"Smiling Girl, a Courtesan, Holding an Obscene Image."
One of my favorite paintings, seen at St Louis Art Museum during a recent visit. Just love the expression on her face, and the humanity embodied in her presence. An oil painting on canvas by Gerard van Honthorst, created in 1625.
Droomde vannacht een (naar mijn weten) niet bestaand woord: "afkansing", oftewel als kansen verminderen. Er is bijvoorbeeld sprake van afkansing als je steeds minder kans maakt op een huis of baan. En als er steeds langer niks aan de klimaatverandering wordt gedaan, dan is er sprake van overlevingsafkansing.
Please RT for reach: I’m trying to #FOIA records on computer intrusions into DOD systems during first Gulf War (1990), I have a GAO report which gives a high level summary but am looking for more.
Does anyone know what DOD department might have investigated #hacking back then?
There’s one crucial point on which the #Dutch will still keep the faith with #Europe: #Ukraine. Just like #Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the Netherlands’ new far-right government will stick with Ukraine. The incoming government will support Kyiv, truly, deeply and constantly. As I have previously written, paying obeisance at the western world’s newest shrine, Kyiv, appears to have become a purity test of sorts. https://www.rashmee.com/dutch-far-right-geert-wilders-ukraine/
The newly agreed #Dutch coalition government on Thursday plans the "strictest-ever" #asylum policy, including an opt-out from European Union rules. After six months in the making, the 26-page coalition agreement proposes to “deport people without a valid residence permit as much as possible, even forcibly”. Monte Francis reports. #Netherlands#EU#immigration#FarRight
There's so many little things the new #Dutch xenophobic rightwing / anti-environment government will make worse.
Here's one most people will have missed:
In the early 2000 my "farmer" classmates got diesel cars as their first vehicle. They'd fill it up with "red diesel", a very cheap (no sales & excise tax) fuel legally only to be used in farm vehicles.
Despite stern warnings only one of them ever had its fuel checked. He received a small fine.
One of the first farm vehicles to be electrified is "that small wheel / front loader". The machine that never leaves the farm yet gets used hours a day for a million little things.
It can charge locally and thus doesn't need a massive battery. Its effective up-time is easily higher than comparative diesel vehicles.
The new #Dutch government just made the business case for these waaaay worse by subsidizing every liter diesel with 15 to 20 eurocent.
One central problem that resulted from the federal nature of the #Dutch republic was secrecy: How could one keep a secret with so many actors involved? This was almost a mission impossible, although one tried several measures such as an oath of secrecy to deal with the problem.
When dealing with Dutch #emdiplomacy you inevitably come across two other big issues: the Protestant character of Dutch #earlymodern#diplomacy and the importance of trade and commercial interests. For @helmers_h and @NinaLamal these are not contradictory interests. However, they argue that “commerce, geopolitics, and protestantism were perfectly reconcilable”. (4/5)
Finally, @helmer and @NinaLamal argue that it is important to analyse #Dutch#emdiplomacy not only in its European context, but in its global dimension. The East India Company (#VOC) and its growing importance in #Asia played an important role in the rise of the Dutch republic. Unfortunately, both dimesions – the European and the global one – are far too often dealt seperately with by modern research. A problem that is generally true for research on #earlymodern diplomacy.
This leads to an overarching problem of how to competently connect national, European and global perspectives on diplomacy without blurring the focus. A question to be discussed elsewhere. (5/5)
I don't follow news from my home country #netherlands much, but I just saw that the coalition is going as fashy as possible. With the liberals (note for Americans, liberalism is not left wing in most of the world) being the most left wing party in the coalition.
Diseases are used for swearing in Dutch – but how does that work? @sesquiotic analyses the idiom "sjouw me de tering" in a new post on the Strong Language blog:
"On Saturday, Swedish police confirmed that a 👉man (#JoostKlein) had been reported for making "unlawful threats" at #Malmö Arena👈, after Thursday's semi-final.
"The police have taken all essential investigative measures..."
"#Swedish and #Dutch news outlets have said that the incident involved a member of the television production team."