A few minutes ago, a thought 'entered' my mind: the law of unintended consequences. I wanted to waive it because I was sure that I had written about it. I did not though. I only mentioned it in a few blogs: If Good does bad, does Good become Bad? (2021) and The micro-macro conundrum (2019). The law of unintended consequences is the principle that actions often...
Political correctness
When (not) to apologize (2)
Recently, someone blamed me for not apologizing. My reply was simple: why should I apologize for your wrong conclusions? I only apologize when my intentions are/were wrong. I will not apologize towards people, who are misreading what I did, said and/or wrote. My explanation is also in this quote: “True remorse is never just a regret over consequences; it is a regret...
Why is humour so difficult??
Several weeks ago, I noticed a funny trailer of season 4 of Only Murders in the Building (OMITB). Unfortunately, season 4 is hardly funny while season 1 was quite funny and entertaining. Hence, I fail to understand its very high average IMDb rating of 8.1. A rating of 6.9 would be (more than) enough. Season 4 has very many cameo appearances by well-known actors....
Grensoverschrijdend gedrag
Grenzen zijn vaak absoluut: geografische grenzen (o.a. land, provincie, gemeente), tijdsgrenzen (o.a. ochtend vs middag, gisteren vs vandaag), en ook water vs ijs. Grensoverschrijdend is dan volledig duidelijk. Het verschil tussen licht en donker is veel minder duidelijk. Vandaar het gezegde: vele tinten grijs. Sinds enkele dagen wordt een "Beroemde Vlaamse...
The anti-woke movement
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1726/27) once defined his third law of motion as follows: for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. Hence, we should not be surprised of the rise of an anti-woke movement (eg, the Conversation, the Spectator, the Telegraph). It's useful to give two versions of how people perceive the word woke: Wiki: "Woke "is...
Does crime fiction reflect reality?
I like several British and Scandinavian TV crime series. Recently, I started wondering if (their) crime fiction reflects reality? Based on my initial research, the answer seems clear: yes. Even in the Netherlands, there is a correlation: Baantjer (crime in Amsterdam), Penoza (drugs crime in Brabant). Statistics show that the "homicide rate in the UK was 1.2 per...

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