20150131 - acting my age

I’m happy to act my age –  I just don’t want to look it

I recognised the guy from somewhere.

 Keith Harrison, www.expressandstar.com, published: November 16, 2014 7:30 am

He was older than me, miserable looking, serious of face and fatter, much fatter than me.
His face bore down from the background of a big screen at one of those business conference events where microphones get passed round, followed by the in-house camera to pick out the questioner.
Hand on his double chin, he listened studiously as the chap slightly behind him asked a question of the panel seated away on a stage.
I turned to see who it was, but he turned too and I missed him.
Looking ahead again, I checked my watch. On the big screen, he checked his.
The thudding realisation hit me like a 5-0 defeat at Derby; this dull man-in-a-suit, this glowering, joyless beast was me.
Middle-aged, middle-of-the-road, mid-life crisis Me.
B**ger.
The camera, as ever when you don’t want it to, lingered.
I lost track of what the other guy was saying.
Selfishly, vainly and most of all depressingly, I was drawn to my own image.
What. The. Hell.
This wasn’t the guy I’d seen when I left the hotel room a few hours earlier. There I was tall, handsome, suave, sophisticated. (OK, you can stop laughing now.)
Here, I was literally unrecognisable to my self.
Now I know the camera adds 10 pounds. But where did the rest of it come from?
I thought back to breakfast: buttered toast, muffin, croissant and pecan tart. Surely that couldn’t be the problem?
The stark spotlight didn’t do me any favours.
Nor what seemed to be the world’s sharpest HD conference camera, revealing every crack and wrinkle on my increasingly furrowed brow.
And I wasn’t even in focus.
God knows what the guy who was speaking thought.
Except, he probably wasn’t worried about it.
Most blokes aren’t.
Yet I’m cursed with a fear and loathing of ageing, mainly because it goes against my Peter Pan fantasy.
I don’t mind growing up, it’s the growing old that’s so hard.
I’m careful what I wear (there’s nothing worse than an older man trying to be down with the kids) but age is having an effect there too.
When I recently bought a new wool jumper, (sensible, merino and, er, green) Our Lass took one look and asked when I’d taken up golf.
“You look like you’re heading for the first tee,” she said, by way of an insult.
And she wasn’t the first to pop my ego this week.
Spotting a new work experience girl, I remembered that I’d met her on a visit to her university a few months back.
Pointing out that she’d stood out with some sharp remarks, she confessed that she had no recollection of me at all.
“I remember a group of you coming in,” she recalled, “but you were all just old men in suits.”
Seriously, the word ‘ouch’ has never been more painfully used.
I slipped into my pipe, slippers and melancholy even deeper than usual that night and pondered where I am.
Not quite 50, not quite divorced, not quite sure what the future holds and not quite what I appear on camera.
Because I’m not some corporate suited zombie.
I’m a good lad, according to my mates.
A good dad, according to my kids.
A ‘tubby funster’, according to my girlfriend – admittedly not the most romantic thing she’s ever said but she was trying to cheer me up so I’ll take it.
Maybe she was just trying to dislodge me from the vanity mirror.
Or let me know that, unless you’re Johnny Depp or Peter Barlow, no-one really expects a 46-year-old to keep up his looks, bod or image from 20 years ago.
And, joyously my craggy comrades, that’s OK after all.
Because the camera may never lie, but neither does it tell the full story.
So for now, I’ll focus on that – and see what develops.

20150130 - fotolog

Fotolog

Fotolog.com (originally Fotolog.net) is a web site for sharing pictures through online photo diaries or photoblogs. Its owners claim that it has registered users in 200 countries, hosting 200 million photos. On August, 17th, 2007, French online advertising company HiMedia agreed to acquire Fotolog for 65,8 million euros (77% Hi Media stock, 23% cash).

Launched in May 2002, the Fotolog site formerly generated over 3 billion page views, and received over 20 million unique visitors each month.^{[citation needed]} In 2007, Fotolog.com was in the list of the top 20 busiest websites in the Alexa global site rankings.

Fotolog is a registered trademark of Fotolog, Inc., which is a privately held company backed by BV Capital, 3i and several individual investors. Fotolog headquarters were in New York City, prior to its acquisition by Hi-Media Group.
The site had frequent technical problems during its growth. On December 10, 2005, the site stated that "Fotolog is currently able to accept 1,000 new free members from each country each day", up from 500 a day previously. According to Fotolog co-founder Scott Heiferman, upgrades had made the site much faster and as of November 16, 2005, Fotolog was generating 750 million pageviews a month.
Originally, free members could not upload during peak hours, and only 500 people a day (per country) were allowed to register. In mid-2006, 10,000 people per day, per country were allowed to register, and on August 14, 2006, the limiting of daily registrations was removed.
In 2005 Fotolog received an investment of 2.4 million dollars from BV Capital.
In Spring 2006, a book of photographs from fotolog.com was published by the UK publisher Thames & Hudson titled fotolog.book: A Global Snapshot for the Digital Age. Edited by Andrew Long and containing text contributions by Nick Currie, the book is organized in sections highlighting several themes that arose in the site's community of photographers and several individual photographers from some of the major cities and countries with many fotolog users

The website offers both free and subscription accounts. The free version is ad-supported, and limits users to uploading one picture per day, and having only 20 comments (in their "guestbook"). The free user can also customize their page and add other fotologs into their "Friends/Favorites" list.
Paying members, known as "Gold Camera patrons" can upload up to 6 pictures a day, have 200 comments per photo and can access better customer support. Subsequent changes allowed Gold Cam members to comment on any guestbook that is full. Other features include customized photo-headings, and having the most recent image appear beside the members name when commenting on other photoblogs.
The Fotolog "groups" are fotologs on a certain topic, and are managed by fotolog users. Fotolog groups are allowed 50 photos per day. These photos may be added by any registered member.
Some site users, mainly in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Spain, create so-called "dedicated fotologs" on their favorite actors and musicians, with images and information about them.

The site is based in the U.S., though the majority of its users come from South America. As of September 2, 2008, Chile claimed the most accounts (4,827,387), Argentina was second with 4,225,209, while Brazil had 1,443,474 users. Fotolog's success prompted many other websites to appear and compete. In Spanish, and also in Portuguese, the word "fotolog" is almost universally understood to mean "any photoblog".
For a time, Brazil was the country with most users; the site later lost users there to Orkut and Facebook.
In Argentina and Uruguay, Fotolog gave rise to a fashion trend, called 'Flogger'. Chilean urban group pokemones made use of Fotolog.
As of December 28, 2008, Fotolog.com had 22,952,102 accounts.


for more........  http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/fotolog.com

20150129 - relevant photography

Keeping Photography Relevant in the Digital Age

http://www.photographyblog.com/articles/keeping_photography_relevant_in_the_digital_age/
March 11, 2014 | Mark Goldstein







We live in an age when photography is more accessible than it has ever been.

Not so long ago, portraits were a rarity, an hours-long event that a person might experience just once or twice in his life.
Within the span of a century, technology has changed this so dramatically that powerful photography equipment can be carried in your pocket, and it's possible to take a photograph of anything from your reflection in the mirror to what you've had for dinner and share it instantaneously with the world.
It's a landscape that photographers a few generations ago could have never imagined, and it's a little dizzying to behold.
Aside from the accessibility of cameras themselves, a budding photographer also has access to myriad photo editing programs and apps. Mashing a few buttons or swiping between screens can now accomplish what once required hours of exacting work in a dark room. When taking, storing, editing and sharing photographs is so simple, is there any room left for professionals? Is there still value in taking photography courses, such as the ones on offer here? The short answer is yes; if anything, there are many new opportunities for creative professionals today than ever.

Technology Can't Replace Skill

Every professional knows that the best technology is worth nothing in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to use it. Photography is no different. Although a layperson might think taking a photo is as simple as pointing, auto-focusing, and snapping the picture, professionals know that more goes into every shot. Photography courses can teach things like composition and color theory, the skills that make up the backbone of visual arts, and a natural eye for the perfect visual can be cultivated into a valuable skill.
The demand for high-quality, interesting visuals is higher than ever. Images are the backbone of viral news sites, and designers creating book covers, websites, advertisements and more seek them after. More than that, truly great photography stands out in the crowd. With so any amateur snapshots crowding the Internet, people have a better appreciation for the magic a professional can work with a camera. Weddings, pets, children; People hire photographers to capture these images because they cannot do justice to the subject themselves, no matter how many apps they download.
When you look at it this way, it becomes clear that the modern photographer doesn't just record moments in time. He's an artist, and his most valuable and marketable skill is his unique artistic vision and ability to communicate through captured images. While snapshots might be cheap and numerous, excellent photography is every bit as valuable as it's ever been.

20150128 - science fiction

The real science of science fiction 

The best SF draws on genuinely scholarly research, and the scholars are themselves inspired by the creative writers’ speculation



PhD in science fiction … Isaac Asimov, SF's most celebrated biochemist.
Photograph: Claudio Edinger/Getty Images


Susan Stepney
Wednesday 21 January 2015 12.29 GMT

There is a co-dependency between science and science fiction. Many scientists and engineers acknowledge that science fiction helped to spark their imagination of what was possible in science (immersion in the genre from a young age might help explain why I now research unconventional computers). And science fiction authors are inspired by future science possibilities. But how do novel scientific ideas get into SF authors’ heads in the first place?
Sometimes, authors just make things up, but untutored imaginings tend not to make the best science fiction. As JBS Haldane put it: “the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose”. We need scientific input to sustain a rich science fictional imagination.
Science writing isn’t the same as fiction writing. Sometimes people who read popular science about scientific theories like loop quantum gravity say “it’s like reading science fiction”. But no, it isn’t. Greg Egan’s Schild’s Ladder, with its characters, narrative logic, and dramatic tension, all in a setting where the science is crucial to the plot – that is what reading science fiction about loop quantum gravity is like. Yet it can occasionally be difficult to distinguish science fiction from reality. The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline by Isaac Asimov, about a compound that is so soluble it dissolves just before it enters water, is SF written in the style of a research paper. Minutes of the Labour Party Conference, 2016, a short story by Charles Stross, is written in the style of an official document of a meeting held under adverse circumstances. Some Limits to Global Ecophagy by Biovorous Nanoreplicators, with Public Policy Recommendations, by Robert A Freitas, is not SF (although sceptics of the field of nanotechnology might argue differently). I wouldn’t want all my SF to be in this style, though.
Some authors can play with deep scientific ideas because they already have a solid technical background on which to base their work. Isaac Asimov had a PhD, in biochemistry (although gained after the Thiotimoline publication). So did EE “Doc” Smith, as you can probably guess. (In chemical engineering as applied to food production, though from reading his fiction you might think it was more in coruscating beams of power.)
Some authors are (or were until retirement) full-time scientists and academic researchers in their own right. Astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, who coined the term “Big Bang”, claimed to write his SF in order to publish ideas that would not fit into scientific journals. Back in the 1960s, Fred Pohl edited The Expert Dreamers and Groff Conklin edited Great Science Fiction by Scientists, with stories by George Gamow, JBS Haldane, Fred Hoyle, Julian Huxley, Norbert Weiner, and more. Some authors who were originally researchers have been successful enough to quit the day job in favour of fiction.
Of course, not all science fiction writers have science PhDs. Many of the Golden Age writers had little formal education. James White, for example, wanted to be a medical doctor, but couldn’t afford the training; that didn’t stop him writing the marvellous alien doctors in space series, Sector General. Many SF writers have arts and humanities backgrounds, yet manage to write good hard science-based SF.
SF authors do their research. They tend to read widely, to generate ideas, and then think deeply, to focus in on the details. In the age of the author blog, readers can observe (some of) the authorial process. A lot of research can go into a book, much of it hidden, or even discarded. Inferior authors will info-dump every little last detail they’ve discovered; better authors weave their research seamlessly into the story, discarding what doesn’t fit. Sometimes the raw research reappears in footnotes, appendices, or bibliographies, which can be interesting in their own right; for example, Peter Watts’s Blindsight includes a fascinating technical appendix.
SF authors can ease their research burden by consulting the scientists. Jack Cohen, a reproductive biologist, has helped James White design his four-letter classification for alien species (we humans are DBDG), retconned Anne MacCaffrey’s dragons for her, and designed the life cycle of the grendels in Niven, Pournelle and Barnes’s series The Legacy of Heorot.
Writing, be it fiction or non-fiction, is usually a solitary task, but scientists often write in teams, each member bringing their own skill set to the collaboration. At one extreme we have Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC by The ATLAS Collaboration, which boasts more than 3,000 authors, listed over eight pages; the text has an average of fewer than six words per named author. Most research papers are written by significantly fewer co-authors than that, but collaborative writing is the norm in science. There are also SF writing teams: brothers, spouses, or just colleagues. Some teams consist of a more established author providing some of the ideas, or even just the background world, and a younger up-and-coming author who does most of the writing work – not too dissimilar to a PhD supervisor and student, really.
Team writing can also help the infusion of science ideas into SF. Pair an SF author and a scientist, and see what results. One great example of this approach is the quartet of Science of Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen. In each book, Pratchett writes a short Discworld novel that exhibits some scientific properties of interest; in alternating chapters, Stewart and Cohen then explain the underlying science.
Ra Page at Comma Press has a different style. He commissions anthologies of short stories, each pairing an SF author with a scientist. This results in two chapters per story: the author writes their story based on an idea provided by the scientist, and then the scientist explains the science behind the story: where it is right, where it has been changed to fit the needs of the story, and where it is still speculation. Bio-Punk, published in 2012, was based on biomedical research; Beta-Life, in 2014, was based on unconventional computing and artificial life. I had the pleasure of being the “tame scientist” for one of the entries in Beta-Life, about “growing a skyscraper”. The idea here is to design “seeds” that then grow to form the walls, windows, plumbing, wiring, and so on, with the generic growing structure “gardened” into specific shapes, like topiary on a grand scale. Author Adam Marek took this idea, and wove a story out of it, adding the idea of a poor community stealing “cuttings” and growing their own, out-of–control homes.
Although the technical ideas underpinning the growing of large artefacts comes from science, the specific application came to me via science fiction, here the novel Oath of Fealty. If you know the story you will realise that means I’m actually interested in growing spaceships. However, we are applying for funding to further develop the science, and so are sticking to the less outrageous, and technically more feasible, skyscraper application.
It is important to get science ideas out to the public for many reasons. But one important reason, for me at least, is so that SF authors have a range of new material to use to write great SF stories. I’ve found that working directly with an author kills two birds with one stone: it produces a new story for me to read, and provides some science background that might help inspire other authors, too.

• Susan Stepney is Professor of Computer Science at the University of York

•Beta-Life is published by Comma Press and is available from the Guardian Bookshop

20150127 - classical music

Classical music: difficult, dangerous, disturbing. 
Young people stay away!


The Telegraph, By Stephen Hough Music Last updated: January 6th, 2015



Recently a study was published revealing that an increasing number of children were choosing electric guitars and keyboards over violins and recorders. I must say I was surprised when I read this, not because of the shift itself but because I'd imagined this had happened long ago. The study suggested that wanting to emulate the quick-fix fame of contestants on shows like The X Factor was behind the trend but haven't young people been choosing the Beatles over Beethoven for more than half a century now?
When I was a toddler, tinkering on pianos in Dawson's music shop in Warrington, there were always hipper kids twanging shiny, sleek guitars attached to the wall with their curly wires. And let's face it, someone not keen on music in the first place who is forced to play a recorder or violin in school … there are few sounds more ghastly. I know because I was one of those screeching All Things Bright and Beautiful in an ensemble of out-of-tune plastic recorders – until I acquired an even ghastlier melodica. (Where are they these days?)
Of course there is a more serious point behind this. I'm not happy if children see music as primarily a path to fame and fortune, but I am happy if an interest in listening to music gives birth to an interest in playing music, whatever the medium. By the way, none of what I say here is a put-down of electronic instruments, it's just that those who excel in playing them are generally those who write for them – a sound world as an extension of the performer/composers's creativity and improvisation, less a vehicle for realizing a canon of complex, classic works.
To master an acoustic instrument requires good teaching and a lot of practise, and it is possible to make pleasant sounds quicker on an electric keyboard then on a real piano. But it seems to me that most young people relish a challenge (this is the hardest mountain to climb, book to read, puzzle to solve, club to join etc.) so why do we think that pretending classical music is 'easy' will gain us more youthful listeners or performers? You want to learn an instrument? Well, you could go for the simpler options but have you got the concentration to learn the cello? It will take years of utter dedication and total commitment. Maybe you just want to go with the crowd? Maybe it's too difficult for you?
Yes, classical music is … difficult. It's difficult to listen to, difficult to understand fully, difficult to play, as a Shakespeare drama is harder to understand than a dramatic episode of (albeit fabulous) Coronation Street. Everyone should have access to classical music, but not everyone will like it. Nothing wrong in that, nothing snobbish or superior or elite in that, but are you up to it? Can you sit still for 40 minutes and let yourself be captivated, intoxicated, moved, changed, perplexed by this complex, extraordinary world?
Classical music is dangerous, disturbing, radical, countercultural. Sadly when many of us reach middle age we not only lose the inner passion to aim high in life but, ironically, we are at that very moment given the responsibility to decide what younger generations should be doing. If we can only tap into the exhilarating fire kindled by listening to and playing great music then sofas will be empty when The X Factor is being screened and we'll hardly be able to cope with the sheer number of kids practising their hearts out.

 

20150126 - asteroid

Giant asteroid set to buzz Earth, poses no threat: Nasa

 

Reuters, 2015 january 26

CAPE CANAVERAL: An asteroid measuring about a third of a mile (half a kilometre) in diameter will make a relatively close, but harmless pass by Earth Monday night, Nasa said.
The asteroid will pass about 745,000 miles (1.2 million kilometres) from Earth, roughly three times farther away than the moon.
Amateur and professional astronomers are preparing to watch the flyby, which will be most visible between 8 pm EST Monday and 1 am EST Tuesday (0100 to 0600 GMT Tuesday) from the Americas, Europe and Africa.
A small telescope or binoculars will be needed to see the asteroid, which is known as 2004 BL86.
“While it poses no threat to Earth for the foreseeable future, it's a relatively close approach by a relatively large asteroid, so it provides us a unique opportunity to observe and learn more,” astronomer Don Yeomans, with Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, said in a statement.
The asteroid, which orbits the sun every 1.84 years, was discovered 11 years ago by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research, or LINEAR, telescope in New Mexico.
Scientists plan to map the asteroid's surface with radar during the flyby in hopes of learning more about its size, shape, rate of rotation and other features.
“At present, we know almost nothing about this asteroid, so there are bound to be surprises,” astronomer Lance Benner with Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told SpaceWeather.com.
Asteroid 2004 BL86 will be the largest asteroid to pass this close to Earth until asteroid 1999 AN10 flies by in 2027, Nasa said.
Nasa currently tracks more than 11,000 asteroids in orbits that pass relatively close to Earth. The US space agency says it has found more than 95 per cent of the largest asteroids, those with diameters 0.65 miles or larger, with orbits that take them relatively close to Earth.
An object of that size hit the planet about 65 million years ago in what is now Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, triggering a global climate change that is believed to be responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs and many other forms of life on Earth.
Two years ago, a relatively a small asteroid exploded in the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, leaving more than 1,500 people injured by flying glass and debris. That same day, an unrelated asteroid passed just 17,200 miles from Earth, closer than the networks of communication satellites that ring the planet.
Websites planning live coverage of Monday night's flyby include Nasa's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (sservi.nasa.gov), Slooh.com and The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0.

— AP/File

CAPE CANAVERAL: An asteroid measuring about a third of a mile (half a kilometre) in diameter will make a relatively close, but harmless pass by Earth Monday night, Nasa said.
The asteroid will pass about 745,000 miles (1.2 million kilometres) from Earth, roughly three times farther away than the moon.
Amateur and professional astronomers are preparing to watch the flyby, which will be most visible between 8 pm EST Monday and 1 am EST Tuesday (0100 to 0600 GMT Tuesday) from the Americas, Europe and Africa.
A small telescope or binoculars will be needed to see the asteroid, which is known as 2004 BL86.
“While it poses no threat to Earth for the foreseeable future, it's a relatively close approach by a relatively large asteroid, so it provides us a unique opportunity to observe and learn more,” astronomer Don Yeomans, with Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, said in a statement.
The asteroid, which orbits the sun every 1.84 years, was discovered 11 years ago by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research, or LINEAR, telescope in New Mexico.
Scientists plan to map the asteroid's surface with radar during the flyby in hopes of learning more about its size, shape, rate of rotation and other features.
“At present, we know almost nothing about this asteroid, so there are bound to be surprises,” astronomer Lance Benner with Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told SpaceWeather.com.
Asteroid 2004 BL86 will be the largest asteroid to pass this close to Earth until asteroid 1999 AN10 flies by in 2027, Nasa said.
Nasa currently tracks more than 11,000 asteroids in orbits that pass relatively close to Earth. The US space agency says it has found more than 95 per cent of the largest asteroids, those with diameters 0.65 miles or larger, with orbits that take them relatively close to Earth.
An object of that size hit the planet about 65 million years ago in what is now Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, triggering a global climate change that is believed to be responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs and many other forms of life on Earth.
Two years ago, a relatively a small asteroid exploded in the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, leaving more than 1,500 people injured by flying glass and debris. That same day, an unrelated asteroid passed just 17,200 miles from Earth, closer than the networks of communication satellites that ring the planet.
Websites planning live coverage of Monday night's flyby include Nasa's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (sservi.nasa.gov), Slooh.com and The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0.

20150125 - Yau Leung

Yau Leung was the Chinese Cartier-Bresson. Why isn't he better known?

The Telegraph, By Tim Wong, Photography, Last updated: January 1st, 2014

Cheongsams (1961)

The pictures featured here are by a photographer called Yau Leung 邱良 (1941-1997). He’s one of Hong Kong’s most significant and accomplished documentary photographers, but scandalously little-known outside the city. Can we put that right?
His work documents a changing Hong Kong, spanning the colonial days of the 60s to post-handover 90s. The best known of his photographs is the one of the two ladies in cheongsam seen from the back. It's an image that distills the essence of change: a time when people still considered traditional Chinese garb as their daily wardrobe – but in a quickly westernising city. What most people don’t know is that the rest of the photographer’s portfolio is every bit as glorious as this picture.
Yau Leung started his professional life on film sets, working at the famous Shaw Brothers Studio. In parallel, he documented street scenes and daily lives of the people in Hong Kong. This personal project reveals the real Yau Leung: it's an astonishing archive.
These images remind me of the great master of photojouralism, Henri Cartier-Bresson: strong and challenging compositions, a balanced spectrum  of light and dark, technical mastery of selective focus. Above all, like those of Cartier-Bresson, his subjects are infused with humanity – telling a story, eliciting a smile or a question.
Where is that girl going in the half-sized moped? Why are the little boys being told off by the little girl? Yau Leung chased what Cartier-Bresson called "The Decisive Moment", capturing a scene at the crucial split-second.

Small wheels (1960s)

In trouble (1960s)

Naked humour (1970)

20150124 - hondenvoer

Iedere dag hondenvoer eten is ook een baan

Philip Wells eet dagelijks hondenvoer. Hij krijgt daarvoor betaald en is erg blij met deze baan. Als kwaliteitscontroleur ruikt, proeft en controleert hij dagelijks een blikje hondenvoer.

Van iedere lading die bij het bedrijf de deur uit gaat, controleert Wells ieder recept. Zijn favoriete hondenvoer is lam met erwten en peterselie.
Wells proeft niet alleen, hij ruikt ook en speurt in het voer naar de versie ingrediënten als bosbessen of erwten.
Het zijn niet alleen de blikken nat voer die Wells dagelijks oppeuzelt, ook de droge brokken en de hondenbrokjes eet hij.
Eating your own dog food is ook een Engelse bedrijfsterm. Het wordt gebruikt voor bedrijven die hun eigen producten gebruiken en stamt volgens sommigen van een reclame voor hondenvoer uit de jaren zeventig of een fabrikant van hondenvoer die zijn eigen product op de aandeelhoudersvergadering at.

door Alex van der Hulst
nrc. 24 januari 2015

20150124 - cancer in young people

Cancer in young people:  

Just bad luck or is it the chemicals we breathe, eat and drink?

The Telegraph
By Judith Potts  
Health and lifestyle  
Last updated: January 23rd, 2015

The current Cancer Research UK television commercial tells us that "As many people now survive cancer as die from it." Jeremy Hunt (Secretary of State for Health) says that "More people are surviving cancer than ever before". Yet Juliet Bouverie (director of services and influencing at Macmillan Cancer Support) warns that "Our cancer survival rates continue to lag behind other European countries and we face falling further behind". The postcode lottery of cancer care shows that four in ten cancer patients die within 12 months in the worst-performing English regions.
Researchers from the National Center for Biotechnology Information in the USA will tell you that "If a human could live long enough, it is inevitable that at least one of his or her cells would eventually accumulate a set of mutations sufficient for cancer to develop." Of course, one of the reasons given for the overwhelming problems facing the NHS is exactly that – we are living longer and cancer is joining heart disease and stroke as an end-of-life illness.
That is all very well but what about the fact that so many young people are developing cancer? Last Friday I was invited to take part in a photo-shoot with other women – all cancer "survivors" – to illustrate a forthcoming book about living beyond cancer. As the afternoon progressed, I realised that I was by far the oldest woman there. The majority of the others were all in their twenties and thirties. Indeed, one girl was a mere 21 and had come through five months of chemotherapy followed a diagnosis of lymphoma. Talking to some of them, I heard the far too common refrain that it took repeated appointments with the GP before the presenting symptoms were taken seriously – "you are far too young for cancer".
Is it just bad luck (as the study from Johns Hopkins University in the USA reported), old age or self-inflicted? Well – the first of the three could apply to the young but not the others. Has a 20 year old really had time to choose a lifestyle which would increase the chances of cancer developing?
Dementia too, is being diagnosed in younger people.
Could it be that doctors and researchers are looking away from what is around us – the air we breathe, the food we eat or the water we drink from the moment we are born?
Those who advocate a healthy diet – particularly after cancer – advise against eating processed ready-made food or fast food. This would seem to be perfectly illustrated by The Elite Daily, who tweeted a picture of a fast food hamburger and chicken taco which had been sitting open on a desk for two years and looked exactly as it did on day one. Concerned about the prevalence of non-perishable food, Dr. Jacqueline Vaughan – a chiropractor in Michigan USA – decided to show her patients "exactly how far fast food is from the real ingredients in nourishing food".
Even "real" ingredients can be suspect. Meat that comes from animals full of antibiotics and growth hormones; cereal crops, vegetables and fruits grown in chemicals which fertilise, control the pests and kill the weeds. Many people are concerned that wheat may be the culprit in various forms of allergies – but is it actually the wheat itself? Is it not more likely to be the fertiliser, pesticide or weedkiller that it has imbibed as it grows? Then added to all that is the preservative, so that a shop-bought loaf of bread will last for weeks.
The mega dairies of the USA are beginning to be mirrored here. Cows that never see grass but are kept in sand-lined stalls with roaming only allowed within the barn; chickens and pigs who never see daylight; fish farmed in questionable conditions. Apart from the obvious cruelty, do we really believe this is the way forward for our health?
The charity Breast Cancer UK would add other potentially carcinogenic chemicals to the list – those found in food wrapping and plastics used for children's lunch boxes, drinks bottles or pencil cases – particularly Bisphenol A. Originally used to enhance the growth of cattle and poultry, BPA was briefly used as an oestrogen replacement for women but now is used by the chemical industry to harden plastics. Breast Cancer UK is campaigning for it to be removed from all food and drink packaging and replaced by safer alternatives. It is suspected of disrupting the hormone system, affecting the development of the mammary glands and has been linked to breast cancer, prostate cancer, endometriosis, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. It is also thought to affect brain development and behaviour.
If you are lucky enough to live to a ripe old age, perhaps you would expect the onset of cancer – but surely we need to pay attention to what may be propagating cancer in our young people?

Tags: BPA, Breast Cancer UK, Cancer in Young People

Judith Potts was an actress and is now a voice, acting and presentation coach. She is married with two children, three stepchildren and is the proud grandmother to two grandsons. She lives in west London and Yorkshire. In 2008 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She can be contacted at judith.potts@telegraph.co.uk and is on Twitter @JudithPotts.

20150123 - doelloos

Een heel aangrijpend verhaal over ontreddering, eenzaamheid, identiteit.....................

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Doelloos verloren tussen twee landen

(voor Inge Vermeulen (1985 - 2015))

Je bent geboren als Inge Joanna Francisca op 6 januari 1985 in Americana, Brazilië. Je bent geadopteerd door de Nederlandse familie Vermeulen. Je begon als hockeyster op de HBS als linksachter in het hockeyteam en later als doelvrouw. Je was als jongeling ook erg talentvol in judo. Je verhuisde met je adoptiegezin naar Bloemendaal, waar je in 2003 bij de selectie van het eerste team kwam en bleef.

In de zomer van 2007 ging je als doelverdedigster van overgangsklasser Bloemendaal naar de hoofdklasser Stichting Cricket en Hockey Club uit Bilthoven, je laatste club. In het seizoen 2007 - 2008 bereikte de damesselectie van de club, met jou op doel, voor het eerst in het bestaan van de play-offs de nationale eretitel.
Je kwam uit voor diverse, Nederlandse jeugdselecties. De laatste acht jaar was je doelverdedigster van SCHC-Bilthoven. Je was de beste keepster van het seizoen 2007-2008, waardoor je de Gouden Helm won. Je was ook de trainster van de jeugd van SCHC. Op 27 januari 2008 speelde je tegen Schotland en behaalde je brons.

Op 8 april 2008 maakte je in Vught jouw debuut voor het Oranje dameshockeyteam in de met 2-1 gewonnen oefeninterland tegen Duitsland. Het eerste doelpunt was van Michelle van der Pols. Maartje Paumen maakte het winnende doelpunt. In de zaal keepte je vijf interlands tijdens het Euro-hockey Indoor Nations kampioenschap 2008 in Almeria in Spanje. Je was één van de beste keepsters uit de hoofdklasse. Je was een niet altijd vrolijk mens en een vleermuis in de duisternis, het was onmogelijk om al jouw gedachten te kunnen volgen. Je had een buitengewone intelligentie en kennis, maar je chronische depressie was groter.

Je had een uitstekende reflex, waardoor je bijna onhoudbare ballen wist tegen te houden. Het is eeuwig zonde, dat je niet voor de Olympische Zomerspelen in Peking en Beijing bent geplaatst. Daar won Nederland toen in 2008 de gouden medaille. Ze wonnen in Beijing met 2-0 van China. De toenmalige bondscoach Marc Lammers besloot om Carlijn Welten en jou niet mee te nemen. Als derde keepster maakte je trouwens nauwelijks kans. Lisanne de Roever was de eerste keepster en Floortje Engels de tweede keepster.

In 2009 won je met Oranje brons op de Champions Trophy in Sydney. Jullie hadden met 5-2 gewonnen van Duitsland. Je was enorm gedreven, fanatiek en gepassioneerd als topsportster. Je hebt negen officiële interlands gekeept voor de Nederlandse vrouwenploeg hockey. Je speelde vaak de lolbroek en je was enorm creatief, maar je kon ook zeer down zijn. Je leed langdurig aan zware depressies en een ondraaglijk geestelijk lijden. In 2010 speelde je voor het laatst voor Oranje.

Vanaf 2012 ging je voor de nationale vrouwenploeg van Brazilië spelen. 'De Brazilianen waren jouw soort mensen!', zei je. Je was van grote waarde voor de Braziliaanse hockeyploeg. Je was ook de keeperstrainster van de Braziliaanse mannenploeg. In 2013 werd je uitgeroepen tot de beste keepster van het Pan-Amerikaanse toernooi. Je ploeg werd vierde. Bondscoach Max Caldas koos voor Londen 2012 voor Floortje Engels en Joyce Sombroek. Jij ging daarna voor de Spelen van Rio de Janeiro 2016, maar ergens was je opnieuw zwaar teleurgesteld. Toch was je van plan om in Rio als goalie te gaan schitteren, samen met je Braziliaanse team en de trainer Bert Bunnik. Toch was dit team minder goed dan Oranje. Anderzijds ging het jou altijd om de inzet en niet om het behaalde resultaat, wat je een bijzaak vond.

Ergens diep down voelde je je wreed ontworteld en wanhopig vereenzaamd. Je kon niet meer en je wilde niet meer. Je was troosteloos en moedeloos. Je vloog maar heen en weer tussen Nederland en Brazilië. Je voelde je ergens nergens meer bij horen.
Op zaterdag 10 januari 2015 had je nog gespeeld met je damesteam in Bilthoven. Op maandag 12 januari 2015 heb je in je woning in Utrecht zelfdoding gepleegd. Je was ontworteld en vereenzaamd, terwijl de beschermengelen sliepen. Je bent dertig jaar geworden.
De voorzitter van SCHC Stephan van der Vat zei: 'We zijn enorm verdrietig en ontredderd, maar we kunnen niet anders dan haar keuze respecteren!'. In de dameshockeywereld is geschokt en verbijsterd gereageerd.


www.nederlands.nl
Schrijver: Joanan Rutgers, 22-01-2015

20150123 - hottest year

Was 2014 really 'the hottest year ever’?

From the Met Office to Nature and the BBC, the usual suspects have been at it, writes Christopher Booker

By Christopher Booker

The Telegraph, 7:01PM GMT 10 Jan 2015

An ever-more curious riddle has arisen over the rush by all the usual suspects to proclaim that 2014 was “the hottest year in history”.

From the Met Office to Nature and the BBC, they’ve all been at it, using as their latest “proof” a graph from the Japanese met office showing global surface temperatures having steadily risen to last year’s peak as the “warmest since records began”.

We know what they’re up to, ever since they began playing it around the time of last month’s UN climate conference in Lima. They are trying to whip up hysteria in support of that global climate treaty they hope to see signed in Paris next December. Their claims may come as a surprise to those in eastern Europe, Russia and the Middle East as far south as Jerusalem, for whom this winter has been unusually cold; let alone those in North America where satellite pictures last week showed Canada and much of the US snow-bound.

But such “anecdotal evidence” apart, what none of these excitable accounts mention is the startlingly different picture given by the two main official records of world temperatures measured by satellites, as published by the RSS (Remote Sensing Systems) and the University of Alabama, Huntsville (UAH). These are much more comprehensive than the surface records, which have been increasingly questioned for the gaps in their global weather station coverage and for the regular one-sided “adjustments” made to their data, invariably downgrading earlier temperatures and raising those for recent years.

Both RSS and UAH agree that 2014 was far from being the hottest year ever, ranking it only sixth in the past 18 years, and that there has been no upward trend in world temperatures since 1997. This discrepancy between the surface and satellite records is now so glaring that it should be the subject of a full-scale scientific investigation. But this is no more likely to happen than that the warmists will get that treaty they are dreaming of, committing the world to a devastating reduction in CO2 emissions. India and China, who call the shots, are not taken in by all this nonsense.

20150122 - good old days

Why we yearn for the good old days

Historians and politicians dismiss nostalgia as mass delusion - but that's exactly the point of it

By Jemima Lewis

The Telegraph, 6:30AM GMT 16 Jan 2015

If you’ve been feeling anxious about the times we live in, I bring glad tidings. Turns out Western civilisation isn’t doomed after all. It’s just a trick of the mind.

According to a survey conducted for The Human Zoo, Radio 4’s psychology programme, 70 per cent of the British population suffers from the belief that “things are worse than they used to be”. This despite that fact that we are, overall, richer, healthier and longer-living than ever before.

This irrational conviction is known as “declinism”, and is caused, according to the experts, by the fact that our strongest memories are laid down between the ages of 15 and 25. The vibrancy of youth, and the thrill of experiencing things for the first time, creates a “memory bump” compared with which later life does seem a bit drab.

Declinism (or nostalgia, as it was known in the Good Old Days) is not fashionable. Psychologists explain it away gently, as a mental defect beyond our control. Politicians deride but also fear it: hence, their constant poo-poohing of Ukip’s “nostalgic” desire to return to a prelapsarian Britain that never really existed.

Historians, too, tend to dismiss nostalgia as a kind of mass delusion. In his wonderful new history of the English people, Robert Tombs argues that, since the end of the Second World War, the British have suffered from an entirely unjustified declinism. Sure, we lost an Empire – but it was so vast and unwieldy that it never really brought in much money anyway. And yes, Britain no longer rules the waves, but that’s because we no longer need a huge Navy to patrol that unnecessary Empire.

Economically, argues Tombs, Britain has not declined at all. Panic set in after the war, when the American and European economies accelerated much faster than Britain’s. But we caught up soon enough.
All of which is reassuring. But as a lifelong sufferer of nostalgia, I can’t help feeling rather defensive. Declinism, like pessimism, isn’t wholly irrational. Progress always goes hand-in-hand with loss. Many of the things that older people mourn from their youths – front doors left unlocked, neighbours looking out for each other’s children, trust in the police, respect for teachers – really did exist.
Some were casualties of battles that needed to be fought: the migration of women into the workplace, for example, means that we are no longer available to perform many of our traditional neighbourly duties. To my mind, the pros outweigh the cons, but we should at least acknowledge that the cons exist.
Ultimately, though, you can’t defend – or cure – nostalgia by totting up the balance sheet of progress. It isn’t an intellectual mistake: it’s an emotional strategy, something comforting to snuggle up to when the present day seems intolerably bleak. The word nostalgia comes from the Greek nostos, meaning “homecoming”, and algos, meaning “pain”. And it does feel like a kind of homesickness – a yearning for a place of comfort.
Growing up in the Seventies, that period of supreme ugliness and gloom, I took refuge in nostalgia long before I’d had time to accrue a “memory bump” of my own. Instead, I plundered the memories of previous generations. My reading habits (Beano, the Secret Seven, Our Island Story) gave me all the material I needed to summon up a more colourful, less defeated country: a nation of brave knights and teachers in mortar boards and bosomy housekeepers laying on a smashing high tea.
I have a better grasp of history now: I know about slums and corporal punishment and the evils of colonialism. I’m glad we live in a more egalitarian age. Yet still I feel strangely patriotic towards the Olden Days. It may have been total bunkum, but it felt like home.

20150121 - social jetlag

fight it... do it now..................

How to fight social jet lag

As a new study reveals that sleeping in at the weekend could lead to obesity and illness, we take a look at how you can avoid catching it in the first place

Sleeping in at the weekend could be driving obesity and illness, according to a new study  Photo: ALAMY

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

By Camilla Turner

6:00AM GMT 21 Jan 2015

As your alarm clangs at the crack of dawn to wake you up for another dreary day of work, the thought a weekend lie-in could be just about the only thing keeping you going.

But it appears that even this one guilt-free pleasure is about to be ruined because according a new scientific study, sleeping in at the weekend could be driving obesity and illness.

Researchers have discovered that the body clock becomes confused by changing sleep patterns when people are not at work, which they have termed “social jet lag”.

The study revealed that people who have a greater difference in sleep between free days and work days are more likely to be obese and suffer from obesity-related disease, than those with little to no difference between these timings.

Making an effort to go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time every day - or failing that, as close as possible - can help establish a more balanced pattern and reduce the likelihood that you will suffer from social jet lag. We take a look at some of the ways to do this.

Avoid caffeine in the afternoon
A cup of coffee can be a great way to overcome your morning drowsiness, but it lingers in your body for a number of hours.
So by avoiding caffeine in the afternoon - be it coffee, tea, chocolate, and even certain medications - you can be sure it will be out of your system by the evening.
  
Make time for exercise
People who are physically active tend to sleep better than their sedentary counterparts. Set yourself a moderate target, such as 20 minutes of exercise each day. Not only will this help you sleep at night, but it will also help you avoid an early death.
 
Have an early, light dinner
Heavy meals can take longer to digest, and, if eaten late, make it harder to fall asleep.
If you have a light dinner at least two or three hours before you go to bed, your food should all be digested by the time you try to fall asleep – this is better for your metabolism too.
 
Create a soothing bedtime routine
Do the same, relaxing activity each night before you go to bed. For example, you could have a hot bath, do some gentle stretches, or some light reading. If you repeat this each night, your body will start to associate those activities with sleep.
 
Exposure to sunlight
Sunlight plays a key role in regulating our sleep cycles. If you want to have more energy in the morning and want to feel sleepier at night, try getting more sun exposure in the morning, and less in the afternoon and evening.

20150120 - carrie, dr.oetker

Dr. Oetker

 

Sommige dingen in het leven zijn zoals ze moeten zijn. Dat je eerst je bord leegeet en dan een toetje krijgt. Desnoods een toetje van dr. Oetker.

Zit ik van de week nietsvermoedend tv te kijken, glipt er een sterreclame tussendoor terwijl ik net even niet naar de wc moet en hem dus wel uit moet kijken. Ik ziet een modaal gezin, vader, moeder, zoon en dochter en die nemen een toetje. Zegt de voice-over, vast een of ander blond huppeltje, mmm, lekker, een toetje van dr. Utker....
Hallo, sinds wanneer heet dr Oetker, dr Utker...Mijn moeder mag dan van de bleu band margarine zijn geweest en mijn oma van de sunlicht zeep, maar ik ben van de dr. Oetker.
En dan nog niet eens van zijn toetjes. Nee, gadverdamme. Het ziet eruit als gestold sperma en misschien is dat het ook wel. Er staat op die plastic beker dat er eiwitten en mineralen in zitten. Dus dat klopt wel.
Waar komt die Oetker dan vandaan dat hij zich Utker wil laten noemen? Ik dacht altijd van het Oostblok. Maar dat klopt niet want Poetin heet ook geen Puttin en Chroestjow geen Chrutsjow. Ik ken maar één dokter die zijn naam ook zo uitsprak. Dr Goebbels die ineens dr Gubbels bleek te heten, maar dat vind ik nou niet zo’n heel goed voorbeeld als je reclame wilt maken.
Misschien komt dr Oetker wel uit Maastricht want daar praten ze ook raar. Daar zeggen ze preuverijen tegen proeverijen, zodat onze eigen limbo Felix Meurders misschien wel Felix Moerders heet.
En waarom is die Oetker eigenlijk een dokter? Wat doet hij dan nog meer dan toetjes maken, of heet dat voortaan een tutje. Ja, ik weet het niet, ik stel me graag open op. Maar ik raak ervan in de war. Als ik altijd oetlul zei moet ik dan utloel gaan zeggen?
Vrouwen noemen hun voorbips weleens hun poesje, is dat dan vanaf nu een pusje?
Waarin nu weer een generatie nieuwe dokters aan wil gaan lopen sleutelen. Door de g-spot met een injectie te gaan vergroten.
Ho, eerst bestond er geen G-spot, neukte je gewoon voor God en vaderland, toen was er wel een G-spot en wist niemand waar die zat. Nou ja, één mevrouw en die is daar wereldberoemd mee geworden, Linda Lovelace had haar G-spot in haar keel...zodat ze de toetjes van dr. Oetker rechtstreeks van de fabrikant en uit de oorspronkelijke verpakking kon betrekken. Maar nu weten een stel plastisch chirurgen precies waar hij zit en kunnen ze hem met Botox vergroten. Zodat het vrouwelijke orgasme heftiger, mooier, langer en vaker wordt. Jezus, hoe moet ik dan nog aan werken toekomen.
En het mooie is ook dat na die g-spotvergroting de vagina zich, volgens een van die kwakzalvers, als een enveloppe om de penis schuift. Sorry hoor, maar ben ik daar 54 voor geworden. Om nu nog tegen mijn vagina te moeten zeggen: moppie, als we straks bezoek krijgen, vergeet je die truc met die enveloppe niet?
Trouwens ik weet niet of je weleens een enveloppe hebt gezien, dat is een rechthoekig rotding waar net een papiertje in past...mijn koet kan meer hebben hoor...
Deze injectie kost 1250 euro en na drie maanden moet het weer. Zal je net een EK of een WK ertussendoor hebben, ken je het net twee keer uit proberen voordat de rimpelvuller er weer in moet. Als je vagina niet net ge-restyled moet worden of gedeeltleijk dichtgenaaid....want dat schijnt ook weer hip te wezen.
In plaats van naar de G-spot zouden we weer eens naar de N-spot op zoek moeten gaan. Van normaal...ja, want ik zei al: sommige dingen in het leven zijn gewoon zo als ze moeten zijn. En een vagina is er daar wel een van, mijn lieve lekkere koetje.
 
een column uit ""spijkers met koppen""

20150120 - time management

Time management:

think of it in terms of assets and debts

Take a few minutes to fix the door that jams whenever you use it, and time saved may soon outweigh time spent

Illustration by Paul Thurlby.

 

If there’s one piece of time-management advice I can’t stand (actually, there are hundreds, but never mind) it’s that cliche about how each of us has the same 24 hours in a day. “Don’t say you don’t have enough time – you have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa [and] Einstein,” goes one version, in a homespun work called Life’s Little Instruction Book.
I’ll grudgingly concede there’s a sense in which that’s true. But it’s a sense with no relevance to daily life. If you can afford a live-in chef, then you effectively have more time than someone who can’t. If you’re one of the few who can thrive on five hours’ sleep – as opposed to the many who attempt to – the same is true. This is galling for the rest of us. But it contains a kernel of good news for anyone who’s feeling overwhelmed. It shows that contrary to received wisdom, and maybe also the laws of physics, there really are ways to create more time.
The deeper point here is well expressed by an entrepreneur and programmer called Patrick McKenzie, whose work I found via lifehacker.com. We should think about time, he argues, in terms of assets and debts, like money. Some ways of using it create more later, just as you make money by stashing your savings in a high-interest account. (Note to younger readers: these used to exist.) By contrast, other ways will cost more time in future, the equivalent of credit-card debt.
McKenzie’s own field, computer programming, is full of “time assets”: you write code to perform some function, then never need write it again; you simply execute that code whenever the function is required. Creating a frequently asked questions page for your organisation is another example: invest time upfront, and you’ll be spared hours answering queries. Take a few minutes to fix the door that jams whenever you use it, and time saved may soon outweigh time spent.
The scary part, though, is how much of our lives we spend running up time debts. McKenzie defines these as “anything that you do which will commit you to doing unavoidable work in the future”. For programmers, that includes writing bad code: debugging later will take ages. It also includes email: almost every time you send or reply to a message, you’re implicitly committing to replying to the other person’s reply, too. So when you spend two minutes writing an email, although it feels like you’re eliminating two minutes’ worth of tasks, you’re actually adding more minutes to your workload. I’m not suggesting you stop responding to emails. But once you start thinking this way, you may find yourself apportioning time differently: investing a bit more, spending a bit less. I did.
But don’t take it from me. Gabriel García Márquez once explained how, when he started writing full-time, he felt guilty if he didn’t work all day. “I discovered that what I did in the afternoon had to be done over again the next morning,” he said. So he stopped at 2.30pm. His afternoon work created time debts the next day. It wasn’t merely less productive; it was anti-productive. You think you’re getting things done. But what if you’re undoing them instead?

Oliver Burkeman; The Guardian, 2014 december 12

20150119 - verhaal

schrijver: kees niesse, 17-01-2015
uit: www.nederlands.nl

Praat rustig met bomen

Wulpse Alie was erg verdrietig. Ze had ruzie gehad met haar veel jongere lesbische vriendin, blonde Greetje. De liefde was over en ze was midden in de nacht vertrokken zonder gedag te zeggen. De volgende morgen kwam Alie bij mij koffie drinken en ze vertelde haar verhaal met tranen in haar ogen. Ik nam een besluit om haar te kalmeren. Ik zei:

''Kom meid, we gaan een eind lopen, het is mooi weer, dan kom je tot rust. Ik wist en remedie om haar kalm te krijgen en zag een dikke boom, een beuk.
''Alie, omhels die boon en vertel wat je overkomen is.''
''Zeg ouwe, ben je achterlijk geworden?''
''Neen, doe het nou maar, het helpt.''

Ik wist dat de natuurvolken, zoals de Indianen, het ook deden. Zelfs de christenen vereerde bomen en planten, want zonder hen is er geen leven mogelijk, dachten ze.
Gelukkig deed ze het en omhelsde de beuk en gaf hem zoentjes en praatte tegen de boom. Je moet het zo zien, de boom praat niet terug, maar je voelt het wel. Het is je geest die zo werkt.

Bomen stralen namelijk energie naar je uit en dat maak je rustig. Zelf doe ik het ook. Wanneer is niet kan slapen, kleed ik mij aan en loop ik naar de eik voor mijn deur en omhels hem. Ik mediteer dan en wordt rustig. Thuis gekomen neem ik een whisky en slaap daarna als een roos. Alie werd inderdaad rustig en we namen een borrel. Ze bleef bij me en ging bami klaarmaken en drumsticks. Ze bleef bij me slapen en in bed zei ze:
''Hé boom, mag ik je omhelzen?''

20150118 - how to make a blog... ?

een spoedcursus............................

Gij zult bloggen

Een bliksemstart voor iedereen die zo slim is een blog te beginnen

In dit ebook, uitgegeven door Einstein Books, vertel ik in 10.000 woorden hoe je een goede blog opzet en deze kunt laten uitgroeien tot een veelgelezen publicatie.

‘If there’s a blog you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.’ Vrij naar Toni Morrison

Sta je op het punt een blog te beginnen? Gefeliciteerd! Je sluit je aan bij de spannendste schrijfrevolutie sinds de boekdrukkunst. In dat enorme wereldwijde web heb jij binnenkort je eigen plek, your little slice of digital heaven, een eigen publiek. Kortom: een eigen publicatie. Je bent hoofdredacteur, uitgever, marketeer en vormgever tegelijkertijd. Vanaf nu hoef je niet meer bewonderend toe te kijken hoe professionals kranten, tijdschriften en sites uit de grond stampen.

Jij gaat het zelf doen.

Makkelijk wordt dat niet. Er bestaan al miljoenen blogs en je moet vanuit het niets lezers aan je binden. Misschien heb je al eens een vergeefse poging gewaagd of wil je een bestaande blog verbeteren. Ik ga je hoe dan ook helpen.
Sinds de herfst van 2006 heb ik duizenden blogartikelen getikt voor onder andere nrc.next en thenextweb.com, Nederlands grootste exportproduct op het gebied van bloggen. Ik ben in alle valkuilen getrapt.

Het was het waard: alles wat ik in mijn loopbaan heb bereikt, dank ik aan het bloggen.

En nu kan ik jou met deze startgids waarschuwen voor diezelfde valkuilen. Dat niet alleen, ik vertel je ook hoe je opvalt tussen al die andere Nederlandse blogs. Met slimme promotiestrategieën, tips voor het perfecte blogdesign, een handleiding voor bezoekersreacties en uiteraard schrijftips.
Alles om ervoor te zorgen dat jij je alleen nog maar op het belangrijkste hoeft te concentreren: stukjes schrijven. Klaar voor een bliksemstart? Daar gaan we:

20150117 - photographers

the top 10 most famous photographers of all time


If you want to take truly memorable and moving photographs, you can learn something by studying the pictures of famous photographers. Some of the most beloved artists are deceased, but some are still delighting us with their photographs. The list below includes some of the more famous photographers that still impact our lives today.


1. Ansel Adams is probably the most easily recognized name of any photographer. His landscapes are stunning; he achieved an unparalleled level of contrast using creative darkroom work. You can improve your own photos by reading Adams’ own thoughts as he grew older, when he wished that he had kept himself strong enough physically to continue his work.

2. Yousuf Karsh has taken photographs that tell a story, and that are more easily understood than many others. Each of his portraits tells you all about the subject. He felt as though there was a secret hidden behind each woman and man. Whether he captures a gleaming eye or a gesture done totally unconsciously, these are times when humans temporarily lose their masks. Karsh’s portraits communicate with people.

3. Robert Capa has taken many famous war-time photographs. He has covered five wars, even though the name “Robert Capa” was only the name placed to the photos that Endre Friedman took and that were marketed under the “Robert Capa” name. Friedman felt that if you were not close enough to the subject, then you wouldn’t get a good photograph. He was often in the trenches with soldiers when he took photographs, while most other war photographers took photos from a safe distance.

4. Henri Cartier-Bresson has a style that makes him a natural on any top ten photographer list. His style has undoubtedly influenced photography as much as anyone else’s. He was among the first to use 35mm film, and he usually shot in black and white. We are not graced by more of his work, since he gave up the craft about 30 years before he passed away. It’s sad that there are fewer photographs by Cartier-Bresson to enjoy.

5. Dorothea Lange took photographs during the Great Depression. She took the famous photo of a migrant mother, which is said to be one of the best-known photographs in history. In the 1940s, she also photographed the Japanese internment camps, and these photographs show sad moments in American history.

6. Jerry Uelsman created unique images with composite photographs. Being very talented in the darkroom, he used this skill in his composites. He never used digital cameras, since he felt that his creative process was more suited to the darkroom.

7. Annie Liebovitz does fine photographic portraits and is most well known for her work with Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone magazine. Her photographs are intimate, and describe the subject. She’s unafraid of falling in love with the people she photographed.

8. Brassaï is the pseudonym for Gyula Halasz, and he was well known for his photographs of ordinary people. He was proof that you don’t have to travel far to find interesting subjects. He used ordinary people for his subjects, and his photos are still captivating.

9. Brian Duffy was a British photographer who shot fashion in the 1960s and 70s. He lost his photographic interest at one time and burned many negatives, but then he began taking photos again a year before he died.

10. Jay Maisel is a famous modern photographer. His photos are simple; he doesn’t use complex lighting or fancy cameras. He often only takes one lens on photo outings, and he enjoys taking photos of shapes and lights that he finds interesting.

Of course there are other famous photographers that may be a part of your top 10 list. There is much to be learned in the art and craft of photography and from those who inspire us most.
About the Author:
Morris Pawtucket (famousphotographers125 dot com) writes about the famous photographers throughout history who have changed the way we see.

 http://www.picturecorrect.com

20150116 - flu vaccine

the effect of a vaccin...... ???.. to be disputed....

Flu vaccine barely working this year, CDC says

Maggie Fox NBC News, 2015 january 16

The flu vaccine is barely protecting people this year – reducing the risk of serious disease by just 23 percent, federal health officials said Thursday.
It’s not the worst year ever for the flu vaccine – there have been years when the flu vaccine was only 10 percent effective. But it’s not good news for people trying to avoid the flu.
Nonetheless, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people should still get a flu vaccine, because it does work well against strains of flu that may not be circulating just now, but that may show up at any time.“Right now, the effectiveness is not as good as we normally see with influenza. We want people to know that so they know to call their doctor for antivirals if they are sick,” says CDC’s Dr. Joe Bresee.
The CDC had been warning the vaccine might not work well this year. Just after drug makers started cooking up batches of flu vaccine for the 2014-2015 season, a sneaky strain of H3N2 started circulating that’s different from the strain the vaccine protects against. Flu vaccines take months to make and it was too late to change the formula for this year.
So the CDC’s been reminding people that there are three antiviral drugs on the market that can help you recover more quickly from flu. Tamiflu is the pill most widely prescribed, and there are injectable and inhalable drugs, too.

20150115 - social media

are social media fun or stress..... ??????
to be there
any time, any place
to know what is going on
to share what is happening.... !!!

just .. let it go............

Stress and social media: it's complicated

Using digital technologies does not directly cause stress, but social media can increase awareness of problems facing friends and family, and this stress is "contagious," researchers said Thursday.

A report by the Pew Research Center and Rutgers University researchers concluded that the stress facing some users of social networks was related to "the cost of caring."
"There is no evidence in our data that social media users feel more stress than people who use digital technologies less or not at all," said Rutgers researcher Keith Hampton, one of the author of the report.
Hampton said data did not support the notion that people become stressed from keeping up with social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.
But he added that "learning about and being reminded of undesirable events in other people's lives makes people feel more stress themselves. This finding about the cost of caring adds to the evidence that stress can be contagious."
Overall, the researchers found frequent Internet and social media users do not have higher levels of stress than the general population, and that many who use Twitter, email, and cell phone picture sharing report lower levels of stress.
There were, however, some gender differences in how social media use affected stress.
"There was no statistical difference in stress levels between men who use social media, cell phones, or the Internet and men who do not use these technologies," the researchers wrote.
But "a women who uses Twitter several times per day, sends or receives 25 emails per day, and shares two digital pictures through her mobile phone per day, scores 21 percent lower on our stress measure than a woman who does not use these technologies at all."
- Facebook can spread stress -
In cases where digital technologies increase awareness of stressful events in the lives of others, in particular with Facebook, the researchers found stress to be contagious.
"Facebook was the one technology that, for both men and women, provides higher levels of awareness of stressful events taking place in the lives of both close and more distant acquaintances," the researchers wrote.
A woman with an average size network of Facebook friends is aware of 13 percent more stressful events in the lives of her closest social ties, and men are aware of eight percent more, the study found.
"The cost of caring is particularly felt by women," the researchers said.
"This is a result of two facts about women and stress: first, women report higher levels of stress to begin with, and second, women are aware of more stressful events in the lives of their friends and family."
The report is based on a survey of 1,801 American adults from August 7 to September 16, with a margin of error estimated between 2.6 and 3.3 percentage points, depending on the group.
A related study released last week by Pew found Facebook remains the most popular social network among Americans, used by 71 percent of those who use the Internet.

Other platforms saw growth but remained far behind, including Pinterest and LinkedIn (28 percent), Instagram (26 percent) and Twitter (23 percent). That report showed 81 percent of Americans use the Internet.

 https://uk.news.yahoo.com........ 2015 january 15