Hello! I'm Robin, I am usually active on Meta and Wikimedia Incubator to help with the creation of new wikis, but I also edit from time to time here or on other Wikimedia projects like the English Wiktionary, Dutch Wikipedia, ... See Meta for more information.
Some of my interests:
- Languages (especially minority/endangered languages) and linguistics.
- European Union; states/countries and their structure (political structure, infrastructure, ...)
- Energy problem, renewable energy, global warming, ...
- Internet, software (PHP, web apps), ...
[edit] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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An encyclopedia ought to make good the failure to execute such a project hitherto, and should encompass not only the fields already covered by the academies, but each and every brand of human knowledge. This is a work that cannot be completed except by a society of men of letters and skilled workmen, each working separately on his own part, but all bound together solely by their zeal for the best interests of the human race and a feeling of mutual good will. |
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—Denis Diderot, Encyclopédie
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Found thanks to [1]
[edit] Userboxes
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Geography
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Politics |
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This user supports Obama. |
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Software
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Computing |
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This user uses Google as a primary search engine. |
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This user believes in compliance with W3C standards. |
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This User Loves Pizza |
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[edit] Useful, interesting or nice pages
- Templates
- Templates
- Days
[edit] Europe
Trying to better understand the structure of European institutions.
- The European Union (Europese Unie): an economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe.
- The Council of the European Union (Raad van de Europese Unie): legislative institution representing the governments of member states. The exact membership depends upon the topic; for example, when discussing agricultural policy the Council is formed by the twenty-seven national ministers whose portfolio includes this policy area (with the related European Commissioner contributing but not voting). The Presidency of the Council rotates biannually between the governments of EU member states, with the relevant minister of the respective country holding the Presidency at any given time ensuring the smooth running of the meetings and setting the daily agenda.
- The European Council (Europese Raad): institution responsible for defining the general political direction and priorities of the Union. It comprises the heads of state or government of EU member states, along with its President and the President of the Commission. The High Representative takes part in its meetings, which are chaired by its President, currently Herman Van Rompuy. While the European Council has no formal legislative power, it is an institution that deals with major issues and any decisions made are "a major impetus in defining the general political guidelines of the European Union".
- The European Commission (de Europese Commissie) is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union. The Commission operates as a cabinet government, with 27 Commissioners. There is one Commissioner per member state, though Commissioners are bound to represent the interests of the EU as a whole rather than their home state. One of the 27 is the Commission President (currently José Manuel Durão Barroso) appointed by the European Council. The Council then appoints the other 26 Commissioners in agreement with the nominated President, and then the 27 Commissioners as a single body are subject to a vote of approval by the European Parliament.[3] The first Barroso Commission took office in 2004 and its successor, under the same President, took office in 2010.
- The European Parliament (Europees Parlement): the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU). Together with the Council of the European Union (the Council), it forms the bicameral legislative branch of the EU and has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world. The Parliament and Council form the highest legislative body within the EU. The Parliament is composed of 736 MEPs (Member of the European Parliament), who serve the second largest democratic electorate in the world (after India) and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world (375 million eligible voters in 2009).
- The Council of Europe (Raad van Europa): one of the oldest international organisations working towards European integration, having been founded in 1949. It has a particular emphasis on legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. It has 47 member states with some 800 million citizens.
[edit] Belgium...
[edit] Visited countries
Lived in:
Visited:
 Austria: Innsbruck, ... France: Nord, Normandie, Provence, Paris, ... Germany: Schwarzwald, Berlin, ... India: Mumbai Israel: Haifa, Jerusalem Italy: Toscane, Rome, ... Luxembourg: (when driving through the country) Netherlands
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Parliaments:
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Visited:
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Only seen from outside:
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[edit] Links about languages
[edit] Renewable energy
Interesting to compare :-) See also list of renewable energy topics by country and Special:PrefixIndex/Renewable energy in.
| country |
percentage (year) |
population |
density |
comments |
| Iceland |
71,3% (2005) |
+ 300.000 |
3,1/km² |
The remainder of its energy needs are produced from imported oil & coal. Icelandic New Energy was established to govern the project of transitioning it into the first hydrogen society by 2050. |
| Germany |
14,2% (2007) |
+ 82.000.000 |
230/km² |
Doubled in ± 5 years. Germany's renewable energy sector among most innovative and successful worldwide. |
| Finland |
24,7% (2007) |
+ 5.000.000 |
16/km² |
Mainly by wood industry. |
| Spain |
19,9% (2006) |
+ 45.000.000 |
90/km² |
Northern Spain more than half is renewable (up to 70,8%), Southern and Central Spain less. Madrid just 1.6%. Solar panels compulsory for new buildings. |
| Scotland |
4% (2007) |
+ 5.000.000 |
65/km² |
Renewables contribute 19% of total electrical production, but about 4% of all energy usage. Only 20% of energy was consumed in the form of electricity by end users, the great majority of energy utilised being from the burning of oil (41%) and gas (36%). |
| Portugal |
23,8% (2004) |
+ 10.000.000 |
114/km² |
Decline (but unstable, could be increasing again). |
| United States |
6% (?) |
+ 305.000.000 |
31/km² |
13% in California as leading state. |
Overview of the historical rule over the area where I live; more or less:
[edit] Flemish
[edit] Situation of Flanders
From my point of view, we are "threatened" (linguistically) from the north and the south.
- Language is what people speak, not what people "should" speak. Our official "Standard Dutch" language is just standardised Hollandic. We speak Flemish in Flanders, not Hollandic. Either classify it as a separate language, or recognise the differences and make it a variant of the Dutch standard.
- The frenchification has to stop.
[edit] Flemish in linguistics
- Flemish (historical): spoken in the County of Flanders.
- Flemish (modern): the language(s) and dialect(s) spoken in the Flemish Region. There are various dialects of this lect, but it's unifying (in a natural way, not forced), called tussentaal.
- Brabantian: the dialect of Flemish (linguists prefer "dialect of Dutch") which has the most influence to tussentaal.
- Belgian Dutch: the official standard of Dutch as used in Belgium/Flanders (not spoken by largely anyone).
[edit] Ethnicity
[edit] Notes on Flemish/Dutch people/ethnic group
It is impossible to define ethnic groups strictly. It's more a continuum like languages, so peoples are different but only to a slight extent, just as Flemish is different from Dutch but only to a slight extent (both in ethnic and linguistic sense). The page "Dutch people" is about the people of the Netherlands, just as "Germans" is about the people of Germany (the page does not include numbers of German-speaking Swiss or Austrians. Those Swiss and Austrians just happen to have independent countries, like the Flemish happen to live in Belgium. Take a look for example to Zeelandic Flanders or French Flanders which were part of the historical Flanders, whereas Limburg (Belgium) is more closely related to Limburg (Netherlands) than to other Belgian provinces. Similar cases exist with other counties / ethnic groups. So it is difficult to draw the line of an ethnic group, and I just want to say it is a continuum, so numbers of peoples/ethnic groups are based upon the number of inhabitants of countries for pragmatic reasons.
[edit] Sources
The following sources mention Flemings as part of a Dutch ethnic group:
The following sources mention Flemings as a separate ethnic group (though not all sources are notable):
Flanders (somewhere in 
Flemish Brabant)
Kingdom of Belgium > 
European Union
