Oh Happy Dane

Continuing my series of posts on Denmark: a slightly tongue-in-cheek analysis of why Danes are consistently much happier than people elsewhere.

(via Freakonomics)

Danish Innovators

(Just so non-Danes reading this blog don’t think Denmark is only about sperm.)

Last week The Economist announced their annual prizes for innovation. Out of the seven categories, Danes featured in two. Kinda good, innit? Janus Friis won (with Swedish Niklas Zennström) in the Computer and Communications-category for producing Skype and KaZaA. This is a prime example of what innovative single minds can accomplish. A very deserved award, in my humble opinion.

I’m not sure I can say the same about Johannes Poulsen of Vestas, though, in the category of Energy and Environment. Mostly because I’m highly ignorant of him and his work, but also because he most probably wouldn’t have had the same success without massive government support. Still, I’ll defer to The Economist’s judgement on this.

Denmark as Sperm Powerhouse of Europe

…at least according to this article in The Times. Funny how you learn things about your own country from foreigners, of all people. I had no idea sperm donations were that much more common here than elsewhere.

Some funny excerps from the article:

“West across the Kattegat to Arhus, and Dr Karsten Peterson shows me the Ciconia Private Hospital, another fertility temple of pine floors, rugs and candles. “This place used to be filled with Siemens,” he says. What? “Siemens, the electronic company, had its offices here.””

“When asked why Danes are so eager to donate, one replies “we are a nation of wankers”, but the rest say that they do it for the money, and to help childless couples.”

“Schou brought a new level of efficiency to Danish sperm banking. Only donors with the highest quality sperm — around one applicant in ten — were accepted and Schou also imposed a “daughter test” — “if the interviewing doctor would not want an applicant’s sperm to be used on his daughter, the applicant should be rejected”.”