 de ani, ar spune ca deja e plictisitor si varza (cum e de obicei in Romania, cu oameni deja obositi, etc... hai ca nu comentez, respect pentru exceptiile existente), dar aici nu e asa. Profesorul, pe nume Richard (asa trebuie sa-l si strigam) e super ok. In primul curs ne-a spus cate ceva despre el (nici macar asta nu a fost plictisitor), dupa care ne-am prezentat si noi unul cate unul (primul nostru stand-up in care am vbit cateva secunde despre noi in engleza, a fost destul de funny), dupa care ne-a pus SA GANDIM, sa lucram in echipa. Prima problema: ce este un proiect? Dupa care s-au facut echipe de mai multe persoane si ne-a pus sa gandim cateva chestii pt un proiect: Ce caracteristici cautam la oamenii pe care vrem sa-i angajam? Din ce departamente fac parte acestia? Cum facem sa mearga mai bine proiectul? Cum facem sa se creeze un TEAM SPIRIT bun? ... A fost foarte interactiv si totodata FUN!!! Dezbateri cu proful, echipe care isi prezentau ideile, etc.

Mi-a placut. Am tinut 2 pauze in aceste 3 ore. Dupa asta am fost sa-mi ridic bursa de la statul danez, 5000 koroane oficial si teoretic, 4500 practic pentru ca am lipsit de la portile deschise ale facultatii... :(  Apoi am platit chiria si "depozitul" (garantia pt camera). Am platit aproape 8000 DKK (4000 ron) in total (dar depozitul, care inseamna chiria pe 3 luni, adica 5600 dkk - 2800 ron, o sa mi se restituie la sfarsit).

M-am dus cu Marius in oras pe urma sa cautam biciclete (BMX sau Mountain Bike) si CABLU DE RETEA!!! Ne-am plimbat toata ziua, ne-a prins si ploaia. E foarte frumos in centru si asa de obicei peste tot, curatenie, ordine, stil... Dupa vreo 3-4 bike shops am gasit si mountain bike (BMX nu se gaseste nicaieri dupa cum am vazut). Mi-am rezervat o bicla, ghidon ok, furca cu suspensii rezonabila, frana pe disk fata/spate, schimbator si foi shimano, cadru jos, scaun ok, frana shimano super buna, pedale din metal (brate tot shimano), protectie cadru pt lant, antifurt de calitate... O sa fie gata pana o sa ma duc maine sa-l ridic. Adica o sa imi seteze schimbatoarele sa functioneze perfect, sa imi dea cu vaselina sau cu ulei tot ce trebuie... Bicicleta costa sub cam 3700 koroane (1800 ron). E putin cam mult, dar adevarul e ca pentru banii astia merita (in tara asta) si nu e de fitze, e ceva care sa reziste, nu cum au facut alti colegi de-ai mei ca au luat bicla la 1000-1500 koroane si abia mai merg (dupa numia o saptamana de umblat).

Am fost si in Rosengarden-centre. Din pacate nu doar ca am prins ploaie si nu aveam nimic la noi, dar au fost inchise si magazinele din "mall"-ul respectiv, majoritatea magazinelor. Dar am gasit un supermarket acolo in care am gasit si cablu de retea, asa ca desi am ajuns acasa rupti dupa ore de umblat pe jos si uzi pana la piele, eu eram multumit, am rezolvat si bicla si cablul (adica internetul, asa ca deja scriu de pe laptopul meu).

Te ador puiut! Incepe sa-mi placa tara asta, chiar daca aproape toate casele arata identic, asemanator, au un stil al lor, un stil care imi place. Sunt buni gospadari. Abia astept sa te pot tine din nou in brate. Mi-e dor de tine !!!

In Denmark, autumn starts on September 1, whether it is cold or not. From now on, the weather will be more cold and more dark each week until December 22, which is the shortest day of the year. That day the sun is here for 6 hours and 53 minutes.

This is also the time for garden spiders, I realized when I opened the front door, and walked straight into a web. They are harmless, but a bit distracting to have in the hair.

The race for the Arctic heats up again.  After a Russian submarine planted a Russian flag on the seabed along the Mendeleev Ridge near the North Pole, the Canadians and Danish got together and launched a counter-attack.  As befitting their national character, they staked their claim on the Arctic based upon sound scientific research, presented at a world geological conference.

Reporting in the Ottawa Citizen, Randy Boswell of the Canadian News Service writes:

There will be no flag-waving or patriotic chest-thumping, but Canadian scientists are quietly set to make one of this country's most important assertions of Arctic sovereignty in decades tomorrow at a geology conference in Norway.

A year after Russian scientists planted their nation's flag on the North Pole seabed -- a controversial demonstration of their country's interest in securing control over a vast undersea mountain chain stretching across the Arctic Ocean from Siberia to Ellesmere Island and Greenland -- the Canadian researchers have teamed with Danish scientists to offer proof that the Lomonosov Ridge is, in fact, a natural extension of the North American continent.

Along with Russia, both Canada and Denmark are preparing submissions under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to secure jurisdiction over large swaths of the Arctic Ocean sea floor adjacent to their coastlines.

To secure those rights, each country has to submit scientific evidence proving the claimed undersea territories are linked geologically to its mainland or its Arctic islands.

Canada's planned UNCLOS submission includes areas in the Beaufort Sea in the western Arctic, on the Lomonsov Ridge in the east and along another underwater Arctic mountain range in the central Arctic called Alpha Ridge.

The Canadian-Danish study of the Lomonosov Ridge is to be presented in Oslo by Danish researcher Trine Dahl-Jensen and four scientists from the Geological Survey of Canada: Ruth Jackson, Deping Chian, John Shimeld and Gordon Oakley.

The study describes various geological traits observed by the two countries' scientists -- including magnetic anomalies, crust characteristics and volcanic features -- that appear common to both the ridge and adjacent parts of Canada and Greenland.

This leaves the U.S. in a bit of a lurch, since we generally avoid international cooperation and presenting raw scientific evidence for third-party review.  It also doesn't help that the Senate never ratified the UNCLOS treaty, so we have no rights under it.  So it appears that we'll have to do it the good ol' American way - by military invasion in support of multi-national oil companies.

Martyr to become a taboo word
20.09.2008

The Danish Intelligence Agency has recommend authorities avoid using certain words to describe terrorism.
A new document from the Danish Intelligence Agency (PET) advises authorities to refrain from using certain words when debating terrorism.
PET is worried that religious terms used to describe terrorism are creating a harmful link between the public’s perception of Islam and terrorism.
The document is entitled ‘Language use and the fight against terror’. It recommends avoiding the use of words like martyr, jihad, fundamentalist, Islamism and mujahedeen when talking about terrorism.
Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen, PET’s head of preventative security, said that adopting the language and phrases used by extremists can legitimise their actions.
Dalgaard-Nielsen said that introducing new language guidelines will help prevent radicalization of Muslim citizens, who often feel labelled as terror suspects.
‘Terrorist groups often try to legitimise their actions by associating them with religion, using words such as ‘jihad’,’ she said. ‘However, a jihad also has peaceful and positive meanings, and it is unfortunate if the authorities repeat it and strengthen the extremists’ use of the word.’
The prime minister and integration minister had not yet seen the report, but other politicians had mixed reactions.
‘I’ll say what I want to say, and I think PET should keep to itself when it comes to the need for political correctness in public debates,’ Martin Henriksen, the Danish People’s Party’s integration spokesman, told Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper.
Karsten Lauritzen, the head of the parliamentary integration committee, said it was naive to think avoiding certain words would fight terrorism.
‘But I’ll say that PET is right that the authorities should understand certain words before they use them. For example, ‘sharia’ is not just a brutal justice system, but also an education in how to be a good Muslim. It’s not always seen that way though, and the authorities should debate on an informed basis.’

Finland:

Direct Development Aid Stunting Development?
Published 01.09.2008, 18.15
Direct development aid given by Finland has stunted the development of recipient governments, claims a new report by Helsinki University professor Juhani Koponen.
His research shows that aid money has created a steady source of income, and minimized the pressure for the governments of developing countries to get their own taxation systems and legislative processes in better working order.
Aid money has also selectively strengthened areas of government, such as finance ministries, while other offices still struggle. Koponen observed this trend in countries where Finland has had long-standing development ties, such as Nepal, Tanzania, and Vietnam.

Money "Disappears"
Retired Ambassador Antti Hynninen, who co-ordinated Finland's aid contributions for a time, agrees with the study's findings. He says that for example, most of the money sent to Sudan and Egypt simply disappears.
He feels that Finland should stop indiscriminately raising its development contributions and actually take a critical look at what good it has done and how to improve its efficacy.

Netherlands:

Most kids go home for lunch, survey
Tuesday 02 September 2008
The majority of children at primary schools go home for lunch and only 8% spend every midday break in the classroom, according to research by TNS Nipo reports the Telegraaf on Tuesday.
Schools believe tradition plays a major role in parents’ decision whether their offsdpring stay at school or go home during the lunch break. Only 9% said cost was the main factor.
Most schools prefer voluntary lunch supervisors to professional childminders, the researchers said.

Norway:

Students cheating, too
First published: 01 Sep 2008, 10:12

Just a week after news broke that former members of Norway's parliament are facing charges of collecting more pension benefits than they should, comes news that students are effectively cheating the system as well.
Newspaper Dagsavisen, which broke last week's top story about pension overpayments to former MPs, also reported Monday that students are collecting far more student aid than they should.
That's because they're using false addresses, indicating they're out on their own, when in reality they're living at home with their parents. In most cases, that implies far lower housing costs than otherwise stated, and should result in much lower financial aid grants (called utdanningsstipend in Norwegian).
There is no tuition at state universities in Norway, as compared to the fees charged college students in the US, for example, but students are responsible for their books, supplies, various minor fees and all living expenses.
Parents in Norway are not viewed as being primarily responsible for the college expenses of their offspring, so most students over the legal age of 18 apply for grants and loans and many work on the side. This results in most students finishing their college years at much older ages than in the US, and in considerable debt.
Around 150,000 students in Norway currently are financing their studies through the student loan agency Statens Lånekassen. It distributes as much as NOK 17 billion annually (around USD 3 billion) in the form of loans and grants.
Just over 8,000 of those studying today have reported that they live at home with their parents. Another 43,000 report addresses close to their parents' addresses, but can theoretically live at home.
Officials at Lånekassen recently ran a check of the students' actual residential circumstances and found that 4.5 percent were collecting grants by using a false address, reported Dagsavisen. They collectively may have swindled the system for as much as NOK 65 million.
"This is very serious, said Astrid Mjærum of Lånekassen. "The dishonest students are stealing from society, and undermine the entire system."
Those caught can be denied future student financing for life, and grants they have received will be turned into debt that they must repay.

Sweden:

Thousands of Swedes order home chlamydia tests
Published: 1 Sep 08 07:11 CET

Tests for the sexually transmitted disease, which are available for order over the internet, have proven extremely popular in Sweden.
So far nearly 30,000 tests have been carried out across the country.
What’s more, the home tests have been enticing new groups of people—especially more boys and men—to test themselves for the disease.
A record number of Swedes have been infected with chlamydia.
Since the start of the year more than 24,000 people have been diagnosed, with the majority being young people between the ages of 15 and 27.
To simplify testing for the disease, several county councils have been offering chlamydia tests over the internet.
Tests are home delivered through special websites, after which users can send the results in to a laboratory for analysis.
A few days later, the coded test results are made available and can be read online from a home computer.
As a result, caregivers reach a segment of the population that they might not otherwise have reached.
In Västra Götaland County, which has offered the tests online since 2006, more than 15,000 residents have tested themselves.
“It started tentatively, but now we’re seeing a successful increase. A big advantage is that we getting more gender balance—men have begun to approach women in terms of the number of tests [they have ordered],” said Peter Nolskog, an infectious diseases specialist with the Västra Götaland county council.
The fact that the internet is always open and that people can remain anonymous has attracted many, believed Nolskog.
The test have also been popular in Södermanland.
“We started in January and it’s increasing from month to month,” said infectious disease doctor Carl-Gustaf Sundin.

Words above and video by AljazeeraEnglish

http://www.geni.org

I have to admit, that I have not lost my fears. Last week, a small bank, the Roskilde Bank, was nationalized. It seems that 10 different people loan so much money, that they put the bank in distress. see news. I have an old accountant telling me they should put to in jail all the bank executives, for letting this happen (I think he was not happy that tax payers money is used for this).   

Anyways, going back to the good news for today: Danish Q2 GDP rises 1.2 pct yr/yr, and in Spanish: Dinamarca sale de la recesión. Let's see if it lasts.

The day that I arrived in Copenhagen I discovered something interesting; Mercedes-Benz motorcars are used as taxis. WHAT?! That's unheard of in the US. We may use them as limos or private taxis; but to paint it and put a taxi dome on the top of it? No way. Even over here, we have much cheaper, passable substitutes such as Lincoln Town Car and the Chrysler 300.

I could get past seeing a C-Class or an E-Class as a taxi; but a 2008 S-Class? A big dog? NO WAY! It's appalling to see such a thing. Well friends, they can be found roaming the streets of Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

I've heard BMWs and Benz's are working man's cars here, whereas they are Tier 1 luxury vehicles in the US. A working man's car, that okay. I can understand them not being held in high regard here. But making a BMW, Audi or Benz a taxi just seems so wrong.

A Fine Piece of Automotive Machinery

I've never been a fan of European luxury cars either; at least not to seriously consider buying one.  I think they're overpriced, and far too unreliable for the money. I can't remember the last time I've been in a Benz, save for the few I sat in at some auto shows I attended.   A Mercedes-Benz E-Class was the vehicle that was dispatched to transport me from the client to the Copenhagen airport last Friday.  The ride to the airport is fairly long, about 45 minutes.

Enjoy The Ride

20 minutes into the ride we're on the freeway on the way to the airport.  It's quite a ride.  We speed by lots of green pastures, wind turbines, and the Danish countryside.  I think to myself, "This is pretty cool. I'm digging this whole Denmark thing."  We continue to speed along.  I watch the driver.  He's leaned slightly to his right.  He seems to be enjoying the drive.  I then begin scanning the interior.  "Look at the interior accents. Look at the instrument cluster and controls.  Okay, he's doing about 90.  This car has a nice ride!" Then, I realize just how comfortable the rear seat of the car is.  "Wow, this seat feels so nice." I lean back and just enjoy the ride.

Once we arrive at the airport, I get out and admire the car for a quick second.  "I have to get one of these!"

Now that summer is pretty much over with, you might want to get a jump on your travel planning for next year. Those of you with fond memories of Leonard Wibberley's novels about the Duchy of Grand Fenwick might want to book a visit to Denmark and the island realm of Elleore, which began as a satirical flip-off to the Nazi occupiers and persists as a realm where the spirit of Monty Python is filtered through the Danish sensibility.

Тръгнах с малко дрехи, малко пари и един лаптоп към съвършено нов живот. Доста книги започват така, както каза една приятелка. Да видим.