Well my nephew read through his copy of Harry Potter and the Half Blood prince and he kindly loaned it to me.  I really appreciate his generosity with his books. 

For this I will give him a couple of cds of music (Luna, Bob Marley, Daft Punk? post your suggestions, Shiv-readers).  Such are the deals that we make with teenagers now.

I thought those people who were re-reading the Harry Potter books 1 - 5 in anticipation of this one were a bit crazy.  But now that I am reading Book 6, I do forget some of the things that happened.  Even though it seemed to me that not much happened in Book 5.  What happened between Harry and Cho?  I can't even remember that.  Why was she so embarrassed to see him on the Hogwarts  train?  I may have to make a few phone calls.

Yesterday Denmark's foreign minister announced that Denmark will not replace its tattered flag on Hans Island.  Denmark has decided to discuss this issue through formal channels. 

This decision to not replace a wind-tattered Danish flag should not be taken lightly.  Flags are important to the Danes. 

Flags are important to every country, you say?  Yes but to the Danes, their flag is their most important cultural symbol.  Combine the national importance of Eiffel Tower, Queen of England and the Maple Leaf and you are starting to get the idea.

Danes use their flag to celebrate everything.  For example, when people go to meet a family member at the airport, everyone brings flags to wave.  On a birthday flags are put up all over, the number of flags increasing with the significance of the birthday.  If you get a congratulations card from a Dane, they will probably put a flag sticker in it to say, 'Hey, its your special day' here is a flag.

The Danish flag is called the Dannebrog.  It is considered the oldest flag in Europe and believed to have dropped from heaven.  As depicted below.




Consider that in many European countries, flag waving declined after the Second World War due to its negative association with nationalism.  But in Denmark, this was never the case as the flag remained a positive symbol of Denmark's independence and culture.

Matthew Ingram, of The Globe and Mail, wrote in his blog that maybe we should challenge Denmark to a bake-off over Hans Island.
Danishes vs. croissants.  I think that this just illustrates the continued misunderstanding of Denmark.  Canada Department of Foreign Affairs, if you are reading this, do not challenge Denmark to a bake-off.  Abort.  Danger. Abort.  That would guarantee the loss of Hans Island.

First of all, the dough-y, heavy and somewhat tasteless pastry known here as a 'Danish' is a bit of a mystery to Danes.  Because in Denmark, they make a variety of pastries and they are light, flakey and delicious.  In fact I think you would get fired from a bakery (known as Konditori in Dansk) for producing what we call a Danish. 

In the Danish language, the pastry is known as 'weinerbrod' which translates literally as Vienna bread.  That's right the Danish bakers originally OEM'd their pastry from Vienna. 

Try it in Toronto at  Hansen's Danish Pastry Shop
1017 Pape Ave. Tel.: (416) 425-8877

The Globe and Mail is reporting on an Ipso-Reid survey that the typical teenager now spends slightly more time on the Internet surfing than watching TV. 

This will drive major changes in advertising and traditional broadcast since, as it says in the report, 18-34 year olds are considered to generally have the largest amount of disposable income.  Traditional media (terrestrial television and radio) advertising budgets will continue to shrink.  Look for networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, HBO etc) to increasingly move to being content providers rather than broadcasters. 

There was a lot talk about this kind of change back in the dotcom boom of the '90's.  It prompted the whole Bell Globemedia creation, for example. 

As is customary, those types of actions were way too soon.  Many people in traditional media industries now laugh it off like it was some kind of crazy fever everyone was infected with.  Since its actually happening now most companies will probably ignore it.

You Say You Want A Web Revolution

The T. pointed out this artile from Wired.  On the weekend we were having a conversation about how PC computing is likely on its last legs (5 - 10 years left) and over the next 10 years I think we will see the rise of some type of distributed computing.

For example a box that serves up web pages and applications to one of your many multi-media devices in your home from a centralized Internet provider.  Viruses and fear of spy-ware will drive adoption of this type of solution by regular people who are increasingly frustrated by PCs that have to be fixed from all kinds of malware. 

I think blogs are an indication of this growth.  I have what is almost equivalent to a basic Microsoft Word editor on this blog.  I've thought of creating a 'private' blog just so I can store notes to my self, lists of things to do and things I find on the 'Net and want to re-visit.  Is that a beginning of distributed computing?