Week 4 Another slow week
Week 4
On Monday, Tjeerd and I did a lot of cleaning up - mostly a pile of stuff left over from our building projects of last year - we took it to the tip on Tuesday - we had one the youngest of the Day Activity clients with us - A Day Out at the Tip. It's good to be doing something outside - but february can still be pretty brutal...
On Thursday, we tackled the job of cutting up the old wood - very little could be re-used as it was worm-infested and/or soaking wet...another big pile to do on Monday.
Again, this was going to count as part of my daily walking regime... from workshed to hayshed with the wheelbarrow :-)
Janny had another birthday
A quiet "Circle Party" with some of the brothers and sisters - and Mum
As Melbourne is having near 40 degree days, I thought it worthy of note that we keep the beer outside...
...but at around midnight we took it inside as it felt very much like it was going to freeze :-)
On Friday we picked Ben up from Schiphol - but he is feeling very crook - literally can not eat or drink - so Janny has taken him to the hospital as I write - it's our only option on a Sunday morning. He had already been there on Friday night - but they couldn't find anything - and there has been no improvement since. Janny just apped that he is having intravenous feeding for water at least...
Things that caught my attention
From the EDitor of euobserver
Why aren’t we judging Facebook, Instagram, X and even Google as simply inadequate products?
For all of the talk about misinformation, disinformation, the spread of questionable ideologies and the morals of the CEOs that run these companies, we seem to overlook the fact that the experience on these websites is just plain bad.
They’re overrun with ads and scammers, privacy nightmares, impossible to use, seeing anything shared by the people you’d like to see is a rarity, have no customer service, impenetrable black box metrics, bots all over the place and seem outwardly hostile to providing the thing they were set up to provide: human connection online.
I think the absolutely dismal quality of the experience is a fact that we, regardless of political leaning or moral judgements about the people who run them, can all agree on.
The EU uses tenders to assess where money is spent based on cost and quality – if we don’t spend taxpayer money on a contractor that builds a shitty bridge, a caterer that provides inedible food or a cleaner that leaves things dirtier, why do we on companies that make terrible communication products?
Flooding 1995
We were living in Birdaard when floods happened "down south". Mum even rang to ask if we were affected or not. We weren't...
My favourite weather person, Alphonse, writes a weekly summary mainly looking at the water levels of the Rhine and the Meuse. 5 years ago he wrote this (the flooding was then 25 years ago - it is now 30 years ago).
He looks again at the circumstances, trying to see what might happen again
It is also thanks to the near disaster of 1995 that we have been almost permanently busy with the design, planning and implementation of water safety measures in the river area. Below is a bit of history and what it has all yielded. It is a fairly long overview, but a lot has happened since 1995.
https://www.waterpeilen.nl/berichten/droge-periode-voorlopig-voorbij-licht-stijgende-waterstanden
If we look back at the weather and water situation in the weeks and months before the high water of January 1995, we can say that there were absolutely no signs. In the autumn, the normal amount of rain had fallen and December had also been normal in the Rhine and Meuse basins, only in the Netherlands and the adjacent northern part of Germany was December wetter than normal, but these areas usually supply little water to the Rhine and Meuse. The soil was therefore not extra saturated, the reservoirs were not more filled than usual and yet one of the largest high waters in living memory could occur in a relatively short time.
More on the Fireworks injuries
At least 187 people sustained eye injuries during New Year celebrations on December 31, marking the highest total in a decade, according to the Dutch eye experts association.
Half of the victims were children, and one in three has suffered permanent damage. In total, 15 individuals lost an eye.
Approximately 40% of those injured were bystanders uninvolved in setting off fireworks and at least 8% of the fireworks responsible for the injuries were illegal in the Netherlands.
Eye specialists have repeatedly urged the government to ban consumer fireworks entirely. While 19 towns and cities imposed local restrictions this year, the bans were widely flouted.
The government has stated it has no plans to introduce a nationwide ban on fireworks but MPs are expected to push through a vote on the issue.
Definitive figures, including the number of individuals who have permanently lost sight in one eye, are expected to be released in April.
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