As a little tribute to the heroes *) that grease the economy, here a pretty cool video for the aviation buffs out here. This guy has some more cool stuff, and I like how he seems to be able to tie-rap a helmet-cam to the nose gear of a 747-200 without “issues” and extend it a bit early for the fun of the recording. Oh the charms of Africa.

Thanks user “Euclid” on airliners.net.

*) Think of it when you see that well uniformed passenger 4-stripe. When he messes up time wise, oh well, a couple of hundred of people get annoyed. When the freight pilot does, probably somewhere a couple of million dollars is lost somewhere in a factory, waiting for that one part to arrive.

What can I say? Discovered country-woman Janine Jansen a while ago and her performance is exceptional. If you like this, follow some of the youtube suggestions. There are hundreds of clips, some of the publishers.

Local politics: As I wrote earlier, tensions were rising in our administration. This is fueled by the multi-party system we have here where it is always necessary to have more than one party in the administration to have a majority. It also forces compromises. Until something breaks of course.

Tonight something broke, and the connection with you people on the other side of the pond is Afghanistan. Our boys have been fooling around in Uruzgan for a couple of years and in 2007 it was decided enough was enough, and we would start to leave in 2010.  There is no majority, not amongst the people, nor in parliament to drag on there forever. Still, our smart ass right winged minister of foreign affairs (what you call secretary of state) pushed his own agenda and kept on leading to a formal request by NATO to stay. It is an unwritten law that NATO only issues such requests when it is absolutely certain that it will be granted, read, he made promises he couldn’t hold. Mild left wing coalition partner, who was arm-twisted into not criticizing the unlawful entry into Iraq (see that earlier link) decided last night enough was enough and there was no way they could support a longer stay against the earlier decision, parliament and peoples will.

This is the fourth time under this prime minister the administration does not run it’s constitutional four years. Now the common factor is….. oh wait! What will happen next:

1. The queen has a few options (elections, minority cabinet or try glueing things up). Hard to see what that will be.
2. We will be kicked out of the G-20 in no time (pushed by the US)
3. Right wing will probably gain the most out of this, as the one pulling the plug is always blamed, and people stop thinking the moment they enter the voting booth anyway.

This country is quickly becoming the new political Italy of Europe. Insane.

Added: here’s the CNN take on it.

Added 22-02: I’ll add some progress here for those interested. Goes WAY different than in the US!

• The administration will continue “watching the shop” only. The ministers that left will be replaces by members of the parties that did not resign, effectively leaving a minority cabinet. This needs some formal juggling, but it is what will happen.
• The Queen has consulted the major political leaders (she must not have been amused, was on skiing holiday in Austria!).
• Almost certainly new elections will be held, late May, beginning of June.

Oh, and we have municipal elections next week.

Update I follows.

As a U.S. Senator running for The Office of President of The United States Barak Obama voted to remove a provision from FISA legislation that provided immunity to telephone companies that had willingly provided access to the National Security Agency (NSA), without Court issued warrants to the telephone conversations of US Citizens. The amendment that was defeated would have removed civil immunity for the telephone companies from FISA and allowed citizens to hold telephone companies (telcoms) responsible and subject to Civil Action in our courts. Then Senator Obama contradicted himself soon after when he went on to vote in favor of the FISA legislation which included civil immunity for the telephone companies that had violated Federal laws; thanks President Obama – nice flip-flop. The violation of our rights by the telephone companies, The Bush Administration (via NSA) and the United States Senate has come to be known as the “warrantless surveillance program.”

The problem with giving up our Civil Liberties is that we give up those rights in drips and drabs and become accustom to the “new ways.” 40 years ago I know people who would have brandished a gun and shot out the security cameras that now look at us everyday. Now days we don’t give those cameras a second thought. When was the last time you willing gave out your Social Security number – perhaps because somebody told you they couldn’t do something for you without it?

This case, filed in Federal Court this past Tuesday by a Pennsylvania family may or may not be adjudged true:

“A Lower Merion family has set off a furor among students, parents, and civil liberties groups by alleging that Harriton High School officials used a webcam on a school-issued laptop to spy on their 15-year-old son at home.”

If it turns out to be true it is an example of how much we’ve given up to live in a “safe world.” Even if it turns out not to be true it demonstrates, in my opinion, how paranoid we have to be to live here in these United States.

If you use email in these rather twisted times, remember that somebody else is probably reading the words you write. If you make a phone call there is a good chance that somebody unbeknown to you is listening to the words you speak (maybe a computer equipped with voice recognition software is transcribing your words), or at the least the numbers you have dialed and the numbers you have received calls from have been data mined for analysis (probably using billing information). If you make a purchase with a credit or debit card you are being tracked. Big Brother is among us.

Oh, and just for fun here’s a tune that you might enjoy though I know that my co-conspirators here at The Ptarmigan Nest have heard it many times.

Update I (2010 Feb 24): Shut down Webcam use, judge tells school district

In 2008 I blogged a bit about photo geotagging. My stance on it has only deepened: 2, 3 years later it’s become way cooler, and I am much deeper concerned on its privacy aspects. Watch this jaw dropping TED video and see what Microsoft is doing with both their and your pictures.

I bet google will follow soon.

According to local news outlets secretary Clinton…

…. urged EU parliament by letter to share bank account data of European citizens with American authorities. This data is needed in our “mutual effort to counter terrorism”.

This red flags the hell out of me. What would you guys think if our Secret Service type of guys wanted to browse though your transactions?

Parliament seems to be against sharing, but expect members to fall like domino bricks under US pressure. One member though explained there was not a single concession in Clintons letter to the EU and basically said there was room for ‘discussion’ after legislation to share would have passed. wtf?

Added 2/11: Today, the European parliament, for the first time since it’s power was raised by the Lisbon treaty, rejected above treaty 378 against 196 with the US. Reasoning was

• Unclear which US authorities would have access to EU bank data
• Impossible for inhabitants to see what data is shared
• No appeal procedure if shared data is false

Note: the treaty was approved by the member states one day before the Lisbon treaty came into effect, which was seen by a lot of people as a hasty push-through. Also note that the treaty in itself was deemed “needed” since Swift moved it’s operation from US soil, and thereby falling under US anti-terrorism laws (read: we can see everything we want to see), to the Netherlands. If I find the time I will try to find out why Swift decided to do that.

Added: here is a statement from Swift, give a tiny bit of insight.

My country introduced what is called EPD (Electronic Patient File) a while ago by law. It is a huge system where all medical information is to be stored, so that when for instance, somebody is brought into a hospital after a car crash, their medical records can be retrieved. All medical providers are supposed to be be hooked up soon. Sounds pretty state-of-the-art huh? Well, apart from that bratty privacy thingy of course that not many of my countrymen care about, but “that has been taken care of very well”.

Yeah, well, the truth is that all users can get access to all medical records of all people and the only safeguard is hindsight: everything is logged and users can be held accounted for what they retrieve. The statement about that was that “Generally, doctors will use the EPD in an honorable way, and logging will have a dampening effect”. B.T.W., even I fully admit there is some sense in this methodology, as you can never know who will be rolled in where and when.

But then who are the users of the EPD and thus have that access?

• doctors
• specialists
• nurses
• doctors-assistants
• physiotherapists
• MD’s
• pathologists
• pharmacists
• co-assitants
• medical students
• biochemists
• physics
• paramedics
• dietists
• their sub’s
• ICT staff
• police and secret service (in “special circumstances”)

Does this suddenly sounds less interesting? Not done yet: the law did not regulate who is responsible for the supervision of the EPD and how it should be done. Nor is there any budget for supervision allotted. Let alone who’s head will roll when the inevitable data leak is discovered. With a widely distributed system as the EPD and the nature of it (spotlight please!) hackers cannot wait to get their hands on it. As there is no such supervision, MD’s see dark clouds rolling in above their heads: they will be in the front line and patients will call on them first.

The responsible administration stated that misuse will be prevented through “the coherency between laws, security, supervision (?), communication and the chain of identification, authenticity, authorization and logging”. Riiiight. So I used the one escape left: send in a form that forbids the use of the EPD for my personal data.

How are things working on your end of the pond?

It’s all too easy to focus on the bad and ugly and deceit in the world. But let’s never forget the other side.

Mozart’s Top 3 Tips for Making Your Own Kind of Music (this links to the full post)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart seemed to live a pretty fast and quick life. He started writing his own music when he was just four years old. When he was six he played violin to the emperor of Austria. At 14 he wrote music for Milan Opera. As an adult he worked at a furious pace. By the end of his life he had written over 600 pieces of music. A life that ended early, just before his 36′th birthday.

1. “I pay no attention whatever to anybody’s praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.”
2. “One must not make oneself cheap here – that is a cardinal point – or else one is done. Whoever is most impertinent has the best chance.”
3. “When I am travelling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that ideas flow best and most abundantly.”

Thanks Elena.

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Today, after 112 hours, the reading of 102.000 names of people who were transported through the Nazi deportation camp Westerbork in my country and then onwards by cattle train to the extermination camps in Poland came to an end with the last name on the memorial, Heinrich Zysmanowicz.

The youngest reader was 11, the oldest 80. A few by telephone from the US and Israël.

Let us not ever forget the evil that can be created and nourished by hatred. Let us not forget what administrations can do if they know too much (is that why they are called “administrations”?); the round up of Jews in WWII was ultra efficient in my country because of the wonderfully complete and precise record keeping.