HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: gtr0@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (GLEN TORLEIF RYEN)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Who'll be the next American President?
Date: 9 Apr 92 03:53:34 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

>The most telling thing about Perot's character in the bio was the
>revealation of what Ross considered to be the proudest moment of his
>life.  Now, mind you, this is a man who has accomplished quite a lot
>in his life. First in his class at the Naval Academy, IBM's top
>salesman for many years, self-made billionare, etc.
>
>Yet the proudest moment in his life was not graduating top at
>Annapolis, not being a star at IBM, not getting married, having kids
>or even making his first million nor even billion dollars. No, the
>proudest moment in H. Ross Perot's life was when he became an Eagle
>Scout!
>
>*THAT* speakes volumes for the man's mind-set.

What exactly does it say about him?  I don't know much about Perot, but I can
understand why he chose reaching Eagle Scout as his proudest moment.
Obviously the author of the above comments never reached Eagle, if he was ever
a Boy Scout.  As an Eagle Scout, I can attest to the years of hard work that
go into reaching that level.  Yet on the day I was formally declared an Eagle,
I was overwhelmed by the amount of recognition I recieved.  I recieved
certificates, a bond from the Police Department, and letters from every city,
state, and federal government official around (up to and including a personal
congratulatory note from George Herbert Walker Bush!).

So don't condemn Perot for taking justifiable pride in something I *KNOW* he
put a lot of hard work into.  Not everyone becomes a Boy Scout, and very few
perservere long enough to attain the highest rank therein.  The National
Association of Eagle Scouts is a rather elite fraternity, who ranks include
more than a few presidents, heads of state, and captains of industry.  That is
why H. Ross Perot and myself feel great pride in being Eagle Scouts.

Glen T. Ryen
Eagle Scout

P.S.  I apologize that this post isn't Nordic in nature, but I had to respond
to what I considered an insult to me and every other Eagle Scout in the world.
Thank you.
From: steinarb@idt.unit.no (Steinar Bang)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Hard times in Norway?
Date: 9 Apr 92 14:06:32 GMT
Distribution: soc
Organization: Norwegian Institute of Technology, Trondheim, Norway

>>>>> On 7 Apr 92 12:10:03 GMT, lyled@pnet05.cts.com (Lyle Davis) said:

> I also noted that the CNN reporter form Norway, Bjorn Eide (?) Elde (?)

I don't know. Since I have to pay extra to get CNN on the cable, I
haven't got it...

>  must have been an older reporter.  His report carried a heavy
> Norwegian accent.  Unusual, I thought, as most Norwegians I met when
> I had come "home" had little, if any, accent.

Some do, some don't. I have met some people who just don't seem to be
able to shake the accent from their native language.

I have even met some people who made it a point to speak with an
accent. I never understood their justification, though.

> These were, however, younger Norwegians.

Younger norwegians, indoctrinated as they are with MTV (which are
currently off the norwegian cable networks, because of a payment
disagreement), videos, and other american cultural exports tend to
affect a fairly good approximation of an unplacable american accent.

This doesn't mean that they know the King's English any better than
their seniors.

In Norway your accent also depends what dialect you speak (eg. I (a
northener) have to force it, to get the easterner accent you
(probably) are referring to as the typical norwegian accent.)

- Steinar
From: percus@husc9.harvard.edu (Allon Percus)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Who'll be the next American President?
Date: 10 Apr 92 05:38:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc3.1992Apr10.013842.10907
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

In article <1992Apr09.035334.110072@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu> gtr0@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (GLEN TORLEIF RYEN) writes:
>P.S.  I apologize that this post isn't Nordic in nature, but I had to respond
>to what I considered an insult to me and every other Eagle Scout in the world.

The WORLD???!!!

The "Eagle Scout" sounds like a purely American thing to me and, with
absolutely no offense or insult intended, slightly on the childish side.

Allon Percus
From: sundinKC@dna.lth.se (Anders Sundin)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Why the Swedes squeal so much
Date: 14 Apr 92 17:23:00 GMT
Organization: Organic Chemistry 2, Lund University, Sweden

Bertil Jonell writes:
>                         1980    1889    Change in percentage
> =============================================================
> 1000's of visits        5753    5254    -4%
> number of doctors       3023    3992    +32%
>
> [...]
> The real reason why we squeal so much over that we pay so much is that
> *we see that we get less and less*, and soon we will probably get as little
> as you get, but pay several times more!

This situation is easily amended. You only have to lay off 25 percent of the
current staff at hospitals to be back at 1980 again.
Why don't you write to Carl Bildt to tell him about this brilliant idea of how
to save hundreds of millions in one fell swoop?
-- 
 Anders Sundin           e-mail: sundinKC@dna.lth.se
 Organic Chemistry 2             Anders.Sundin@orgk2.lth.se
 University of Lund              ok2aps@seldc52.bitnet
 P.O. Box 124            phone:  +46 46 108214
 S-22100 Lund, Sweden    fax:    +46 46 108209
From: wolfgang@sam.first.gmd.de (Wolfgang Diestelkamp)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Swedish Prime minister says Sweden gaining democratic freedom
Date: 9 Apr 92 12:51:06 GMT
Article-I.D.: sam.WOLFGANG.92Apr9145106
	<10763@chalmers.se>,<1992Apr3.174808.16139@lth.se>
	<1992Apr4.140141.17795@kth.se>,<1992Apr6.073634.27102@eua.ericsson.se>
	<1992Apr6.160749.24709@kth.se>,<1992Apr7.070411.6411@sics.se>
Reply-To: wolfgang@prosun.first.gmd.de
Organization: GMD-FIRST, Berlin
In-reply-to: matsd@LINK.Physchem.KTH.SE's message of 7 Apr 92 20:45:09 GMT

In article <1992Apr7.204509.12002@kth.se> matsd@LINK.Physchem.KTH.SE (matsd@physchem.kth.se (mats dahlgren)) writes:

>   >How would you make an arrangement such that you would not have to pay
>   >VAT on that part of the fare that corresponds to the energy tax on the
>   >gasoline the taxi driver bought? Can you provide a *working* solution
>   >to this?

>   Yes.  It's very simple.  Lift off the VAT from all special taxes. If you
>   want another solution to your taxi-problem, there are two which
>   come to mind: 

Lifting off VAT from special taxes doesn't help *at all*. In Lars-Henrik's
example, the taxi company doesn't pay VAT for the gas (they get it refunded
actually), *but*, you as the taxi company's customer pay VAT on the whole fare,
including the gas part of the fare. So in fact VAT *was* removed from the
special tax, yet you pay it, including on the special tax.

>   1.  Take away the VAT on taxi trips.  I know this is contrary to the 
>       intention in the taxation reform, but I don't think the reform was 
>       100 percent good.  

You'd have to take away VAT from everything, since everything uses at least
some energy in the process of being produced, and thus its price has to
contain some energy taxes. Of course again, taking away VAT from everything
might be a viable alternative :-)

>   2.  Take away the energy tax.  If you don't want ordinary people, 
>       "Medelsvensson", to benefit from this, let the transportation
>       companies (such as taxi co.'s) get a refund of the energy tax, or
>       deduct it from the VAT they pay to the state. 

Part 1 of this sentence: nice, but somehow they'd get their money from you
anyway. Part 2: Do you really think this could be done, not causing more
cost than the actual tax refund ?

>   As you probaly can see, I don't mind if the total taxation is decreased.  
>   I cannot accept the state (i.e. politicians) saying there is a need to 
>   increase some taxations to lower others, as long as the state wastes 
>   some 37 000 000 000 kronor each year or so on the military.

:-)

--
Wolfgang Diestelkamp
wolfgang@prosun.first.gmd.de
diestelkamp@kmx.gmd.dbp.de
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: blix@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu (Gunnar Blix)
Subject: Re: Hard times in Norway?
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 18:29:33 GMT

>Sorry, but I cant resist adding my thoughts here....

>Unemployment in Norway has risen from practicaly nothing, to about 5%
>the last few years.  In the rest of Europe it is between 8 and 10% and
>has been for quite many years, f.ex. in england under the whole
>Tatcher era.  Norway has POSITIVE trade balance with the world, has
>the shortest working hours in the world, aboute 150K people living on
>official *disabled* support (about the same number as are unemployed),
>practicaly no foreign loans, etc. etc...

The last time I read my paper from Norway, the unemployment rate was
quoted as 8%, and there was no sign of it going down.  Where is your
quote of 5% from?  Similarly, I thought it was a while since our trade
balance was positive.  Please quote your sources. About 2%
unemployment is generally considered 'healthy' in an economy (as far
as I can recall from my social studies classes).

>The real course of the Economical crisis talk in Norway, is the
>interest rate.  Running 15% interests when the inflation is 2%, is
>bound to have consequences.  This is in my mind the course of the dept
>crisis (gjelds krisen) of privat investors and house byers, and the
>same goes for the industry, with small companies, low own
>start-capital rate (sorry I dont remeber the right term here) and
>with big loans, and hence bancrupty and unemployment.

It's not quite clear what you're trying to say here.  If you're saying
that private investors are in a jam because the interest rate is 15%,
that is probably true. If you're claiming private investors are the
cause of this problem, then that's an urban legend that is dead wrong.
The crisis in the Norwegian savings and loans is due to problems in
industry, and the private economies' (including YAP's) contribution to
this problem is greatly exxagerated (according to the former Chairman
of the board in Norway's largest bank).

--
******************************************************************
* Gunnar Blix      * Good advice is one of those insults that    *
* blix@cs.uiuc.edu * ought to be forgiven.              -Unknown *
******************************************************************
From: ksand@apple.com (Kent Sandvik)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Official Language Status
Date: 11 Apr 92 02:00:31 GMT
Organization: MacDTS Mongols

In article <1992Apr2.140222.16322@jyu.fi>, ryyti@jyu.fi (Jarmo Ryyti) writes:
> I have lived in Sweden and my brother still lives with his family and
> his children are becoming half swedish speakers and half finnish speakers,(not
bilingual)
> because they do not learn first Finnish at school and studying in Swedish
> do not make them completaly swedish speakers (we call them puolikielisi{)
> I do not believe that swedish people in Finland would accept similar policy
for 
> their children, no education in own language.

I think this sentence exactly describes the main reason immigrants in Sweden
are scared of their kids learning only one language, i.e. melting into
the social pot of the Swedish society. Their kids will gain from this, but
their parents are scared when they realize they are the last kinds of their
original ancestory. And in some cases kids end up with the worst of both
kinds, parents not allowing them to learn the native language, and the
kids will suffer through education and the business life.

I've seen this egoistic issue raising up in Finland, Sweden, Australia, USA
and I'm sure it's true for many other immigrant families. What about my case,
I named my son with an English name, and he's feel to speak English with
his friends.

The end point is that if you deliberately immigrate to another country, 
you should realize that you left some of your earlier privileges behind.
That's it. And if you don't want to have your kids learning the native
language of the country, you could always move back to your original place,
so there's a simple solution!


Cheers,
Kent
..yes, Jeff will not learn much Narpesisk-Swedish, but that's life.
From: sundinKC@dna.lth.se (Anders Sundin)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Ruling parties in Norden
Date: 14 Apr 92 16:36:11 GMT
Organization: Organic Chemistry 2, Lund University, Sweden

Steinar Haug writes:
> Personally, I often find great similarities between Arbeiderpartiet
> and H|yre (the Conservative Party here in Norway)... and I think that
> the differences are often made to seem bigger than they really are,

I agree. However, here in Sweden there are large differences both within
the conservative party, Moderaterna, and within the Social Democrats.

A "classic" conservative is often a humanist who values people higher
than political ideas. He is sometimes surprisingly radical, and
he generally favours the large export industries.
His political equivalent among the Social Democrats is a gr}sosse
= "Grey-Social-Democrat". A gr}sosse values people higher than
political ideas. He is sometimes surprisingly conservative, and he
generally favours the large export industries.

A neo-liberal (or what is a nyliberal called in English?) is more bound
by his political ideas. He believes that the market is always good,
and that the state is a necessary evil. A nyliberal is often willing
to sell off state owned property, even when it is bad business.
His political equivalent among the Social Democrats is the socialist.
A socialist believes that the market is a necessary evil and that the
state is always good. He is often willing to socialise property,
even when it is bad business.
-- 
 Anders Sundin           e-mail: sundinKC@dna.lth.se
 Organic Chemistry 2             Anders.Sundin@orgk2.lth.se
 University of Lund              ok2aps@seldc52.bitnet
 P.O. Box 124            phone:  +46 46 108214
 S-22100 Lund, Sweden    fax:    +46 46 108209
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: seeger@oceania.com (Seeger Fisher)
Subject: Re: Exchange Rate for Icelandic crowns
Reply-To: seeger@oceania.com
Organization: Oceania Health Care Systems
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 92 17:33:03 GMT

In article <72760@netnews.upenn.edu> havens@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (U2DRAGONLADY)  
writes:
> Can someone please tell me how much 58.000,- Icelandic crowns is in
> U.S. dollars or Swedish crowns. I would appreciate your help.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Jean Elizabeth Havens

about a thousand USdollars.
100K = 1.73 dollars, a few days ago.
-- 
|   seeger@oceania.com 											  |
From: lhe@sics.se (Lars-Henrik Eriksson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: question for Macintosh users in Sweden
Keywords: macintosh
Date: 12 Apr 92 11:33:16 GMT
Reply-To: lhe@sics.se (Lars-Henrik Eriksson)
Organization: SICS, Kista (Stockholm), Sweden

In article <Apr.11.21.42.28.1992.21231@central.rutgers.edu>, friedan@central (Daniel Friedan) writes:
>I am planning to buy the U.S. versions of
>    a Macintosh Classic II (4/80) and
>    a U.S. model Stylewriter.
> ......
>I am worried about the following:
>
>    1.  Will the computer and printer tolerate the frequency (Hz) of
>        European power?

The 220-240 V Mac Classic and Mac II ci I have beside me both accept
50-60 Hz. I can see no reason why a 110 V version or other recent Mac
models shouldn't do the same. To be on the safe side, check! Look at
the data plate on the back of the unit or at the technical specs of
the Mac in question.

>    2.  Will it be expensive to buy, in Goteborg, Sweden,
>            - an A4 paper tray for the Stylewriter,
>            - a copy of the Swedish version of System 7,
>            - Swedish Truetype fonts and

You should be able to get the Swedish software for just a handling
fee. Apple make all the standard software in all the various languages
freely available for copying over the internet. It wouldn't make much
sense for a Swedish retailer to actually charge you for the software
itself.

>            - Swedish keycap labels?

This is a trickier issue.  It is not only the keycaps that are
different, the *keyboard* itself is different.  Apple has a US and an
international keyboard. The international keyboard has more keys and a
slightly different key layout.
-- 
Lars-Henrik Eriksson				Internet: lhe@sics.se
Swedish Institute of Computer Science		Phone (intn'l): +46 8 752 15 09
Box 1263					Telefon (nat'l): 08 - 752 15 09
S-164 28  KISTA, SWEDEN
From: kjartan@daimi.aau.dk (Kjartan Stefansson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Ruling parties in Norden
Date: 15 Apr 92 11:10:11 GMT
Organization: DAIMI: Computer Science Department, Aarhus University, Denmark

armagan@PRC.Unisys.COM (Armagan Ozdinc) writes:

>Could someone tell me what the current ruling parties in Nordic countries
>(Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark) are? Where do those parties
>stand in the political spectrum (social democrat, socialist, far-right,
>center-right, etc.)?

The parties in Iceland:  (Yes, there are parties in Iceland.  Oh,
yes, there are politicians there as well!)

    Name                 Rough translation           % in last
                                                       election
(D) Sjalfstaedisflokkur  Conservatives                 38.6
(A) Althyduflokkur       (Social) Democrats            15.5
(B) Framsoknarflokkur    Farmers Party                 18.9
(V) Kvennalistinn        Women's Party                  8.3
(G) Althydubandalag      Socialists                    14.4

The single letter in first column is each parties letter, used on
ballots.  The top two on the list (D+A) form the current
government.  The list is top-down in order of their right to left
spectrum, as evaluated by yours truly.  Any left to right ordering
is of course simplification, and I think any reshuffling of (A),(B)
and (V) can be argued.

The conservatives bear strong similarities with the British
conservatives, perhaps a bit more moderate though.  I put
parenthesis around Social, in (Social) Democrats, since they've
been shifting significantly to the right in the past decade.  While
some of their ministers are busy privatizing government companies,
one of them is putting all her efforts into social housing
projects.

The farmers party started that way, as a farmers party, early this
century, and it's strongest areas of support are the rural areas.
Perhaps a more appropriate name would be "Moderates," because it's
hard to classify their policies (i.e. "popular politicians").

The women's party has lasted longer than anyone expected, in a
traditional four-party system.  They have only women on their
ballot, and emphasize on (surprise..) women's issues.  A popular
slogan: Leave it to the practical housewife!

The socialists used to be a communist party (until the fifties?)
and as many such has gone through several identity crises.  In fact
the Social Democrats are an old fraction thereof.  You see, the
rule is:  The smaller the party is, the more likely it is to split!

Enuff said,

Kjartan Stefansson
(kjartan@daimi.aau.dk)
From: sundinKC@dna.lth.se (Anders Sundin)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Dagens Nyheter April 6th
Date: 7 Apr 92 16:06:00 GMT
Organization: Organic Chemistry 2, Lund University, Sweden

Bertil Jonell writes:
>>sundinKC@dna.lth.se (Anders Sundin) writes:
>>Today DN presented the main proposals for new subsidies to help
>>the retired to pay their rent.
>
>  This shouldn't be needed if it wasn't for a severely broken housing policy,
>a broken land-utilization policy and a almost as broken tax policy.

Isn't this is the effect of removing the subsidies for building new houses?
Do you seriously think that the retired would pay less in rent if every square
meter of beach on the islands outside Stockholm was explored?
Nor do I see how an "almost as broken tax policy" has anything to do with the
ability of the retired to pay their rents. The retired usually don't pay taxes,
and I am sure that most of our foreign readers will agree that rents are low
in houses that are more than 10 years old.

>  The roots of this problem date back to the 60's and 70's when the entire
>country should be planned.

All right, lets stop all planning. Welcome to the anthill.

>"Start building new houses, so that the supply will increase and the prices
>will fall all by themselves!" you say? No, that hasn't been tried because it
>is all too logical.

I agree that the protection of beaches is too strong today (its more or less
total) but it is basically a sound policy. I want to be able to walk down to
the beach at least somewhere in the area I am at.
In many countries this is impossible.

The problem is who should be allowed to build on beaches? The ones with good
connections to the ruling parties in the local area (kommun) or who?
There is a lot of room for the *good old boys* type of corruption here.

However I do know of ridiculous cases where people have been prohibited from
building a house close to a small pond that is located deep in the forests of
Norrland, and where no one except the landowner and an occasional elk ever
sets their feet.  
-- 
 Anders Sundin           e-mail: sundinKC@dna.lth.se
 Organic Chemistry 2             Anders.Sundin@orgk2.lth.se
 University of Lund              ok2aps@gemini.ldc.lu.se
 P.O. Box 124                    ok2aps@seldc52.bitnet
 S-22100 Lund            phone:  +46 46 108214
 Sweden                  fax:    +46 46 108209
From: ksand@apple.com (Kent Sandvik)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Finnish Tar Pastilles and Garlic Hampurilainen
Date: 11 Apr 92 18:04:12 GMT
Organization: MacDTS Mongols

In article <1992Apr10.080108.4366@eua.ericsson.se>, euaaen@eua.ericsson.se
(Anders Engwall) writes:
>> > Which reminds me of what in Finland is
> >known as "hampurilainen" (hamburger):  a tough slab of what is hopefully 
> >pork product in a pocket of cheap bread smothered with lots of mustard...I 
> >preferred Carroll's burgers!  
> 
> Is Jaskan Grilli still selling garlic burgers? Now *that* is bizarre!
> Imagine replacing the mustard mentioned above with mashed garlic -
> and *lots* of it, too! You'll smell for a week...

Another special junk food special in Finland is 'erikoinen' ("special"),
sometimes called "Porilainen" if you purchase it in Pori (a city on
the west coast), or -ilainen depending where you bought it. Basically
it's a huge leaf of sausage instead of meat served as a hamburger,
and with a *lot* of mustard and ketchup. In general it's extremely
high on fat.

Me and my wife purchased a couple of those after 3 years not eating
them - we had problems with our stomaches for the next two days :-).

Cheers,
Kent