Life outside academia

I share my life with my wife, Maria Kristensen.

Maria and I have a daughter, Nadia. Here are three recent pictures of Nadia.. Nadia is still very young - she was born on 18 May 2001, so she is now 8 years old.

I am an only child - or so I thought. In 1999 I suddenly discovered that I have an older half brother - his name is Christian Poulsen. He and his wife Jeanette have a company called Aerofit in Birkerød. Christian is also involved in another company, Synergy Management. And in 2006 I discovered that I have a half sister, Natascha, in Stockport (near Manchester, UK) and a half brother, Alexander, from Düsseldorf, Germany. In 2009 I got yet another sister, Angelina, who is also from Manchester.

Human rights

I spend a lot of of my spare time working for Amnesty International . Violations of basic human rights are a major problem in all parts of the world today; it is important that we all make an effort to change this this sad state of affairs. Join us! If you live in Denmark, you might want to have a look at the homepage of the Danish section (in Danish).

I am the person behind the initiative forsoningnu.dk (Reconciliation Now) whose aim was to help further the meeting between cultures. The initiative began as an on-line petition for reconciliation during the crisis over the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. The petition took place from 6 February to 8 March 2006, and the 60,136 signatures were presented to the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs and diplomats from 7 countries on 13 March.

Food

Every now and then I grab a bit to eat. As some of you know, I'm a dedicated vegan . Alas! good eating places are few and far between, but you can always have a look at a list of restaurants at the Vegetarian Pages. And no, I most definitely do not eat here....

Music

One of my other main interests is music. I like, no love the music of Gustav Mahler (there is also a good Swedish Mahler homepage - in Swedish). As you may already know, I listen to lowbrow kinds of music, too - including the less known or less accessible. Among the many artists in my record/CD-collection that deserve mention are Aphex Twin, Fugazi, and Wilco and The Mutton Birds.I get all warm and fuzzy whenever I listen to The Replacements (of course - Paul Westerberg is a brilliant songwriter). Denmark has fostered the magnificent pop band Love Shop whose songwriter Jens Unmack has now embarked on a solo career (do check out his blog!) and way back in the Seventies, Gasolin' created music still worth listening to. And who can forget The Pixies? Some more recent favourites are Arcade Fire, The National, Ryan Adams, Elbow, The New Pornographers, Okkervil River and Vampire Weekend.

Skepticism

And, lest I forget to tell you, I am involved with the Danish Skeptics Society.

Links to the world around us

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Hans Hüttel <Send mail to Hans>