Skywatch Friday

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Note: Every SWF-picture published here is shot with my trusty Sony Xperia S smartphone or our Canon EOS 450D and is unedited.

For more Skywatch Friday photo's from around the globe, please check http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Just a post to let you know I miss all of you from and at Skywatch Friday...

On our way home from a market with Rataplan Design, my girlfriend's business:

 On my way to see a friend, just 20 minutes walk away from my home.

A little experiment in HDR: Vrijthof, a square in the city of Maastricht where we were last saturday:

 Taken from the ferry across the IJ (A body of water, seperating the centre of Amsterdam and the North. Click here for pronounciation.)

 Taken from a canalboat in the company of friends from Birmingham, England

 Nijverdal trainstation, returning home after a gig at a festival:

 Street mirror at Amsterdam tramstop:

 View after work, returning home:

 View over Amsterdam from the place where I worked:

 Swans enjoying the water near the ferry stop:

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Money makes us mean

We are extremely lucky! We were born in countries where a high standard of welfare is normal. A lot of people in the western world seem to think they are rich because they work harder than people who are poor. Even though they know their luck was just because a roll of the dice. In this case study literally.

Paul Piff talks about: 'Does money make you mean?'
Luckily there is hope for rich people to gain more compassion. Watch this:

Heal or hurt yourself by thinking about it!

When people get better because they think they are getting better, it's called the placebo effect. When people get sick because they think they are getting sick, it's called the nocebo effect.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150210-can-you-think-yourself-to-deathocid=global_future_rss

We can be easily influenced by others. If half a dozen friends and co-workers tell us we look in the prime of our life, energetic and generally healthy and young, we start feeling really great.

When people ask us: 'Have you slept well? You look a bit pale!', 'That
cough sounded really terrible!' 'When was the last time you saw a doctor? Maybe you should make an appointment.' we start feeling really sick. Even though there's nothing wrong with us.

Reportedly people even died because others told them they were dying. Think voodoo.

It raises the question: is the mind more powerful than medicine and toxins?

Let's give your neighbour a gun!

Why go to a foreign country to get shot? You stand a better chance as a child getting wounded at the hands of a firearm in America!

Nearly three times more kids (15,576) were injured by firearms in 2010
than the number of U.S. soldiers (5,247) wounded in action that year in the war in Afghanistan (source: CDF, CDC, Department of Defense)

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/16/16547690-just-the-facts-gun-violence-in-america?lite

People who favour (yes, the word 'favour' comes with a 'u'. That's English.) guns often state the argument that most people who are killed are unarmed. Logic dictates that you stand a better chance of surviving if you arm yourself. Right? Wrong! It's a fake argument. It's like saying: 'Most traffic accidents don't involve alcohol so if people would drink more there would be less car accidents.' That's the same logic. It's a bit like saying that people on welfare have it easy because they don't have to pay for a parking permit and therefore have more to spend than people who need a car because they have a paid job.

But let's bring in more guns! Everyone knows a gun is the perfect weapon against violence. Right? Fact is: if violence really is the best way to end violence, there would be no more violence.

Think before you hurt

Thinking about ruining someone's life because of a tweet he or she posted? Think again because it might just backfire on you! And think about this: have you ever said or done anything you regreted later?

If you haven't, how come I've never heard of you? Because you are probably the only human in the history of mankind who has never ever said or done anything to upset others.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytimes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/12/23/justine-sacco-and-the-self-inflicted-perils-of-twitter/