About Me
I'm a Dane who has just returned to Denmark after living 5 years in Portland, Oregon. I'm a Technical Director for a global company, and I'm so educated you won't believe it! I'm so educated I don't need my head! I've lived and worked in several countries, and I travel a lot for my work. I'm a Social-Liberal Atheist, and I usually piss off people with conservative views. I'm a piece of Scandinavian Euro-trash who lived on the Left Coast, and I fit in quite well, except that people aren't quite liberal enough for my taste. I figure this would be a description that will make you hate me or love me, which is the intention.
If you think I look like a nerd, then you have just won the Bleeding Obvious Award. What do you think happens to a guy when he spends 22 years on his education? I may look like a geek, but I got it where it counts. The picture was taken in mountains north of Tehran, and yes, I took the picture myself.
I'm a Ph.D. in river morphology, which means I get to do a lot of weird stuff, all around the world, except in my home country. So I'm very international in what I do and the way I think. I look more upon myself as a Citizen of the World than as a Dane, and I even have my Amnesty International T-shirt saying that's what I am. I'm a member of Amnesty International and I have quite a bit of expert knowledge about capital punishment, which is scientifically one of the most exciting fields outside my own area of expertise, which is of course heavily math oriented, especially around non-linear partial differential equations, numerical methods, parallel computing etc.
I also follow the global warming science intensely, and especially the anti-scientific attacks on it, which I believe is conservatism digging its own grave. I find it important to make sure conservatism is on the record for being associated with global warming denial, as it demonstrates how easily corrupted conservatism is.
I don't read much fiction, but if I do, it will usually be a Danish writer called Ib Michael. I read a lot of non-fiction, mostly about politics. I'm very fascinated by some American politicians; there are in fact many good ones in this country. I'm fascinated in particular by Al Franken, and of course blown away by Barack Obama. When I read non-fiction, you will often find me with Thomas Friedman.
Despite my generally left leaning political views, I have a fascination for the history of warfare, and am a bit of a military freak. Imagine a lefty like me standing on the deck of the USS Missouri... well, I loved it. I love WW2 strategy games. I'm also known in the annals of a web based strategy game called Utopia. I was once in the world top of the game (100k players), but now I just play with a group from all around the world, running a kingdom where we have fun and wage a lot of war. It's a great way to socialize with people from basically all over the planet. I'm a pacifist, but only in reality!
I've worked and lived in many countries, including Serbia, Iran, Italy, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Holland, Denmark, Canada, US, Australia. I would say that I have comprehensive inter-cultural experience.
I am an Atheist, but I'm used to working especially with Muslims. It's important to me to be respectful and tolerant of religious views, even when I'm faced with intolerance due to my atheism, which happens very often in my experience. Bill Maher has said it in a great way: "Don't be tolerant with the intolerant", but I'm not sure I agree with him. Interesting debate subject!