Today's celebrations 26th May

Today is...

Independence Day in Georgia and Guyana

Mother's Day in Poland

Prince Fredrik's Birthday in Denmark

Sorry Day in Australia

Get to know Danish music!

Here are the top 5 Danish songs in the music charts at the moment. To see the top 20, click here. We are by no means saying that this is all there is to Danish Music, this is just what the Danish public are loving at the moment!

Burhan G - Mest Ondt - feat. Medina



DJ Kato - Hey Shorty (Yeah Yeah Pt. II Feat. U$O & Johnson)



Turboweekend - Trouble Is



Nephew - "The danish way to rock" Feat. Landsholdet



Rasmus Seebach - Lidt i fem

The importance of press freedom

The United Nations General Assembly declared 3 May to be World Press Freedom Day to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991.

Freedom of the press is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials. While such freedom mostly implies the absence of interference from an overreaching state, its preservation may be sought through constitutional or other legal protections.

With respect to governmental information, any government may distinguish which materials are public or protected from disclosure to the public based on classification of information as sensitive, classified or secret and being otherwise protected from disclosure due to relevance of the information to protecting the national interest. Many governments are also subject to sunshine laws or freedom of information legislation that are used to define the ambit of national interest.

According to Reporters Without Borders, more than a third of the world's people live in countries where there is no press freedom. Overwhelmingly, these people live in countries where there is no system of democracy or where there are serious deficiencies in the democratic process. Freedom of the press is an extremely problematic problem/concept for most non-democratic systems of government since, in the modern age, strict control of access to information is critical to the existence of most non-democratic governments and their associated control systems and security apparatus.

World opinion is divided on the importance of having a free press, according to a poll conducted for the BBC World Service in 2007. Of those interviewed, 56% thought that freedom of the press was very important to ensure a free society but 40% said it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press's freedom to report news truthfully. The strongest endorsement came from North America and Western Europe, where up to 70% put freedom first, followed by Venezuela, Kenya and South Africa, with over 60%. In India, Singapore and Russia, by contrast, more people favoured stability over press freedom.

Freedom of the Press is a yearly report by US-based non-governmental organization Freedom House, measuring the level of freedom and editorial independence enjoyed by the press in every nation and significant disputed territories around the world. Levels of freedom are scored on a scale from 1 (most free) to 100 (least free). Depending on the basics, the nations are then classified as "Free", "Partly Free", or "Not Free". If you would like to see the results of this report - which differs slightly from the Reporters Without Borders freedom of the press index - then click on the third link at the bottom of this post.

Every year, Reporters Without Borders establishes a ranking of countries in terms of their freedom of the press. Below is the ranking for 2009:

1 Denmark 0.00

1 Finland 0.00

1 Ireland 0.00

1 Norway 0.00

1 Sweden 0.00

6 Estonia 0.50

7 Netherlands 1.00

7 Switzerland 1.00

9 Iceland 2.00

10 Lithuania 2.25

11 Belgium 2.50

11 Malta 2.50

13 Austria 3.00

13 Latvia 3.00

13 New Zealand 3.00

16 Australia 3.13

17 Japan 3.25

18 Germany 3.50

19 Canada 3.70

20 Luxembourg 4.00

20 United Kingdom 4.00

20 United States 4.00

23 Jamaica 4.75

24 Czech Republic 5.00

25 Cyprusa 5.50

25 Hungary 5.50

27 Ghana 6.00

28 Trinidad and Tobago 7.00

29 Uruguay 7.63

30 Costa Rica 8.00

30 Mali 8.00

30 Portugal 8.00

33 South Africa 8.50

34 Macedonia 8.75

35 Greece 9.00

35 Namibia 9.00

37 Poland 9.50

37 Slovenia 9.50

39 Bosnia and Herzegovina 10.50

39 Chile 10.50

39 Guyana 10.50 42 Suriname 10.60

43 France 10.67

44 Cape Verde 11.00

44 Slovakia 11.00

44 Spain 11.00

47 Argentina 11.33

48 Hong Kong 11.75

Grenada 12.00

49 Italy 12.14

50 Romania 12.50

51 Northern Cyprusb 14.00

51 Maldives 14.00

51 Mauritius 14.00

54 Paraguay 14.33

55 Panama 14.50

56 Papua New Guinea 14.70

57 Burkina Faso 15.00

57 Haiti 15.00

59 Republic of China (Taiwan) 15.08

60 Kuwait 15.25

61 Lebanon 15.42

62 Botswana 15.50

63 Liberia 15.50

63 Malawi 15.50

63 Serbiac 15.50

63 Tanzania 15.50

63 Togo 15.50

68 Bulgaria 15.61

69 South Korea 15.67

70 Bhutan 15.75

71 Brazil 15.88

72 Benin 16.00

72 Seychelles 16.00

72 Timor-Leste 16.00

75 Kosovod 16.58

76 Nicaragua 16.75

77 Montenegroc 17.00

78 Croatia 17.17

79 El Salvador 17.25

80 Central African Republic 17.75

Tonga 18.00

81 Georgia 18.83

82 Comoros 19.00

82 Mozambique 19.00

84 Ecuador 20.00

85 Peru 20.88

86 Uganda 21.50

86 United Arab Emirates 21.50

88 Albania 21.75

89 Senegal 22.00

89 Ukraine 22.00

91 Mongolia 23.33

92 Guinea-Bissau 23.50

93 Israel (Israeli territory) 23.75

94 Qatar 24.00

95 Bolivia 24.17

96 Kenya 25.00

97 Zambia 26.75

98 Dominican Republic 26.83

99 Lesotho 27.50

100 Guinea 28.50

100 Indonesia 28.50

100 Mauritania 28.50

103 Burundi 29.00

103 Côte d'Ivoire 29.00

105 India 29.33

106 Guatemala 29.50

106 Oman 29.50

108 United States (extra-territorial) 30.00

109 Cameroon 30.50

110 Djibouti 31.00

111 Armenia 31.13

112 Jordan 31.88

113 Tajikistan 32.00

114 Moldova 33.75

115 Sierra Leone 34.00

116 Republic of the Congo 34.75

117 Cambodia 35.17

118 Nepal 35.63

119 Angola 36.50

119 Bahrain 36.50

121 Bangladesh 37.33

122 Philippines 38.25

122 Turkey 38.25

124 Venezuela 39.50

125 Kyrgyzstan 40.00

126 Colombia 40.13

127 Morocco 41.00

128 Honduras 42.00

129 Gabon 43.50

130 Thailand 44.00

131 Malaysia 44.25

132 Chad 44.50

133 Singapore 45.00

134 Madagascar 45.83

135 Nigeria 46.00

136 Zimbabwe 46.50

137 Gambia 48.25

137 Mexico 48.25

139 Niger 48.50

140 Ethiopia 49.00

141 Algeria 49.56

142 Kazakhstan 49.67

143 Egypt 51.38

144 Swaziland 52.50

145 Iraq 53.30

146 Azerbaijan 53.50

146 Democratic Republic of the Congo 53.50

148 Sudan 54.00

149 Afghanistan 54.25

150 Israel (extra-territorial) 55.50

151 Belarus 59.50

152 Fiji 60.00

153 Russia 60.88

154 Tunisia 61.50

155 Brunei 63.50

156 Libya 64.50

157 Rwanda 64.67

158 Equatorial Guinea 65.50

159 Pakistan 65.67

160 Uzbekistan 67.67

161 Palestinian Authority 69.83

162 Sri Lanka 75.00

163 Saudi Arabia 76.50

164 Somalia 77.50

165 Syria 78.00

166 Vietnam 81.67

167 Yemen 83.38

168 People's Republic of China 84.50

169 Laos 92.00

170 Cuba 94.00

171 Myanmar 102.67

172 Iran 104.14

173 Turkmenistan 107.00

174 North Korea 112.5

175 Eritrea 115.50

Information from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_Press_(report)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7134918.stm

Today's Celebrations April 18th!

Today is...

Health Day in Kiribati

Independence Day in Zimbabwe

Paul Revere Day in the United States of America

Dybbøldagen (Slaget ved Dybbøl) - Official Flag Day in Denmark

Today's Celebrations April 16th!

Today is...

De Diego's Birthday in Puerto Rico

Librarian Day (School) in the United States of America

Militia Day in Cuba

Qana Memorial Day in Lebanon

Queen Margrethes birthday in Denmark

Queen's Birthday in Greenland

Emancipation Day (DC) in the United States of America

All About April Fools Day!

What is April Fool's Day?

April Fool's Day, also known as All Fools Day, is always celebrated on April 1st and marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication. Traditionally, in countries such as the UK, Australia and South Africa the jokes only last until noon, and someone who plays a trick after noon is called an "April Fool". Elsewhere, such as in Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Korea, The Netherlands, and the USA, the jokes last all day.

Where does it come from?

The origin of April Fools' Day is unknown. One likely theory is that April Fool's Day comes from the Persian tradition of Sizdah Bedar, which is believed to be the oldest prank-related tradition in the world still alive, celebrated by Persians as far back as 536 BC. Another theory is that the modern holiday was first celebrated soon after the adoption of the Gregorian calendar; the term referred to someone still adhering to the Julian Calendar, which it replaced. In many pre-Christian cultures May Day (May 1) was celebrated as the first day of summer, and signalled the start of the spring planting season. An April Fool may have been someone who did this prematurely. Another possible origin lies in the fact that when King Charles IX of France officially changed the first day of the year from April 1 to January 1, some of his subjects continued using the old system.

The best April Fool's of all time

The Museum of Hoaxes lists the top 100 April Fool's day hoaxes of all time, and we have picked our top 10. If you want to see the full list, click here.

1. 1976: The British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.
2. 1996: The Taco Bell Corporation announced it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell was housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical joke. The best line of the day came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale. Thinking on his feet, he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold. It would now be known, he said, as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.
3. 1959: The residents of Wellingborough, England woke to find a trail of white footprints painted along the main street of their town. At the end of the trail were the words, "I must fly."
4. 1974: Residents of Sitka, Alaska were alarmed when the long-dormant volcano neighboring them, Mount Edgecumbe, suddenly began to belch out billows of black smoke. People spilled out of their homes onto the streets to gaze up at the volcano, terrified that it was active again and might soon erupt. Luckily it turned out that man, not nature, was responsible for the smoke. A local practical joker named Porky Bickar had flown hundreds of old tires into the volcano's crater and then lit them on fire, all in a (successful) attempt to fool the city dwellers into believing that the volcano was stirring to life. According to local legend, when Mount St. Helens erupted six years later, a Sitka resident wrote to Bickar to tell him, "This time you've gone too far!"
5. 1915: On April 1, 1915, in the midst of World War I, a French aviator flew over a German camp and dropped what appeared to be a huge bomb. The German soldiers immediately scattered in all directions, but no explosion followed. After some time, the soldiers crept back and gingerly approached the bomb. They discovered it was actually a large football with a note tied to it that read, "April Fool!"
6. 1965: Politiken, a Copenhagen newspaper, reported that the Danish parliament had passed a new law requiring all dogs to be painted white. The purpose of this, it explained, was to increase road safety by allowing dogs to be seen more easily at night.
7. 1997: An email message spread throughout the world announcing that the internet would be shut down for cleaning for twenty-four hours from March 31 until April 2. This cleaning was said to be necessary to clear out the "electronic flotsam and jetsam" that had accumulated in the network. Dead email and inactive ftp, www, and gopher sites would be purged. The cleaning would be done by "five very powerful Japanese-built multi-lingual Internet-crawling robots (Toshiba ML-2274) situated around the world." During this period, users were warned to disconnect all devices from the internet. The message supposedly originated from the "Interconnected Network Maintenance Staff, Main Branch, Massachusetts Institute of Technology." This joke was an updated version of an old joke that used to be told about the phone system. For many years, gullible phone customers had been warned that the phone systems would be cleaned on April Fool's Day. They were cautioned to place plastic bags over the ends of the phone to catch the dust that might be blown out of the phone lines during this period.
8. 1993: Westdeutsche Rundfunk, a German radio station, announced that officials in Cologne had just passed an unusual new city regulation. Joggers going through the park would be required to pace themselves to go no faster than six mph. Any faster, it was felt, would unnecessarily disturb the squirrels who were in the middle of their mating season.
9. 1993: The China Youth Daily, an official state newspaper of China, announced on its front page that the government had decided to make Ph.D. holders exempt from the state-imposed one-child limit. The logic behind this decision was that it would eventually reduce the need to invite as many foreign experts into the country to help with the state's modernization effort. Despite a disclaimer beneath the story identifying it as a joke, the report was repeated as fact by Hong Kong's New Evening News and by Agence France-Presse, an international news agency. Apparently what made the hoax seem credible to many was that intellectuals in Singapore are encouraged to marry each other and have children, and China's leaders are known to have great respect for the Singapore system. The Chinese government responded to the hoax by condemning April Fool's Day as a dangerous Western tradition. The Guangming Daily, Beijing's main newspaper for intellectuals, ran an editorial stating that April Fool's jokes "are an extremely bad influence." It went on to declare that, "Put plainly, April Fool's Day is Liar's Day."
10. In 1994 National Public Radio's All Things Considered program reported that companies such as Pepsi were sponsoring teenagers to tattoo their ears with corporate logos. In return for branding themselves with the corporate symbol, the teenagers would receive a lifetime 10% discount on that company's products. Teenagers were said to be responding enthusiastically to this deal.

April Fool.... Wait.... No it isn't!

The frequency of April Fools' hoaxes sometimes makes people doubt real news stories released on April 1. Below are some events that were taken to be April Fools jokes, but weren't!

• The April 1, 1946 Aleutian Island earthquake tsunami that killed 165 people in Hawaii and Alaska resulted in the creation of a tsunami warning system (specifically the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre), established in 1949 for Pacific Ocean countries. The tsunami in question is known in Hawaii as the "April Fools' Day Tsunami" due to people drowning because of the assumptions that the warnings were an April Fools' prank.
• In 1979, Iran declared April 1 its national Republic Day. Thirty years on, this continues to be mistaken for a joke.
• On April 1, 1984, singer Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father. Originally, people assumed that it was a fake news story, especially considering the bizarre aspect of the father being the murderer.
• Gmail's April 2004 launch was widely believed to be a prank, as Google traditionally perpetrates April Fools' Day hoaxes each April 1. Another Google-related event that turned out not to be a hoax occurred on April 1, 2007, when employees at Google's New York City office were alerted that a ball python kept in an engineer's cubicle had escaped and was on the loose. An internal e-mail acknowledged that "the timing…could not be more awkward" but that the snake's escape was in fact an actual occurrence and not a prank.
• On April 1, 2009, A school was almost burned to the ground in the Danish town Albertslund; apparently, the fire department refused to believe that the news was true the first two times that people called to report it.
• Also on April 1, 2009, a Virus/Worm was called Conficker and spread to millions of computers and releasing personal info and deleting files. This was supposed to be a joke, but random computers throughout America were hit. Before this happened, news media like, NBC, Fox News, ABC and CBS told the viewers to install firewalls and updates to their Windows Computers before it hit.

Information from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools'_Day

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P60/

Today's Celebrations April 1st!

Today is...

April Fools day in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and in the United States of America

Captain Regents Day in San Marino

Cyprus National Day in Cyprus

Republic Day in Iran

Youth Day in Benin