Wereld Toilet Dag (Haiku)

Our dear Prime Minister Van Rompuy may be named the First President of the European Union today, he's well known to be a proficient haiku-master. In honour of World Toilet Day,we posted the one below to his site!

En vandaag 2009-11-19 Wereldtoiletdag één speciaal over de 2,5 miljard mensen die aan open defecatie doen (ook "flying toilets" genoemd)

Wereldtoiletdag
Leg een drol en spoel de chasj
Elders vliegt een zak

World Toilet Day 2009

Beste Stubru,
Bravo met het initiatief om op zoek te gaan naar Vlaanderen’s schoonste toilet, hierdoor vestigt u de aandacht op een van ’s werelds best bewaarde geheimen; the sanitation crisis

Als Scottex nu eens een daad van civiek gedrag zou doen door het bedrag aan toiletpapier te schenken aan het bouwen van beveiligde wc’s en latrines voor vrouwen en meisjes in een derde wereldland, dan zou mijn wereldtoiletdag al geslaagd zijn! (zie bijlage)
Indeed, 2,5 miljard mensen zijn verplicht om aan “open defecatie” te doen, waardoor ze niet alleen persoonlijk gevaar lopen (verkrachting etc…) maar waardoor ook de drinkwatervoorraden etc. vervuild worden. Gedenk de “flying toilets” in Kibera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_toilet) maar vandaag: inbijlage een aantal voorbeelden waarvan wij hopen dat ze in Vlaanderen althans zich niet meer voordoen.

Meer informatie op http://www.wsscc.org/ (WASH campagne: Water, Sanitation and Health)
U kan mij desgevallend altijd contacteren, maar waarom niet bellen naar PROTOS,Vlaanderens’ meest prominente NGO die er iets aan doet!

Achtingsvolle groeten

VanderKelen versus Van Ranst: an accusation of Soviet Medicine by a Populist rumor-spreader: 0-1

Belgian National Flu Commissioner Marc Van Ranst, widely regarded as a solid scientific, and widely recognized by the political and medical establishment as pulling off a great job re: the Mexican flu pandemic in Belgium, has had his ass kicked this morning by a commentator from populist newspaper 't Laatste Niuews.

In a reaction on what he thought about Belgian soccer players getting themselves vaccinated in the horizon period reserved for "at risk" populations, the Flu commissioner stated that he found this to be uncivil, totally unacceptable and threathening all the good work that had been done.

The journalist now accuses the Flu commisioner of practicing soviet medicine.

My comments: long live the stalinist doctors if they manage a pandemic of this scale and scr*w the commentators (and the soccer players): the soccer players have NO right to be the first in line (even if they were pulling off great stunts like winning world chamionships or something, NOT) and the commentators should focus on the defficiencies in soccer training for kids rather than defend an already tarnished national competition, unworthy of that name... Quit whining Vander Kelen, and go write something really useful.

Pigeion: impossible

Now Let's Kill that Fucking Band

 

Kevin Costner, last night in Gent, with his "true americana" "Kevin Costner & Modern West". Forget to take Stetson so didn't really mingle with the crowd...

Go Back Up

Did you know that laptop theft, even from the most "so-called" secure places like a safe in a hotel room, is on the RAMPAGING RISE?
Did you realize that laptop theft is one of those classical cases where 1+1 equals more than 3? - at least to you, in terms of personal damage, and... even worse, to your employer or company?
Some estimate an average laptop, say from a mid-level manager, to contain up to 100.000€ of valuable data, that (you betcha) any hacker can extract, whether you have standard encryption or not...

Our advise: watch your machine! back it up: all the time - and get insurance in the form of weapons-grade encryption mechanisms and fire-proof redundant back-up systems.

Alternatively, you can just simply stop storing stuff, go out, sniff a breeze of automn and enjoy life without wires!

Further Reading: Study on 128 stolen from 29 companies: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/04/report-average-stolen-laptop-cost-is-50k-intel-buy-vpro.ars

$50,000 average cost as follows:

Laptop replacement cost: $1,582
Detection & escalation cost: $262
Forensics & investigation cost: $814
Data breach cost: $39,297
Intellectual property loss: $5,871
Lost productivity cost: $283
Other legal and regulatory costs: $1,117

Perhaps the most counterintuitive result from the study is that having a full backup of the lost or stolen laptop actually increases the average incident cost by almost 50 percent. The theory put forth for this by Ponemon is that "the backup makes it easier to confirm the loss of sensitive or confidential data (i.e., ignorance is bliss hypothesis)."

One Drop: this Sat 2009-10-10 @ 0200 - WATCH IT

Reading: King
Viewing: Terminator 3 - Salvation (oh yeah baby)
Listening to: Nine Inch Nails
Thinking: You've got the watch, we've got the time
Travelling: from Bangkok, to A'dam, to Geneva, to Paris & back home

The Essence of Summer

 

Reading: 378+ Emails
Viewing: Tuscany of the North
Listening to: "I gotta feeling" - Black Eyed Peas
Thinking: Starting a new "Extending My Own Date of Expiration" Campaign
Travelling: Paris today, Amsterdam, Geneva & Brazil later this semester
Last picture: See above: 3 Flag-Waving Kids

Promoting Integrity at World Water Week

 

Reading: Paul Verhaegen - Omega Minor
Viewing: Black Dots in front of my eyes
Listening to: Black eyed Peas
Thinking: Gratefull for friendship
Travelling: from Stockholm to Duinbergen
Last picture: after Integrity Radio interview with Prijay Shah from the Water Integrity Network
Writing about Chakosj! - stay tuned

Vive la Fête

Reading: Geert Mak - In Europa
Viewing: The English Patient
Listening to: Sigur Ros
Thinking: Bundestreue
Travelling: Lisbon, Paris, Duinbergen, Stockholm
Last picture: National Belgian Holiday in Maredsous