BasBasBas.com

Month: October 2007

  • Junta generals and soldiers jailed by Myanmar government

    Great news!!

    Myanmar’s ruling junta have detained five generals and more than 400 soldiers for disobeying orders to shoot and beat monks and other activists who took part in recent protests in Yangon, an official said Monday.The official, who asked for anonymity out of fear he would be punished by the junta, said it was the first sign of divisions in the country’s secretive establishment.

    “The five generals expressed their refusal to deploy their troops against the monks openly. They were then quickly put into detention by the junta.

    “Some 400 soldiers of the Sikai Division near Mandalay (Myanmar’s second largest city) also put down their guns in front of the monks, and asked for their forgiveness as they fully realized they had committed the biggest sin,” he told The Jakarta Post.

    Read the rest of the Jakarta Post article here!

    And press I Like It! on your Stumble bars please!

  • Wedentistday

    Doesn’t really work. Well, to make things clear: today, Wednesday, I went to the dentist. For the first time in a really, really long time (take how long you thing and multiply it by two or three). Because I wanted to? Hell no. Eastern Europe would be the last place where I’d choose to go to a dentist, but I had to. I won’t get into the specifics, thank me later.

    So I called the Dutch embassy yesterday to find out what a good dentist would be. Then I asked around some more for English-speaking dentists, since I’m skeptical of diplomats. I was referred to the same dentist with great enthusiasm for about 3 times, so I decided it was the right choice. As I knew the treatment was likely to involve removing a molar or at least involving some cutting and slashing, you can understand that I was a bit nervous when I got in. I really had to concentrate to put what looked like a signature on some form (my trademark when it comes to signatures is the uniqueness that every one of them has; no two signatures are alike!).

    So then I got into ‘the chair’. Here it began. Honestly though… I don’t know why people bitch so bad about dentists. What was going to take half an hour took one and a half hour (yes it was that bad), but wow was I able to calm down. The only thing on my mind was dentistry and my breathing. I had to calm myself down and I did. At some moments I was really enjoying the marvels of this bright light, 2 sets of blue eyes looking into me, a metal staff which made a noise and had a golden glow because of the light above me… and some tube somewhere near my head that made a noise like someone was really being over-enthusiastic with the last bit of their milkshake (took me a while to figure out what it was… and that it was in my mouth).

    I have to say, I’m very happy with what the guy did. I’m planning on visiting him more often (some more stuff to fix, might as well get it done with), but I don’t hope on making it a habit if you know what I mean ;-).

  • Dutch minister of health to ban “magic mushrooms”

    After discussing the item for months, minister Klink (member of the Christian-Democrat party) has decided to ban the sale of magic mushrooms.

    Dried mushrooms were already illegal to sell and own and were considered harddrugs. With the ban of sales, minister Klink is also consulting minister of Justice, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, if they could declare all mushrooms as harddrugs. This discussion leading up to this decision was mainly caused and influenced by incidents involving tourists whose irresponsible behaviour amounted to a lot of fear in the eyes of the public. Cohen, mayor of Amsterdam, already proposed a way to decrease spontaneous purchases of mushrooms by tourists, by giving them a certain waiting time before they could get the mushrooms. During this time they could inform themselves about the effects.

    It’s a very bold move by the minister and although the majority of the parliament is for a ban, it still comes unexpected to many. Previous research into mushrooms has shown that the risks when taking mushrooms in a responsible way are very minimal. The Dutch organisation for smartshops have warned the government repeatedly of the risks involved of people buying mushrooms in an underground market.

    It is expected that many groups will contest and protest the decision, since some view the mushroom as an entheogen and see the plant as capable of invoking very powerful spiritual and philosophical experiences.

    Also see:
    “Klink gaat paddo’s verbieden” – nu.nl (Dutch article)

  • Help Armoede de Wereld Uit (Dutch)

    www.een.nl

  • Pharmacy

    So last Sunday I burned my hand because a certain someone (James ;-)) poured some boiling water over my hand. I used to work in a bar so it’s nothing I haven’t experienced before, but this time it wasn’t me that was causing it, so it didn’t stop immediately… And I didn’t really feel it when it hit my hand so I held it right under it for about a second or two. I held it under cold water for a minute or two (much longer than I would have at the bar) and then decided I was bored and that irresponsibility is much more fun anyway.

    Yesterday I decided though, that it would probably be a good idea to get some cream for it. I have no idea where the idea came from, but I guess some part of my mind is telling me what to do, since I don’t have my mom around to tell me what to do. Usually it’s my friends, well, female friends who are more concerned about my health than I am, but without this element, I’m on my own. So I did the smart thing, I went to the pharmacy.

    If you don’t want to be bothered with learning a language, then make friends who do speak this language. I went inside, found out pretty soon that it was going to be very tough to speak English to them and basically I got pretty far. I was presented two products and I was asked a question which, apparently, was important. I couldn’t answer, so the woman started calling someone. The person she was calling didn’t pick up, so I indicated that I’d call a friend. So I did, I passed the phone to the woman and my friend helped me out. Turns out her mom has a pharmacy herself, so she was the right one to call.

    They should really include instructions on how to use these things though. I sprayed some of the stuff on and it started expanding and expanding and it seemed enough to rub onto both my arms. And the smell! They should have a warning not to use it in public places. Then again, you’re probably not going to nurture your burns in a public place.

  • DailyMe Launches Public Beta

    Looks like I won’t be giving out invitations after all.

    Tuesday, October 9, 2007, 12:05 AM
    I’m pleased to announce the launch of the DailyMe public Beta. This means our DailyMe news platform is now available to everyone.We’ve been working hard to be able to make this day happen. I’d like to thank all of our early Beta testers for their commitment, feedback and patience over the past months. Much of the DailyMe experience we are launching today is a direct result of the feedback that we have compiled from our initial Beta test group.

    For those new to DailyMe, all you need to do to experience DailyMe is create an account and select your DailyMe preferences. It’s a short process that just takes a few minutes.

    Briefly, DailyMe creates a personalized news digest based on your own preferences, using choices of news categories, keywords, individual news sources and pre-configured “picks.” You can choose to have DailyMe delivered on the web, sent via email or automatically output from your personal computer printer at a specified time of day.

    Feel free to sign up and give DailyMe a try.

    Lastly, one request. As you use and enjoy this Beta version of DailyMe, if you have any suggestions for the site, encounter any technical issues, or come across anything that is not 100% clear, please let us know so we can address it. We’ve set up a link on the sidebar where you can reach us directly.

    Thanks for your interest in DailyMe.

    -Eduardo

    Try it out people. I’ve been using it for a little bit now and it’s quite a nice system. Really has to separate itself from other personalized news pages though, when it comes to the web service that is. The options that you can automatically get it emailed, or printed are very cool. Besides that, Eduardo announced some cool stuff that will be available in the future:

    As a result of such feedback, we’ll be:
    – Looking into improvements and better explanations for the process of selecting content (step 2 of the sign-up process)
    – Adding an open RSS reader to allow DailyMe users to add their preferred RSS feeds
    – Offering more display options for your news page
    – Adding more licensed sources

    Sweet stuff, right?

    One thing I don’t really get however, is the social bookmarking links at the bottom of articles on DailyMe. Thing is, I doubt that you can view any content without signing up, so what’s the point in SOCIAL bookmarking it?

    If you’re interested, go check out the sign-up page now!

    Soon you’ll be able to receive DailyMe throughout the day, where, when and how you’d like. Have your 9:00am DailyMe via email at your desk and your 6:00pm DailyMe printed automatically, easy for the grab and go commute.

    The future of news. Share it.

  • Ex-pat of the Week

    I won! I won! I’m ex-pat in Bulgaria of the week! I just can’t believe it. You work so hard and so long, and I must admit I came to the point where I was saying “fuck the fame, I’ll just do it my way and if the critics don’t like it, it’s their problem”. Look where that got me!

    Okay, where do I start.. there’s just too many people to thank! I would like to thank my parents and family, for always supporting me. My friends, for being there in the rough times in the past predating this marvelous event. God, for telling me what to eat and the nightly visits of course. Jesus, for dying for our sins, thank you Jesus (*I’ll call you*)! And finally, I want to thank my family’s deceased hamster Snuffie and dead/disapeared cat Fluff, for all the smiles and tears of joy they caused, wherever they might be.

    This is truly a great day for me. Since I’ve been here I’ve had so many great days, but I don’t know how I’m going to top this one! Wow.

    Oh, and please Stumble! this post, because this day is so important for me.. It has to be shared ;-).

  • Taking Action Against Climate Change, the best choice

    In the whole climate change debate (it’s ridiculous it has to be a debate), I decided that the possible cost of NOT taking action, would FAR outweigh the cost of taking action NOW. Actually, what would be so bad about preventing climate change? Living in a cleaner, healthier world? The cities wouldn’t be so filled with smog, there would be less polution, no more oil wars… Sounds a lot better.

    Anyway, the following video argues the same thing, but in a way that’s a bit more digestible than my elaborate theories.

    [youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=zORv8wwiadQ]

  • Young idealists… (Free Burma protest in Sofia, Bulgaria)

    Pieter with rosesWell, it wasn’t big.. but at least I did something. The protest had 8 participants, but it’s probably the biggest protest the Chinese embassy has ever seen here in Sofia. As indicated earlier, I decided that it would be a good idea to get red flowers, because I had a feeling our presence would not be very strong. Turned out to be roses, because they were the closest to maroon red we could find. So we went to the Chinese embassy and went onto the steps to place the roses. Immediately a guard came out to ask us what we were doing, tell us not to take pictures and wanted to know if we had any permit to be protesting… Come on, it’s just 8 of us placing roses. So the only picture I have of us at the embassy is 1 second (literally) before that moment and you can see it at the bottom of the post. We stayed around for about half an hour, seeing if anything would happen. We saw some Chinese employee of the embassy looking at us and making a few calls. After a while we decided to leave the rest of the roses for the embassy employees with a note that said “For a free Burma”. Then we left.

    If there is anyone from Bulgarian protest groups reading this, or has any experience (and knows how to get a permit), please contact me.

    Click to enlarge!
    Representing France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, the UK and Bulgaria.

    Oh, and I realize now that i could use my contacts at the radio and TV next time. Great!

    This proves that everyone can do at least SOMETHING. And it can be fun, I met two new people through it. STUMBLE IT to spread the world!

  • Protest for Burma, Sofia 2007

    Since nobody is taking the initiative, I will. In the hope that people will find this post through Google.

    This is the plan!

    If you care about the situation in Burma at all… Please do the following.

    Go find the Chinese embassy (search: China Embassy on Google Maps), and lay a maroon-red flower there. Preferably between 2 and 3pm today (but if you read this too late, any day will do – I plan to do it once every few days).

    Why maroon-red? It’s the colour of the robes of the Buddhist monks who were imprisoned, tortured, mutilated and killed in Burma.

    Why the Chinese embassy? They’re Burma’s main ally… THEY can do something about this situation, but so far haven’t.

    Why only a flower? Because of the small scale of participation. If we can’t organize a mass of people to come together at the same time… Let’s at least do something.

    The people in Burma were killed and abused while the world was watching. They’re blood’s not only on the junta’s hands, but on the hands of all who failed to act to prevent it. So please, do something!

    If you’re interested in setting something up, please email me at baslife (nospam) gmail – com

    Some news just got out: Injured protesters in Burma are being burned alive!!

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