At my university, I participated in an honours course about practical applications of Ethics. We covered a multitude of subjects, including (in random order) the use of marking DNA in criminal investigations (ie, putting out notices saying “based on the DNA found on this homicide victim, we think the perpetrator was black and had brown eyes), Food Ethics (what rights do animals have, should we do something about the bio-industry, and if so, what) and euthanasia: what is the right to die, do we even have it, and what are its limits.

We had guest lecturers for all these subjects. For euthanasia, our guest lecturer was Judge Eugene Sutorius, who used to be a lawyer defending doctors in assisted suicide cases back in the 20th century, and helped push the courts and the Dutch government to legislation. Currently, doctor-assisted suicide is legal in the Netherlands, if and only if:

• The patient repeatedly and explicitly expresses the desire to die.
• The patient’s decision is made well-informed, free and enduring.
• The patient is suffering from a severe physical or mental pain with no prospect of relief.
• All other options for care have been exhausted or refused by the patient.
• Euthanasia is carried out by a qualified physician, who must verify all the above.
• The physician consults one other physician, who must verify all the above.
• The physician informs the local coroner that euthanasia has occurred.

In class and small groups we discussed whether euthanasia should also be possible for people suffering from Altzheimer’s, for example – there are currently euthanasia declarations available, which some people sign, saying they want to be euthanized if they are so demented they don’t recognize their close relatives anymore. Whether or not this is reasonable is debatable, given that it’s questionable if people in such a state are even the same person they were before, and hence whether they had any right to condemn this ‘new person’ that they have become to death.

This question is certainly interesting, but not the reason I’m writing this. Sutorius explained that on one occurrence he and some others had been asked to come to the US where one state (looking at the BBC article, it was apparently Oregon) was approving legislation very similar (and in fact, partly based on) the legislation we have in the Netherlands. The writers of the bill wanted them to (honourarily or whatever) co-sign the legislation. Sutorius then explained he refused: due to the current American medical insurance system, a lot of people do not have medical insurance. He gave the following example: what if you’re a 70-year old male, you’re suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. You have 5 children and no medical insurance. Now, given the nature of MS, there is a reasonable case for severe physical as well as mental suffering, and while there is plenty of medication available, there is definitely no complete cure possible at this time. Given enough medication you can have a reasonable life for an extended period of time, but that’s about it. You “buy time”, as it were.

The problem, Sutorius describes, occurs when such a patient starts doing some maths. In a year or two, he will have used up his savings. In another five or so years, he will have used up his children’s savings. And then he will die. And suddenly, cheap euthanasia starts looking like a nice alternative. He’s had his share of life, and he’d be happier if he didn’t ‘kill’ (oh, irony) his children financially. So then, euthanasia becomes an equivalent alternative to available treatment, as opposed to a final call. This is wrong. People should not die because they can’t afford their medication.

I agree with Sutorius – and this is why I am wary of “Dr. Death”. Sure, good euthanasia legislation is necessary, and doctors shouldn’t be prosecuted if they did the right thing given their patient’s medical condition and wishes. But this should only occur given appropriate medical insurance for everyone, so euthanasia does NOT become an alternative to treatment, instead of a final call after all treatment has failed or proved useless.

The University of Amsterdam fortunately has a digital library you can access over VPN which allows you to search in lots of major databases. So I duly searched for:

“future” in Title AND  “Computer Mediated Communication” in All Words (after some failed other searches), in the “Informatiewetenschappen” subject area (“Information Science”, basically)
5th result from JSTOR:

“Promising the Future: Virginity Pledges and First Intercourse” by Peter S. Bearman.

No comment.

In other news, I went to see Anna Ternheim in Lantaren-Venster yesterday. This was fun, though the dual concert approach wasn’t all that successful in my eyes – Vinicio Capossela simply makes a very different kind of music, so to me this didn’t better the experience much. I’m not sure if, in hindsight, I should have preferred missing his bit of the concert. Regardless, I liked the somewhat more intimate approach (about 200-300 people attended) than what you generally see on tv (this was the first ‘pop’ concert I ever attended – I’ve been to classical concerts before). I had a good time, though I unfortunately didn’t manage to get an autograph on the cd I bought, which is sort of a shame. Oh well.

Edit: You can listen to some of her music on MySpace. I wouldn’t normally link there, but this is the only place I can find where you can listen to “No Subtle Men”, which she sang last night and is absolutely great, if you ask me.

• The Hilton is not for me. I’m struggling with the luxury nature of most things. For instance, this morning I wanted to have breakfast. Which of the four eating places inside the hotel should I use? Breakfast is not included in the night’s stay, so how does paying for that work? Is it a buffet or do I just get stuff from the waiters? It’s all solvable, and fortunately everyone there is paid to help even though I’m ignorant, but it’s annoying at times.
• “Public transport” is not part of the standard Southern California vocabulary. Getting around without a car and without spending a ridiculous amount of money on cabs is hard.
• “How are you, sir?” is the standard substitute for “How may I help you?”. This is confusing.
• Obesity is a real problem. After having breakfast, the ‘why’ for that is readily apparent as the continental breakfast I took was considered “a base” by the waiter, who told me at least 2 or 3 times I could get more stuff if I wanted to. I did not finish this “base” alone, though that admittedly might have something to do with my jet-lagginess and generally confused stomach.
• Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands should start being real Chinese restaurants, instead of serving all this stuff we call “Chinese” which is actually Indonesian/Malay (Babi Pangang, Nasi Goreng, Bami, etc.)
• Some stereotypes are not stereotypes, they’re simply true.

That will do for now. I’m off to see the Queen Mary.

One more thing – it amazes me, as it has for some time now, that as one travels to different places across the globe, every place has its own “colour scheme”. The easiest examples close to my home are the fact that brick houses make up most of the (nothern/middle) Netherlands, and once you cross the border to Belgium and France, the omnipresent red brickwork is replaced with grey/white plasterwork, the colours and fonts used on roadsigns change, the wildlife/trees are different… For some reason this and the different plants/nature/cars around mean the atmosphere changes. Perhaps this is what other people think “feeling on holiday” is all about, I’m not sure. I just find myself thinking, at times “gosh, this place is ugly” and then remembering I should really be thinking “gosh, this place is different“.

Hierboven zie je een cilinder op een gevlakt oppervlak. Dat ziet iedereen meteen vanwege de schaduwen, het perspectief van de vlakjes, enzovoorts. Stel, we willen de computer in ieder geval onderscheid laten maken tussen de lichte en donkere vlakjes. Dat is niet zo moeilijk, want al die pixels hebben gewoon een hoge of lage numerieke waarde voor de computer, afhankelijk van of ze licht of donker zijn. Dat valt best tegen: klik maar eens op het plaatje. Die streep die je ziet heeft de kleur (‘donkerte’) van het lichte vlak in de schaduw van de cilinder, en ook de kleur van het donkere vlak bovenaan! Klik nog maar eens als je niet gelooft dat het hetzelfde plaatje is.

Waarom zien onze ogen dat verschil wel zo duidelijk? Nu, we zijn gewend aan het compenseren van schaduwen, diepte en andere lichtverschillen. Dit is ook de oorzaak van allerlei andere ‘foutjes’ die mensen maken als ze naar bepaalde ‘getructe’ plaatjes kijken.

Zo moesten we in een vuilniszak op zoek naar eten (buit: afgekloven brood, mandarijnenschil en een kool), in het park een slaapplaats zoeken, naar een afspraak bij het CWI, en op bezoek bij opvanghuizen voor jongeren en daklozen in het algemeen. Dit was allemaal best leuk, maar wat mij het meeste trof was dat we, toen we goed en wel in “De herberg” zaten, met warme chocolademelk en een overvloed aan donuts (de opkomst was beneden peil), dat er discussie was over hoeveel donuts we welgemanierd zouden kunnen eten – en ondertussen lag er iemand voor de achterdeur, onder een dun kleed, te slapen. Bij 4 graden celcius. Dan komt het wel dichtbij, en vraag je je af waar de kerstgedachte hier nu precies gebleven is.
Voor de volledigheid: die man schijnt daar elke nacht te liggen, en de herberg is normaliter ’s nachts dicht – er is overdag inloop voor daklozen. Het voelt gewoon vreemd en machteloos, dat je niet zo veel kunt doen – ik betwijfel of hij het op prijs had gesteld als we hem wakker hadden gemaakt voor een donut en chocolademelk. Het is zijn thuis dan ook een beetje… maar wat een verdomd vreemde wereld zeg, en dat met kerst.

• My pronounciation
• British English pronounciation
• Castellano Spanish pronounciation
• French pronounciation
• German pronounciation
• Italian pronounciation
• Finnish pronounciation

Yup, it’s hard alright!

• ie7 “new tab” greyed out
• find out who blocked “you msn”
• onkp

These are supposedly first page hits (ie, my site ranks in the top 10 for those queries), as opposed to relevant things like “chatzilla” which apparently gets me roughly the 43rd position. Right…

Meanwhile, I just noticed I missed the deadline I’d set myself, since we’re stuck at 119 bugs filed for ChatZilla, and I still haven’t finished the damn message filter thing. Well, at least I have a usable build with the filter squirmed into __display, so I guess we’re going places. Hopefully.

Ah, also… if you check out my location, and use the Sattelite view, you’ll notice there’s blank land there. That’s because my home has only been there since July last year (though construction was underway before that, obviously) and the sattelite photos aren’t all that recent, apparently. If you scroll down a tiny bit though, you can spot a Russian sub in the harbour. No idea what it’s doing there, it’s been there since I first came here, and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere soon.