CIA report on the Netherlands

Major European producer of ecstasy, illicit amphetamines, and other synthetic drugs; important gateway for cocaine, heroin, and hashish entering Europe;
Major source of US-bound ecstasy;
Large financial sector vulnerable to money laundering.

A run for the money

On April 29th Adam Curry finally presented us his long expected ‘strategy cast’. This was going to be the unveiling of the Holy Grail: the future of PodCasting. Was it really?

I’ve been listening to Curry from the first PodCast he made he made last year and I have been enjoying it. It has made me look for other PodCasts and now I’m listening to stuff like ‘The Theory of Everything’ of Benjamen Walker, ‘Earthwatch Radio‘ and ‘Whole Wheat Radio‘.
The fun of this new technology or movement is that it has nothing to do with the big business, big corporations or expensive infrastructures. It is the extension of the open source movement, blogging and means total democracy. Everybody can do it and people are getting into PodCasting because they feel they have something to say and not because they want to sell you something.

Last year, in the spirit of that movement, Adam Curry together with Dave Winer, setup an open directory where everybody could advertise their PodCast. The result was that PodCasting skyrocketed even more and you could read about it in every newspaper.
Soon after that the first cracks began to appear. Up to than Curry had been working mostly with Dave Winer, the inventor of the RSS feed which technology is the core of this movement. Curry went to Florida to meet up with his friends Dave and Ron Bloom to discuss ‘the future of PodCasting’. The PodCast Curry made after that meeting sounded as if something had gone totally wrong. The fact that the PodCast directory was handed over to Curry, all Curry websites were moved off Dave’s servers and Dave name is hardly ever mentioned by Adam indicated that they must have disagree on something fundamentally.

After the ‘strategy cast’ and the news about Adam’s radio contract with Sirius it is obvious that Ron and Adam are trying the steer the PodCasting movement back into the arms of the big corporations and where the money is. If you read the recent comments on Dave website it’s obvious that he wanted nothing to do with that. That maybe one of the reasons for the splitup.

Next step will be that Adam is going to decide, more than what he’s already doing, which PodCast we should be listening to and which PodCasts will be sponsored via his PodShow firm.
Thank God Sirius can only be received in North America and the World is a bigger market than just the US. Let’s make sure that PodCasting is not going to be like those other “great products” from the US, like Disney World, MacDonalds, Coca Cola & SUV’s.

Ratzinger: theologische steunpilaar van Johannes Paulus II

‘Pantserkardinaal’ Joseph Ratzinger (78), al sinds 1981 de onbuigzame prefect van de Vaticaanse congregatie voor de geloofsleer, was de voornaamste theologische steunpilaar van paus Johannes Paulus II. In die functie waakte hij streng over de zuiverheid van de kerkleer en legde hij diverse vernieuwingsgezinde theologen het zwijgen op.

In de jaren zestig zag het er nog niet naar uit dat de Duitser zich tot ideologische scherpslijper zou ontwikkelen. Gegrepen door het Tweede Vaticaans Concilie (1962-1965) stond de briljante theoloog te boek als een progressief denker.

Met vernieuwingsgezinde collega’s als Edward Schillebeeckx en Karl Rahner behoorde hij tot de initiatiefnemers van het baanbrekende theologische tijdschrift Concilium. Hij sloeg om na de studentenrevolte van 1968, waarin hij de voorbode zag van een nieuw Europees heidendom.

Ervaring

Ratzinger heeft maar enkele jaren pastorale ervaring als bisschop. Van 1977 tot 1982 was hij aartsbisschop van München en Freising. Daarvoor had hij aan enkele Duitse universiteiten dogmatische theologie gedoceerd. Onder zijn bewind bij de congregatie voor de geloofsleer kwam in de kerkelijke standpunten over controversiële kwesties als vrouwelijke priesters, geboortebeperking, intercommunie en de vermenging van godsdienst en cultuur geen enkele beweging.

Ratzinger was een van de twee deelnemers aan het conclaaf die nog door paus Paulus VI tot kardinaal zijn benoemd (in 1977). Zijn prominente positie leverde hem in 2002 de functie van deken van het college van kardinalen op. In die hoedanigheid speelde hij een belangrijke rol na het overlijden van Johannes Paulus II. Hij maakte indruk als voorganger in de uitvaartmis.

Ratzinger is de eerste Duitser sinds Victor II (1055-1057) die paus wordt.

Adobe and Macromedia

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Macromedia (Nasdaq: MACR) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.4 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by both boards of directors, Macromedia stockholders will receive, at a fixed exchange ratio, 0.69 shares of Adobe common stock for every share of Macromedia common stock in a tax-free exchange. Based on Adobe’s and Macromedia’s closing prices on Friday April 15, 2005, this represents a price of $41.86 per share of Macromedia common stock.

The combination of Adobe and Macromedia strengthens our mission of helping people and organizations communicate better. Through the combination of our powerful development, authoring and collaboration tools – and the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash – we have the opportunity to drive an industry-defining technology platform that delivers compelling, rich content and applications across a wide range of devices and operating systems.

By combining the passion and creativity of two leading-edge companies, we will continue driving innovations that are changing the ways people everywhere are experiencing and interacting with information.

Adobe is required to include the following legend on any communications that may be deemed to be offering or soliciting material under the applicable SEC rules and regulations:

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND WHERE TO FIND IT

Adobe Systems Incorporated intends to file a registration statement on Form S-4, and Adobe and Macromedia, Inc. intend to file a related joint proxy statement/prospectus, in connection with the merger transaction involving Adobe and Macromedia. Investors and security holders are urged to read the registration statement on Form S-4 and the related joint proxy/prospectus when they become available because they will contain important information about the merger transaction. Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of these documents (when they are available) and other documents filed with the SEC at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. In addition, investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Adobe by contacting Macromedia Investor Relations at 408-536-4416. Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Macromedia by contacting Macromedia Investor Relations at 415-252-2106.Adobe, Macromedia and their directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from the stockholders of Adobe and Macromedia in connection with the merger transaction. Information regarding the special interests of these directors and executive officers in the merger transaction will be included in the joint proxy statement/prospectus of Adobe and Macromedia described above. Additional information regarding the directors and executive officers of Adobe is also included in Adobe’s proxy statement for its 2005 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on March 14, 2005. Additional information regarding the directors and executive officers of Macromedia is also included in Macromedia’s proxy statement for its 2004 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on June 21, 2004 and Macromedia’s proxy statement for a Special Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on October 6, 2004. These documents are available free of charge at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov and from Investor Relations at Adobe and Macromedia as described above.

New hybrid Tablet PC/eBook reader on the way?

We’ll level with you: the Tablet PC hasn’t exactly been the massive hit Microsoft hoped it would be.
There’s plenty of blame to go around (pick your pet theory: that people simply don’t want to write by hand anymore, that Microsoft made a mistake by charging OEMs more for the Tablet PC OS than for the regular version of Windows, that everyone did a terrible job at marketing these things, etc.), but there’s speculation that Redmond is getting ready to take the wraps off some sort of hybrid Tablet PC/eBook reader that’s about six inches by eight inches in size (no pics yet, that’s just a generic Tablet PC pictured at right).
Sounds a bit like other mini tablet-style PCs we’ve seen, like Sony’s Vaio U-Series, but apparently these new hybrid tablets will use the same active digitizer technology found in regular Tablet PCs rather than the more traditional touch screens. Assuming this is for real (and it sounds like it is), Microsoft Watch seems pretty sure that Microsoft will be showing off a prototype during his keynote at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference on April 25th.

Staatssecretaris wil meer respect

DEN HAAG – Staatssecretaris Van der Knaap van Defensie vindt dat bewindslieden met meer respect moeten worden bejegend. De CDA-bewindsman, een vertrouweling van de premier, wil dat ze weer met ‘excellentie’ worden aangesproken.

“Het geeft wat meer cachet als je met excellentie wordt aangesproken”, aldus Van der Knaap zaterdag in een interview in de Volkskrant. “Er mag ook best enige afstand zijn.”

De staatssecretaris zelf wordt binnen de hiërarchisch ingestelde krijgsmacht wel nog voortdurend ‘excellentie’ genoemd. Hij vindt dat “fantastisch”. Maar buiten de muren van Defensie is er minder respect. Premier Balkenende hoort het woord alleen als hij met Van der Knaap in een militaire omgeving is.

Volgens Van der Knaap is er te weinig respect voor ministers en staatssecretarissen “die vaak in heel moeilijke situaties moeten opereren.”

De aanspreektitel excellentie voor bewindslieden was tot in de jaren zestig algemeen gangbaar, maar wordt tegenwoordig nog maar zelden gebruikt. Volgens Van der Knaap geeft het woord aan “dat je een bijzondere positie hebt”.

Voornaam

De staatssecretaris ergert zich ook aan de de cultuur van het elkaar aanspreken met de voornaam. Dat haalt volgens hem “de status van bewindslieden helemaal onderuit.” Hij zag een keer toenmalig vice-premier Jorritsma uit een vergadering komen. “Ze zocht haar chauffeur, die over het Plein schreeuwde: Annemarie! Ik ben hier! Dat is voor mij de wereld op zijn kop.”

Fractieleider Dittrich van D66 heeft geen goed woord over voor de uitlatingen van Van der Knaap. “Bewindslieden moeten respect afdwingen door hun beleid, door de problemen in de samenleving op te lossen, en niet door van bovenaf op te leggen dat ze met excellentie aangesproken willen worden. Dit is betutteling. Ik vind dat Van der Knaap zich hiermee belachelijk maakt.”

Hooghartig

PvdA-kamerlid Noorman-Den Uyl noemde de uitlatingen van Van der Knaap zaterdag voor de NCRV-radio hooghartig. Onder het bewind van haar vader, die premier was in de jaren ’70, werd het gebruik van de term excellentie formeel afgeschaft.