Last week, the following thought entered my mind: Are all crises caused by human stupidity? If so, does that explain why history repeats? I'm inclined to say "yes" to both questions. In general, geological processes take (very) many thousands of years (eg, glacial periods, interglacial periods, magnetic pole reversal, ocean current reversal, Earth's wobble). There's...
The childcare benefits scandal that toppled the (still outgoing) Dutch Cabinet is still expanding. At least 1,115 children have been taken away from their families due to that same scandal. These parents lost everything while they were being drowned in debt, following clawback activities by the Dutch tax authorities. A friend told me that the Belgian approach is the...
De laatste maanden wordt er veel geschreven over woningnood. Er zou een tekort van circa 1 miljoen woningen zijn. In die beschouwing over woningnood wordt zelden de voorraad recreatie en vakantie woningen genoemd. Diverse bronnen stellen dat er ruim 130.000 recreatiewoningen zijn (bron 1, bron 2, CBS). Dit aantal is exclusief de zgn. tweede (of derde)...
For a long time, I’ve wondered about the Great Filter in civilizations. Why do initial successful civilizations eventually fail? It also relates to the Fermi paradox: if there is any extraterrestrial civilization, why haven't they contacted us by now? All civilizations seem doomed to fail after their initial success; often for unknown reasons (eg, Cahokia, USA)....
Many legal agreements have clauses that state that its adherence is based on 'best efforts' rather than a (legal) commitment. The vaccine supply contract between AstraZeneca and the EU is an example: the EU claims there's a (legal) commitment to supply, while AstraZeneca claims that supply is on 'best efforts'. In my view, the differences in actual and contractual...
The more you focus on a particular something, the more you lose sight of the bigger perspective (my blogs). Example: if you use your camera to zoom in on a bird in a forest then you will not see anything else that is happening in that forest. This phenomenon is called change blindness and has been documented by experimental psychologist and cognitive scientist...
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