Untimely meditations
One man's thoughts, observations and rants
Welcome to the personal blog of Joop Beris. I blog about a wide variety of topics, ranging from atheism to information security and lots in between. I welcome feedback on my articles but there are some guidelines. Feel free to share articles you like by using the sharing buttons but please give me credit if you want to share something. Also, check out my privacy policy and other legalese.
Please note that the things I write here do not represent the views of anyone else but me. I do not represent an organization or a business and I have nothing to sell. My views do not necessarily coincide with or represent those of my employer. Just throwing that in there for legal reasons.
Below you’ll find the most recent things I’ve written. Feel free to check them out, leave a comment and share them with others who might be interested.
Latest posts
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Celibacy
It would be funny if it weren’t for the many Roman Catholics who take this seriously. Apparently, retired Pope Benedict has gotten his panties in a twist over plans of his successor, Pope Francis to maybe relax the rules concerning priestly celibacy. So what exactly is going on?
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This smells like…
Sometimes you hear about something and think to yourself “who in his right mind would want something like that?” So when I heard that Gwyneth Paltrow was selling a vagina scented candle, I half expected it to be a joke. As it turns out, it isn’t. They’re selling a candle called “This Smells Like My…
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Ransomware
In case you lived under a rock the past few years: ransomware or cryptolockers are a form of digital extortion. A malicious program runs on your computer, searches for any and all data files it can find and encrypts them. Anywhere on the network where you have access, the program performs its evil function. Entire…
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Book review: Sapiens
“Sapiens: A brief history of humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari has gotten mostly outstanding reviews. It’s also received praise from such well-known people as Barack Obama, the android Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. I just finished reading it and I agree with most people that it is a fascinating read. Despite that, I am not…
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Book review: Humankind
This is going to be a somewhat odd book review because the book I am reviewing, isn’t actually available. At the time I am writing this, the book entitled “Humankind” by Dutch historian Rutger Bregman hasn’t been published in English yet. However, it’s already available in Dutch bearing the title “De meeste mensen deugen” which…
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Writing
It’s not known exactly when humanity invented writing but we do know that writing is at least 5000 years old. The ancient Sumerian people were probably the first to write down their stories, their laws, their poems and their thoughts, inscribing them into clay tablets. Thousands of these tablets have been found in modern day…
Recent comments
I have a question. I believe life is valuable because you have a soul and are a unique person, precious.…
I used to believe in god until my life went downhill. Your reasons are actually good.
Joop, Hope you are well. It is amazing to me the gullibility of people. How can educated people believe in…
Those analogies don’t hold up, I’m afraid. Like marriage or choosing to have children. Or moving to someplace new because…
“What can be asserted without evidence may be dismissed without evidence.”
Christopher Hitchens
Author and journalist
You seem to have multiple questions but let’s take them one at a time, shall we? I believe life is…