Week 1 of 2025

 

Week 1 2025

We both luxuriated in having a couple of weeks off - but now it also feels good to be back doing what we do. The clients are back - we are very important to them also having a "normal" routine.

Black Ice

During the night from Friday to Saturday, slippery conditions arose throughout the country due to freezing rain. Precipitation landed on the frozen ground.

Traffic was affected by the black ice throughout the country. The N31 in Friesland (Drachten to Leeuwarden) was closed for much of the morning after four accidents occurred at various locations.

I was about to go for a walk (with my tracker on) but it was too slippery and treacherous - so I lit the fire out the back and spread some salt around the walkways - house to workshed, the apartments. :-)

Then later my modest walk for the day...slowly building it up for 2025

The Fire Service in Amsterdam had calls about a strange smell...

The smell is a light ammonia smell, the fire department reports. "That is caused by urea granules in the road salt. The smell disappears by itself."

Over the road from us...

Brand new cycling paths...(replacing the old bitumen)

The rear of our place in the distance...

Just a follow up to the fireworks discussion i.e. in addition to fingers and eyes being lost ...

Nu.nl

A growing number of police officers have had enough of the way they become targets during the New Year festivities and are accusing the government of failing to act to end the chaos, the AD reported on Monday afternoon. They also want an immediate ban on consumer fireworks.
The claim is made in an internal police memo and gives “an in-depth view of the frustration and desperation within the police force,” the paper said.
During the New Year celebrations, police and emergency service workers came under attack in a number of towns and villages, and over 200 people were arrested. In Amsterdam, riot police fired warning shots and in Culemborg they used teargas to break up the mobs.
There are similar incidents every year and this is making both police officers and their families fear for their safety, the memo said, adding that “there is a systematic lack of respect and appreciation for emergency service workers.”
The memo calls for a nationwide ban on consumer fireworks and more serious punishments for people who attack the police and fire brigade. “Many police officers feel the current strategy of talking tough and doing little is far from enough,” the paper said.

Facebook

(I forget where this was - The Economist, Politico, EUObserver, BBC,The Guardian - are my main reading/listening - so much head-shaking stuff these days - even the clients were joking about "let's buy Belgium" after Trumps antics about Greenland, Panama, Canada and Musk's election interference in the UK.)

Social media has always acted as something of a funhouse mirror to society as a whole. The algorithms and amplifications of an always-online existence have helped accentuate the worst parts of our lives, while tucking in and hiding the best. It’s part of why we’re so polarised today, with two tribes shouting past one another on social media into a gaping chasm of hopelessness.

Which is what makes a declaration by one titan of big tech this week so worrying. Abandon hope all ye who enter: less than two weeks before Donald Trump returns to the White House for a second crack at the US presidency, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Threads, has made major changes to content moderation, and in doing so appears to align itself with the views of the incoming president.

Around the farm

We lost a few trees with the strong winds...so it was time to sharpen the (electric) chainsaw...

but still too cold and wet to actually do it yet - so many jobs seem to get put off these days :-)

Kids' weekend this week - even there my "work" seems to have diminished - they spend just about all their time indoors... I do light the fire for them nice and early...

Ben in South Africa

He seems to have friends everywhere he goes...