Prediction for Britain

The recent referendum will lead to several things.

1. Scotland will become independent.
2. Scotland will join the EU, Schengen and take up the Euro as currency.
3. Northern Ireland will join the Republic of Ireland with far reaching autonomy. They will adopt the Euro and join Schengen.
4. The "Leave" side in the referendum will realise that what they left was all rhyme and reason and realism. There will either be a new referendum, or everyone will simply agree that the outcome last week was a silly mistake.
5. The UK will stay in the EU.
6. Once the English realise that they need to show passports and change currency to go go to places on even their own island, they will scrap the pound, join the Euro and join Schengen.

In other words, by voting Leave, the UK will get tighter integration into Europe.

My foundation for those claims? I have none, whatsoever. But show me any analyst of the referendum who seems to have any clue what is going on.

Electronic Peace of Mind

Sometimes it becomes really important to avoid distractions when using computers. Things like animations can be disruptive for your work and concentration. These are some things one can try to make the computer or other devices less intrusive.

• Disable JavaScript in the settings of your web browser. Some sites will become useless without JavaScript, but many of those sites were useless even with JavaScript on. In the cases where you really need to use a site that depends on JavaScript, activate JavaScript temporarily, or use a different browser with JavaScript enabled. (Yes, I realise the irony in the fact that this blog uses JavaScript.)
• Disable Flash. This is a good idea for security reasons as well.
• Mute sound.
• Disable all notifications you can think of.
• Go into private mode. This makes it less of a worry that sites leave permanent traces on your computer.
• Avoid all news sites, or at least access them only once a day.
• If you use social forums, mute people who 
• Are of completely opposite political opinions. 
• Promote your own political opinions with stupid fervour. 
• Set the screen to black and white. (“Accessibility” section and then "Grayscale" on Apple devices.) Note: If your reason to make the computer less intrusive is that you are depressed, it may not be a good idea to set the screen to black and white. Depending on what kind of depression you have, colours could cheer you up.

Ship Disappears under Horizon - the Earth is Round.

In case you wonder whether the earth is flat or round, these photos show a ship disappearing under the horizon, and that is a pretty good indication that the earth is round. In the first shot, the ship is about 7 km away. In the last it is about 18 km away.

(For those who wonder about the camera: it was a Nikon 1 V3 with a 70-300mm lens. The photos are cropped.)

Which Font should I use?

Helvetica.

(I like simple answers.)