Denmark's Spy Agency has Opened a Hacker Academy

Denmark's military intelligence agency says it's creating "a hacker academy" where to train IT specialists who, if they graduate, will be offered employment.

In a statement, the secretive Danish Defiance Intelligence Service (DDIS) says the small group who will be enrolled are "already are among the best in their field."

DDIS said Wednesday the academy "will not teach them how to hack" but will "target their mindset and skills so that they can be used" by the agency which spies outside Denmark's border.

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LM Gateway Rendering, Copenhagen, Denmark

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Evidence of Trade Between Bronze Age Denmark and Mesopotamia

Between Egypt, Mesopotamia and Scandinavia: Late Bronze Age glass beads found in Denmark

Authors:

Varberg et al

Abstract:

New research results from glass beads found in Denmark reveal surprising evidence for contact in the 14th–12th centuries BC between Egypt, Mesopotamia and Denmark, indicating a complex and far-reaching trade network. 290 annular glass beads ranging from dark blue to green, white and yellow, along with four polychrome beads, have been found in 14th–12th century burials from Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein in North Germany. Coming from well dated contexts, twenty-three well-preserved Danish glass beads were chosen for analysis.

Greenland Independence Hopes Dashed by Oil Price Crash?

Less than half a decade ago, Greenlanders were imagining the riches that would follow an oil bonanza as the price of crude approached $150 a barrel. That wealth was supposed to buy the island independence from Denmark.

Today, with oil trading at less than $75, well below levels that would make exploration off the world’s largest island profitable, Greenlanders are casting their votes for a new home-rule government after the previous administration collapsed amid an expenses scandal.

“People in Greenland always ponder how to achieve economic independence from Denmark,” Ulrik Pram Gad, a post doctoral political scientist at the University of Copenhagen, said in an interview. “People are just realizing that things will take longer; nobody knows how to fund the economy without oil and mining.”

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hat tip to Randy.

Corpses at the Battle of Alken Enge Were Desecrated

Denmark attracted international attention in 2012 when archaeological excavations revealed the bones of an entire army, whose warriors had been thrown into the bogs near the Alken Enge wetlands in East Jutland after losing a major engagement in the era around the birth of Christ. Work has continued in the area since then and archaeologists and experts from Aarhus University, Skanderborg Museum and Moesgaard Museum have now made sensational new findings.

"We have found a wooden stick bearing the pelvic bones of four different men. In addition, we have unearthed bundles of bones, bones bearing marks of cutting and scraping, and crushed skulls. Our studies reveal that a violent sequel took place after the fallen warriors had lain on the battlefield for around six months," relates Project Manager Mads Kähler Holst from Aarhus University.

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Saab Quits Danish Fighter Competition

Saab has formally withdrawn its Saab JAS 39 Gripen E/F from Denmark's next-generation fighter aircraft competition, Denmark's Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 21 July. The MoD had set a deadline of 21 July for competing companies to submit their responses to a request for binding information issued on 10 April.

The decision means there are just three aircraft remaining in contention: the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the Eurofighter Typhoon, and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.

Denmark is hoping to bring a new fighter to replace its fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16AM/BM Fighting Falcons into service by 2020. The aircraft are then expected to remain in service for at least 30 years.

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Complete Marine Maastrichtian-Danian Succession at Stevns Klint Strongly Supports Abrupt Faunal Turnover at Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary

Marine macrofossil communities in the uppermost Maastrichtian chalk of Stevns Klint, Denmark

Authors:

Hansen et al

Abstract:

Three successive marine habitats and their benthic macrofossil communities have been recognized and assessed in the uppermost Maastrichtian chalk of Stevns Klint, Denmark. The mound-bedded lower Sigerslev Member was deposited below the photic zone under the influence of persistent, non-erosive bottom currents. It is draped by the upper Sigerslev Member, which was laid down in deeper water than any other chalk known from onshore Denmark. Deposition took place under quiet conditions, apparently not influenced by bottom currents. The sparse level-bottom community lived on a seafloor with low nutrient supply. It was characterized by recumbent brachiopods and bivalves, sponges and some spatulate, long-spined echinoids, which were able to traverse the soft substrate. The top part of the Maastrichtian assigned to the Højerup Member, consists of low biogenic chalk mounds formed mainly by profuse growth of small-sized bryozoans governed by nutrient-rich currents from the south. The macrofauna of this member is of very high density and richness, yet species composition is similar to that of the mound-bedded lower Sigerslev Member. The bryozoan thickets of the two members are accompanied by a rich fauna of bivalves, echinoids, polychaetes, gastropods and brachiopods. Attached forms were dependent on hard, mainly small substrates provided largely by dead bryozoans, and on a steady nutrient supply. The bivalve fauna is richer and occurs in slightly higher densities in the Højerup Member than in the similarly mound-bedded lower Sigerslev Member. The number of polychaete species is also greater in the Højerup Member. The faunal differences reflect the shallower-water setting and a higher influx of food during deposition of the latter unit. The final Maastrichtian benthic macrofossil community at Stevns Klint represented by the Højerup Member thus shows the greatest faunal richness and density in the Upper Cretaceous chalk in the Danish Basin. There is no evidence of faunal impoverishment at the end of the Cretaceous in the Stevns Klint succession, which is complete across the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, and the study thereby corroborates the increasingly dominant view of a very abrupt faunal turnover at the K/Pg boundary.

Are Greenland's Natural Resources Insufficient to Cover the Cost of Independence?

Greenland's mineral wealth will not be enough to pay for independence and the country will remain dependent on Danish subsidies for the forseeable future, a study argued on Friday.

"Even though natural resource exploitation will become important for Greenland, it is not enough," Minik Rosing, a geology professor at the University of Copenhagen and the chairman of the University of Greenland, said in a statement.

"Because of its economy and its demographics, Greenland will need to employ a range of different measures, and that includes a block grant for the foreseeable future," he added.

Denmark's yearly block grant accounts for nearly half the Arctic territory's economy, with the remainder coming mostly from fisheries.

The huge island territory has pinned its hopes on its reserves of mineral resources including uranium, rare earths and oil.

But for Greenland to be able to rely on mining, 12 large-scale mines would have to be operational by 2040, and five of them would have to be in operation at any one time, the report said.

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Arctic Claims by the Northern Nations

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Greenland Pro Independence Party Wins Election

Greenland's pro-independence leftist party Inuit Ataqatigiit, which won the Danish territory's legislative election on June 2, has agreed to form a coalition with two centrist parties, it said Sunday.

The three parties will hold a majority with 19 of 31 seats in the local parliament, the Landsting, IA leader Kuupik Kleist said in a statement.

IA, which ousted the social democratic Siumut party after 30 years in power, will hold 14 seats, the Democrats four seats and the Kattusseqatigiit Partiiat one seat.

Even though Siumut and IA had served in a coalition together as recently as 2007, Kleist had ruled out forming an alliance with Siumut after it became embroiled in a slew of scandals in recent months.

Final details still needed to be worked out on the government coalition and the cabinet portfolios were to be divided up Monday, Greenlandic radio KNR reported.

This is something I've not seen in my light cone of the blogosphere. I'm surprised at least Randy didn't pick it up. I really wonder what the economic prospects of an independent Greenland would be. After all, they receive a nontrivial amount of subsidies - more than half a billion, for 60k people!!! - from Denmark at this point and presumably that'd go away. Oh the other hand, lots of natural resources are becoming more accessible. Is it worth half a billion in subsidies though?

Why There's a Rush to the Defrosting Arctic

via National Geographic.