reflections

Accidental Timing

In a feature article on traffic safety this week, our newspaper quoted the statistic that 80% of car accidents happen in the first or the final five minutes of a trip. An odd lack of precision, that. I would think that the vast majority of car accidents happen in the final seconds of a trip.

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The Poisson Distribution of Good Stuff

Every once in a while, Good Stuff accumulates in such great quantities on a single day that it threatens to short out the brain’s happiness center. Yesterday was such a day. The day was already a success when I managed to solve a problem at work that had been gnawing at my brain for months. […]

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Theoretical Argument

How annoying. A Dutch Christian organization thought it necessary to distribute about 6,000,000 copies last week of a flyer arguing the relative value of creationism vs Darwinism. What a waste of paper, ink, effort, and energy! Not that I’m against the flyer per se. After all, everyone is free to say whatever they want. What […]

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A Perilous Perch

One of the joys of working as a trainer at Capgemini Academy is the frequency with which I’m expected to be on the receiving end of their courses. Just tonight I completed their ‘Vision and Didactic skills’ course, one of their requirements for Certified Trainer status and a rich source of theoretical knowledge (Behaviorism, Kolb, […]

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It’s A Game Of Give And Take

Interviewed in this week’s VARA TV Guide, renowned negotiator Alistair Crooke illustrates the principle of give and take in negotiations by quoting a remark a Hamas leader made to him: The Americans demand that we cease all violent action, turn in our weapons, and recognize the State of Israel, before they will enter into negotiations […]

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Emotional Geography

On its way to Leiden Lammenschans station, the slow train to Alphen passes a crossing. It’s a fairly unappealing place, where the ugly housing developments of northern Leiden crowd up to an uninspired business district and an empty lot. At first, therefore, it was hard to explain the rush of satisfaction I felt when I […]

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Villa Diodati

Writing is, almost by definition, a lonely occupation.* Fortunately, that doesn’t stop “us writers” from flocking together at the least provocation. Be it a signing, or a Con, or a workshop; any excuse is good enough to get together and act geeky. The latest occurance of this flocking behaviour was the second Villa Diodati Writers’ […]

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Infinite Uncertainty

In a similar vein to my previous post, I’d like to rant a bit about the glaring idiocy of the so-called scientists who announced, a few years back, that they had calculated the chance that God exists*. Rest assured I don’t want to get into a discussion about the question of God’s existence. I’m pretty […]

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Enough Already

In this month’s Scientific American, a book is reviewed in which yet another scientist makes a complete fool of himself by referring to […] the perplexing fact that many basic features of the physical universe seem tailor-made to produce life. Every time someone comes up with this amazing fallacy I want to weep and wail. […]

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Craving Recognition

Cycling home from the song improvisation workshop, I complimented my fellow student on her amazing performance. She blushed, looked away, and to drive the point home stated that she was terrible at accepting compliments. “Of course you are,” I replied, “or you wouldn’t be practicing improvisation theatre, or any other brand of performing art.” A […]

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