PTT / TNT Post

Minister Maria van der Hoeven van Economische Zaken heeft er geen spijt van dat er in Nederland is gekozen voor een liberalisering van de postmarkt.
bron

Nou, ik anders wel, hoor!
De afgelopen jaren steeds vaker post niet aangekomen op bestemming, afgegeven aan wie ook al in de buurt het wil aannemen, binnen 24 uur bezorgd is inmiddels een lachertje, enz. Er sluipt een duidelijke derde wereld element in de postbezorging van Nederland... en ik mag het weten, ik ben hiermee opgegroeid.

Het was een betrouwbaar en betaalbaar service, dat willens en wetens kapot is gemaakt: ritueel geslacht op de altaar van een liberale markt.

GROOT OLIEVELD GEVONDEN IN NOORDZEE!!!!!!!

De Britse oliemaatschappij Encore Oil heeft in de Noordzee een olieveld ontdekt dat meer dan 300 miljoen vaten olie kan bevatten, zo werd maandag bekendgemaakt.


Um.

Total World Petroleum Consumption 85,534,000 barrels/day
(data voor 2008)


Dat is niet echt een supergrote vonds, als je het zo bekijkt. Toch?

Big Brother in the EU

In Europe, we have 2006/24/EG (pdf) which regulates that all providers have to save, for one year, all data to do with with whom you call on your phone, where your mobile phone is and when you log in on the internet. Now, the EU -undemocratic body that it is- has adopted a resolution to add to this list: the search terms you use in Google.

This is so unbelievably invasive! I'm not one of the "I have nothing to hide so they can look all they like" crowd. No, I don't think I have anything terrible to hide but this is MY life and MY privacy and nobody should have the right to invade my head like that. I think this is a shocking development. Governments are not allowed to follow you and listen over your shoulder as you talk to people you meet, recording every word, noting down names etc. and yet this is exactly what is happening here!!!

If you don't like the idea of this happening, there are two things you can do.

1. Google httpS ://www.google.com instead of http://www.google.com, to encrypt your searches (I'm not sure this will help, according to some people the search engines themselves will be required to save the search terms. In that case, encryption won't help).

2. Use the Firefox browser, and install this plugin, to fill Google up with random search terms.


All this brought to you in the relentless pursuit of child pornographers... a most convenient post to hang your hat on.


More about this at bits of freedom (in Dutch).

Required reading: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (free download). This rousing story (the ending is perhaps naive), paints a world we could expect if we go on this way - is this really the world we want?

Formatie perikelen

Alle partijen worden gevraagd en gehoord, maar niet de SP.
Bij de vorige verkiezing was het ook al zo, en toen hoorde je geen hond over de "grootste winnaar".

Waarom kijkt niemand naar een linkse coalitie?
Waarom is dit per definitie een onmogelijke keus??

Rechtse figuren hebben het zo vaak over een linkse overheersing maar het tegendeel is wel waar! Rechts heeft het bijna altijd voor het zeggen. Rechts, niet Links. Voor de balans moet er altijd een snufje rechts bij maar nooit links. De vooroordeel leunt echt altijd naar rechts in Nederland.

Vijfde kwartaal op rij dat er banen verloren gaan

...en ik zal niet vreemd opkijken als de Euro binnen een jaar harstikke dood is.

Iedereen kop in het zand, en doen of er niets aan de hand is.
Bezuinigen gaan we, tot we erbij neervallen.

Cohen vind dat er ernstig gekeken moet worden naar een VVD, PVV en CDA cabinet. Ook praat hij richting een coalitie met VVD en CDA samen met Groen Links en D66. Tja. Daar heb ik niet voor gestemd! Dat ze het ok vinden om een coalitie met PVV bloedserieus te onderzoeken, maar een coalitie met de SP wordt door iedereen gelijk als onmogelijk verklaard... fuck, dat zegt wel wat over onze samenleving!
(laat dat een les wezen verdorie, om nooit weer tactisch te stemmen!!)

The hottest May on record.

Over here in the Netherlands we may be cooler than most of the summer world because of (relatively) local weather patterns, but most of the rest of the globe is cooking!

Some quotes from a NOAA article on this matter:

The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for May, March-May (Northern Hemisphere spring-Southern Hemisphere autumn), and the period January-May according to NOAA. Worldwide average land surface temperature for May and March-May was the warmest on record while the global ocean surface temperatures for both May and March-May were second warmest on record, behind 1998.

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Global Highlights – May 2010
The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for May was the warmest on record, at 1.24°F (0.69°C) above the 20th century average of 58.6°F (14.8°C).
The global land surface temperature for May was 1.87°F (1.04°C) above the 20th century average of 52.0°F (11.1°C) — the warmest on record.
The May worldwide ocean temperature was the second warmest on record, behind 1998. The temperature anomaly was 0.99°F (0.55°C) above the 20th century average of 61.3°F (16.3°C).
Warm temperatures were present over most of the globe’s land areas. The warmest temperature anomalies occurred in eastern North America, eastern Brazil, Eastern Europe, southern Asia, eastern Russia, and equatorial Africa. The Chinese province of Yunnan had its warmest May since 1951. Numerous locations in Ontario, Canada had their warmest May on record.
Anomalously cool conditions were present across western North America, northern Argentina, interior Asia, and Western Europe. Germany had its coolest May since 1991 and its 12th coolest May on record.

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Global Highlights – March-May 2010
The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for the March-May season was 58.0°F (14.4°C), which is the warmest such period on record and 1.31°F (0.73°C) above the 20th century average of 56.7°F (13.7°C).
The worldwide land surface temperature for March-May was 2.20°F (1.22°C) above the 20th century average of 46.4 °F (8.1°C) — the warmest on record.
The worldwide ocean surface temperature was 0.99°F (0.55°C) above the 20th century average of 61.0°F (16.1°C) and the second warmest March-May on record, behind 1998.
Very warm temperatures were present across eastern and northern North America, northern Africa, Eastern Europe, southern Asia, and parts of Australia. Tasmania tied its warmest March-May period on record. The Northeastern U.S. also had its warmest March-May period on record. Conversely, cool temperatures enveloped the western U.S. and eastern Asia.
Western Europe was particularly dry for its spring season. For the United Kingdom, it was the driest spring since 1984, and the twelfth driest since the UK record began in 1910.

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The CO2 levels are heading up, up and up. 350 ppm is considered the upper safe limit we could comfortably live with on this planet... but we passed that point long ago and don't look to be hitting a u-turn anytime soon.

I think our direction's pretty clear now. Still, there are enough fanatics irl and online wanting to have their cake and eat it too. I think we need to start ignoring them, stop giving them a platform to spout their nonsense. Their misinformation has been debunked time and again and yet again, enough of that! Our energy needs to go in a different direction.

What are we going to do?!?! Part of me wants to throw my hands up and say fuck that, I give up. Another part of me is looking at my (adult) son, at the children of my family and friends, and I simply can't give up. We just cannot leave them the world in this state.

It's too late to stop the change but maybe it will be possible to put the brakes on and make it survivable, at least. Maybe we can still make plans for coping with the changes.

We need to accept that really serious changes are coming and within our lifetime. We need to start thinking, talking, acting adaptation. And we need to act on this on a global scale. And we truly need to halt the upward trend of carbon emissions for this to have a snowball's chance in hell.

We need to understand this issue down to the bones, and we need to develop a sense of urgency.
Because it is urgent.

Trade unions and the coming economic collapse

In the unions—thoroughly corrupt, antidemocratic and right-wing—the workers face an enemy no less hostile than the bankers and their political mouthpieces.

source

Are we facing dictatorship regimes in Europe?
Quite possible. This economic meltdown, together with climate change and peak oil, could be the end of democracy without anything equal or better to take it's place.

We are heading into very dark times, I believe.