By Naomi Klein, The Progressive, July 30, 2009
Capitalism can survive this crisis. But the world can't survive another capitalist comeback.
23 juli 2009
Polderimams komen niet aan de bak
Door Rob Pietersen, Trouw, 23 juli 2009Zie ook:
Weer subsidie voor ramadantent Schouwburgplein
Leefbaar Rotterdam, 20 juli 2009
Foto: de Mevlana-moskee in Rotterdam, die door de inwoners van de stad in 2006 als mooiste gebouw van hun woonplaats werd gekozen, nipt voor de Erasmusbrug.
Human Rights Watch werft fondsen in Saoedi-Arabië
By Nasser Salti, Arab News, May 26, 2009Onbegrijpelijk en bizar, HRW brengt zichzelf in zwaar diskrediet en verspeelt haar geloofwaardigheid door geld aan te nemen van lieden die in een walgelijk misogyn systeem hun geld verdienen.
21 juli 2009
Stokslagen voor bier drinkend model in Maleisië
ANP / De Volkskrant, 21 juli 2009Malaysian singer’s [see photo] blouse said to promote vice
Magicstatistics.com, July 7, 2007
20 juli 2009
Klimaat-modellen onderschatten opwarming aarde
Door Joe Romm, Climate Progress, 17 juli 2009A new PETM study is out (click here ) - which rational climate science activists understand is yet more evidence that most climate models underestimate likely future warming. Here is the Union of Concerned Scientists press release on the study:
'Several climate contrarian Web sites are misrepresenting the findings of a peer-reviewed study published in the July 13 issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. The study - by scientists from Rice University, the University of Hawaii and the University of California at Santa Cruz - provides evidence that current climate models are underestimating the amount of warming that an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide can cause. In other words, the potential consequences of global warming are likely worse than what scientists are predicting.
The study examined the extent to which increased carbon dioxide levels could explain a 5 to 9 degree Celsius increase the Earth experienced 55.5 million years ago. The authors concluded that current estimates of how much carbon dioxide increases the average Earth temperature only explains 3.5 degrees of warming.
In a commentary published with the study, David Beerling, a paleobiologist at the University of Sheffield in England, writes: 'The upshot of the study. is that forecasts of future warming could be severely underestimating the extent of the problem that lies in store for humanity as greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere.'
The study’s authors themselves note in the conclusion:
'Possible causes of the excess warming include increased production and levels of trace greenhouse gases as a consequence of the climatic warming (such as CH4)'.
16 juli 2009
Linkse moslims: 'Je wordt hier geïslamiseerd waar je bij staat'
Geweldig artikel van Kustaw Bessems in De Pers (15 juli)
Linkse raadsleden van Marokkaanse komaf willen dat de PvdA zich voortaan verre houdt van geloof. Anders lopen na de autochtonen straks ook nog de moslims weg bij hun partij.
Linkse raadsleden van Marokkaanse komaf willen dat de PvdA zich voortaan verre houdt van geloof. Anders lopen na de autochtonen straks ook nog de moslims weg bij hun partij.
15 juli 2009
Urgent action needed as Arctic ice melts
Greenpeace, July 15, 2009
Arctic ice is melting at an unprecedented rate. As scientists on board the Arctic Sunrise gather more data showing the urgency of the situation, world leaders stay inactive.
For the past two weeks, scientists and crew from the Arctic Sunrise have been busy gathering data, collecting samples and setting up cameras to record the break-up of the Petermann glacier, one of Greenland's largest. A large crack has been forming for the past few years, and a massive piece of the glacier is expected to break off soon.
At 82 degrees North, far from any inhabited area, the impact we have on our environment is sadly evident. The data gathered so far by the on-board scientists is grim. 27 kilometers away from the sea, on the glacier, a large river has formed. The scientists estimate it runs at 50 cubic meters per second - you could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in less than a minute at that rate. This river feeds a large and deep melting whirlpool. Measurements there have shown that at around 60 meters depth, the salinity of the water rises - it’s therefore no longer melting ice, but warm oceans currents from further south in the Atlantic are accelerating the ice melt at a rate much faster than on the surface.
(...) Bad news is coming from other sources as well. A recent NASA study has shown that the ice cap is not only getting smaller, it’s getting thinner and younger. Sea ice has dramatically thinned between 2004 and 2008. Old ice (over 2 years old) takes longer to melt, and is also much harder to replace. As permanent ice decreases, we are looking at ice-free summers in the Arctic as early as 2030.
Arctic ice is melting at an unprecedented rate. As scientists on board the Arctic Sunrise gather more data showing the urgency of the situation, world leaders stay inactive.
For the past two weeks, scientists and crew from the Arctic Sunrise have been busy gathering data, collecting samples and setting up cameras to record the break-up of the Petermann glacier, one of Greenland's largest. A large crack has been forming for the past few years, and a massive piece of the glacier is expected to break off soon.
At 82 degrees North, far from any inhabited area, the impact we have on our environment is sadly evident. The data gathered so far by the on-board scientists is grim. 27 kilometers away from the sea, on the glacier, a large river has formed. The scientists estimate it runs at 50 cubic meters per second - you could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in less than a minute at that rate. This river feeds a large and deep melting whirlpool. Measurements there have shown that at around 60 meters depth, the salinity of the water rises - it’s therefore no longer melting ice, but warm oceans currents from further south in the Atlantic are accelerating the ice melt at a rate much faster than on the surface.
(...) Bad news is coming from other sources as well. A recent NASA study has shown that the ice cap is not only getting smaller, it’s getting thinner and younger. Sea ice has dramatically thinned between 2004 and 2008. Old ice (over 2 years old) takes longer to melt, and is also much harder to replace. As permanent ice decreases, we are looking at ice-free summers in the Arctic as early as 2030.
Photo Greenpeace: A lake of melt water on the surface of the Petermann glacier. The surface of the glacier is covered with pools and lakes lake this.
14 juli 2009
Google Wave: de volgende stap naar metabewustzijn?
Here's how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.
Zie ook:
Shapish.com, May 29, 2009
A couple weeks ago, my friend who works at Google said to me: we’re working on something big at Google. Maybe I can show you a sneak preview soon, but don’t tell anyone. It’s top secret.
If you’re an online nerd and you read techcrunch and similar valley blogs, you already know what I’m talking about, as they officially announced it yesterday. It’s called Google Wave, and it’s gonna be big.
In the brief history of internet, different internet protocols were developed which define the internet today, like email, browsing, chat, etc. But the possibilities of online media today are huge, while we are still trapped in those old protocols. What Google basically is doing is throwing different communication protocols together and create something entirely new. Something that will redefine the way how we communicate, something that will redefine the whole internet if you ask me.
I have much respect for Google. They won the big jackpot when they invented their advertising system, and they’re basically drowning in money. But instead of just buying up an island the size of France an go cruise around it with their yacht, they actually give it back to society. They invest all this money in bringing the best of the best engineers together with only one goal: stepping up the whole evolution. It’s thanks to this kind of people that we don’t live in trees anymore.
So about Google Wave. Email is inefficient, it is a chaotic one-dimensional sending around of information, while chatting is a bit more real time but not practical in the same way as email is. The main big thing about Wave is that it takes the idea of email, puts it in a central server-hosted cloud system the same way as Google Docs work, and combines that with the real-timeness of chat. Even more real-time, as in character-by-character realtime. Basically, they’re creating a new protocol, that on the long run probably will overwrite many current protocols.
The way people communicate in real life, by speech, is in terms of science an inefficient form of data transfer. Direct thought exchange would be way more efficient, and if we can continue the way we are evolving, techno-evolutionists like myself believe that at one point we will actually be able to do that. Email is in a same way a non-efficient way of communicating, and I see this evolution as the online equivalent of directly interchanging thoughts, without the time-consuming detour of actually pronouncing them — or in the case of Wave, sending them.
I do not only think this is a great step in online communication, I also think it is an extremely interesting step in the evolution of the internet. I was wondering how it would evolve after this. Ok, there’s all these things popping up the last years, like facebook and twitter and blabla. But they’re all just gimmicks and none of them actually changes anything structural. Google wave has the possibility to do that, and the ambition. The coming 10 years of the internet become suddenly more clear.
The future is to the cloud, the power is to the crowd. The whole thing is released open-source, what creates the ability for it to grow organically, and beyond the possibilities of any company, even Google. It also creates a certain unpredictability. Really interesting.
If you’re familiar with the theory of the Technocalyps, this gives a little sneak preview of how we, in the coming decades, will evolve transhuman. At one point, artificial intelligence now used to choose which ads to display on your homepage, will be applied to the bigger picture and that is the point where we actually will create something bigger than ourselves. Where the cloud comes more powerful than the crowd.
Because, if you didn’t realize this yet…
Google. Is. Skynet.
En:
Google Wave API
Big G-Wave coming?
Giulio Prisco, Transhumanar, May 31, 2009
Google Wave could be a Big paradigm shift, and change the way we use the Web. Email, chat, discussion groups, wiki, IRC, blogs, microblogs, social network and groupware all in one.
(...) we will spend our online life in front of a Wave screen. Instead of sending email, IM and tweets, writing blogs and logging on Facebook, we will plug in dynamic and interconnected Waves.
(...) By enabling us to do things much faster the Web... - is Wave the first example of Web 3.0? - and the mobile Web wake emergent properties of our collective consciousness. We could send snailmail letters hundreds of years ago, but we could not build a new global social movement in a matter of days. Wave may permit doing things even much faster and achieve a critical mass to enable new emergent waves in our developing noosphere.
Update 2010:
Google Wave moest misschien wel mislukken, omdat de makers zonder dat ten volle te beseffen een Russisch poppetje wilden maken: een compleet 'internet' binnen het internet - een onmogelijke tour de force. Maar als Mark Zuckerberg het voor elkaar krijgt dat de op vele manieren aan elkaar gekoppelde en met elkaar samenwerkende en contact houdende gebruikers van Facebook op internet overal hun profiel mee naar toe nemen, krijgt het misschien toch in zekere zin gestalte.
En m'n blognotitie:
Google als metabewustzijn
Ierland terug naar de middeleeuwen. Wie volgt?
Door Erik, Godvoordommen.nl, 13 juli 2009
De Ierse atheïsten staan op de achterste poten. En terecht. Enkele dagen geleden is er een nieuwe wet aangenomen die het mogelijk maakt om ieder die ‘een substantieel deel van de volgelingen van een religie’ beledigt te straffen op basis van een nieuwe blasfemiewet. De gevolgen voor het loochenen van ‘god’ en zijn volgelingen zijn niet misselijk ook: maximaal € 100000 boete.
Alsof het nog niet genoeg is dat politici niet beseffen dat iedere religie inherent blasfemisch is ten opzichte van een andere religie, daarmee blasfemie voornamelijk een zaak makende van geloofsbelijdenis, draaien zij ook de bewijslast nog eens om: Er is pas sprake van blasfemie indien de beschuldigde niet heeft kunnen aantonen dat ‘een redelijk persoon geen literaire, artistieke, politieke, wetenschappelijke of academische waarde kan vinden in de geuite belediging [van god of geloof]‘.
Volgens het voorstel mag blasfemie omschreven worden als ‘uitingen die in verregaande mate beledigend zijn ten opzichte van zaken die die door welke religie dan ook als heilig beschouwd worden’, als zij tenminste ook voor ‘hevige onrust zorgen onder volgelingen van genoemd geloof óf zelfs bedoeld waren om voor hevige onrust te zorgen’.
Het is opvallend hoezeer deze aanpassing van de ‘defamation law’ niet bedoeld is om enige godheid te vrijwaren van kritiek, maar voornamelijk in het leven geroepen is om godsdienstcommentaar de kop in te drukken. Het begint er, met de aanwezigheid van de vele sharia-rechtbanken in buurland Engeland, meer en meer op te lijken dat redelijke kritiek moet wijken voor onredelijk geloof.
13 juli 2009
Vandana Shiva over duurzame landbouw in India
By Anna da Costa, Worldwatch Institute, July 13, 2009Vandana ShivaEnvironmental activist Vandana Shiva has been working to build an organic agriculture movement across India for the past 22 years through the Navdanya Trust, an organization that she founded and directs. She recently spoke with Worldwatch India Fellow Anna da Costa about the connections between sustainable agriculture, climate change, and poverty alleviation.
Haatprediker opnieuw in 'poldermoskee'
Door Carel Brendel, 13 juli 2009[later toegevoegd: pagina bestaat niet meer; wel nog hier te lezen]
'De Amsterdamse Poldermoskee, ooit door de radicale moslim Mohammed Cheppih opgericht om de radicalisering onder jongeren in Slotervaart tegen te gaan, gaat vrolijk door met de strijd tegen radicalisering. De fundamentalistische shariaverheerlijker Khalid Yasin is afgelopen zaterdag al weer voor (minstens) de derde keer op bezoek geweest. Dit keer kwam de omstreden prediker langs om een dawa cursus te geven. Ondertussen gaat de zoektocht door naar een suikersjeik, die de armlastige moskee uit de geldnood kan helpen. Gezien de regelmatige optredens van Yasin is de zoektocht naar een haatsjeik met succes afgesloten.
Yasin staat onder meer bekend om zijn standpunt dat een moslim geen ongelovige vrienden hoort te hebben. Ook draagt hij uit dat homo's de doodstraf zouden moeten krijgen.
Er bestaan opnamen van Yasin die de bloederige lijfstraffen van Saoedi-Arabië prijst en AIDS en 9/11 als het werk van Amerika bestempelt,
De oprichting van de poldermoskee is politiek gesteund door PvdA-wethouder Ahmed Marcouch en burgemeester Job Cohen.
Update: 'Het hoge woord is er uit: Poldermoskee is niet liberaal' (blog 'Het verraad van links'). Later toegevoegd: pagina bestaat niet meer; wel nog hier te lezen.
Update: Yasin blijkt ook een regelrechte antisemiet te zijn, getuige deze twee video's:
Yasin hangt hier het waanzinnige verhaal op, dat Joodse stuurlui de bemanning van het schip van Columbus op slinkse wijze lieten omkomen en vervolgens met van Spaanse moslims gestolen zeekaarten Columbus naar Amerika voerden. De preek hamert er bij de toehoorders de boodschap in, dat de kolonisatie door het oude Europa het ware terrorisme van de mensheid is. Welnu, achter dit grootste kwaad zitten dus... de Joden!
Yasin zegt hier: 'This whole idea of cheating kaffirs, mistreating kaffirs, is from the Jews ... They are the ones that fake like that, we are not the ones that fake like that'.
Later toegevoegd:
Haat
Door Peter Breedveld, Frontaal Naakt, 20 april 2009
Omstreden Sjeik Khalid Yasin in moskee van Deurne
Joods Actueel, 2 april 2009
Utrecht handhaaft gescheiden inburgeren
NRC, 13 juli 2009Dat Wouter Bos de regie volkomen kwijt is, blijkt maar weer eens uit het feit dat Spit in NOVA haar wanbeleid rustig mag komen toelichten - aldus vrolijk de uittocht van het PvdA-electoraat verder bespoedigend.
Zie ook:
Minister kapittelt PvdA-wethouder om gescheiden inburgeren
Door Robin van der Kloor, Elsevier, 14 juli 2009
En:
Moskeeloket mag ook niet gescheiden
De Telegraaf, 14 juli 2009
Minister en wethouder bellen om inburgering
RTV Utrecht, 14 juli 2009
Wethouder van apartheid
Column Sylvain Ephimenco, Trouw, 14 juli 2009
Opnieuw oproep Van der Laan voor gemengd inburgeren
NRC, 16 juli 2009
Foto: Marka Spit, PvdA-wethouder van sekseapartheid in Utrecht
12 juli 2009
VS: klimaatverandering brengt dengue-koorts naar 28 staten
Climate Progress, 10 juli 2009
Just in time for the summer mosquito season, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report last week detailing the latest climate-based threat to human health.
Just in time for the summer mosquito season, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report last week detailing the latest climate-based threat to human health.
The two mosquito species capable of carrying dengue fever are rapidly spreading across the southern United States, increasing the incidence of the disease. We already knew that Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century – now, it seems, we’re reaching the point where 'threat' turns into 'harsh reality'.
The report tells it straight:
'Global warming threatens to further exacerbate the spread of many infectious diseases because increases in heat, precipitation, and humidity can foster better conditions for tropical and subtropical insects to survive and thrive in places previously inhospitable to those diseases.'
'Global warming threatens to further exacerbate the spread of many infectious diseases because increases in heat, precipitation, and humidity can foster better conditions for tropical and subtropical insects to survive and thrive in places previously inhospitable to those diseases.'
Levenslang voor antisemitische moord Frankrijk
NRC / ANP, 11 juli 2009Het NRC bericht dat ontvoerders van bende 'De Barbaren' Ilan Halimi drie weken lang opsloten en martelden. Kort nadat ze hem geboeid hadden gedumpt in de buurt van een treinstation, overleed het slachtoffer in een ziekenhuis.
Foto: Ilan Halimi
Niemand weet wat nanodeeltjes doen...
...Toch zitten ze in ons voedsel, in cosmetica, kleren en speelgoedBy Carole Bass, E Magazine, July 11, 2009
Zie ook:
Nanoparticles in sunscreens raise questions of safety
Zinc from sunscreen containing zinc oxide nanoparticles can penetrate healthy adult skin, raising questions over whether the zinc is still in its dangerous nanoparticle form, according to two recent Australian studies.
Later toegevoegd:
Nanoparticles Are in Our Food, Clothing and Medicine -- And No One Knows for Sure How Dangerous They Might Be
Door Heather Millar, Orion Magazine / Alternet, 23 februari 2013
[...] The regulation of nanoparticles has been recommended for more than a decade, but there’s no agreement on exactly how to do it. Meanwhile, the lid has already been lifted on nanotechnology. The use of man-made nanoparticles has spread into almost every area of our lives: food, clothing, medicine, shampoo, toothpaste, sunscreen, and thousands of other products.
09 juli 2009
Advertentie: Italië in gevaar door Berlusconi
NRC Handelsblad, Rome, 9 juli 2009het NRC bericht dat Antonio di Pietro waarschuwt dat de democratie in Italië in gevaar is - door middel van een paginagrote advertentie in International Herald Tribune.
Geen koraalriffen meer...
By Cameron Scott, The Thin Green Line / San Francisco Chronicle, July 7, 2009Zie ook:
Coral Reefs Exposed To Imminent Destruction From Climate Change
ScienceDaily, July 6, 2009
Later toegevoegd:
Coral Reefs Could Be Decimated by 2100
Door Eli Kintisch, Wired, 21 december 2012
07 juli 2009
Seksueel geweld bij 1 op 3 vrouwen
Kim van Keken, De Volkskrant, 07 juli 2009 [update: link gebroken; hier nog in archief]Een op de drie vrouwen heeft te maken gehad met seksueel geweld, 12 procent zegt ooit te zijn verkracht. Dat blijkt uit het rapport Seksuele Gezondheid in Nederland 2009 van het kenniscentrum Rutgers Nisso Groep [...].
[...] In de meeste gevallen is de dader van seksueel geweld een bekende, een kwart is zelfs de (ex)partner. ‘Vrouwen durven dan vaak geen aangifte doen, het voelt voor hen als verlinken.’
03 juli 2009
Mexicaanse griep is vijf keer riskanter
Bij Deense patiënte gemuteerde vorm ontdekt die resistent is tegen de huidige medicijnen
Door Hans van Soest, AD, 3 juli 2009
Zie ook:
'Mexicaanse griep minder besmettelijk’
De Volkskrant, 3 juli 2009
Trouw meldt dat over de besmettelijkheid verschillend wordt gedacht.
02 juli 2009
Bosbranden door spintkever: nare feedback klimaatverandering
By Joe Romm, Climate Progress, July 1, 2009The signs of global warming are everywhere. Coming back from my Vail conference to Denver, the driver pointed out to me the shocking devastation the state is now experiencing from the pine beetle, devastation anyone who lives in the West can see.
(...) we have the national 'liberal' media, like the NYT and NBC, blowing this story, while the local, conservative media get it right, see Conservative San Diego Union knows climate change is killing Western forests and Oldest Utah newspaper: Bark-beetle driven wildfires are a vicious climate cycle.
Of course, the journal Nature understands the science, as an April 2008 article made clear: Mountain pine beetle and forest carbon feedback to climate change. So does the Canadian media: Climate-Driven Pest Devours Canada’s Forests.
(...) global warming leads to more bark beetles, which kills more trees, which leads to more fires, which emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, which leads to more global warming!
01 juli 2009
Smeltende permafrost vormt tikkende tijdbom
By David Fogarty, Reuters, June 30, 2009
Later toegevoegd, ter enige relativering:
What Do Methane Deposits In The Antarctic And Arctic Mean For The Climate?
Door Verity Payne, Carbon Brief / Climate Progress, 30 augustus 2012
[...] Despite recent research suggesting that we’ve underestimated Arctic methane sources, there isn’t yet evidence to suggest that these sources are having a significant effect on atmospheric methane.
[...] Important warming feedbacks from methane emissions in the polar regions – particularly to the Arctic – have the potential to occur. But different feedbacks are likely to act over different timescales, and the possibility of sudden and catastrophic methane release may be overstated.
[...] although polar methane hydrate sources will probably become important over the long term, particularly if Arctic warming continues, in the nearer future it looks like wetlands will remain the major determining factor in global methane emissions.
Of toch weinig grond voor relativering en des te meer voor alarm:
UN report calls for closer monitoring of the world's permafrost
Door Graham Lloyd, The Australian, 28 november 2012
Melting ‘Permafrost’ Releases Climate-Warming CO2 Even Faster Than We Thought
University of Michigan News Service / Climate Progress, 12 februari 2013
Exposure to sunlight may act as an amplification factor in the conversion of frozen C [carbon] stores to C gases in the atmosphere.
If We Release a Small Fraction of Arctic Carbon, 'We're Fucked': Climatologist
Door Brian Merchant, Motherboard, 1 augustus 2014
First observations of methane release from Arctic Ocean hydrates
Stockholm University, 23 juli 2014
Zie ook m'n blognotitie:
Smeltende permaforst klimaatramp?
Later toegevoegd, ter enige relativering:
What Do Methane Deposits In The Antarctic And Arctic Mean For The Climate?
Door Verity Payne, Carbon Brief / Climate Progress, 30 augustus 2012
[...] Despite recent research suggesting that we’ve underestimated Arctic methane sources, there isn’t yet evidence to suggest that these sources are having a significant effect on atmospheric methane.
[...] Important warming feedbacks from methane emissions in the polar regions – particularly to the Arctic – have the potential to occur. But different feedbacks are likely to act over different timescales, and the possibility of sudden and catastrophic methane release may be overstated.
[...] although polar methane hydrate sources will probably become important over the long term, particularly if Arctic warming continues, in the nearer future it looks like wetlands will remain the major determining factor in global methane emissions.
Of toch weinig grond voor relativering en des te meer voor alarm:
UN report calls for closer monitoring of the world's permafrost
Door Graham Lloyd, The Australian, 28 november 2012
Melting ‘Permafrost’ Releases Climate-Warming CO2 Even Faster Than We Thought
University of Michigan News Service / Climate Progress, 12 februari 2013
Exposure to sunlight may act as an amplification factor in the conversion of frozen C [carbon] stores to C gases in the atmosphere.
If We Release a Small Fraction of Arctic Carbon, 'We're Fucked': Climatologist
Door Brian Merchant, Motherboard, 1 augustus 2014
First observations of methane release from Arctic Ocean hydrates
Stockholm University, 23 juli 2014
Zie ook m'n blognotitie:
Smeltende permaforst klimaatramp?
Abonneren op:
Posts (Atom)