Magere Hein

I did notice a few things in the main forum page: The wrong colour is a CSS setting, I haven't found out wich one though. I have no idea where the grey circle segment comes from. I'll have a closer look tonight. regards, Hein

Looks like I did it. Please check if things have changed for the worse. regards, Hein

Perhaps you can follow the example of my brother-in-law's grandfather. He died in a traffic accident while returning home from a visit to a brothel, aged 91. regards, Hein

As far as I'm aware only admins can see other members' PMs, and only with some effort and technical knowledge. I can, and have done so only once, a long time ago, to investigate a complaint about spam PMs. Better not. regards, Hein

I'm sorry for your loss. 96 is of course a good score, but that's no consolation. regards, Hein

I just removed two posts, one quoting a PM and one quoting that post. I thought it would be obvious that PMs are private. Don't post them (or parts of them) in the forum. regards, Hein

Some four years ago I digged a bit in this field. I approached it from the actuarial side. I downloaded German actuarial tables and calculated probabilities of death for each age and sex, assuming those German tables were representative for Western societies and ignoring obit requirements. I calculated the probable hit counts of my previous DDP teams. The results didn't differ significantly from the actual outcomes. As an additional excercise, I calculated the probable hit count of a team containing the 20 oldest living people, under the same assumptions. The result was almost 13 hits and a poor return in points. I must point out that due to the small number of centenarians, these calculations weren't very reliable. After this I abandoned this project. I suppose it's possible to monitor news websites that report health updates on celebrities and fiddle the odds through that. To make the information it trawls useful, reported conditions must be matched to survival statistics pertinent to it. Getting those from medical literature is possible, but expensive because they need to be converted in formats the software can understand. I did some thinking about programming a posting bot as a kind of Turing test. An online obit driven bot, posting as guest, that just sticks a name and a link in a post and never reacts to replies could remain undetected for a long time. Perhaps a Banshees Scream approach would fit best for a bot that responds to other members' (or bots') input, but still, I think I'd sniff them out pretty soon. Of course there's also the possibility that I'm posting this to a forum consisting of hundreds of bots, patiently chattering away. regards, Hein

There has been some speculation about that in the press during his university and navy years, the only time he could move with some independence. The speculations fed on negative evidence: no visible girlfriends. In that time he gained his nickname 'Prins Pils' after his steadily growing beer gut. The government refused to comment on those speculations. His marriage and fatherhood put an end to them. Similar speculations about prince Friso being gay were much stronger and eventually denied by him. Again marriage and fatherhood put an end to those speculations. There is some evidence that suggests that Alexander, Prince of Orange (1851–1884, a half-brother of Queen Wilhelmina's) was gay. regards, Hein

Observing readers may have noticed that I dropped cardinal Danneels from my theme team. Not only because he has weathered the child abuse storm, but for his dodgy obitability as well. regards, Hein

I'd try the Ask a Deathlister topic for that. regards, Hein

Welcome to the monkey house. Throwing shit down the tree is a fashionable pastime, but grooming and other bonding bahaviour is occasionally observed as well. You'll fit in nicely, but you may want to keep that pith helmet at hand for a while. regards, Hein

Good for you! More seriously, the link that GossipGabe posted references this article. While I fail to see why insulting royals should be punishable by law separate from the one banning insulting all other people, the measures handed out are effectively similar. I have no reason to insult a slag, so why should I call her a queen? regards, Hein

I'm not so sure about the 'very big turd' bit, so I would never write such a thing, but yes, by law they could. I have no idea if Dutch authorities are monitoring this forum (in case they do: goedemorgen!) but I imagine that nicking me for posting such an insult here is not their highest priority. Many years ago I was indicted for blasphemy, but the case was dropped after the public prosecuter realised that he had little to gain and much to lose in publicity if he didn't. regards, Hein

That's one of those 'tomahto/tomayto' things. You call it cool, I call it daft. regards, Hein

Short update on the post layout issue. I know where to tackle it, but not completely how. I haven't had time to crack that yet. My hope is that I can present results Thursday. Please be patient, I will solve it. regards, Hein

The article says that the board declared that they must : "respect her choice", code for suicide. regards, Hein

Dutch fashion designer Frans Molenaar died 9 January, aged 74. I care not for his work, but the cause of death is unusual. He died from injuries sustained when he fell off the stairs a few weeks ago. regards, Hein

Apparently he saw no need to follow the example of his friend Thatcher. That doesn't surprise me a bit. regards, Hein

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/world-leaders/140310/insult-world-leader-crime-punishment Dutch law also bans insulting foreign heads of state, provided the Dutch are not at war with the state whose head it is. I don't recall recent convictions, but in the 1930s several communists got locked up for calling Hitler names. regards, Hein

My guess is that it has something to do with skinning of the forum, a fine FUBAR. I'll have to dig into the documentation to get that right. It may take a while. I fiddled a bit with skinning settings. That resulted in the blue box turning black. Sorry, Time. From documentation I learned that display of topic descriptions (witty thread subtitles/taglines) is disabled since IPB 3.2. They're still in the database, but to get them back will involve surgery I'm not ready for. The crappy layout of posts is my next target. Stay tuned, Hein

My guess is that it has something to do with skinning of the forum, a fine FUBAR. I'll have to dig into the documentation to get that right. It may take a while. Stay tuned, Hein

Today Grim Reaper did indeed upgrade the forum software. About the topic descriptions: they still exist, I'm trying to get tme back in view. The blue box is also newly introduced, I presume it's something to do with CSS settings. I'll also have a look at that. but it's less urgent than the topic descriptions. I'll keep you posted on progress. regards, Hein

Ooh, dehydrated cardinal. Very useful when you're travelling and in need of a cardinal: just add water. regards, Hein

What confuses me most is the appeal procedure. As in most continental European jurisdictions, appeal is an undeniable right in criminal (and most civil and administrative) cases. In Dutch law an appeal involves a new case at a higher court, in which all evidence (and possibly new) is heard and evaluated and the earlier verdict is of no particular value. The jury's verdict defies logic in many ways. I suppose there are legal reasons why an appeal was denied, but quality of the verdict can't have been one of them. Dutch law practice isn't immune to miscarriage of justice. Criminal cases are held before magistrate judges, who are legal scholars who additionally trained for the job. Criminal courts normally have three judges (one for petty crimes), appeal courts five, who decide by simple majority on guilt of the accused and sentence if applicable. From the last two decade I remember at least four murder cases in which innocents were convicted to long gaol sentences. In one case the appeals court affirmed a verdict (18 years + involuntary commitment) on circumstantial evidence only, while he didn't match descriptions from witnesses and no DNA of his was found on the crime scene. The convict was released after 4 years, after another man confessed the murder to the police. The other man was convicted on a DNA match. The first convict was never formally acquitted. regards, Hein

Interesting, but also confusing reading for somebody who lives in a jurisdiction that practices civil law without juries. regards, Hein