Ylliks

On a friday I had diner with 2 good friends of mine and when coming back to their place my friend asked if she could look at the results for X-Factor (one of the many Dutch talent shows; also one of the many I don’t watch) because she liked to see them live. Of course we didn’t mind. It seems the program was running a bit late and there were still performances going on. I wasn’t impressed with what I saw but despite that I thought one of the judges was particularly harsh while another was very mild. When I mentioned this I was told that the judges were also the coaches for some of the contestants. This seemed a little strange to me. They had to judge the people they coached and wanted to succeed themselves?

The mild judge was the coach of the contestant we’ve seen and the harsh one was the coach of an act that had been on the brink on elimination in previous weeks. Of course the former would be mild to take the edge of and of course the latter wanted his act to be the winner. I figured that when it comes to reality tv nothing is real, but when I started to think about a little more I realized that this type of partial judgement goes on all the time.

A few years ago Microsoft started a campaign to prove that running their software was cheaper than running Linux. In order to prove their point they presented a report by an independent researcher. Not long after that Redhat (main competitor of Microsoft in the Linux server market) came up with a similar report from an independent researcher that said their software was the cheapest. Something didn’t seem right here. How could two independent researchers come up with such different results? The answer was easy. In order to satisfy their customers (and get a chance on repeat business) they both structured their research in way that would shed their customers in the best light.

Then more recently there’s the tail of Ab Osterhaus who advised the Dutch government to buy large amounts of a certain serum to fight the Mexican flu. Later it was reported by the media that Osterhaus was an investor in the company that made that particular serum. Although both the manufacturer and Osterhaus deny any wrong-doing, his reputation as an independant advisor took a serious beating.

Let’s be honest, no judgement is impartial. Whether or not the judge/research firm is being paid or some other motive it’s always comes down to his/her own taste or feelings at the time. But here’s one general rule of thumb you can follow: find out where the money comes from when it comes to research results or if a judge has some anterior motive. Only then you’ll know if it’s a case of impartial or partial judgement. ber a

I’ve written about my weeklong experiment with being a vegetarian before and have been enjoying my Meatless Mondays ever since. Now Graham Hill of Treehugger has an idea that I find intriguing: being a weekday vegetarian.

In this TED video he explains how got the idea and what he thinks are the advantages.

I really think he’s on to something here. There is the obvious advantage of reducing my carbon footprint while still enjoying meat. I’m seriously considering trying it for a month or so to see if it sticks.

Original post on Treehugger

Due to the horrific plane crash that occurred wednesday all campaigns for the Dutch elections of June 9th have been suspended. But even without that announcement I wonder if the public would have noticed because it feels like there’s no campaigning going on. It all feels very tame. And that’s with less than a month to go.

If you believe the latest polls (Dutch site) everything is still up for grabs and the biggest parties are still close when it comes to the number of seats that they’re projected to win and any number of coalitions are still possible. Not only that, I felt that for the first time in many years people have some real alternatives to vote for. So you would assume that the parties would go all out with their campaigns to show the public what they stand for and why they are the best choice. Nothing of that seems to be going on.

Until now the only somewhat exciting things you’ve heard are that Cohen of the PVDA has ruled out a coalition between his party and the PVV and that former CDA spin-master and under secretary De Vries had an affair with one of his staff members. That’s about it (and I wonder if the latter has any real importance at all). Well, there is a bit of humor with the campaign of Trots of Nederland which seems to be more of a parody on a political party and I know we Dutch tend to be low key when it comes to political campaigning (especially compared to say the US). But as said, this all feels very tame. Maybe the upcoming debates will be interesting.

And that’s a real shame and in my view a lost opportunity. Dutch citizens have lost touch with politics and should once again be reminded of the importance of their vote. Not only the fact that they should go out and vote on June 9th, but also that they should vote for what they think is the best choice. And the only way they can do that is by knowing what each party stands for and wants for out little country. I hope the parties will give them a chance to discover just that.

One of the things I love about the summer season is the fact that movie studios use it to release their popcorn-summer-blockbusters. It already has started with a bang with Iron Man 2 (which I enjoyed a lot, but less than the first one which I wanted to see immediately again) and there are still a few I’m looking forward to.

In no particular order these are: Robin Hood, Prince of Persia: The sands of time, The ghost writer, The A-Team, Toy Story 3, Splice, Get him to greek, Knight & Day, Inception, Predators, The last airbender, Salt, Hot tub time machine, Cold souls, The Expendables, The Losers, Jonah Hex, Machete, The American and Scott Pilgrim vs. the world (and yes, Sex and the City 2 was left out for a reason).

This means I’ll be spending quite some time in the theaters this summer and a few of the movies mentioned will be disappointing. But that won’t keep me from enjoying the experience of meeting up with friends and let ourselves be entertained.