Here’s how you spark a true Internet meme: you spot something funny in an old B&W 1928 Charly Chaplin movie, post it on the Internet (YouTube) together with a ridiculous explanation. And with this simple post the guy gets over 4 million hits and a lot of debate, varying from plain stupid to intriguing. Just watch this video from this guy called George Clarke (if you can make it past the annoying self-promotion – just skip it if you need) and hear and see what the fuzz is all about: So, did that make you go “Hmmm”? Don’t you think, […]
Welcome to “Wildersland”
Today we are one step away from the worst government in Holland since 1940. A government kept hostage by a right-wing nut case who’s abject anti-Islam political agenda will divide our country, drive our citizens to the boiling point and make our country a prime target for lunatics. So what is going on then? On Saturday February 20th this year, our government fell, after arguments over the Dutch continuation of a military mission in Afghanistan in 2010. The four parties that formed the government up to that time, consisted of the CDA (Christian Democratic Appeal), VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy), […]
A flight attendants exit strategy
Let me tell you something. I fly internationally frequently. And ‘flight attendants’ – or as we know ‘m: stewards or stewardesses – do not have the glamorous job people might think they have. Sure, if you look no further than the surface you see mostly young, attractive people flying all over the world to cool places. And people generally envy them for that. Well, reality is that they are mostly playing babysitters to annoying people. People that don’t obey the safety rules on a plane. People who are rude and get abusive because they experienced a delay of simply because they had to much […]
Darth Vader robs bank: “I find my lack of money… Disturbing.”
Now here is something you don’t see every day: a guy (at least we think it’s a guy) robs a bank in Long Island (NY) dressed as… Darth Vader. What? Yeah, I laughed at it as well. Makes you wonder: is Darth Vader trying to rebuild his Death Star? According to anonymous sources, Darth Vader explained himself to the bank employee saying: “I find my lack of money… Disturbing.” 🙂 Darth Vader really must have been low on cash: his getaway vehicle was a bicycle instead of a Tie Fighter. Anyway, here is a video report on the whole deal.
Jobs addresses ‘Antennagate’: “Smartphones have issues”
As announced Thursday, Apple addressed their problems biggest public relation issue in a long time: the new iPhone 4, in a special press conference that took place Friday at 7pm (CET), 10am pacific time. Steve Jobs himself took the stage and addressed, what he dubbed ‘Antennagate’. You can watch his whole speech at the Apple site and I encourage you to do so and then read on. So what did Jobs do? Well, after throwing some data at the press (“3 million iPhone 4’s sold in 3 weeks”) Jobs first demonstrated how other (popular) smartphones have antenna issues as well. Jobs continued […]
A heroes welcome
Holland may have lost the World Cup Soccer, but that’s not how the 800.000 people perceived it when they gave our National Soccer Team a heroes welcome this Tuesday. As I wrote before, the national team that won the European Soccer Cup back in 1988 received the same kind of welcome. To be honest: it gave me – and many of my fellow countrymen some closure. It also showed that we backed up our team, no matter what. And like in 1988 it also gave us some unique footage of literally hundred thousands of crazy Orange fans celebrating 🙂 As […]
National trauma number three
Normally three times is a charm, but for Holland it has become more like a curse: again we failed to win the Holy Grail of Soccer, the World Cup. After ’74, ’78, now 2010 goes into the Dutch history books as the third national soccer trauma. We all knew it was going to be a tough match against Spain – the ruling European Soccer Champions – but nothing in this world could have prepared us for this match. Until the final, the tournament went very well for Holland: our National team won 14 straight games, counting the qualifying matches and […]
D-Day for Dutch soccer team
Today is the chance for the Dutch national soccer team to write soccer history (in more than one way) by becoming the World Soccer Champions for the first time in Dutch history. In order to get this privilege we need to defeat the current European Soccer Champions: Spain. And that is going to be a very difficult task. It has been 32 (!) years since we played in the World Cup finals. We lost in 1978 (against Argentina) and our whole nation is eager to see us all win the World Cup this time, for the first time. Although everyone is […]
Holland vs Spain!
Now that Spain has beaten Germany (shocking!) 1:0 we will play against Spain in the 2010 World Soccer Championship. Whoever wins: there is going to be a new World Champion Soccer as neither country has ever won the world cup before. Everyone in Holland would have loved it if we had to play against Germany (revenge for 1974 when they beat us), but Spain it is. No doubt it’s going to be a historical match. Is 2010 the year in which we finally win the World Cup for the first time in our history? Holland has had it’s best tournament […]
Election day
Tomorrow it’s election day in Holland. I have been voting since I was 18 (legal age to vote in Holland) and this is the first time in 25 years that I will not vote for the political party that I like, but I have to vote for the most likely political coalition I want and trust to be good for Holland. What? Yeah, that was what I was thinking too. But the reality for the 2010 elections is, that coalitions need to be formed to get a majority in parliament. And this election the voters are so divided that you […]