Today's links

• History is something you do: Not something that happens to you.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• Object permanence: Occupy Tents are speech; Piagram; SOPA; "I'm Rob Fucking Ford"; Blocking all porn in the UK; Pirates rule Iceland; Shake Shack v shitting to death.
• Upcoming appearances: Vienna, Kilkenny, Courtenay, Vancouver, Oxford, Sheffield, Virtual, Oxford, Montreal.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

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History is something you do (permalink)

Prediction is hard. Especially about the future. That Yogi Berra gem proves that you don't have to be a science fiction writer to get irritated with people insisting that you must know what's going to happen tomorrow, but (as a sf writer), I can tell you that this is one of our main occupational hazards.

Obviously, this is a self-inflicted injury. Our genre is full of big names who self-mythologized as scientific Nostradamuses. From the "future history" bar-charts in Heinlein's books (I was once on a panel with Robert Silverberg where he referred to RAH as "Robert A Timeline") to the McGuffin of Asimov's Foundation series: a "scientific" discipline that could predict the trajectory of human civilization for millennia into the future.

But me, I find the prospect of predicting the future incredibly dismal – even offensive. A predictable future is set in stone, immune to human agency. A predictable future runs on rails, and we're the prisoners of history, tied to the tracks.

For me, the most exciting thing about sf is the idea that the future is contingent. Sf is a long, sharp pin that can prick inevitabilism's bubble: that assertion by tech-bros and policymakers alike that the future is out of our hands and must be accommodated, not shaped. Inevitabilism is a form of vulgar Thatcherism, the assertion that "there is no alternative."

If The Market won't deliver an energy transition, and it leaves us to boil in our own skins, drown in the rising seas, and roast in wildfires, then tough shit humanity, there is no alternative. If there's a tech company eavesdropping on all of our communications technologies and following us as we move through digital and physical space (and turning the juiciest tidbits over the ICE), that's not the tech company's fault: there is no alternative. If some broadly useful statistical tools are delivered in the most climate-destroying, economy-wrecking, job-killing, quality-vaporizing way possible, that's just How It Is. It's not Sam Altman or Dario Amodei's fault: there is no alternative.

Science fiction can do more than imagine how "General AI" might change society: sf can imagine a society that doesn't make the fanciful leap from a word-guessing sentence-extruder to a machine god. Sf can imagine a world that debuts "AI" as a joint supercomputing project between the IPCC and Sandia National Labs whose primary purpose is to improve the fidelity of climate models, and whose spinoffs are modest but interesting open source tools that people run on regular computers with normal energy footprints.

Considered as a predictive literature, sf is a colossal failure. If our books are to be taken as roadmaps to an inevitable future, we have all flunked out of cartography school. More than 99.9% of these maps describe a territory that never emerged. All claims of sf's predictive value are just survivor bias, feats of Texas marksmanship in which we fire a shotgun into the side of a barn and then draw a target around the place where the holes cluster.

What's more likely: that sf is 99.9% fake fortune-tellers and 0.1% seers and soothsayers; or that the "predictions that came true" in sf are just the inevitable bullseyes that you'd score if you threw enough darts?

Prediction is a weak and helpless activity, the obsession of people who don't think they can change anything. It's the superstitious dread that gives rise to astrology. Far better to be a Luddite who asserts that there is more than one way to introduce a technology to a society. To be a Luddite is to insist that humans are in charge of humanity, not the iron laws of economics, not the great forces of history, not the uncaring and illusory constellations. At its best, sf is a proudly Luddite literature:

https://locusmag.com/feature/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

The insistence that we can change things is an active posture. It's an activist posture. At its radical best, sf is activist, because it engages with more than what the machine does, insisting on changing who the machine does it for and who the machine does it to.

Which is why I find demands to offer predictions for the future so irritating. People who think that sf writers can predict the future have the field's role exactly backwards. My intention isn't to demoralize you into tying yourself to history's tracks – I'm here to show you how to grab the wheel and steer off the rails altogether.

The reason this seems so implausible is that the "there is no alternative" people have convinced us that all change is the result of individuals. To change the world, you must fashion yourself into one of history's mediocre Great Men, a Musk or Zuck. Our oligarchs are the avatars of the Great Forces of History. They have seen the predictable, inevitable future and have been allocated trillions by the capital markets to ensure that we arrive there on time, running straight down those shining rails, no matter how many people are tied to the tracks.

Another motif of Thatcherism (and hence inevitabilism) is that "there is no such thing as society," which means that all change is the result of individuals, which means that only Great Men can hope to change anything. If there is no such thing as society, then it follows that there's no such thing as mass movements, there's no such thing as trade unions, and there's no such thing as revolutions.

If there's no such thing as society, then eruptions of students and workers in the streets must be nothing more than mob violence – it can't possibly be a political eruption. If you're an inevitabilist than Occupy was nothing more than millions of individual "virtue signallers" and #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter were the individual follies of innumerable "social justice warriors."

As an activist, I'm not interested in predicting the future, I'm interested in changing it. When I speak about "the post-American internet" that we could create by exploiting the policy space that has been opened by Trump's incontinent belligerence, my intention is to get you to help build it, not to get you to prepare yourself for that inevitable outcome:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/#the-new-coalition

Obviously, some aspects of our future are locked in. The climate violence our political and business elites inflicted on the world locked in rising seas, extreme weather, habitat-loss driven zoonotic plagues and massive refugee crises. Those are inevitable. What's entirely up to us is what we do about them.

Do we create full employment for every person who will live for the next 300 years, relocating our coastal cities inland, treating the sick, retrofitting our infrastructure, and accommodating our neighbors who are driven out of their homes? Or do we let the stupidest, worst people among us lead us into the ecofascism of border walls, drone warfare, and exterminationism? That's our choice.

We've had generations of being told to "vote with our wallets" instead of organizing in political, labor and social movements. Voting with your wallet doesn't work (billionaires' wallets are thicker than yours, they win those votes), and if you lose enough of those wallet elections, it's easy to fall into the despair of believing that the future is inevitable:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/13/consumption-choices/#marginal-benefits

I think this is why "prediction markets" have caught on so ferociously. While prediction markets are sold as a way for people to "inject information" into markets, they are actually a rigged system that transfers money from everyday "investors" to insiders:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/24/degenerated-gambling/#oracle-capture

Prediction markets are the perfect pastime for history's prisoners. If you fancy yourself a plaything of the gods whose future is already written, then prediction markets are a way for you and your fellow prisoners to bet on what torments will come next. And of course oligarchs love prediction markets, because they're the ones who can rig the odds, say, by placing a bet on a war and then leading the country to that war.

They are the gods, the only ones who get to make history, so a market for bets on what history will do next is a way to enrich history's avatars at the expense of history's victims.

In science fiction, we often meet powerful aliens who tell us "resistance is futile" as they conquer our world and set about exterminating us. But if resistance was truly futile, no one would have to say it.

When they tell us "there is no alternative," what they mean is "stop trying to think of alternatives." To imagine radically is to move beyond the helplessness of prediction: a radical imagination dares to insist that history is what we make, not what happens to us.

(Image: Ralf Roletschek, CC BY-SA 3.0, modified)

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Hey look at this (permalink)

• There's No Such Thing as Society in the Objective Function https://laurenleek.substack.com/p/theres-no-such-thing-as-society-in

• The Real Reason AI Is Able to Hack Everything on the Internet https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-the-real-reason

• Halloween 1960-1964 – Quivers Down The Backbone https://centuriesofsound.com/2026/10/25/halloween-1960-1964-quivers-down-the-backbone/

• Still On Its Way to Cleveland https://longreads.com/2026/09/22/family-road-trip-early-internet-90s/

• slurptop https://slurpburgers.com/slurpbuilds/the-slurptop/

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Object permanence (permalink)

#15yrsago Canon of St Paul’s resigns over plans to evict Occupy London https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/27/giles-fraser-st-pauls-profile

#15yrsago Orange County city council unanimous: Occupy tents are a form of speech https://web.archive.org/web/20111029021151/http://www.occupy-oc.org/tears-stream-as-city-council-unanimously-agrees-occupy-tents-are-a-form-of-speech/

#15yrsago Edible Venn diagram: the piagram https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/g8nxo/i_realize_its_a_bit_late_for_pi_day_but_heres_my/

#15yrsago SOPA: US House of Reps copyright bill proposes national censorship, attacks on hosting services, Twitter, YouTube https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/disastrous-ip-legislation-back-–-and-it’s-worse-ever

#15yrsago Google rejects JWZ’s 2-step plan to end the nym wars https://www.jwz.org/blog/2011/10/google-nymwars-redux/

#15yrsago Toronto mayor confronted by comedy interviewer calls 911, reportedly shouts “You bitches! Don’t you fucking know? I’m Rob fucking Ford, the mayor of this city! https://www.joeydevilla.com/2011/10/27/im-rob-fucking-ford-or-the-mayor-the-ambush-and-the-911-call/

#15yrsago Canadian Tory MP: Don’t worry about violating our stupid new copyright law, because we probably won’t catch you if you do https://web.archive.org/web/20111029155739/https://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6089/125/

#10yrsago UK MPs realise that age filtering won’t work so now they just want to block all porn in the UK https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/now-we-want-censorship-the-digital-economy-bill-is-running-out-of-control/

#10yrsago Samsung abuses copyright to censor satirical exploding phone Grand Theft Auto mod https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/10/samsung-sets-its-reputation-fire-bogus-dmca-takedown-notices

#10yrsago EU lies and the British tabloids who told them https://web.archive.org/web/20160626051921/https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/06/daily-chart-15

#10yrsago The Pirate Party are poised to form Iceland’s government in Saturday’s election https://qz.com/817784/icelands-pirate-party-looks-likely-to-take-the-countrys-general-election-on-oct-29

#5yrsago Hospital rings up $2755 upcharge by sending pregnant woman to ER https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/27/crossing-a-line/#zero-fucks-given

#1yrago Shake Shack wants you to shit yourself to death https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/27/shit-shack/#binding-arbitration

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Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• Vienna: TED AI, Oct 28-30
  https://tedai-vienna.ted.com/

• Kilkenny (Kilkenomics), Nov 6-8
  https://kilkenomics.com/

• Courtenay: Enshittification (Sid Williams Theatre Society), Nov 10
  https://www.sidwilliamstheatre.com/events/cory-doctorow-talks-enshittification/

• Vancouver: BC Policy Solutions Gala, Nov 12
  https://bcpolicy.ca/gala/

• Oxford: Ministry of the Future, Nov 23
  https://ministryforthefuture.co.uk/events.html

• Sheffield: Reverse Centaur at Juno Books, Nov 25
  https://www.outsavvy.com/event/40274/cory-doctorow-in-conversation

• Virtual: Enshittification, AI, and the Future of Technology (UBC Master of Educational Technology), Nov 28
  https://met.ubc.ca/2026/09/met-speaker-series-cory-doctorow-enshittification-ai-and-the-future-of-technology/

• Oxford: Bennett Oxford Symposium on Open Code in Science, Dec 9
  https://www.bennett.ox.ac.uk/events/2026-bennett-institute-symposium/

• Montreal: World Science Fiction Convention, Sep 2-6
  https://montreal2027.ca/en

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Recent appearances (permalink)

• Clint Eastwood (No Gods No Mayors)
  https://www.patreon.com/NoGodsNoMayors/posts/clint-eastwood-173008088

• Life After AI (Brain Bar)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPPa43-n0vI

• Terms of Service with Clare Duffy (CNN)
  https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/terms-of-service-with-clare-duffy/episodes/458ce968-af5d-11f0-b539-13ed2afe25f8

• AI, Work, and Power (Software Engineering Daily)
  AI, Work, and Power https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/podcasts/cory-doctorow-on-ai-work-and-power/

• AI, Corporate Power, and the Fight for Worker Control (Plutopia)
  https://plutopia.io/cory-doctorow-ai-corporate-power-and-the-fight-for-worker-control/

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Latest books (permalink)

• "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/

• "Canny Valley": A limited edition collection of the collages I create for Pluralistic, self-published, September 2025 https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/04/illustrious/#chairman-bruce

• "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

• "Picks and Shovels": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels).

• "The Bezzle": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (thebezzle.org).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org).

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

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Upcoming books (permalink)

• "The Post-American Internet," a geopolitical sequel of sorts to Enshittification, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027

• "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, April 20, 2027

• "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2027

• "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2027

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Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

• “Once Is Enemy Action,” a science fiction novel about the origins of modern technofascism. Today's words: 530 (29813 total).

• "The Post-American Internet," a sequel to "Enshittification," about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America. Fourth draft completed. Submitted to editor.

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

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Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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ISSN: 3066-764X

Huhwat. De NPO pullt een #NietMijnSongfestival en trekt zich ineens TOCH terug uit het Eurovisie Songfestival. Die kozen er aanvankelijk voor om het gat van Cornald Maas AVROTROS op te vullen, maar komen daar nu na "vele indringende gesprekken" alsnog op terug. Na al het gewelnietwelniet lijkt een Nederlandse inzending hiermee alsnog zo goed als zeker van de baan. 

Later meer

Wat een onzin weer. "De meeste Nederlanders voelen zich niet achtergesteld", meldt het SCP volgend de NOS. Zo gaat het nou altijd. Ons is weer eens niks gevraagd. Terwijl degenen voor wie alles altijd geregeld wordt (gratis huurwoning, gratis sigaretten, naaktkalender Pirelli) goede sier kunnen maken met hun 'gevoel' dat ze niet worden achtergesteld. Zo kunnen wij het ook. "Maar een "aanzienlijke minderheid" heeft wél het gevoel dat mensen zoals zijzelf worden benadeeld en dat andere groepen onterecht in het voordeel zijn." Ja en dat vinden wij dus volkomen onterecht. Wij zijn juist zelf een aanzienlijke minderheid die nog veel meer wordt benadeeld, dus waar hebben die mensen het over? Sowieso, we weten allemaal wie er in Nederland werkelijk achtergesteld zijn. Dat zijn leden van de Raad van State, togadragers, deelnemers aan realityprogramma's van RTL en de échte slachtoffer de toeslagenaffaire, namelijk de ambtenaren van de Belastingdienst. De rest moet niet zo zeiken en gewoon: aan het werk.
HELE ONDERZOEK: Daarrr

DÜSSELDORF (ANP) - Het moederbedrijf van elektronicaketen MediaMarkt, Ceconomy, heeft afgelopen boekjaar meer omzet behaald. Het bedrijf overtrof ook zijn eigen winstverwachtingen. Dat meldt het Duitse bedrijf in voorlopige cijfers over het gebroken boekjaar dat eind september afliep.

De omzet kwam uit op 24 miljard euro, ruim 5 procent meer dan een jaar eerder. De winst voor belasting en rente komt naar verwachting uit op 515 miljoen euro. Dat is meer dan het doel van 500 miljoen euro dat het bedrijf had gesteld. De nettowinst meldt het bedrijf niet en definitieve cijfers volgen later.

De Nederlander Remko Rijnders is sinds dit jaar de hoogste baas bij het in Düsseldorf gevestigde Ceconomy. "Onze winstgevendheid stijgt al vijftien kwartalen op rij", aldus Rijnders. "Dat is een bewijs van de duurzame verbetering van onze bedrijfsactiviteiten."

Ceconomy, dat ook Saturn onder zich heeft, telt nu 1068 winkels. In Nederland zijn er 54 MediaMarkt-winkels.

Nederland stuurt volgend jaar weer geen act naar het Eurovisie Songfestival. De NPO ziet af van deelname en maakt dat binnenkort bekend, vertellen insiders aan het AD. Kijken en stemmen kun je in mei waarschijnlijk wel, op meer avonden dan toen Nederland nog meedeed.

Het songfestival komt waarschijnlijk gewoon op NPO 1

Het AD verwacht dat de publieke omroep de shows uitzendt, net als dit jaar. Toen deed Nederland voor het eerst in 24 jaar niet mee. NOS en NTR zonden de halve finales en de finale toch uit op NPO 1, meldde TVgids.

Het songfestival van 2027 is in Burgas, in Bulgarije, dat dit jaar won met Dara. Dit zijn de avonden:

• Eerste halve finale: dinsdag 11 mei 2027
• Tweede halve finale: donderdag 13 mei 2027
• Finale: zaterdag 15 mei 2027

Zonder Nederlandse act keken er minder mensen. Gemiddeld 798.000 kijkers zagen de finale van 16 mei live, tegen 3.590.000 een jaar eerder. Helemaal vergelijkbaar is dat niet: de meetmethode veranderde en uitgesteld kijken telt pas later mee.

Je stem telt in alle drie de shows

Doet Nederland mee, dan stem je in één halve finale en in de finale. Dit jaar mochten Nederlandse kijkers in beide halve finales en in de finale stemmen, schrijft Songfestival.be.

Je stemmen komen dan op één hoop met die uit andere landen zonder act. Die groep heet Rest of the World en telt per show als één extra land. Ze deelt één keer 12, 10 en 8 tot en met 1 punt uit, net als een deelnemend land.

De EBU, de Europese omroepunie die het songfestival organiseert, heeft de stemregels voor 2027 nog niet bekendgemaakt. De Rest of the World-stem bestaat sinds 2023.

Waarom de NPO toch afhaakt

Eind september besloot de NPO dat Nederland in 2027 terugkeert, met een eigen team van experts. AvroTros, dat de deelname jarenlang verzorgde, blijft weg vanwege de deelname van Israël en de oorlog in Gaza.

Daarna kwamen tientallen klachten binnen bij de ombudsman van de publieke omroep. Zo’n 400 NPO-medewerkers stuurden een brandbrief. Geen enkele omroep wilde mensen leveren voor het team, meldt het AD.

Davina Michelle, Tangarine en Marnix Emanuel waren nog in de race om naar Burgas te gaan. Buurland België doet in 2027 wel weer mee.

Zo stem je in mei mee

1. Kijk op tv of online. Zendt de NPO niet uit, dan kun je de shows volgen op het officiële YouTube-kanaal van het songfestival, zegt de organisatie op Eurovision.com.
2. Stem via de app of esc.vote. Vanuit een land zonder act stem je online, in de officiële songfestival-app of op de website esc.vote.
3. Let op het stemvenster. Bij een halve finale gaat het rond middernacht op de dag van de show open, dicht bij de start van de uitzending en na het laatste liedje nog zo’n 18 minuten open. Bij de finale stem je van vlak voor het eerste liedje tot ongeveer 40 minuten na het laatste.
4. Hooguit tien stemmen. Sinds dit jaar geldt een maximum van tien stemmen per betaalmethode, de helft van daarvoor.

Meer weten?

Bronnen: AD, Songfestival.be, Eurovision.com

UTRECHT (ANP) - Banken moeten vanaf volgend jaar rekening houden met mogelijke funderingsproblemen bij huizen als ze hypotheken verstrekken met de Nationale Hypotheek Garantie (NHG). Dat kan als gevolg hebben dat huizenkopers minder kunnen lenen bij funderingsrisico's.

De NHG biedt tegen een eenmalige betaling door huizenkopers bescherming bij betaalproblemen, waarna hypotheekverstrekkers vaak een lagere rente geven. De organisatie achter NHG wil nu voorkomen dat huizenkopers in de financiële problemen komen als ze ineens veel geld kwijt zijn door herstelwerkzaamheden aan de fundering.

Als nieuwe regel voor 2027 geldt daarom dat geldverstrekkers via een vaste methode de funderingsrisico's inschatten voor klanten die een hypotheek met NHG willen afsluiten. Als die risico's hoog zijn, moet de hypotheekverstrekker rekening houden met herstelkosten. Dat heeft vervolgens invloed op de som geld die een klant mag lenen voor de aankoop van een huis.

Gerard Joling stopt na ruim 21 jaar bij De Toppers. Daarmee zegt hij niet alleen vaarwel tegen het grootste meezingfeest van het land, maar ook tegen een van de best betaalde vaste klussen in de Nederlandse showbusiness. Hoeveel precies? Dat is een goed bewaard geheim. Maar de schattingen liegen er niet om.

Een vaste gage, geen winstdeel

De zangers worden per concertreeks ingehuurd. Ze krijgen een vast bedrag, ongeacht hoeveel kaartjes, shirts of glitterpruiken er worden verkocht. Over de hoogte zwijgen de betrokkenen. Het enige wat ooit is losgelaten: iedere zanger krijgt precies hetzelfde.

De gangbare schatting komt uit op 400.000 tot 800.000 euro per zanger per reeks. Ook de inschattingen die na Jolings vertrek in de media opdoken, gaan uit van minstens een half miljoen euro per persoon.

Naar schatting 4 à 8 ton per zanger, voor een handvol avonden in de ArenA

Voor een paar weken werk

Dat bedrag verdienen ze niet met een jaar toeren. Een reeks beslaat twee of drie avonden in de Johan Cruijff ArenA, plus repetities. Omgerekend per werkdag is dat een uitzonderlijk tarief.

Het gaat wel om brutobedragen. Wat er netto overblijft, hangt af van belasting en van eventuele afspraken met een eigen manager.

Froger verdient twee keer

Voor René Froger ligt het anders. Hij bedacht het concept samen met manager Benno de Leeuw. Als bedenkers krijgen zij een deel van de winst. Froger verdient dus als zanger én als bedenker. Hoe groot dat winstdeel is, is niet openbaar. De schattingen lopen uiteen van enkele tonnen tot rond een miljoen euro.

Toch is die winst minder vanzelfsprekend dan een uitverkochte ArenA doet vermoeden. De Leeuw zei jaren geleden: "Je moet drie concerten draaien om eraan te verdienen; bij twee is het hooguit met de hakken over de sloot dat je geen verlies draait."

"Je moet drie concerten draaien om eraan te verdienen"

Opvallend: in mei 2027 staan De Toppers twee avonden in de ArenA. Of die oude rekensom nog opgaat, is niet bekend.

Wat Joling laat liggen

De 66-jarige Joling wil zich richten op zijn televisiewerk en zijn eigen concert in februari. Kloppen de schattingen, dan laat hij per concertreeks minstens een half miljoen euro liggen. Zelf houdt hij het bij het emotionele verhaal: "Het zal mij waarschijnlijk nooit meer gebeuren om in zo'n grote arena te staan, maar ik heb ervan genoten."

De Toppers gaan door

De onrust is groot. Naast Jolings vertrek wordt René Froger behandeld voor een auto-immuunziekte; of dat gevolgen heeft voor de reeks in mei, is nog onbekend. De organisatie belooft de nieuwe samenstelling "op zeer korte termijn" bekend te maken. Wie de vrijgekomen plek krijgt, stapt in een bijzonder lucratieve klus. Zolang de ArenA vol blijft lopen, tenminste.

Het verdienmodel in het kort

• Zangers: vaste gage per reeks, voor iedereen even hoog
• Geschatte gage: 400.000 tot 800.000 euro per persoon
• Bedenkers Froger en De Leeuw: daarnaast een deel van de winst
• Volgende reeks: mei 2027, twee avonden in de ArenA

Meer weten?

• NOS: Gerard Joling vertrekt na 21 jaar bij de Toppers
• De Ondernemer: Meezingfeest met de Toppers goed voor miljoenenomzet
• MediaCourant: Gerard Joling loopt half miljoen euro per jaar mis

Hoeveel oude telefoons liggen er bij jou nog in een la? Een Android-toestel dat te traag werd om mee te bellen, kan in de auto nog elke rit filmen. Je hebt er een gratis app, een houder en een autolader voor nodig, schrijft Panorama.

Hoe maak je van een oude telefoon een dashcam?

De app heet Droid Dashcam en staat gratis in de Google Play Store, met advertenties en betaalde extra’s. Voor een iPhone werkt deze app niet.

• De app filmt continu en wist de oudste beelden zodra het geheugen vol is.
• Je kunt instellen dat de opname begint zodra je de telefoon aan de lader hangt of hij verbinding maakt met de Bluetooth van je auto.
• Datum, tijd, locatie en snelheid komen desgewenst over de beelden te staan.
• Bij een schok zet de app de opname vast, zodat de lus hem niet overschrijft. Dat kan ook met de hand.

Kies Full HD (1080p) in plaats van 4K, dan loopt je geheugen minder snel vol. Een oud toestel filmt in het donker wel minder scherp dan een moderne dashcam.

Waar hang je de telefoon op?

Panorama raadt een plek hoog achter de voorruit aan, bij de binnenspiegel. Let erop dat de houder je zicht en de airbags vrijlaat.

Zet de opname aan voor je wegrijdt. Een telefoon die als camera dient, blijft volgens artikel 61a van het Reglement verkeersregels een mobiel elektronisch apparaat. Dat mag je tijdens het rijden niet vasthouden. De boete is dit jaar €440, plus €9 administratiekosten. Het CJIB deelde in 2025 al 248.020 boetes uit voor een telefoon in de hand, in de auto of op de fiets.

Mag je de beelden online zetten?

Dat ligt gevoeliger. Herkenbare gezichten en kentekens zijn persoonsgegevens. Voor beelden die je alleen voor jezelf maakt, geldt de privacywet niet, zegt de Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens. Deel je ze breder, op een openbare Facebookpagina bijvoorbeeld, dan heb je meestal toestemming nodig van de mensen in beeld.

De ANWB is stelliger over dashcams:

“Het zonder toestemming van de gefilmde personen publiceren van deze opnames is niet toegestaan.”

Wil je die bumperklever toch laten zien, maak gezichten en kentekens dan eerst onherkenbaar.

Heeft je verzekeraar iets aan de beelden?

Na een aanrijding kunnen ze helpen om vast te stellen wie schuld heeft. Meld je verzekeraar daarom dat je beelden hebt, adviseert de ANWB. Lever ze onbewerkt en compleet aan; een geknipt filmpje is minder bruikbaar. Of beelden als bewijs meetellen, beslist uiteindelijk de rechter. Die wil meestal meer zien dan alleen een filmpje.

Mag de dashcam mee op vakantie?

Niet overal. In Duitsland, Luxemburg, Oostenrijk, Portugal en Zwitserland is een dashcam volgens de ANWB verboden of sterk af te raden. Haal de telefoon daar uit de houder of zet de app uit. Rijd je door Frankrijk naar het zuiden, kijk dan ook naar de Franse winterbandenplicht vanaf 1 november.

Loop dit na voor je eerste rit

• Zet de telefoon terug naar de fabrieksinstellingen. Een oud toestel krijgt vaak geen beveiligingsupdates meer, dus log niet in bij je bank of e-mail.
• Check de accu. Is hij opgezwollen of beschadigd, gebruik de telefoon dan niet meer.
• Zet het scherm uit tijdens het filmen als de app dat toelaat. Dat scheelt stroom en warmte.
• Haal het toestel uit de houder als je in de volle zon parkeert. Achter de voorruit wordt het snel heet.
• Zet beelden van een incident apart voordat de lus ze overschrijft. Wis de rest zodra je ze niet meer nodig hebt.

Meer weten?

Bronnen: Panorama, ANWB, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens

AMSTERDAM (ANP) - Besi behoorde dinsdag tot de grote winnaars op de Amsterdamse beurs. Het Amerikaanse Applied Materials breidt zijn belang in de Nederlandse chiptoeleverancier uit tot ongeveer 20 procent. De grootste fabrikant van chipapparatuur in de Verenigde Staten heeft sinds vorig jaar al een belang van 9 procent in Besi en wil de samenwerking tussen de twee bedrijven versterken. Een volledige overname is volgens het bedrijf niet aan de orde. Het aandeel Besi werd bijna 9 procent hoger gezet.

De Amsterdamse hoofdindex noteerde kort na opening van de markt licht lager op 1132,41 punten. Maandag sloot de AEX nog nipt hoger dankzij koerswinsten van banken en chipbedrijven. De MidKap won 0,1 procent tot 1084,04 punten. De beurzen in Frankfurt en Parijs verloren tot 0,4 procent. Londen zakte 1 procent. De Britse bank HSBC zakte 6,5 procent na tegenvallende resultaten.

A fatal mistake sparks this juicy melodrama, in which a philosophy professor navigates the guilt of being a survivor

What if, battered by cancer and cancer treatment, you decided to end your life? And what if it went wrong and you lived, but a friend died in your place? Would you tell the police the truth? Or reason that there’s no point punishing your grieving, bruised self any further, especially when – in the first bit of good news you’ve had for years – you learn that your treatment may finally be working?

It’s the kind of moral question that London philosophy professor Esther Luck loves throwing at her students. But Jude Cook’s third novel makes the dilemma bracingly personal. As it opens, Esther, who has ovarian cancer, is waiting in a toilet cubicle on the fifth floor of her university building – the only one without CCTV – for the arrival of her dodgy French ex, Michel. He has agreed to shoot through the door and end her misery. But someone else arrives first. Laura is the department’s fragrant superstar, with her BBC presenting gig and handsome barrister husband. She finds an empty stall, Michel gets the wrong door, and Esther is left guilty, panicked and alone on the loo as Laura’s blood pools on the floor.

Continue reading...

The levels of violence aimed at these protesters is depressing, but their aim is to save the planet: ‘If they want to destroy everything, they’ve got to go through us’

‘Hated” is not putting it too strongly. The strength of feeling against Just Stop Oil, as caught by this documentary, is really disturbing. It’s filmed from inside the climate group’s protests, and as activists block roads, furious drivers hurl abuse. “Have a wash you fucking idiots!” “Middle class wankers!” It gets physical, too – punching, kicking and dragging. One man appears to drive his van at protesters. Another walks along a line of them, pouring water over their heads, one by one.

Film-maker Rich Felgate could not be closer to the action; his girlfriend, Indigo Rumbelow, is an activist. “Don’t look at the camera. I’m a fly on the wall,” he tells her at their shared house, where books about the suffragettes and Gandhi are on the shelves. On the streets, activists glue themselves to roads and fasten their necks together with bike locks. In October 2022, campaigners notoriously lobbed tomato soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. At one road shutdown an angry driver shouts: “You’re children.” But they’re not all young; a vicar in late middle age with Parkinson’s quickly takes his medicine before he’s cuffed.

Continue reading...

The RuPaul’s Drag Race alum on queer visibility, politics and starring in Cole Escola’s smash comedy

Alaska may be starring in the most subversive comedy in American theater today, but she carries herself with the poise of a 40s movie star. On a brisk September afternoon, the actor, comedian and RuPaul’s Drag Race alumnus is in a small rehearsal room in New York’s midtown, sipping hot tea from a flask while perched on a hard-shell travel case. She sits bolt upright, as if she has spent her life balancing books on her head.

It has been a madcap time for the actor as she prepares to play Mary Todd Lincoln in a new touring production of Cole Escola’s Tony award-winning comedy Oh, Mary!. She is amid a few weeks of rehearsals in the city before the show’s four-month sprint across the US. When I ask how she is handling the upheaval from her Los Angeles home, she smiles indulgently. “I mean, I would go to the planet Remulak for this show,” she says, referencing the home planet of the Coneheads. “I didn’t even think about it. I was just like, ‘Let’s make this happen.’”

Continue reading...

For many members of the C-suite these days, sustainability is a top three agenda item alongside technology and AI adoption, according to research from Deloitte. In fact, the report says, technology is considered a vital means of hitting organizational goals here, with the implementation of IT solutions being the most common approach for doing so. The importance of tech's role in this context is reflected in the views of IT decision-makers themselves. A recent survey, conducted by Barco ClickShare, revealed that 96 percent of the 500 US tech leaders questioned consider their sustainability activities to make a significant and positive global contribution to strategy here. A further 98 percent feel their departments should lead the way in such activities. Indeed, more than four out of five felt so strongly about the situation that they would turn down a job offer at a new employer if it did not have a strong sustainability track record, they said. Yannic Laleeuwe is Marketing Director Workplace Collaboration at wireless conferencing and collaboration platform provider, Barco ClickShare. She believes IT functions have this central role to play in tackling sustainability issues because many of their "day-to-day technology choices directly influence an organization's environmental footprint". "Sustainability is about practical decisions: buying reliable technology, extending product life, reducing complexity, and ensuring devices can be managed, repaired and responsibly recycled," Laleeuwe explains. Sustainability as a collaborative practice But given that technology-related decisions are rarely made by IT leaders alone, it is clear they cannot tackle sustainability challenges alone either. As Barco ClickShare's report indicates, a mere 6 percent of IT departments are the sole decision-makers on tech investments, which includes meeting room systems. This means that collaboration with other stakeholders is vital. Such stakeholders include not only sustainability and environmental affairs teams. They also consist of procurement, finance, facilities management, operations, and executive leaders. "Working together, it's possible to balance security, usability, cost, lifecycle impact, energy efficiency, repairability and end-of-life recovery before a purchase is even made," Laleeuwe points out. In other words, by collaborating, it becomes much easier to embed sustainability considerations into day-to-day activities. This includes maintaining and upgrading equipment properly to extend its life. It is these everyday IT decisions that can make all the difference in shaping behavior in the digital workplace. One example of this relates to the procurement process itself, which is often complex. But top of the list on any sustainable shopping list should be ensuring that technology in general, but meeting room equipment in particular, is secure, reliable, and easy to integrate with other systems. This is important because if kit is not durable and interoperable, it will come up for replacement sooner rather than later. But such an approach not only generates waste, it also necessitates purchasing new items. These tend to have a high carbon footprint due to the required extraction of raw materials and high energy usage during both manufacturing and transportation processes. Essential sustainable procurement considerations As for the key questions prospective buyers should be asking their suppliers upfront here, these include which methodologies their products are based on and what certifications they hold. Valid certifications in this context include TCO Certified's global sustainability for IT products marque and the US government's Energy Star symbol for energy efficiency. In fact, sustainability certifications ranked joint second with cost as the most important factor when purchasing hardware, according to participants in Barco ClickShare's survey. They were topped only by security. However, it is essential to ensure that certifications and carbon-neutral claims offer "transparency, not just reassurance", Laleeuwe warns. As such, "they should show how the product performs, which lifecycle stages are covered, how claims are validated, and what concrete design choices reduce impact," he says. In other words, it is essential to understand whether suppliers have taken environmental factors into consideration across their entire product lifecycle. Such factors include product design, which should ideally be modular so that individual components can be repaired or replaced as required. They also include which materials have been used in the manufacturing process and whether they are recyclable or at least have a low environmental footprint. The same rules apply to packaging. Other essential considerations for IT leaders during the procurement process, meanwhile, include the energy consumption of their chosen conferencing and communication platform during usage. Just as important is whether individual vendors offer take-back programs or other responsible disposal routes for products at end-of-life, such as repair and recycling. The aim here is to ensure that old equipment does not pollute the environment by ending up in landfill. As Laleeuwe points out: "Prioritizing repair and recycling extends product life, avoids premature disposal and turns ESG [environmental, social, and governance] goals into repeatable IT practices." Unfortunately, though, such activities tend to be all too frequently overlooked today. For example, Barco ClickShare's research reveals that only 42 percent of IT leaders currently select equipment that can be repaired by their manufacturer to extend its life. Even fewer (16 percent) rank repairability as a top concern. The figures are even worse in terms of recycling (11 percent) being prioritized. Unsurprisingly then, just over a third of respondents indicated their department does not always go down this route. A key problem here, says Laleeuwe, is that such activities are often simply "less visible at the initial point of purchase", which means they are rarely front of mind. The problem with hybrid working Another common challenge, meanwhile, relates to the ongoing shift towards hybrid and remote working. But according to the Barco ClickShare report, some 95 percent of IT leaders believe such practices have had an impact on their organization's sustainability efforts, ultimately making them more complex. This is at least partially due to meeting room equipment now being spread across office, home, and flexible workspaces. On the downside, this means it has become more difficult to manage and recycle e-waste from remote locations (48 percent). The growing use of personal devices has also made it trickier to ensure the adoption of energy-efficient hardware (46 percent). But on the plus side, there has been an increase in uptake of more energy-efficient cloud services compared to on premise systems (63 percent of respondents). Even here though, things are not always clear cut. As Laleeuwe explains: "IT teams need to look at the full setup: utilization, energy performance, device longevity, security, manageability and end-of-life recovery. The most sustainable choice is the one that delivers the required experience with the least avoidable footprint." The benefits of standardization One approach that does produce much more reliable results in sustainability terms though is standardizing equipment across the organization, especially in a meeting room system context. In the past, individual business departments all too often purchased such kit without consulting IT, leading to the deployment of fragmented, siloed systems. But standardization has shown it can offer various benefits. On the one hand, Laleeuwe explains: "It limits the number of device types, spare parts, support processes and replacement cycles IT has to manage, while making updates, remote management and lifecycle planning easier." On the other, organizations can benefit from economies of scale - although to what extent depends on how much e-waste or energy usage they can cut based on the size of their IT estate, usage patterns, refresh cycles, and recycling processes. A further benefit of standardization is that it provides organizations with "the control needed to measure, manage and reduce impact consistently", Laleeuwe adds. Embedding sustainability goals into the day-to-day What this demonstrates is that when ensuring sustainability goals are translated into day-to-day IT decision-making, routine choices matter. In other words, sustainability must become part of procurement requirements, implementation checklists, and lifecycle management as standard. "That means setting shared criteria for certifications, energy efficiency, durability, repairability, recyclability, vendor take-back, and lifecycle reporting," Laleeuwe says. "It also means giving IT, procurement, facilities, finance and sustainability teams joint ownership of the process." One organization that successfully embedded just this kind of approach into its workplace strategy is the Flemish Government. When renovating its Marie-Elisabeth Belpaire headquarters building in Brussels, Belgium, the Agency for Facility Operations took a multi-layered approach to sustainability. For instance, the building itself became the first in Flanders to conform to circular construction practices. This included using 68 percent reclaimed, reused, or recycled materials from the original site in its renovation activities. The building is also close to operating at net zero. This is partly due to its Thermal Energy Storage system, which captures and stores thermal energy for later use. It is also partly because of the introduction of solar panels on its roof and side walls. But another key consideration in ensuring a sustainable headquarters was the widespread adoption of green ICT. This included the introduction of a hyper-efficient Wi-Fi network to help the Government save the equivalent of 550 households-worth of electricity each year. Just as important was the standardization of the Government's meeting room technology using certified sustainable technology. To this end, more than 1,000 ClickShare wireless conferencing and collaboration devices were implemented in more than 1,000 different meeting spaces. The aim of standardizing equipment in this way was both to cut energy usage and the meeting room infrastructure's overall carbon footprint. As Laleeuwe concludes: "The lesson is clear: sustainable meeting rooms work best when technology, workplace design, user experience and lifecycle management are all planned for together and implemented in tandem." Sponsored by Barco

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

jspeter9191 has added a photo to the pool:

In the evening at Stockton beach, Anna Bay, NSW, Australia.
God bless you.

wing of kaz has added a photo to the pool:

鹿児島県鹿屋市、輝北天球館と神社 / Kihoku Tenkyukan (Observatory) and a shrine in Kanoya City, Kagoshima Prefecture

Emmanuel Macron heeft met lede ogen toegekeken hoe een studentenpartij de macht heeft gegrepen in Servië. President Vucic leek daar stevig in het zadel te zitten, maar werd toch verrast door een ogenschijnlijk goed georganiseerde beweging van jongeren. Macron zegt lessen te hebben getrokken uit deze ontwikkeling en roept heel Frankrijk op om waakzaam te zijn: ‘Dit gebeurt er dus als je goed onderwijs geeft aan jongeren.’

De conclusie is voor de zittende machthebber in Frankrijk heel simpel: als je te goed onderwijs geeft gaan goed geïnformeerde studenten zich politiek organiseren en voor dat je het weet wordt de zittende macht gewipt. Macron: ‘In Frankrijk kiezen we ervoor om te weinig docenten in te zetten en schoolgebouwen te laten verslonzen. Maar wij zijn dan ook een ontwikkeld land. Toch wil ik iedereen waarschuwen die nu denkt: dit zal ons niet overkomen. Als we niet heel kort blijven zitten op de deplorabele staat van het onderwijs, creëren we een hele generatie bijdehante studenten die in staat is zich te organiseren en een hele regering omver te werpen.’

Vooralsnog is dat niet aan de orde, met dank aan de inspanningen van de Franse autoriteiten, ziet Macron. ‘Zolang die jongeren gewoon prullenbakken in de fik steken en winkeliers beroven is dat voor de regering geen bedreiging.’

De uitspraken van Macron zijn hem direct op de nodige kritiek komen te staan. Critici wijzen erop dat de president wel makkelijk kan roepen dat het niet goed is voor het land als jongeren geen goed onderwijs krijgen, maar dat hij zelf in zijn jeugd juist altijd wél gebruik heeft gemaakt van uitstekende opleidingen. ‘Dat is hypocriet. Ook een Frans woord’, aldus een slecht geïnformeerde jongere.

Susanne Rust of the Los Angeles Times reports (paywalled) that industry executives knew for decades that microplastics were infiltrating the human body. Slashdot reader joshuark shares an excerpt from the report: Scientists today say we're just beginning to understand the harm that the tiny bits of plastic we drink, eat and breathe are doing to the human body. Internal memos among company scientists and executives obtained by The Times reveal that for at least half a century, the plastics industry has been aware of and concerned about the potential for microplastic contamination in the human body. But recently discovered chemical company documents dating back several decades show that industry scientists have long been aware of -- and concerned about -- the way microplastic particles migrate beyond the gut in animals and humans, depositing in important organs. And the potential for that knowledge to affect the plastic food packaging industry.

Their concern goes back to 1974 and a scientific meeting at a New York City hotel, where a German gastroenterologist presented a scientific paper that showed for the first time that ingested particles like microplastics could infiltrate the rest of the body. His presentation was largely overlooked by the government scientists in attendance but became a point of worried discussion among company scientists. Tracey Woodruff, professor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University, who reviewed the documents, said they indicate scientists and executives at major chemical companies have known and remained silent even as microplastics accumulated in tissues. She likened it to other industries that knew about pollutants -- greenhouse gases, asbestos and tobacco -- but did not take action to make them safer.

A spokesperson with the chemical industry's largest trade group took issue with that characterization. "Scientific debate over what the evidence shows is not silence. It is how sound science and effective policy advance," said Craig Davis, senior director of plastics chemistry at the American Chemistry Council. "Our industry is committed to advancing microplastics science by supporting independent research and policies that would do so."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.