Are the Dutch smoking a bit too much?

I read in the newspaper yesterday that thousands of people in the Netherlands say they expect the world to end in 2012, and to get ready many say they are taking precautions to prepare for the apocalypse. While theories on the supposed catastrophe varied, most tied the 2012 date to the end of the Mayan calendar.

Now the funniest part of it all is that many of those interviewed are stocking up on emergency supplies, including life rafts and other equipment. Maybe I am stupid, maybe I am slow.... but doesn't an apocalypse mean the end of civilisation?

So my obvious question is - how do you prepare for that? If we are facing extinction in 2012, then there is nothing to prepare for, because the entire idea of extinction is that there will be no tomorrow...

Another great part of the story that shows the stupidity of it all, came from the racist front in the Netherlands who said, "You know, maybe it's really not that bad that the Netherlands will be destroyed. I don't like it here anymore. Take immigration, for example. They keep letting people in. And then we have to build more houses, which makes the Netherlands even heavier. The country will sink even lower, which will make the flooding worse."

The scariest part of it all (aside from our extinction) is that the racist front has major support politically in the Netherlands. But never fear there is justice in this world, and karma has a way of getting its revenge. We saw that when they got kicked out in the UEFA Cup a few days ago.

God Damn Gotlandic Gold Mine!

(Quick bit of background - Gotland is the island where I am currently living - and every summer there is a major algae problem in the baltic sea which surrounds it. And the government keeps trying to fix it but fails)

So...I was reading in the newspaper that the Netherlands-based airline KLM has said it will begin testing fuel made from algae after summer. KLM announced that the Dutch company 'AlgaeLink' has signed an exclusive contract to provide the airline with fuel for the pilot project. The airline said AlgaeLink's fuel will initially be mixed with conventional fuel, but the ultimate goal of the project is to fuel 50 planes from KLM's fleet with full tanks of the algae-based kerosene by 2010.

Think about it - we have a massive problem in the Baltic Sea and around Gotland with algae, well so we thought. People of Gotland, we are sitting (or swimming in) a god damn gold mine!

Just imagine if we could use the algae and turn it into petrol. 2 things could happen, we could:

1. Create jobs and lower the unemployment rate on Gotland.
2. Lower the petrol price - afterall Gotlandic people currently pay the highest price in the country.

But of course chance are that it wouldn't work. Instead:

1. The goverment would probably outsource the work.
2. And they would sell the company that turns it into petrol to a foreign country.

Anyway, KLM said it expects to save millions of dollars a year in fuel costs and carbon dioxide fines by switching to the carbon dioxide-neutral fuel.

The irony of the legal system…

On the 12th of June two things happened in History:

1. Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison in South Africa

2. Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, California. O.J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings.

Think about this...

The first was sentenced to life in prison and released 27-years later.

The second was found not guilty and ended up writing an autobiography that went on to make millions...

In other words the guilty went free, the innocent got punished. That dear firends is the irony of it all...