Denmark Food Labels

A new label on Danish meat products will encourage consumers to choose more animal-friendly, and likely more expensive products. The label will inform consumers about the living standards of pigs before the animal's meat is used for pork steaks and bacon rashers. The idea is that it would encourage Danes to reward farmers that made an extra effort for pig welfare. Three-star pigs will have spent a stipulated minimum amount of time outside and have slept on straw. The label will give up to three stars depending on a number of conditions relating to the welfare of pigs. 
New labeling on other food packaging will enable consumers in Denmark to see the effect of their shopping on the environment. The Minister for the Environment wants to give consumers the means to assess in supermarkets the environmental impact of products. “My impression is that there is a demand for knowledge about how individual consumers can contribute to improving world climate,” the minister said. Based on voluntary climate markings on food packaging, the government will launch a campaign to make it easier for consumers to make climate-friendly choices, according to the plan.

Seems like the Ministry of Environment and Food (Miljø- og Fødevareministeriet) has been eating some of its own happy bacon.

What's in a Name, Scandinavia

Scandinavia is an area of Northern Europe that shares a common historical, cultural, and linguistic Germanic heritage. This area includes the modern countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It is a cultural term often confused with the geographical term: Scandinavian Peninsula.

The Scandinavian Peninsula is made up of Norway, Sweden, and Finland (plus a bit of Russia). Denmark is physically separate from the peninsula.

The Scandinavian languages, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are similar and can mostly be understood by people in each of the Scandinavian countries. Finnish is unrelated to the Scandinavian languages.

Finland, although a part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, is not usually considered a Scandinavian country. Despite its close location to Sweden and Norway, it does not share the same Germanic cultural and linguistic heritage as those countries.

Global Internet Speeds

The US is still slipping behind the rest of the world when it comes to download speeds, with an average of 10 Mbps it ranks just 55th worldwide.

For coverage, US subscribers get an LTE signal 81 percent of the time, or seventh best in the world. By comparison, Romania offers only 61 percent coverage for its LTE network, but has speeds as fast as 33 Mbps.

The global average for download speeds on LTE is 13.5 Mbps. Singapore offers the fastest networks, with downloads as fast as 40 Mbps. During 2015, America's average download speed was a paltry 9 Mbps.

Top 5 fastest countries average speeds:
    New Zealand, 36 Mbps
    Singapore, 33 Mbps
    Romania, 30 Mbps
    South Korea, 29 Mbps
    Denmark, 26 Mbps.

Bluetooth Symbol

Have you ever wondered how the bluetooth symbol was developed? Look at the top line on your smart phone to see it.

It comes from the Nordic runes for the letters GH and B for Harald 'Bluetooth'  Gormson, the king of Denmark and Norway back in the nine hundreds, who turned the Danes to Christianity. The name suggests he had a dark or blue tooth.

Internet Usage

Iceland (96%), Norway (95%), and Sweden (94%) have the highest percent of populations using the Internet. The Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg, Bermuda, and Finland all have over 90% of their respective populations using the net.

Canada is 16th with 86% of its population using the Internet. The US ranks 28th, with 78% (244 million people) online.

China has 591 million people using the Internet, but that is just 44% of the country's 1.3 billion population.

Greenland and Australia

Australia is a continent and also the largest island. Greenland is the second largest island, but not a continent.

There are several accepted factors that classify continents. These factors include tectonic independence from other continents, unique flora and fauna, cultural uniqueness, and local belief in continental status.

Australia rests on its own tectonic plate called the Australian Plate. It has its own unique flora and fauna, with native animals unlike any others in the world. Its inhabitants consider themselves to live on both an island and a continent.

Greenland rests on the North American tectonic plate along with Canada, the United States, and Mexico. It has a number of unique species of plants, but its animals, like reindeer, polar bears, and arctic foxes, can also be found elsewhere. Greenland has its own culture, but considered part of the larger North American arctic culture. Its inhabitants consider themselves islanders.

Australia is part of Britain’s Commonwealth and Greenland is officially part of Denmark.

Australia is about 3 million square miles and the sixth largest country in the world. Greenland is about 834 thousand square miles and the twelfth largest country in the world.

Eighty percent of Greenland is covered by ice. Eighteen percent of Australia is covered by deserts.

84% of Greenlanders live in urban areas and 89% of Australians live in urban areas.
Greenland's one major city is its capital, Nuuk. Inhabitants of both live mostly along the coast.

Greenland’s population is 89% Inuit and 11% Danish and Australia’s population is 92% white, 7% Asian, and 1% Aboriginal.

There are almost 6 migrants leaving Greenland per 1000 people. In Australia, there are almost 6 migrants entering the country per 1000 people.

Hans Christian Andersen

He was born on this day in 1805 to a poor family. His father, a shoemaker, died when Hans was 11 years old. When he was just 14, Hans left his hometown of Odense, Denmark and traveled to Copenhagen where he became a starving actor, singer, and dancer. It was there that he met the man who became his lifelong friend and benefactor, Jonas Collin. With Collin’s help, Andersen received a royal scholarship and completed his education.

By his 25th birthday, Hans was on his way to a writing career that would make him one of the most widely-read authors in the world. His first recognition came for his many plays and novels. Five years later, he penned his first of 168 fairy tales.

Among them are The Tinder-Box, Little Claus and Big Claus; tales that made fun of human faults: The Emperor’s New Suit, The Princess and the Pea; tales based on his life: The Ugly Duckling, She was Good for Nothing, and The Snow Queen, The Red Shoes, The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, The Marsh King’s Daughter.

As Andersen’s popularity rose in the 1840s, he found himself rubbing shoulders with kings and queens, famous composers, poets and novelists. He became wealthy enough to visit throughout Europe, writing about his experiences as he traveled. In Sweden is often considered his best travel book.

He wrote his own story in 1855, The Fairy Tale of My Life. Hans Christian Andersen died a lonely man on August 4, 1875, but his stories and fairy tales live on, entertaining children and adults.

The Hans Christian Andersen Award is presented every other year to an author and an illustrator of children’s books. The ‘Little Nobel Prize’, as it is often called, is the highest international recognition bestowed on an author (since 1956) and to an illustrator (since 1966). It is presented by the International Board on Books for Young People.

Something is Rotten in Denmark

I heard someone say this on an English TV show recently and thought it interesting that they use the same expression we do. Looked it up and found out it is from Shakespeare's Hamlet when Marcellus sees the ghost of Hamlet's father, the king of Denmark. Literally it meant that something was wrong with the government of Denmark. Used loosely now, it means something is wrong or things are unsatisfactory.