Queen’s Day 2009 has ended in a tragedy. At 11:50am some crazy person drove a Suzuki Swift straight into the crowd when he tried to ram the bus carrying the royal family and Queen Beatrix in it. So far it seems that 14 people have been wounded and 1-4 people possibly died. The driver of the car has survived the crash and has been taken from wreck to be questioned by police. A witness has declared that the car was following the trail of the bus, so it seems it was no accident. News is sketchy at the moment, but this is […]
12 Monkeys
12 Monkeys I don’t know about you, but ever since that ‘swine flu’ broke out in Mexico, I can’t help thinking of that 1995 movie “12 Monkeys”, by Terry Gilliam. The movie is set in a grim post-apocalyptic future. In 1996-1997, the Earth’s surface was contaminated by a virus so deadly that it forced the surviving population to live underground. If you have seen the movie, you probably remember that it turns out that the virus was spread by an evil scientist, set on a tour of cities (by plane), which turned out to be the path of the worldwide viral outbreak. A real bioterrorist attack, […]
How did he get that job?
Sorry for posting yet another video, but I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing. I mean; kudos for president Obama; it seems he has gathered a group of competent people around him in the White House. But I guess Press Secretary Gibbs does not fall into this category. In fact, after seeing this clip I was wondering: “how the heck did he get that job?”. The subject: yesterday a flight mission and photo op, that looked like Air Force One and fighter jets heading toward the New York City skyline, caused a panic in New York. Some buildings even got […]
At the range
Seems like all I do right now is post video’s on my Blog. And here’s another one. Our shooting club got an invitation from the Police shooting club in Amsterdam (APGS). So we headed over to their range where we learned a bit about how the Dutch police train their cops for stuations where deadly force with a gun is applied. It was quite a new experience – except for those from our club that do actionshooting. Normally I never kneel, shoot around an object or act like I’m defending myself and aim for the legs (I shoot at a […]
Suddenly Susan
It’s one of my favorite lines from The Devil’s Advocate, when John Milton (played superbly by Al Pacino) explains his success to Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves): “Don’t get too cocky my boy. No matter how good you are don’t ever let them see you coming. That’s the gaffe my friend. You gotta keep yourself small. Innocuous. Be the little guy. You know, the nerd… the leper… shit-kickin’ surfer. Look at me. Underestimated from day one. You’d never think I was a master of the universe, now would ya?” Well, that’s what happend when 47 year old Susan Boyle performed on Britain’s Got […]
Good Friday
I have to admit it: I always wanted to buy myself a big US car (in particular the Lincoln Continental Mark V), but driving home from work today in my friends convertible (a Mazda MX5 or ‘Miata’ as it’s known in the US) is making me rethink this. I was impressed with how smooth a ride it is. You can clearly hear us talking and even the radio playing in the background. Can’t imagine a more relaxed way to travel home: blue skies, sunny and a nice warm Friday afternoon.
Mobile me
So, as of this week I have 6 mobile phones in my ‘collection’. But I have owned exactly a dozen cell phones so far. And it all started in late ’95 or ’96 (I’m not 100% sure) when a Dutch company called Libertel started to compete with KPN (the only Dutch mobile phone provider at that time). They offered affordable rates at 0,25 (Guilders) cents a minute. So I got my first cellphone; an Alcatel HB100 or as I called it; “my litle brick”. Because that is what it looked like. It wasn’t the best phone and it had a fairly poor […]