read in the newspaper interview of the failed attempt by activists to destabilize the Copenhagen summit in 2009-12: interview of XX, 21years old climate activist
how sad
He should rather have read Stewart BRAND, hippie and avant-garde environmentalist, and a true eye-opener: read last weekend's FT interview
For more than 40 years, Brand has been at the nexus between California’s counterculture and its technological avant-garde. A quintessential 1960s figure – one of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters, he appears on the second page of Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test – who organised a “trips festival”, which brought together 10,000 people to listen to the Grateful Dead and drink acid-laced punch, he is also a Stanford-educated biologist and anthropologist interested in information systems and networks. In short, he has foreseen the future; sometimes blurrily but more often than not with immense prescience. For Brand is an intellectual entrepreneur; he makes ideas happen. His 1968 brainchild, the Whole Earth Catalog, an encyclopaedic review of all that a commune-dweller might need, has been described by Steve Jobs as “sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along”. His latest book, Whole Earth Discipline, throws down a gauntlet to the environmental movement he once helped to nurture.
2010-01-14
2010-01-04
Pa'i Puku water tank
this water tank was built in 2003-2004 with gifts from friends at the occasion of our marriage! It provides water for drinking and bathing to over 500 children in the Paraguayan Chaco - thanks again to all kind donors!
Reading: Steward Brand
Viewing: Star Wars
Listening to: 500 Days of Summer Soundtrack
Thinking: PSR - Personal Social Responsibility
Travelling: Paris, Geneva, Marseille, London, Kampala (and maybe a little bit of Washington on the side)
Last picture: the 4 Seasons, Cinquantainaire Parc in Brussels (see "wacondah" on Flickr)
Happy New Year 2010
For 2010, we wish you an excellent "Getting things done strategy":
"Write down, Defer and Delete, Review, Commit, Reserve time and Execute, Cycle back for criticism, Ditch the things you can and don't like, Have fun at each of the steps". (that's already a shitload of work before the "commit")
In addition, try some lateral thinking, jack-move your brain out of lethargy and "idée-fixe" and write some poetry...
2009-12-24
2009-12-18
Shovel some snow
I heard the news today, oh Boy.... We've found the antidote: go and shovel snow
Whilst the police were cordonning off Schuman yesterday, a massive traffic infarctus unfolded in the Kingdom due to some foreseen-yet-massive snowfall (approx. 7cm... leading to the worst traffic jams in history - 500KM). The cops were standing by "hoping" for some demonstrators to show up, who were obviously held up elsewhere, waiting in vain for the cops to show some creativity in resolving traffic incidents. Get those demonstrators and cops to show solidarity by shoveling snow
Our dear PM was on the radio pledging to "have a structural solution" for the homeless....by the end of February (2010?) and then strutted his stuff to the airport to be told that all flying had been cancelled... and as a result he'd be better off shoveling snow so that the homeless have clean sidewalks!
The blaming-game on the Assassination of the Senne led the Brussels Minister to "leave the Copenhaguen summit in urgency (What was she doing there anyway?)... she'd be better off shoveling snow and debris at the treatment station
... and the kids and I were happily outside enjoying a bit of unstressing, "shoveling snow"...
For all your practical problems, a practical solution: shovel snow, it's relaxing, clears pathways, demonstrates solidarity, keeps you warm, gives your heart a workout, prepares the driveway to roll out without easy, back in touch with your inner child, enjoy the silence, listen to nature, smile at your neighbour, enjoy the flatout whiteness...... etc....
2009-11-19
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)
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
2009-11-10
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.
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.
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.
2009-10-12
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...
2009-10-09
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)."
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)."
2009-10-07
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
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
2009-09-01
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
2009-08-21
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
2009-07-23
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
2009-05-30
The Age of Panic
Paris Metro, just after reading over the shoulder of an American Embassy worker that "serviceman in Normandy havee been quarantined following infection with H1N1".
2009-05-28
Een magische avond in het Pajottenland
Reading: A most wanted man - LeCarré
Viewing: 28 weeks Later
Listening to: Daan -Manhay
Thinking: Politicsareoverrated
Travelling: Paris tomorrow, Italy next week, Portugal in July, Stockholm in August, Seaside-Duinbergen in August
Last picture: God moving over the face of the Pajottenland prairies (see above)
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