El Holandés de la Casa

As I hinted in my previous post , there is a framework of mutually supporting fields of exact sciences; the scientific framework. Chemistry, physics, biology, math, all study reality from different angles. Some of these fields are explicitly linked together. For instance; biochemistry, geophysics or astrophysics. Scientific knowledge grows daily. More and more facts are added to already existing facts. Old facts are rarely discarded. Maybe if they are proven to be fabrications (frauds) or otherwise inaccurate. This means that new facts can be tested against old facts. This process works both ways. If new facts enhance old facts, that's great. If new facts contradict old facts, there is a conflict. Either the new facts are wrong or the old facts are wrong. Only by carefully examining the old facts (and the experimental settings) and the new facts (and the experimental settings) can the 'truth' be established. Verification and repetition are central in scientif...

Sometimes, you hear a phrase and it sticks to your mind. You know something is wrong, but you are not able to put your finger on it. Years may pass until you find out what's nagging you, the original circumstances forgotten. That's what happened to me with the phrase 'science has been proven wrong lots of times'. I saw that phrase again, lately, and I finally realized what's wrong with it. Some scientific theories are proven wrong by using the scientific method, and are replaced with improved scientific theories. It's not the whole of science that has been proven wrong by using science, but 'just a theory'. That's another phrase that sticks to the mind. 'Just a theory'. A scientific theory is an explanation of a number of facts. It's not a bar-room insight that explains some detail. It's the 'Truth as we know it'. Currently, this theory is the best we have. It might be improved in the future. Science starts...

I don't have high morals, I don't automatically know right from wrong... I have to think about it. I don't get my morals from some book. More importantly, I don't tell others what their morals should be. The golden rule tells us to 'treat others as one would like others to treat oneself'. This article is about child abuse. I'm not an expert; I've never suffered it, I've never inflicted it, and I'm really not interested in it... But, when Spanish Cardinals and Bishops speak about child abuse, it's something to respond to. If we apply the golden rule to child abuse, it seems clear to me that it's wrong. I would not have liked to suffer it, and I guess most people would agree with me on that. Some Spanish Catholic Church leaders have another take on child abuse. One Bishop says (2007) that some children want to be abused. One Cardinal says (2009) 'abortion is worse than child abuse'. Update: One Mexican archbishop (2013) ...

'La Casa del Holandés' has always had an open policy towards it's clients, and we feel that we need to communicate that policy to the world. That is why we've asked an online gay friend, Jay, to design the official 'La Casa del Holandés' Gay Friendly logo. We like the design, but for lack of space, we've had to reduce the size of the logo. It's in the lower right corner of every page on the site. Up until today, our site didn't have the Gay Friendly logo and therefore it lacked one piece of information. Clients need that information to choose where they are going to stay. We normally have the most charming clients, and these will be positively affected by seeing the new logo.

Wordpress has a very simple setup procedure that works in 5'. Sounds cool. Let's do it. First, let's look at the requirements for Wordpress: A webserver, that is a program where you maintain a website. Apache is the program of choice. PHP is a programming language used in/with websites. MySQL is a database where Wordpress will save the information. Second, let's see, if I install a webserver, do I want that to run always? And a database? No. Will PHP install without a problem? I don't know. So, let's install a Virtual Machine to test it all and to isolate any issues. Installing a Virtual Machine is easy but time consuming. You have to install VMWare Player (or other). Create a new Virtual Machine, put the Ubuntu 11.10 CD in and wait... After installing the Virtual Machine, do the automatic update and wait some more. Third, enter the Virtual Machine and install MySQL, Apache2, PHP, PHP module. Check that Apache doesn't show PHP content. Nice. L...

For those who don't know it, we've had extensive water damage. This was caused by a faulty float switch . Apparently these kind of switches tend to fail. When the water level in the tank drops the float will hang vertically and activate an electrical water gauge, and the tank is filled. When the water reaches some level, the float will float vertically (thanks to a counter-weight) and the gauge will switch off. In this case, the float didn't switch off the gauge and water flowed out of the tank, eventually flowing out of the machine room, into our bedroom, down the stairs, down the second floor... all the way down to the kitchen. Five floors down! To prevent this from happening again, I've taken two measures. 1. I adjusted the counter-weight of the floater so that is has less free space. 2. I created an additional float switch in series with the original. I bought a standard water closet floater and build a switch into it. It works! There are three problems...

Just a note on politicians. Today, the municipal elections are being held. The mayor of Madrigal de la Vera told me last week that he had seen me on the census... I have the right to vote. Immediately after, he told me they were going to repeat the course I gave last year (implying a well payed job for me). That's a politician!