Oh Yeah 2-1

Holland - Slovakia
18' 1-0 Robben
84' 2-0 Sneijder
94' 2-1 Vittek (pen)
Well, they keep on winning and that's certainly the way to go. Game-wise there's still room for improvement. Fantastic goal by Arjen Robben in the first half but after that moment Holland seemed to lean back as they have done before. Slovakia got a couple of good chances to equalize but the Dutch goalkeeper Stekelenburg excelled. Then in the 84th minute a great action by Dirk Kuyt which Sneijder only had to tip in. In the very last minute of play Slovakia got a questionable penalty but by then it was already game-over. So, they are in the quarter finals which is great but against a team like Brazil they have to play better then they did before.

The Venus Project Lecture Eindhoven (Pictures) 2

Click on the picture to enlarge.

The Venus Project Lecture Eindhoven (Pictures)

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Clouds

Was sitting in my garden this afternoon and the weather was superb. Working on my tan I noticed cloud formations forming which was really awesome. On top of the clouds white mists formed under the burning sun. When you watch for 10 minutes or so you'll also see clouds growing and merging into each other. Thought it was cool.

Yep 2-1

Holland - Cameroon 2-1
36' 1-0 Van Persie
65' 1-1 Eto'o (pen)
83' 2-1 Huntelaar
Well, Holland was already through to the last 16 and Cameroon was already out so this match was more about prestige than about anything else. Holland still doesn't play it's best football which can be troublesome because they still have to face a world class team and how will they perform then? Van Persie made a good goal in the first half but after that Holland's game dropped considerably. Cameroon equalized with a penalty by Eto'o. Then Robben came in and showed his class by a shot on goal that hit the post and the bounce was picked up by Huntelaar. Most commentators agree that Holland's game still has to be kicked up a notch or two if they want to make to the final.

An Energy-Independent Future

An Energy-Independent Future

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Great sketch from Jon Stewart. The last 8 U.S. Presidents spoke off wanting to get clean, renewable energy sources for their country yet nothing of the sort happened. Of course the machinations of the U.S. economy wont let such a thing happen. Oil is the motor of the economy. Every last drop of oil will be used. That is something the President should mention instead of fairytales.

Greedy Grabbers 3

Yes, if you follow the news on a regular basis you'll find something like this almost every week. It came to light in Holland that the heads of the police department in Amsterdam make a lot of money. Way more then the norm the government itself advised. That's called the 'Balkenendenorm' and is set at €188.000. The idea is that managers in the public sector don't make more then that. In practice no such thing happens.
Chief commissioner Welten, executive chief Gorissen and head administration Schonfeld make respectively €262.841, €212.292 and €200.331. The city of Amsterdam also pays a large amount for Weltens villa in the village of Warmond! To top it off the Amsterdam police department is in the process of making cuts. The workers union of the police was naturally infuriated when this news came out and commented that they were working hard to avoid lay offs under the current economic situation.
It's really scandalous. Lots of businesses, institutions or government sectors are in financial turmoil and not functioning properly yet when you put them through a looking glass you'll often if not always find some greedy grabber at the top. The people who actually do the work often get paid a minimum and have the most risk of being fired. And with government institutions, eventually it's the taxpayer who always gets the bill. Don't you just love capitalism?

Yay 1-0

Holland- Japan 1-0
53' 1-0 Sneijder
Happy that Holland won but it wasn't a great match. Japan played well in the defense which resulted in very few chances in the first half. Second half Holland played a bit better and had the good fortune that a hard shot from Wesley Sneijder wasn't handled well by the Japanese goalkeeper. Dutch substitute Affelay had 2 good chances to double the score but this time the keeper did his job. Although Dutch fans like to see the team play beautiful football I think there's more of a realization these days that in the end the result is all that matters. In the past Holland often played sparkling football in the beginning only to have a bad match later on and go out of the tournament. Hopefully we'll see the Dutch team improving every match. ;)

Zeitgeist Flyers & Activism 3

Uh oh. Almost done.

Greedy Grabbers 2

Here we go again. The Admiral de Ruyter hospital in Holland is in financial turmoil. Turns out the CEO (Pieter Vierhout) makes €367.000 a year. His colleague Vos makes €384.000. This is almost twice than what the Dutch Prime Minster makes. Do these gentlemen realize that their institution's financial disposition is certainly also caused by their salaries? If they care is another matter of course. Most people have a mortgage in those figures, and spend 20-30 years paying it off. No wonder that healthcare is getting more expensive every year.

Fat Heineken

Heineken made a special edition bottle, I presume for the World Championship Football. (35.5cl.) Bit bulky. I don't mind.

Sketchzoid #7

Greedy Grabbers

Read something in the newspaper today that really makes me fume. The sad thing is, this isn't an exception. Corine Houtzagers a former member of a board of directors of a healthcare company, received a bonus (upon ending of her contract) of €410.000. She was with the company 'WWZ-Marienstaete-Valent' for 4.5 years. A spokesperson remarked that this is the normal practice and that because she got laid off she was entitled to it. Other former employees of that company were sent home with €248.000 and €42.400.

This is totally outrageous. Normal employees who do all the work - providing care - get paid the minimum or close to it. Managers get paid well but as you can see get massive amounts of money, even when they do a poor job! The company made a loss of 6.6 million euros last year! Add the poor quality of healthcare the company provided and it becomes a total mystery to me why so much money has to be paid for misfits. It's almost criminal in my point of view. Lots of people complained about that company. They were told that due to shortages there weren't enough personnel and that cutbacks were in order. Well duh! All the money flowed in to the pockets of the managers.

Groping make me sick.

Orange Babes Arrested

Incredible. The FIFA had 36 women arrested after the football game Holland vs Denmark. They were wearing dresses from a Dutch beer brewer. Reason for the arrest was the fact that the FIFA has Budweiser as the official (beer) sponsor. FIFA officials even considered letting the women remove their dresses but soon realized that would create even more publicity. Funny thing is, there isn't even a name brand on the dresses and there are also no regulations regarding clothing of the fans. In my opinion the FIFA (officials) made a total ass of themselves and showed once more how just how commercially oriented they are up to the point of insanity.

Yeah 2-0

Holland-Denmark 2-0
46' 1-0 Simon Poulson (og)
85' 2-0 Dirk Kuyt
Holland started a bit nervous in their first match of the World Championships. Denmark had a decent game plan and that entailed not letting Holland play their favorite football. Those two things added up, making the first half relatively uneventful. One minute in the second half all that changed. A shot from Van Persie was miraculously deflected in the Danish own goal - severely upsetting the Danish game plan. With spaces opening up (since Denmark had to get the equalizer) Holland started playing better and getting chances. Five minutes before the end Dirk Kuyt had an easy tap in after Elia hit the post. The latter was very impressive as a substitute. 3 points for Holland, but a long way to go.

ZM Activism #3

Noticed on the Dutch ZG forum that some guy had hung up a poster. Over here we had elections this week and there are places in town where political parties can 'advertise' on billboards. The text says: "Tired of politics?," with the Zeitgeist url beneath it. Thought it was a nice gesture.

Zeitgeist Flyers & Activism 2

Owie. I'm practically halfway done with the Zeitgeist flyers. This week I walked in my neighborhood, weather permitting of course. (I'm not gonna walk in the poring rain thank you.) It was fun although some mailboxes have a type of broom or valve behind it and than you kinda have to force the lightweight flyer in. Taking a break with that for the coming days. Hopefully the 1200 leaflets I delivered so far will have some effect.

B-Fly

Zeitgeist 3

Zeitgeist Flyers & Activism

Today I received my order from the printing company and I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised. The flyers themselves are of good quality and have a glossy finish which almost makes it look like plastic. The text is easy to read even though it's an A5 size which is a bit smaller than an A4. Colors are great and everything considered, the price is also right. Got some more work to do before football starts.

Pricey Tickets Venus Project World Tour

First, let me say that I'm a supporter of the Venus Project but upon examination I find the ticket prices out of proportion. It's understandable that lectures cost money. A venue has to be rented, Jacque Fresco and Roxanne Meadows airplane tickets have to be paid for, hotel rooms etc. That part I don't have a problem with. It's just that I get a feeling someone is making a healthy profit of this tour in my own country.

I'm speaking of the lecture that is scheduled in Holland on the 26th of June. Ticket prices are €30 plus a fee of €1.50 and if you want to buy a ticket at the register you have to cough up another €5. Those are hefty prices when you consider that on ZDAY 2010 in New York, tickets cost $13. That's close to one third. On the Dutch Zeitgeist forum it was also mentioned that with the ticket price they also sponsor a display of the Venus Project at yet another venue. That one is free of charge. I've seen a lot of documentaries on YouTube that I don't really have to visit that last venue. So why am I paying for it?

I'm also having doubts about the organizer, a Mr. Essink who's an entrepreneur. When I type in his name in a search engine some remarkable results show up. It seems like Mr. Essink was accused of fraud. Basically he took advantage of government funds while he wasn't entitled to do so. He also had 2 jobs, teaching at a school and working for a private company which he partly owned. While working at the school he made sure money flowed to his company. He quit the teaching job when this practice came to light.

My point is; this is the guy who organizes the lecture tour in Holland. Should I be surprised that the tickets are that high? Even with the extra money that has to be paid for the venues, it's a safe bet Mr. Essink will receive a healthy commission for his efforts. He's a businessman after all, and history has shown he has a habit of channeling money towards his own projects.
But if you really want to know what upsets me, it's this. I do a lot of promotion work for the Venus Project and the Zeitgeist Movement. I ordered flyers with my own money. I delivered them in my own time. When the Zeitgeist Movement in Holland needed money for projects, I contributed. In short, I put in my own money, energy and time. That is for a good cause, not for someone to make a buck off. I guess that's what rubs me the wrong way.

Sketchzoid #6

The Thought Police?

Don't know what it is but I seem to run in to some weird characters in the last 7 months. Last year in December I figured out some person was constantly undermining a forum on Yahoo. That forum dealt with the paranormal so there were plenty of conspiracy theories floating around. The person in question (I wont put up his name) was constantly harassing people and hiding behind many aliases, returning to the forum after he was banned and even pretending to be woman on one occasion. Around the same time I discovered that the person also had many blogs, around 10 in total - all filled with critique. (Since I exposed him on that forum he pulled down most of those blogs.) The thing is; for some reason it was totally unacceptable for him that people indulged in (conspiracy) theories also in combination with the paranormal and UFOs. Much effort was made by him to curb such thoughts. On his blog he used an alias (wont name it here) along with the picture above.

Last year I joined the Zeitgeist Movement but due to illness I didn't pursue any activities in that area. This year my health improved and simultaneously my interest in doing something for the 'movement.' I delivered a bunch of flyers in my neighborhood but also followed up on information on the internet. Last year I also started a YouTube channel and subsequently I started to watch matters related to Zeitgeist. There are pro-videos but also detractors. One caught my attention last week, predominantly because the person in question made some highly disingenuous claims in his videos. It's not that hard to see what the person is getting at or how it's been done. That person also uses the Guy Fawkes mask in his videos. (That mask and the main character from the movie "V for Vendetta" seems to be a repeating element.) The mask itself is also used by the "Anonymous" group.

For me there's some synchronicity here. Both individuals I met have much in common and seem to strive for the same things, employing the same methods. Theories like in the paranormal or on UFOs are contested in the same way like they do towards Zeitgeist. Debunking is not the proper word although they do try. It's almost like they want to confine free thought itself. The folks I met are basically spin doctors. They take a (questionable) element (which can be positive or negative), at the same time they disregard 90% of the additional information, and label that element as highly negative and conclude that therefore the argument should fall in their favor. These are highly manipulative and deceptive tactics. It's not an objective analysis, it's purely aimed at reaching a negative conclusion. Both guys I met, on Yahoo and YouTube, also seemed to favor the approach of calling the other 'a cult' or 'cult member,' which is of course a tactic of making the other guy look bad.
I'm really starting to wonder, who are these guys? What is so scary for them that they feel the need to totally demolish the train of thought of other people. Most of the things they attack are not established facts or real situations. What are they afraid off?