Vooizeken

Een van die dichtregels die volkswijsheden geworden zijn:

't Is goed in 't eigen hert te kijken
Nog even voor het slapen gaan

Avondliedeken III, Alice Nahon
Uit: Op zachte vooizekens, 1921

Blogs brengen overwegend zakelijk geschriften voort omdat een computer nu eenmaal een andere sfeer geeft dan ganzeveren en kaarslicht.

De titel van de bundel betekent "met zachte stem" denk ik (voice, zoetgevooisd), hoewel een vooizeken ook een liedje is. Aan het kampvuur werd wel eens geroepen "zing nog eens een vozeken". Vroeger altijd gedacht dat dat van voos (bedorven) kwam.

Hold on

Sattelites collide

An Irridium satelite collided yesterday with a Russian sattelite that, according to Roscosmos, the Russian space agency "in all likelihood... belonged in the past to the military".
Irridium is a system of 66 active satellites for using handheld satellite phones. Irridium says they have spares in orbit that will replace the crashed sattelite.
I wonder which sattelite will be held responsible according to space traffic rules.
With that space debris is promoted from a science fiction issue to a real threat. This mass of debris now consists of more than 500,000 objects. and includes empty upper-stages of launch vehicles, dead satellites, gloves, wrenches and even a toothbrush lost by astronauts from past space missions. Any object weighing more than a few grammes and travelling at seven kilometres per second can easily destroy a satellite.

Skating in "Het Broek"

The weekend of january 10th, our nephew Maarten (almost 2 years old) was here to give new year wishes to Ine, who is his godmother.
Ine gave him a sledge and we went down to the frozen ponds in "Het Broek".
There was a whole crowd skating, biking, sledging and sliding.
It's been more then ten years since we had a real winter like this. All the activity reminded me of Breughel's winter paintings.

younger people need less light

Although you would not consider the body of a thirty year old to be in decline,
he needs twice the light a ten year old needs to see well.

20 euro per minuut

Global Crashing

Wall Street by various calculations has to date lost, within the financial sector, $1-$1.5 trillion

According to The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb) study interm report by the European Commission the annual cost of forest loss is even higher at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.

The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide.