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.

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

  • Book review: Sapiens

    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…

  • Book review: Humankind

    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…

  • Writing

    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…

  • 8 years

    8 years

    8 years ago today, December 15 of 2011, the world lost Christopher Hitchens. Although there are probably some people who didn’t mind to see him go, especially those in religious circles, I do miss him. Readers of my blog will know that I admire him, though not always agree with him. It saddens me that…

  • The best teachers…

    The best teachers…

    The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see, a quote by Alexandra K. Trenfor. Very true and very inspirational for all people who train, educate or raise.

  • Vegetarian

    Vegetarian

    The last couple of months, I have been considering a lifestyle change. Part of that includes more exercise but also healthier living in general. Part of that is a change in diet and even adopting a vegetarian lifestyle. There are several reasons why being a vegetarian is appealing to me but also several reasons why…

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“There are two different kinds of people in the world: those who want to know, and those who want to believe.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

Philosopher