I believe in death after life.

Theologians deny that Mary’s immaculate conception was a seminal moment in religious history.

Tempers flared when God and Jesus debated circular references: God: “Jesus!!” — Jesus: “God!!” — Both: “Christ!!”

God Inc.’s Accounts Payable Department appears to be severely understaffed.

When I read the Bible, I yelled ‘Holy Shit!’, immediately realising that that was the only accurate statement around.

What’s it called again when you do something stubbornly, repeatedly, and without too much thought? Oh right: “Religiously”.

God was tragically killed in the Big Bang. We’re on our own now. Everybody agree? Ok.

There’s only a one-letter difference between ‘immorality’ and ‘immortality’, and you must be a t-ist to see it.

Dictatorial regimes either consider religion as a tool for repression, or as a competing dictatorial regime.

No openly religious politician should be allowed to hold public office, as their allegiance lies with an external party.

Fallacy: If God is sovereign, he can do as he pleases. If the Bible is the word of God, he’s bound by it, so he can’t.

What christians do not get, is that the Rapture is actually a factory recall to replace the faulty parts.

People created holy books and gods. There’s no reason to base a modern society on prehistoric superstitions.

Morality is an evolutionary mechanism for self-preservation. Religions and holy books are mere time capsules along the way.

‘Atheist dictators’ are dictators who go after organised religion as a competing totalitarian organisation to beat.

There were morals before the bible, there will be morals after. If anything, the bible hinders modern morality, but not forever.

Everything is subjective. Everything is relative. That’s why we evolve and adapt. Well, an increasing number of us.

The fact that there are morals in present time that were also in the bible does not infer causality. Morals predate the bible.

Does God have free will? If God has free will, the Bible is useless. If God doesn’t have free will, who controls him?

Morals cannot reasonably be absolute. Humans codified morals, based on their knowledge and understanding. These change, so morals change.

“Religion is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody human idea that has ever infected the world.” – Voltaire, Updated

Of course there are no atheists in foxholes. Those were all occupied by theists at the first sign of danger.

“I don’t believe in coincidence” and “Everything happens for a reason” are scientific statements. It’s ‘intent’ where faith derails.

Religion will pay the price for its arrogant attempts at shaping society. Society will now push back, and push back hard.

Science is about the pursuit of knowledge. Religion is about the persecution of knowlegde.

True science raises ever more questions. More knowledge means more uncertainty. Paradoxically, questions and uncertainty fuel religion.

Revolutionary science will drive some scientists to God for comfort. It’s a remnant of the obsolete evolutionary function of religion.

If a scientist says he believes in God, it doesn’t show that science is flawed. It shows that that scientist is weak.

Ironically, faith can only save and sustain itself my being sectarian, thus not interfering with society as a whole.

Skepticism, falsifcation, doubt, and criticism are the kryptonite of religion. Faith can only thrive on blind acceptance.

Do you avoid parties because of the people that show up? That’s exactly why the Rapture hasn’t happened yet.

When the wise men from the east told Joseph in the manger that Jesus had his nose, he said ‘God, I don’t think so.”

When Thomas told Joseph that he doubted that Mary caught it off of a toilet seat, Joseph said ‘You doubt everything!’

God just switched off his satnav because it prevented him from moving in mysterious ways.

To people of faith, thunder must be the Facepalm of God.

While reading ‘The God Delusion’ on his Kindle, God started doubting himself.

Jesus just tweeted how annoyed he is about those “How To Get More Followers” spam messages.

The Rapture has been postponed because Jesus is still in Guantanamo Bay enjoying first-class healthcare.

Every time an athlete thanks God, a coach loses his wings.

God: “I did NOT have sex with that woman!”

Meanwhile, a disgruntled carpenter googles “virgin” and scratches his head.

In science, rigging observational data to confirm your theory is a deadly sin. In religion, it gets you an academic title.

I’ll take adversity in the harsh light of reality over prosperity in the delusional glow of religion anytime.

A christian is like a frat boy who was brutally hazed. He’s bound to take it out on the next generation, and add to it.

Beware of the man who derives his sense of superiority from bowing his knees and subjugating himself voluntarily.

Christian faith is an infinite condom: all can be made to fit inside it, but there’s a tiny hole for losing annoying details.

Religion served a human evolutionary purpose, but it’s on its way out. Unfortunately evolution takes ages unaided.

Whenever and wherever there’s a Gay Pride parade, lots of angels get their wings, apparently.

Judging evolution, religion focuses on the outcome and disregards the process. Like the Spanish Inquisition.

So long as religion doesn’t get that ‘life’ is one of trillions of random possibilities, it will never get science.

When God woke up after his day of rest, he said to himself: “What did I come in here for again?”

All world religions combined cannot pray away one single atheist.

I like the triumphalism with which atheists converted to religion are presented. For each one, thousands go the other way.

The biggest sacrifice a born-again christian has to make, is that his mental age is permanently reset to zero.

Abused children and oppressed adults take solace in imaginary friends. But nothing is more obscene than a free man choosing religion.

If you think that atheism is a cross to bear, you’re still not getting it.

Jesus may be your personal savior, but the chance that an atheist pulls you out of a burning car is much greater.

Calling atheism a religion shows you have a cult mindset: it’s groupthink, disregarding the possibility of individual choice.

Reality of the Flock: Barked at, stripped naked regularly, slaughtered in the end. Shepherd wins.

Religion provides the perfect marketplace for those keen to follow and obey, and those keen to exploit and profit.

If someone’s goal is set higher than humanity itself, they will surely trample humanity to reach it.

Belief in The Ultimate Escape Hatch makes any religion capable of, and indeed prone to, The Ultimate Atrocities.

Religion is like a blanket. It keeps you warm, shuts out the world, but you’re forced to smell your own farts.

If we’d known there was a three-day return policy on Jesus, we might have cremated him. Too soon?

Does anyone know of an abortion clinic that prevents christians from being born again?

Religion is a tool with which the frightened actually make themselves more frightened to overcome their fears.

Religion fills a void. That void is ‘lack of moral fiber’ . It’s cheap calories replacing food for thought.

One cannot appreciate and help a fellow man when looking upward. Religion is, by its very nature, anti-social.

Contrary to religion, atheism has never had to rewrite its core principles to incorporate advancing human knowledge.

If we are indeed the product of Intelligent Design, I can truthfully claim that my little nephew makes better drawings.

Humans are the pinnacle of God’s creation: he stuck us on a single rock and left the rest of the universe uninhabitable.

God exists independent of human observation. Why did he create them? Why is he behind the curtain, and not on stage?

Reality exists without observation. If God is real, humans were created to observe him, yet he refuses to be seen.

When a religious organisation files for tax exemption, it is basically stating that it doesn’t add value.

If you fast-forward evolution, you’ll see religion sliding down the double helix fast.

Most abortions are about saving one life, instead of destroying two.

Religion is best fought with ridicule, not reason. Using the latter would lend it a false sense of reasonability.

If you look to the skies for guidance, you’ll either miss the street signs or walk into them.

Unlike other addictive and mind-altering drugs, religion is without substance.

Judging by the number of interpretations and competing explanations in religion, atheism is a prime example of Occam’s Razor.

If God is your guiding light, you’ve chosen to live in the dark. If he’s your co-pilot, you’ve chosen to lose your way.

Atheism  is the natural state of man. Indoctrination makes man religious. Blame your parents.

If total delusion is an advantage, believers have an enormous head start.

There are no religious children, only religious parents. Beliefs are a product of indoctrination.

Claim the inalienable right not to have religion  in your life, laws, government, public services, and the public domain.

Preach the gospel in your church, and I will leave you be. Preach the gospel in my house, and I will make you leave.

Atheism used to be a personal choice, but it’s becoming a movement due to the external pressure of religion encroaching on our lives.

The main organising principle in atheism today is organised religion not respecting an atheist’s lack of beliefs.

The largest totalitarian movement throughout the ages has been organised and militant religion fighting ‘infidels’.

The only mass-murders directed at religion were perpetrated by another religion. No atheist kills for his lack of beliefs.

I’m actually a big fan of religious conversions. Churches, mosques, and temples can be made into great apartments.

A typical atheist’s typo would be: “Does God Exit?”.

Question their beliefs, and the moral veneer of believers fades to expose the seven deadly sins in action.

To get any use out of a holy book I’d have to saw off part of a table leg.

Depression. Repression. Oppression. Suppression. Aggression. All are sublimated in religion. Shaken and stirred.

Militant religion, which wants an unfree society for us, triggers a counter-movement resulting in an unfree society for them.

Science can’t be used as a supporting argument for religion, because disproving dogma is not allowed.

Misunderstandings in Intelligent Design: free wIll was actually included in creation as an escape hatch from religion.

Santa Claus. The Bogey Man. You believed. You were scared. You grew up. You stopped believing. You moved on. Why stop there? Atheism.

I prefer a theory with some holes over some holes with a theory.

The main reason why evolution cannot be proved 100% is that there are still humans who actively refuse to evolve.

Those living in a small world believe they’re huge; those observing the vast universe know how small we actually are.

Early religion used science to attain more wisdom. Modern religion rejects science because its wisdom negates its beliefs.

Religion is the only human endeavor that actively resists natural human progress and reaches for the future in the past.

Being indoctrinated into believing is sad and criminal; actively submitting to indoctrination is pathetic and selfdestructive.

The danger of beliefs is that they’re unproved but imposed, the danger of knowledge is that it’s proved but ignored.

God is the only concept that drives people to self-imposed slavery.

God is invented by fear, annihilated by knowledge, defended by hypocrisy.

A donkey won’t move if you tell it it will get either the carrot or the stick only after death. An ass will.

The main reason why atheism starts to resemble a movement is the inability of religion to exercise its ‘brotherly love’.

“No, son, that’s not the moon, it’s a police helicopter looking for Father Brown for you know what.”

Free, independent, and unencumbered thinkers will never resort to religion. It is atheism that attracts the truly enlightened. </zen>.

Instead of focusing on atheism, people of religion might be better off confronting those who saddled them with their untenable beliefs.

Is there a spellchecker that changes ‘praying for the sick to make them feel better’ into ‘preying on the sick to make me feel better’?

The more science explains away the unknown, the more religion gets reduced to an ordinary human malfunction.

“I know it’s true, I’ve seen it with my own eyes’ is a phrase commonly invoked by paranoid schizophrenics.

If there are no atheists in foxholes, it’s probably because they’re actually fighting instead of cowering.

Drawback of atheism: being unable to ask a person of religion after death: ‘So, how do you feel about wasting your entire life?’

How many real problems has your religion solved today? And how many real problems has your religion caused today?

In the cosmos of evolution, religion is the black hole. It sucks up all the trash, and no reason can escape from it.

If a Muslim asks “Can I crash at your place?”, don’t readily assume the worst. He may just want to demolish your house.

If you thank God after surviving a catastrophe, you really need to be in another one, just to sharpen your logic.

The notion that science shouldn’t enter the realm of religion is really beyond me. Science has cured lots of mental afflictions.

Realisation: the Christian Right hates Hollywood for advocating only a  temporary suspension of disbelief.

That religion has placebo-like ‘positive side-effects’ does not mean you can’t point out the inherent logical fallacy of beliefs.

Atheism equals personal freedom: no belief system, no organisation, no leader, no dogma, no church, no pressure.

Horoscopes, Prayers and Placebos: the Holy Trinity of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and Self-Delusion.

Somewhere out there, in the vast and cold universe, a bewildered old man is still looking for his lost marble.

This was the only thing I would ever watch on MTV. Good thing it’s back in archived form! If you like alternative and indie music, you will appreciate this, I’m sure ..

The 120 Minutes Archive – Playlists, videos, and interviews from MTV’s classic alternative music series.

At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political ideas.

Aldous Huxley

Zorg nu dat je er voorgoed van af komt!

FOK.nl / Nieuws / Ruim 13.000 afmeldingen Telefoongids

Direct afbestellen:

http://over.detelefoongids.nl/corporate/show/id=41137#top

And I had always assumed, even after watching Jon Stewart’s brilliant The Daily Show day in day out, year in year out, that even he could and would not commit comedic suicide by attempting such a herculean undertaking.

But he did. And boy, did he kill.

Watch the full episode here.

True/Slant said “This is the best seatbelt ad you have ever seen”. I tend to agree.

Lhasa de Sela, 1972 - 2010

I saw the excellent and thought-provoking film Cold Souls recently, and I was impressed with a couple of songs on the soundtrack.

I’d never heard of the artist (Lhasa de Sela, what a beautiful name), but I was taken with her music right away.

It has elements of fado, and it also reminds me of the famous song from Mulholland Dr.

Sadly, I made a very unfortunate discovery when I found the Wikipedia link mentioned earlier. She died very recently.

Following a 21 month battle with breast cancer, Lhasa died, aged 37, on the evening of January 1, 2010, at her home in Montreal.

[ Lhasa's Obituary at The Guardian. ]
[ Lhasa's Obituary at The Montreal Gazette. ]

What a terrible waste; it makes the songs on the three excellent albums she left behind all the more haunting.

Let’s not forget Lhasa.

La route chante,
Quand je m’en vais.
Je fais trois pas,
La route se tait.

La route est noire,
À perte de vue.
Je fais trois pas,
La route n’est plus.

(La Marée Haute, 2003)

Lhasa de Sela – Con Toda Palabra

Lhasa de Sela – La Marée Haute

Lhasa de Sela – My Name

Lhasa de Sela – Pa’Llegar a tu Lado

Lhasa de Sela – NPR Interview 2005

More of Lhasa de Sela on YouTube.

If you have no idea what the joke is about .. read or listen.

That sucks.

Database: Injuries reported by emergency rooms

A random (i.e. cherry-picking) sample available at The Register.

(via The Register)

This past summer, a new law passed in Ireland which made blasphemy, the simple act of challenging or offending a religious belief, a punishable crime with a fine of up to €25,000 ($35,810). The scientist and religious critic, Richard Dawkins, called this a “return to the middle ages.”

As of yesterday, the law officially went into effect.

In a truly weird twist of logic, justice minister Dermot Ahern says the law is necessary because immigration has brought a growing diversity of religious faiths to Ireland, and yet the 1936 constitution extends religious protection to only Christians. So clearly, instead of protecting the rights to religious expression for all worshipers, Ireland needs institutionalized censorship.

Irish atheists fight new blasphemy laws – Allison Kilkenny – Unreported – True/Slant.

Prague TV Tower – World’s Largest Spherical Panorama.

For 80 years, it has eluded the finest minds in science. But tonight it appeared that the hunt may be over for dark matter, the mysterious and invisible substance that accounts for three-quarters of the matter in the universe.

In a series of coordinated announcements at several US laboratories, researchers said they believed they had captured dark matter in a defunct iron ore mine half a mile underground. The claim, if confirmed next year, will rank as one the most spectacular discoveries in physics in the past century.

Tantalising glimpses of dark matter particles were picked up by highly sensitive detectors at the bottom of the Soudan mine in Minnesota, the scientists said.

• Has dark matter finally been detected? | Science | The Guardian
• Two events hint at impact of dark matter particles | ars technica
• At a Mine’s Bottom, Hints of Dark Matter | Space & Cosmos | The New York Times

Tegen tien uur ‘s avonds ging mijn deurbel. De buurvrouw.

Ze zei: “Ik heb een mooie verrassing voor je!”

“Ja,” zei ik, “is het Leger des Heils weer geweest om mijn voedselpakket af te leveren?”

“Zal wel meevallen toch?”, vroeg ze olijk.

“Ja hoor,” zei ik, “We hebben nog even niets te klagen.”

Ze draaide zich om terwijl ze haar sleutels zocht.

“Ik kreeg dit jaar ook een kerstpakket, van mijn vroegere werk,” zei ze, en ze gaf ongeveer de afmeting van een LP aan. “Klein pakketje dit jaar!”.

“Tja,’ leefde ik mee, “Het zijn crisistijden, alle bedrijven letten extra op de kleintjes, en …”

De rest van de zin moest ik inslikken, want achter de ondertussen geopende voordeur ontwaarde ik een enorm kerstpakket, met honderd keer ‘Merry X-mas!” erop, ook nog in een niet misselijk lettertype.

“Eh … tja,” was alles wat ik nog uit kon brengen.

De buurvrouw keek me met een milde glimlach aan, en ik begreep de hint.

“Zal ik hem zelf maar even pakken?”

Ik stapte bij haar naar binnen, en om de situatie nog iets wranger te maken kon ik niet veel anders dan met enig gekreun en gesteun het pakket optillen. Het was ook nog eens loeizwaar.

Onder het slaken van een welgemeend “Sjeezus!” waggelde ik de deur uit.

“Nog een fijne avond, he?” zei mijn buurvrouw.

“U ook, hoor!”, kwam er nogal moeizaam uit, terwijl ik hijgend naar mijn eigen voordeur strompelde, “U ook!”.

From the iPhone to the Garmin, advancements and gadgets introduced this decade changed the whole world. They’ve affected how we live, do business, acquire information, and connect with others. We’ve gotten used to touch-screens, blazingly fast Internet, and the ability to have the world at our fingertips in seconds. In the process, a few things that once were considered social mainstays are now either obsolete or well on their way. Remember busting out a map to figure out directions? Or using a cell phone that had actual buttons? Yeah, those days are a bit hazy for us, too.

So let’s refresh our memories, get nostalgic, and honor some techologies, gadgets, and habits that got totally pwned by the 2000′s.

21 Things That Became Obsolete This Decade.

Calculating the real value to society of different professions

This report takes a new approach to looking at the value of work. We go beyond how much different professions are paid to look at what they contribute to society. We use some of the principles and valuation techniques of Social Return on Investment analysis to quantify the social, environmental and economic value that these roles produce – or in some cases undermine.

The report goes on to challenge ten of the most enduring myths surrounding pay and work. People who earn more don’t necessarily work harder than those who earn less. The private sector is not necessarily more efficient than the public sector. And high salaries don’t necessarily reflect talent.

A Bit Rich | the new economics foundation.

(via Sargasso)

It doesn’t get better than this. A leaked Scientology video featuring the woman who is the voice of Bart Simpson (Nancy Cartwright) and a host of unknown actors speaking out on their crusade to get more Scientology centers into neighborhoods.

Creepy Leaked Scientology Video Plots World Domination – Harmon Leon – The Infiltrator – True/Slant.

DAILY FILM DOSE: A Daily Film Appreciation and Review Blog: THE LONG TAKE.

Some obvious duplication, but some great new long takes as well.

The first example:

Mikhail Kalatozov, I Am Cuba, 1964.

This is one of the most strikingly beautiful films ever made. Don’t mind the propaganda (Russian-born Kalatozov also made the stunning The Cranes Are Flying, an equally propagandist movie about the virtues of Communism), it’s the filmmaking that matters. The intricacy of this shot is just breathtaking.

Watch the rest:
Mike Harvkey – Closely Watched – The 10 best long tracking shots ever filmed – True/Slant.

(via Joop.nl)

Eerst had ik mooie shots van Google Maps in deze post, maar die heeft Google kennelijk verneukt, dus je moet maar genoegen nemen met de links…

Mijn studentenhuizen:
Nieuwe Rijn 74 (1989-1990) – bovenste etage
Nieuwe Rijn 76 (1990-1993) – dat witte pand; achter de linkerboog zat mijn kamer, de eerste etage was de ‘fusie’ (woonkamer)
Janvossensteeg 27 (1993-1997) – het huis met de erker; ik had de kamer daarboven

Studietijd bracht ik vooral hier door, op de faculteit Politieke Wetenschappen:
FSW (Pieter de la Court-gebouw, oftewel “Gebouw 5″)
De Bieb

Veel colleges hier:
Hugo de Groot
Gravensteen
Gorlaeus Lab

De ‘examenkerken’:
Hooglandse Kerk
Pieterskerk

Zo maar wat veelbezochte kroegen:
Barrera (ja precies, Soldaat van Oranje)
Meneer Jansen
Camino Real
Soc. De Burcht (links achter de poort)
Catena (als alle kroegen dicht waren)
Pardoeza (ooit)
Odessa en Schurmann & Esser (Scheurbuik & Etter)
Het Arsenaal (?)
Annie’s Verjaardag
Van Engelen
De Branderij

Ach ja, nostalgie. Ik mis ‘t nog wel eens, Leiden in de zomer.

YouTube – TEDxMidAtlantic-Marcus Ranum-11/5/09.

These letters were leaked today showing a major breakdown in communication between the French Government and the Irish over the upcoming World Cup qualifying play-off. There’s now a full-blown diplomatic row brewing.

Yeah, right

(via Sargasso)

Politiek fanatisme wortelt vaak in een persoonlijk gebrek, een tragisch tekort, een woede die maar niet overgaat

meteen aan het andere toonbeeld van afgereageerde frustratie en gemankeerdheid, Pim Fortuyn, die bij zijn zoektocht om vooral maar gehoord te worden zo’n beetje het gehele politieke spectrum afdwaalde en overal probeerde binnen te komen (en waar dat lukte verdeeldheid en ruzie zaaide), totdat hij doorkreeg dat hard dingen roepen en wachten op de peilingen een veel succesvollere tactiek bleek.

Al probeerde Fortuyn, in tegenstelling tot Wilders, nog wel persoonlijk in debat te gaan (of althans in een debat-setting op te dagen, om er een schmierende en jij-bakkende non-sequitur-retoriek tegenaan te gooien).

Mooie uitsmijter, al spreekt hier klaarblijkelijk eerder hoop dan verwachting:

Wat moeten we tegen Wilders’ kiezers zeggen?

Ik heb respect voor de kiezer, ook voor die van de PVV, zei Femke Halsema bij Pauw & Witteman. Maar respect voor alle kiezers is populisme. Dan heb je geen politiek en politici meer nodig. Wilders maakt hier zelf graag misbruik van door elke forse kritiek op zijn standpunten af te doen als een ‘belediging voor zijn kiezers’, dus voor de democratie.

Maar we mogen tegen de potentiële PVV-kiezer zeggen: je sympathiseert met een fout personage en een partij die niet deugt. Wilders is weliswaar niet extreem-rechts of een hedendaagse fascist, maar wel een nostalgische witte nationalist en een gemankeerde democraat met hufterig taalgebruik en autoritaire en racistische denkbeelden. Helaas moeten we er rekening mee houden dat minstens 15% van het electoraat er ook zo over denkt. Die moeten we dus gewoon proberen weg te stemmen.

O, en Sargasso doet ook nog even mee:

My bedroom

The countless readers of my weblog (seriously, I don’t count them) will have noticed that my webserver was offline for over fourteen hours today. When I arrived at work this morning, I found that out myself.

The first thing I do when I get in (well, the second, who can start the day without coffee?) is fire up my laptop and tunnel into my network at home to have access to my email and my files. But that just didn’t pan out this time.

So I sat there scratching my head and drinking another cup of coffee. Then I connected to the very few machines that have any access to my server (a FreeBSD router/firewall/gateway actually, plus some other servers behind it) at home, and they couldn’t reach it either.

Now, I hate it when that happens. Not knowing what the problem is, and having to have doubts and dark thoughts about that all day long. Network interface dead? Firewall hiccup? DSL crash? Total crash? Disks kaputt? RAM kaputt? Do I have to buy a new server and start all over again?

Ok, I have excellent and recent off-site backups, and getting a new server online is nothing more than building the OS, building the ports, putting config files and databases back, and that’s really it. But it’s still more aggravation than I care for at any given time.

If I wanted aggravation, I’d run Linux, for crying out loud!

Anyway, when I got home again, the first thing  I did (I skipped coffee) was look at the server. It was sitting there, humming along nicely, there was network activity, there was disk activity, and nothing burned down.

So I logged on, and everything looked totally normal. Traffic was coming in and going out, and … wait a minute .. traffic was actually going out and coming in, not the other way around. So SYN/ACKs came in, but no SYNs. I checked the firewall ruleset. Unaltered. I checked the rules in memory (pfctl -s rules, etc.). All fine.

Then I checked the log files, looking specifically at what had happened around 6 AM, when the last sign of ‘all OK’ had shown up on an external monitoring server. There I saw that the server had been unable to connect out from 5:59 to 6:03 … aha … roughly the time it takes my DSL modem to reboot. And that DSL modem has a default setting for firewalling: allow nothing in, and everything out, plus stateful return traffic back in. Exactly what I was seeing.

But my DSL modem was beaten into submission by me a long time ago, with a configuration that looks like this in human-readable form:

Give the friggin’ IP address to my server, and (pretty please, with sugar on top) get your filthy hands of my soddin’ traffic, I will do all of the firewalling myself. Just sit there, blink your lights, and look pretty. Don’t bother me again. Save.

To make sure, I connected to an external server and pinged my firewall from the outside. Nothing showed up in a tcpdump of pflog, and nothing even showed up in a tcpdump of my external interface. DSL modem for sure then ..

I still have no idea how that DSL modem managed to take itself offline for four minutes  and then come back with its built-in firewall enabled, but a simple power cycle returned everything back to normal.

I’m afraid to check my voicemail now, because there are bound to be countless messages from people who couldn’t read my weblog …

Seriously, I don’t count them!

Not my bedroom

Bon Appetit!

The eco-pawprint of a pet dog is twice that of a 4.6-litre Land Cruiser driven 10,000 kilometres a year, researchers have found. [...] They found cats have an eco-footprint of 0.15ha – slightly less than a Volkswagen Golf. Hamsters have a footprint of 0.014ha – keeping two of them is equivalent to owning a plasma TV.

Save the planet: eat a dog? | Stuff.co.nz.

So there you have it: The single Greatest Piece of Software Ever, with the broadest impact on the world, was BSD 4.3. Other Unixes were bigger commercial successes. But as the cumulative accomplishment of the BSD systems, 4.3 represented an unmatched peak of innovation. BSD 4.3 represents the single biggest theoretical undergirder of the Internet. Moreover, the passion that surrounds Linux and open source code is a direct offshoot of the ideas that created BSD: a love for the power of computing and a belief that it should be a freely available extension of man’s intellectual powers–a force that changes his place in the universe.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=191901844

1. queries for the root DNS servers (‘./NS/IN’ denied)

2. queries for the PTR record of my IP address (’11.159.90.86.in-addr.arpa/PTR/IN’ denied)

3. queries for a third-party website (‘www.cnnic.cn/A/IN‘ denied)

4. other queries (BIND version queries etc.)

For the record: the PTR record of my IP address is handled by my ISP, not me. Some of the type 1 and type 4 queries are ‘bona fide’. They’re being done by scanners belonging to e.g. ISC (the authors of BIND) in order to create statistics. I still don’t allow these, though.

I thought it would be interesting to make these queries, and who make them (or who are being spoofed to give off that appearance), available here.

One party that stands out like a sore thumb is Virtela Communications, Inc., which seems to be performing these unwanted queries from an entire network range. Anyone know what’s up with them?

Their rwhois server lists the IP addresses as belonging to:

network:Org-Name:Virtela Communications on behalf of IBM – Web Delivery Platform – SaaS
network:Street-Address:Videsh Sanchar Bhavan,  No.2 KEB Layout,,  Sanjay Nagar Main Road, Geddalahalli,
network:City:Bangalore

Other regular players (real or spoofed) are ‘Nintendo of America’, Google, Amazon’s Cloud Computing, CCBill, and Microsoft.

And yes, this article is much more of a testimony to how stuck-up ‘middle America’ has been over the years than any indication of what controversy actually is outside of that backwater.

Appetite Killer?

I mean .. come on!

The Most Controversial Magazine Covers of All Time | Webdesigner Depot.

Red Dust (gallery)

Sydney Smog (gallery)

Sydney Turns Red (gallery)

(via ReteCool)

Proof of Concept

Project ‘Gaydar’

At MIT, an experiment identifies which students are gay, raising new questions about online privacy

Read article: Project Gaydar @ The Boston Globe

[ this is a repost, because the old post was attracting a stupendous amount of traffic, probably caused by some malware ]

Tom Tom Slave

A Doncaster man who slavishly followed his sat nav to the edge of a West Yorkshire cliff has been punished with a £370 fine, £500 costs, a £15 victim surcharge and six points on his licence for driving without due care and attention. Robert Jones, 43, was driving his £30,000 BMW 5 Series though the village of Gauxholme back in March, when his TomTom ordered him up a narrow footpath. He only realised he’d taken a seriously wrong turn when he hit a fence on the edge of a precipice.

Italian Job sat nav driver cops £900 fine
£900 fine for sat nav nut

My old and trusted FreeBSD 7.2 server (A Dell Dimension 8300, the bottom one in the picture), serving my websites (BAMP), zone files, OpenVPN tunnels, SSH and mail services has been retired, and all services have been moved to my former XP desktop, a Dell Dimension 9150, the top one in the picture).

I switched to a FreeBSD laptop last year, so the XP desktop machine was switched off and gathering dust. It has now been put to much better use.

My new server is running FreeBSD 8.0-BETA3, just like my laptop, and my old server will be wiped clean, installed with FreeBSD 8.0 too, and turned into a backup/file server in my LAN.

I’ve been using FreeBSD since the 2.2.5 days, and I must say that installing and upgrading FreeBSD is always a pleasure. The whole migration took only a few hours (including compiling the OS, kernel and ports, and rsync’ing the user data and configuration files), and was, a few little snags aside, virtually painless.

Here’s to ever more years of trouble-free FreeBSD serving!

(via retecool)

En ineens vroeg ik me af wat me mijn hele leven niet was opgevallen: waarom combineren we Grieks en Latijn in onze afstands-, gewichts- en inhoudsmaten?

Waarom hebben we naast centiliter niet centoliter, in plaats van hectoliter? Waarom hebben we naast milligram niet millogram, in plaats van kilogram? Het geval deciliter versus decaliter blijft enigszins onbeslist, aangezien het Latijnse ‘decem’ net om de hoek ligt (naar schatting op zo’n pentameter afstand).

Non-gerelateerd mooi woord: bedonderdelen.

Of course, this American, like many others, makes the same crucial mistake when it comes to tax rates, so I sent an e-mail to the author (Russell Shorto)

Hi Russell,

This response may be a bit late, but I only read your “Going Dutch” article in the past week. I was surprised to find a fundamental misconception about the Dutch tax rates in your article, and since it was a “grating” experience, I thought it opportune to point out the flaw

For the first few months I was haunted by a number: 52. It reverberated in my head; I felt myself a prisoner trying to escape its bars. For it represents the rate at which the income I earn, as a writer and as the director of an institute, is to be taxed. To be plain: more than half of my modest haul, I learned on arrival, was to be swallowed by the Dutch welfare state.

This is patently incorrect: the 52% tax rate only applies to the top bracket of your total income. Lower brackets of your income are subject to lower tax rates:

Bracket 1: up to € 17.579 -> 33,60%
Bracket 2: € 17.580 – € 31.589 -> 41,85%
Bracket 3: € 31.590 – € 53.860 -> 42%
Bracket 4: € 53.861 and more -> 52%

Note: this applies to the brackets of one single income. Moreover: part of bracket one is totally tax-exempt (I believe one pays 0% tax over the first € 6.520).

Just thought I’d clear that up and relieve that grating sensation

Cheers,
Ben Grimm,
Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Oh, the article:

Going Dutch – How I Learned to Love the European Welfare State. – NYTimes.com.

Man, I thought I’d seen it all!

Sonic Youth Video (can’t embed, sorry)

We komen er wel.

Het is met ingang van oktober dit jaar verboden om spam, ongevraagde e-mail met veelal reclameboodschappen, te versturen naar bedrijven. Spam aan personen was in Nederland al verboden. Door het nieuwe verbod is nu ook spam aan rechtspersonen verboden en ontstaat een algeheel spamverbod in Nederland. Dit heeft het ministerie van Economische Zaken zondag bekendgemaakt.

Overigens had dit eigenlijk al per 1 juli 2009 in moeten gaan!

Enfin, bookmark maar vast: http://www.spamklacht.nl/

elated-ambiguousAha, vandaar het uitstel. Het spamverbod is gekoppeld aan het bel-me-niet-register dat ook per 1 oktober van kracht wordt, aldus Webwereld.

Het grappige is dat mensen die iets weten van psychologie of sociologie zeggen dat mensen vanuit de evolutie zijn gericht op overleven, op het zichzelf handhaven. Als je dat in een bedrijfsomgeving zegt, zijn er mensen die over je heen rollen. Je mag dat helemaal niet zeggen. Dat is not-done. Maar je moet eigenbelang ook niet te negatief opvatten.

Heren managers, kunnen we dan nu ophouden met vlotten en bruggen bouwen, touwtrekken, teambuilding, ‘neuzen dezelfde kant op’, ‘samen de schouders eronder’ en ‘saamhorigheid kweken’? De jaren zeventig zijn echt voorbij. Management-goeroes kunnen niet eens een blik erwten openmaken, alleen opschrijven hoe ze vinden dat anderen het moeten doen.

Respecteer individuen en individuele motivatie. Dat overspannen gelijkgerichte groepsgedoe werkt niet. Toen niet. Nu niet. Wist ik trouwens al lang.

(over ‘meat’, ‘tame’ en ‘mate’ doe ik geen uitspraken — nee, ook geen meta-uitspraken)

Terril Jones had only shown the photograph to friends.

While working as a reporter in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he shot many photographs and recorded several hours of video. It wasn’t until weeks afterwards, when he had returned to Japan, that he discovered the magnitude of what he had captured — an iconic moment in history from an entirely unique angle.

His version of the tank man has never been published until now.

Behind the Scenes: A New Angle on History – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com.

Ikzelf ben, als ik het zo mag zeggen, een ‘Den Uyl’-tiener. Ik zal een jaar of twaalf zijn geweest toen ik een briefkaartje stuurde naar de locale PvdA-afdeling met het verzoek om posters en stickers, en al was mijn vader er niet zo blij mee (ik vermoed dat hij het tegenover de erg burgerlijke buren, die waarschijnlijk erg richting CDA en VVD neigden) niet kies vond om van een partijvoorkeur te getuigen), ik hing toch een grote witte poster met rode roos voor het raam van mijn jongenskamertje, en ik kon erg genieten van Den Uyls bevlogen redevoeringen. Bovendien was ik als Rotterdammer gezegend met charismatische en sociaal bevlogen burgemeesters als Thomassen en Van der Louw. Eigenlijk ben ik altijd op die PvdA blijven stemmen.

Vandaag dus eens een andere stem. Ik heb vandaag gestemd op Groen Links. Daar zitten wat gedachten achter.

Ten eerste maakt het mij wat uit of het nationale of Europese verkiezingen zijn. In eigen land/provincie/regio geef ik nog steeds de voorkeur aan de PvdA.  Ik zie graag een sterke linkse partij met regeringservaring en voldoende volume om tegenwicht te bieden aan partijen als CDA en VVD. Ik denk dat Nederland zonder een sterke PvdA altijd zal verrechtsen, nooit verlinksen. In Europa zijn die overwegingen me minder waard, en laat ik me meer leiden door de verrechtsing en ‘vernauwing’ die lieden als Wilders en Berlusconi voorstaan. Ongebreideld geheul met nationalistische retoriek en symboliek, waar ik helemaal niets mee heb. Alleen al daarom schuif ik graag wat op naar links, als tegenwicht. Ik vind bovendien dat de PvdA zich daar te weinig tegenaan bemoeit, en te weinig terugschopt tegen die onzin, en dat geldt grosso modo ook voor de Europese socialistische fractie waar de PvdA toe behoort. Die zit toch iets te comfortabel tegen het machtige midden aan.

Ten tweede ben en blijf ik een sterk voorstander van verdere Europese integratie, al heb ik tegen de ‘Europese Grondwet’ gestemd en zijn de overwegingen die daaraan ten grondslag lagen ook vandaag nog van kracht. Op voorwaarde dat het democratisch gehalte van Europa beter geregeld wordt ben ik uiteindelijk voorstander van Europese federalisering, naar Amerikaans of Duits model, met sterke, maar niet alles blokkerende (deel)staten met veto-macht, een volwaardig Europees Parlement, een volwaardige Europese begroting, een Europees buitenlands beleid, en wat mij betreft ook een Europese defensie. Dat is de voornaamste reden dat ik niet richting SP ben opgeschoven. Ik vind hun standpunten te veel ‘tegen’, en te weinig ‘voor’. In wezen is de SP richting Europa te conservatief en te parochiaal voor mijn gevoel. Ik vind dat je best nee mag zeggen tegen de Europese bureaucratie, het te ondoorzichtige democratische gehalte en de door inefficiëntie en nationale deelbelangen te grote geldverspilling, maar je zult ook ja tegen Europa moeten zeggen om die verschijnselen actief te lijf te gaan; dat kan alleen vanuit Brussel, en daar moet je present zijn als voorstander van Europa; dat moet de motivatie zijn. Een voorwaardelijk nee, en een voorwaardelijk ja. Remmen, bijsturen en gas geven; niet: remmen, omkeren en je vinger opsteken. Ik vind dat de SP geen goed alternatief biedt om uiteindelijk toch op positieve wijze richting Europa uit te komen; ik heb de indruk dat ze vooral zoeken naar stokken om de Europese hond mee te slaan, maar niet met het doel hem op te voeden. ‘Zeg nee, stem SP’ heeft me als slogan ook nooit mogen bekoren.

Ten derde vind ik dat Europa zich gemeenschappelijk sterk moet maken voor ‘de groene paragraaf’, waaronder voor mij vallen: onderzoek naar en implementatie van duurzame energie, een gemeenschappelijke aanpak van energieverspilling en milieuvervuiling, een sterke beweging richting dierenwelzijn, en het bereiken van een efficiënte ‘landbouwmarkt’, waarbij overproductie en verspilling worden ‘weggepland’ via een gemeenschappelijk beleid. Ik blijf het raar vinden dat een Nederlandse vrachtwagen met tomaten naar het buitenland dieselt om vervolgens dezelfde tomaten in een Engelse vrachtwagen te zien terugkeren in de vorm van tomatenpuree. Zoals ik er ook tegen ben dat Nederlandse koeien in Griekenland geslacht worden omdat AH dan tien cent korting kan geven op de biefstuk. Er zijn grenzen aan steeds meer voor minder geld, en afschaffing van allerlei tariefsverschillen en afwijkende nationale regels en subsidies is een eerste stap. Met het vasthouden aan of het geforceerd instellen van nationale of regionale deelbelangen komt Europa er nooit.

Op basis van iets linkser, iets groener, en toch positief richting ‘het uiteindelijke Europa’ (en ook op basis van wat verschillende stem/kieswijzers) is het vandaag dus Groen Links geworden.