Author: Bob Beela

Enno ter Keurst, Waalre, the Netherlands, IT Consultant with Atos Origin.
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So France said ‘No’, what is the Netherlands going to do?

So France said ‘No’. 45% in favour and 55% against the new EU Constitution. Will this change anything for the result of the Dutch referendum?

The Dutch politicians in favour of the EU Constitution have changed their message during the weekend. Up to the weekend they emphasised that the EU Constitution would improve our position in the EU, give us more power of control, more jobs, a bigger fist against the US and Asia, more and better. Now they have changed their tone of voice and are telling us now that a ‘No’ from us would mean that we would be isolated in Europe. Together in the corner with France and the other European countries are going to decide what to do with us. Without us being able to do anything against it!

What a bullshit!
Today polls show hardly any movement in the Dutch opinion. About 3% of the people have switched sides.
So it’s probably going to be close, I guess 53% will say ‘No’ and 47% ‘Yes’.

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F1 is exciting again

Today the F1 race the Germany ended with a bang. In the last lap the front suspention of Kimi Raikkonen gave in after he flat spotted his right tyre some six laps before.
How disappointing it was for Kimi and his (my) team, this is how racing should be. In spite of the risk of crashing, McLaren and Kimi decided to go for the win. Way to go!!!

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First tropical day in the Netherlands

Today the KNMI (Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute) registered a
temperature of 30 degrees Celsius in the middle of the Netherlands. In the
south of the Netherlands the temperature even went up to 32 degrees. This
weekend the temperature will go down again to a normal 20 degrees.

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European referendum

Tonight the chairman the European committee was on TV (Mr. Barroso).
Guess what the message was: If you vote “No“, we will punish you! Look what happened to the others who tried it after the Nice treaty (Ireland and ..). We just went ahead and we changed nothing in the treaty, so just roll over and play dead.

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Ongoing rant between Curry and Winer?

Today (May 26 2005) Dave Winer posted a reply on the pileup between him and Adam Curry.
In January Adam went to Florida to meet up with his friends to talk about the future of podcasting. Among those friends was Dave Winer who had been talking with Adam for weeks about going into podcasting business. After those meeting Adam made a sightseeing podcast where he sounded really frustrated. Something had gone wrong and Dave’s podcast sheds a different light on the matter.
Jummy.

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Don’t worry, you are to stupid to understand this question

The remarks about the referendum are getting better and better these days.
Lately the politicians are getting more nervous about the possible outcome and are covering their ass by making remarks like: “There is no problem because 80% of the house of representatives wants the new European Constitution” and “You cannot blame the people because the question is to difficult for them”.

Furthermore, I’m really surprised that the politicians haven’t thought of a procedure in case somebody doesn’t agree with the proposed Constitution. We might be too stupid to understand the question but I think we are smart enough to understand that there might be a possibility that someone doesn’t agree with it.

This morning another crack showed up in the EU castle. The UK, the wealthiest country in the EU, with the best running economy, refuses to become a normal paying EU member. Since Thatcher the UK is paying less (they got a rebate because they didn’t use that much agricultural subsidies) than everybody else and they want to keep it this way. So now the new EU members are paying even more than the UK.
So how would the EU Constitution have changed this situation?

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WMA for PC Link is here !!

WMA Music File Format Support in PC Link and the launch of the radioio music service.

You should have received yesterday an email from Philips outlining future release plans of Streamium products. We acknowledge that the product is not currently ready for the WMA Services or My Media. However, we would like to communicate the following product upgrade improvements for your consideration.

Philips Streamium SL300i, SL400i and MX6000i are ready to be upgraded to play Windows Media Audio (.WMA) music files. In addition to the currently supported MP3 and WAV file formats, Philips Streamium is keeping pace with the market, and will now support the hugely popular WMA music format! The addition of (non-DRM protected) WMA music file support will enable you to play more of your favorite music from your PC. WMA support for My media is not yet enabled but can be expected in the near future.

If they could add RealPlayer support it would be perfect!

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US versus Machester United

An article in the New York Time describes the hostile situation between the fans of Manchester United and Malcolm Glazer after his take over of the club.
I quote:
How do English soccer fans hate Malcolm Glazer, the billionaire businessman who this week took control of Manchester United, one of the world’s most famous soccer teams? Let us count the ways.

There are Mr. Glazer’s personal qualities, which, according to various English newspapers, extend to rapaciousness, ruthlessness, meanness, megalomania, unflattering facial hair and a propensity, The Daily Mail says, for “wearing his trouser waistband ludicrously high.”

There is the way he is said to be saddling Manchester United with debt, using the team’s assets to help secure some £265 million ($490 million) in loans as part of the £790 million ($1.45 billion) takeover price.

As far as anyone can tell, Mr. Glazer, 76, has never been to a Manchester United game, or possibly even to any soccer game. Which might not be so surprising, according to his sister Maria. “He has never liked sports,” she told The Daily Mail.

Football may well be big business in Europe, South America and Azia. But in contrast to the “American way’, clubs have always been lead by people who have a heart for the sport and don’t see it as a tax deduction. Look at the Russian biljonair chairman of Chelsea, who also sponsors a football club in Moscow. I honestly doubt whether the son of Mr. Glazer really has such a ‘love’ for soccer (as the call the sport in the US). I think it has more to do with the will of winning, winning the big buck of the Manchester United merchandise that is.
Maybe Malcolm will learn to love the game, I doubt it. But he better do so because otherwise the fans are going to kick him out or walk away.

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European Constitution and the Netherlands

The debate is heating up in the Netherlands. Better said, the debate is about nothing these days but everybody is shouting.
Our government is spending another 3.500.000€ to convince the Dutch people to say “Yes” at the referendum.
The opposition is playing in on our frustration about the EU as a whole. Dead easy of course as we were never asked whether we agreed with all the money going into that bottomless pit.

This is a situation in which our government cannot win and are going to shoot itself in the foot. Every remark they make that this referendum has nothing to do with the Euro, that it will improve our position in the EU, that ‘we’ will get a voice in Brussels because we can suggest new bills to the Euro Parliament, that we have a real veto right on the big issues, is counter productive for me. It reminds me of all treaties they made, treaty of Maastricht, treaty of Amsterdam, treaty of Nice, Portugal and what a mess they made out of it.

Do you want to make a bet on the outcome?

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Majors join against global warming

This morning I saw this small message in the newspaper. It says that about 132 US majors have joined in an initiative to get the US to agree with the Kyoto treaty. Good this is that it is backed by Democrats and Republicans.
Let’s hope Bush gets influenced as well.

SEATTLE – Burgemeester Greg Nickels van Seattle probeert te bereiken dat de Verenigde Staten doen wat de regering-Bush niet wil: het Kyoto-verdrag over opwarming van de aarde naleven. The New York Times meldde dat zaterdag op zijn website.

Al 132 burgemeesters, Democraten en Republikeinen, hebben zich aangesloten bij Nickels’ coalitie om de opwarming van de aarde op lokaal niveau te bestrijden.

2012,
Zij hebben beloofd dat hun stad zal voldoen aan wat een bindende eis voor de VS had moeten zijn, als president Bush het klimaatverdrag niet had verworpen. Voor 2012 moet de uitstoot van broeikasgassen zijn teruggebracht tot 7 procent onder die van 1990.

Bloomberg
Volgens het kantoor van Nickels vertegenwoordigen de burgemeesters bijna 29 miljoen burgers in 35 staten. Donderdag sloot de Republikeinse burgemeester Michael Bloomberg van New York zich aan.