NIMBY
There seemed to be a few articles popping up about people who are complaining about all the Solar Panel Fields being set up. At least part of the discussion was about what they look like and the need for earthern screens to make them less visible. I also noticed that "the largest in the Netherlands" has been granted a permit for only 10 years.
I asked Janny if NIMBY is a thing here, but she couldn't think of a similar term for it.
No skating... yet
Teambuilding (aka "Here We Go Again, For Another Year")
We started back at work having lunch with the clients and volunteers...
at our local restaurant - lucky that it is now very good and we don't have to go far. They also do takeaways. (I'm not quite ready to use their Meals On Wheels service).
From Last Week
It just so happened that there is a story this week on the Iamexpat website that I look at from time to time...
about the floods of 1953 and the subsequent construction of the Delta Works.
The average sea level along the Dutch coast was the highest ever recorded last year, according to marine research institute Deltares on Friday. Deltares scientists say the sea level reached an average of 11 centimetres above NAP in 2017, two centimetres higher than the previous record in 2007.
And another website... (in English)
has a story about rising sea levels...
NAP stands for Normaal Amsterdams Peil (we use it for boating) or the normal water level in Amsterdam, which is slightly lower than sea level and is used as a base to measure how high or low water levels are. Sea level expert Fedor Baart said he is not surprised at the increase. ‘The level has been rising gradually by about 0.2 cm a year since 1890, due to the melting of the ice and the warming up of the ocean, he said. ‘That means you would expect the sea level to be higher every year. The more interesting question is actually why the sea level didn’t rise over the last 10 years.’
My Sunday Morning routine is somewhat different today - watching the cricket from the early hour of 0500.
I was quite taken by the extraordinary number of ads for Betting Apps - at least 6 different companies - I guess it's a big deal in England (the source of my cricket feed). I'm not at all sure if I could even lay a bet on anything here in the Netherlands? What to bet on and where to do it?
I started daydreaming about betting in Australia and I found myself remembering that I used to go to the horse races when I was 16 and 17 - sometimes with Uncle Bill. My favorite racecourse was Caulfield.
Which in turn made me think about how Mum met Dad at the start of WWII. Dad enlisted from Perth and was transferred for training in Melbourne. The Caulfield racetrack was used as barracks. Mum's parents had a fruit shop in Ormond and were fairly well off (according to Mum who worked as a teenager in the shop). Else, (Mum's Mum) suggested to Adele and Aunty Vera that they ride their bikes around to the barracks and see if any of the soldiers were allowed to come for a "family Sunday meal".
Dad was a long way from home and so it probably seemed like a good idea...
(Luckily, gambling never became one of my vices - I think I was very alarmed as a young, impressionable18-year-old, to see some of the older firies losing their pay packets playing cards at work).
I suppose The Postcode Lottery is gambling of a sort. Our Postcode is 9241- the winning number last week was 9261.
Now, I have no real idea how it all works, but I picked up a little bit of information because it was such a good story. The village of Eastermar (in Friesland) was the winner. So all the inhabitants share half the prize pool. Then there is a street prize - I think our street would have maybe 10 or so sharing the 9241GW code. But as luck would have it - the street in Eastermar had only TWO houses in it! So they shared €25 million or thereabouts. But, one of the houses had bought an extra ticket for Christmas - so they ended up with 2 thirds of the 25 million.
Walking over the Heath Photos...
My walking companion, Zoey, is starting to slow down - have to take her to the vet on Monday.
Day dreaming...
My Sunday Morning routine is somewhat different today - watching the cricket from the early hour of 0500.
I was quite taken by the extraordinary number of ads for Betting Apps - at least 6 different companies - I guess it's a big deal in England (the source of my cricket feed). I'm not at all sure if I could even lay a bet on anything here in the Netherlands? What to bet on and where to do it?
I started daydreaming about betting in Australia and I found myself remembering that I used to go to the horse races when I was 16 and 17 - sometimes with Uncle Bill. My favorite racecourse was Caulfield.
Which in turn made me think about how Mum met Dad at the start of WWII. Dad enlisted from Perth and was transferred for training in Melbourne. The Caulfield racetrack was used as barracks. Mum's parents had a fruit shop in Ormond and were fairly well off (according to Mum who worked as a teenager in the shop). Else, (Mum's Mum) suggested to Adele and Aunty Vera that they ride their bikes around to the barracks and see if any of the soldiers were allowed to come for a "family Sunday meal".
Dad was a long way from home and so it probably seemed like a good idea...
(Luckily, gambling never became one of my vices - I think I was very alarmed as a young, impressionable18-year-old, to see some of the older firies losing their pay packets playing cards at work).
I suppose The Postcode Lottery is gambling of a sort. Our Postcode is 9241- the winning number last week was 9261.
Now, I have no real idea how it all works, but I picked up a little bit of information because it was such a good story. The village of Eastermar (in Friesland) was the winner. So all the inhabitants share half the prize pool. Then there is a street prize - I think our street would have maybe 10 or so sharing the 9241GW code. But as luck would have it - the street in Eastermar had only TWO houses in it! So they shared €25 million or thereabouts. But, one of the houses had bought an extra ticket for Christmas - so they ended up with 2 thirds of the 25 million.
Employment/Robots
Robots and foreigners have been taking over Dutch jobs for 50 years – but more people than ever are working, says economist Mathijs Bouman. And the bottom line is, we are all getting richer because of it. In 1969 Jan Wolkers wrote Turkish Delight, the Beatles recorded Abbey Road and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Piet de Jong was our prime minister, ruling a country with a flourishing manufacturing industry. Of a working population of around 5.3 million, 1.3 million people worked in manufacturing or industry (including energy and water) – around 25% of the total.
Now, almost half a century later, industry has stopped generating jobs. The working population has grown to nine million of whom only 9% work in industry. In absolute terms this means that of the 1.3 million industrial jobs in 1969 only 800,000 are left. Meanwhile, industrial production has doubled.
Read more at DutchNews.nl: Don’t fear the robots or the foreigners, they will make us richer http://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2018/01/dont-fear-the-robots-or-the-foreigners-they-will-make-us-richer/
Read more at DutchNews.nl: Don’t fear the robots or the foreigners, they will make us richer http://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2018/01/dont-fear-the-robots-or-the-foreigners-they-will-make-us-richer/
What's a Nimby??
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