Frits Philips: 1905-2005 Frits Philips, son of inventor Anton Philips, died last night at the age of 100. Frits, or as he was known by most people “Meneer Frits” (Mr. Frits) played a key role in the development of the Dutch Multinational Philips. Although he wasn’t known for his excellent management skills, he was a beloved and respected person in Holland espcially because of his social involvement. During WWII he didn’t leave Holland (the rest of the Philips management fled Holland) and managed to save many Jewish people from being deported to German work camps.The German occupiers even threw him […]
USA, CIA becomes its own worst enemy
Wrongful imprisonment How do you become your own worst enemy? Basically by doing the same things you accuse your enemy of doing. That is the paradox that the CIA is facing now, as it has become clear that they are using very questionable methods in the war on terror. Abduction, torture, keeping people in prisons without any trial (Guantanamo Bay): it’s just a short list of all the things the USA is doing. Dana Priest from The Washington Post has literally pulled the lid of some covert operations with her article on November 2nd called “CIA holds Terror Supects in […]
14.800 lawsuits later
RIAA: suck my **** Apparantly it takes the RIAA 14,800 lawsuits in the last two years before someone stands up against these morons. Before now not a single one has gone to trial. That’s about to change because Patricia Santangelo, a divorced mother of five living in Wappingers Falls, New York, is taking her case to trial. According to the report at the Arstechnica website, she recently found herself the target of an RIAA lawsuit and vowed to contest it, claiming that she knows nothing about downloading music online. The RIAA, however, is quite sure that she does. As they […]
The only thing worse than flying…
Flying sucks! Some times you come across an article in which the author just points something out that you can relate to completely. Such is the case with the article that Otto Stern from The Register wrote about flying and the open source community.It has been written in a humoristic way and at the same time he points out the funny relationship between flying and software (open source to be exact). I am going to quote the funniest part here. (some parts have been edited to shorten them) (…)I’m after progress, while these others are happy to wallow in the […]
A trip down memory lane: “crashed roses”
FedEx down My collegue reminded me last week of an incident that took place back in July 2002 when we worked together the first time at my old job at (then) VGM. For whatever the reason was (I can’t remember: I guess I’m getting Alzheimers), I ordered a dozen red roses online with 1-800-Flowers for my girlfriend Carrie. Since it was an overnight delivery it was going to be handled by FedEx. As usual I got a tracking number so I could see where the package was. I always liked this feature and the way you can see where your […]
Real kiss of death
Kiss of Death: for real! I guess most of you must have heard of the saying “kiss of death”, meaning that you seal someone’s faith with a kiss. Throughout history a lot of examples are around of people betraying one another with the infamous “kiss of death”. But for a 15-year old teen in Canada the kiss of death became a gruesome reality: she died after kissing her boyfriend. So reports Associated Press: By PHIL COUVRETTE, Associated Press Writer Mon Nov 28,10:31 PM ET MONTREAL – A 15-year-old girl with a peanut allergy died after kissing her boyfriend, who had […]
Justice pays
Murder victim Nienke Kleiss As I reported in this story in September, the Dutch police freed Kees B. who spend 4,5 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. In spite of overwhelming evdidence (DNA, witnesses) that he didn’t do it, the police just ignored all evidence that pointed into the direction of the real killer, Wik H. Yesterday a Dutch judge awarded a 600.835 euro damages pay to Kees B. for that fact. Since I wrote about this case a lot has happened. Kees – finally – did get an excuse from the Rotterdam Court of Justice, […]
“Gimme your Xbox 360 or I’ll shoot you!”
Not a game This morning I reported about a crowd in Delaware going crazy over the new Xbox 360, but it even gets worse: WTV.COM reports that a Tallahassee Florida man, after standing in line for several hours and spending nearly $400 on the holiday season’s hottest electronic game, was robbed at gunpoint from his new toy. Ouch! Since I know Tallahassee a bit (I go there at least twice a year) I wonder where exactly this took place; according to some reports it was a Wal-Mart (but which one?). CrashesMeanwhile, reports keep popping up that the brand new Xbox […]
“Jingle all the way”
New Xbox 360 Remember that movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger called “Jingle all the way”? He portrays a father that tries to get his hands on the most popular Xmas toy. He gets in several fights to accomplish his mission. Well, in Elkton, Maryland a melee erupted among a crowd of shoppers in the rush for the new Xbox 360 video game console at a local Wal-Mart Supercenter. According to the story at CNN it took 10 policemen to end the brawl. About 300 people waited as much as 12 hours for the game, considered a must-have item this holiday season, […]
A politically correct Christmas?
XXXmas? First, it seemed to be an American thing: the ever-stronger push toward a neutral “holiday” season so that non-Christians won’t be even the slightest bit offended. It seems that celebrating Christmas in any public way is a violation of church and state separation for US politicians (in fact: that’s where this nonsense started). But now this stupid behaviour is coming to Europe too. The Brittish town Havant, have renamed their local “Christmas Lights Party” into the “Festival of Lights”. What is wrong with people? Did we ever feel offended by Jewish hollidays or other non-western holidays? In Europe we […]