Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, Encased in Glass

Just came across an article in the NY Times on the new museum in Hilversum on the Netherlands institute for Sound and Vision.

HILVERSUM, the Netherlands — It’s almost daunting to note how many young architectural talents are flourishing today in the Netherlands. If Rem Koolhaas, the profession’s reigning intellectual prince, casts a long shadow, it’s clear that plenty of emerging architects have managed to assert strong creative voices of their own.

Dutch Men

(Apologies to any non-Dutchies, but this had to be in my native language ;) )

De Nederlandse Man is hopeloos in de war. Misschien is het wel een pan-Europees (of dan in ieder geval Noord-Europees) probleem, maar het manifesteert zich voor mij het duidelijkst in de Nederlandse Man.

De NL-Vrouw is ook van het rechte pad af. Waarom? Kort door de bocht: NL-mannen zijn allemaal mietjes. De gemiddelde homo is nog mannelijker. Dit kan niet de bedoeling zijn natuurlijk.

Hoe kom ik op dit dit idee, waar komt dit gevoel vandaan? Laatst zat ik op het vliegveld van Barcelona om een vlucht terug te nemen naar Amsterdam op een donderdagmiddag met Transavia.com. Zo'n vlucht die gebruikt wordt door 50+ers die hun hele leven gepamperd zijn geweest met sociale vangnetten en zo voort. Ook is er nog een handjevol werkenden. Ik dus, zo een van achterin de 20 (eigenlijk vrijwel 30).

Die mannen die niet op Aeropuerto Barcelona zijn omdat ze werken of gewoon te veel geld hebben, nee, die gewone mannen. Daar gaat het hier om. Die overdreven gebruinde handtasflikkers of grijzende, kalende mannen met klein buikje, neerhangend hoofd, angstige blik in de ogen en zelfs bij de gate nog het buideltasje stevig onder de buik vastgegespt. Geen ietsepietsie kracht spreekt er nog uit. De vrouw ernaast daarentegen... Maar het gaat niet over de vrouwen.

Dit beeld wordt niet allen in het echte leven naar voren geschoven, zelfs in de film van de Da Vinci code (ja, ik heb hem gezien, hoort erbij) zien we een krachteloze, zweterige, licht obeese Tom Hanks een idem karakter (Robert Langdon) neerzetten me teen fobie voor afgesloten ruimtes. Daar wil ik toch een Man Man (of in ieder geval één die doet alsof) zoals... of ... Ok, tja..., nou Brad P. bijvoorbeeld, of die andere...

In mijn beeld toen ik het boek las, was die Robert L. toch echt wel een stoere, goed uitziende man van rond de 50. Stoer ook. Misschien heb ik de passages over angsten voor afgesloten ruimtes en dergelijke per ongeluk niet gelezen of uit mijn geest verbannen.

Ik had het voornamelijk over mannen boven de 40 tot nu toe, maar hoe zit het daaronder? Ik weet het niet zo goed. Aangezien men de adolescente fase momenteel doortrekt tot tenminste 35 jaar, is men rond de 40 pas net wat gevormd. Althans, zo lijkt het.

Feit is wel dat de nieuwe generatie net afgestudeerden tussen de 25 en 35 een andere kijk heeft op geld verdienen dan die half impotente, softe man waar ik het net over had. Men regelt het nu zelf wel (of niet) en trekt daar zijn eigen conclusie uit. Misschien dat deze generatie mensen van het mannelijk geslacht weer wat meer balls krijgt. Wat machogedrag overgenomen heeft van de importman (eh.. allochtonen).

Hoe de huidige generatie jongens man zal worden, zal de tijd leren. Laten we hopen op andere tijden.

(Written right after flying back from Barcelona, somewhere around half May 2006, just rediscovered this story while cleaning up my hard drive)

Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming

In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Stopping the loggers is the fastest and cheapest solution to climate change. So why are global leaders turning a blind eye to this crisis?



read more | digg story

Space... the final "thing" to keep us confused?

Just came by this article on /. about the discovery of a fossil star which is found to be 13.2 billion years old (recent studies show that the galaxy is about 13.7 bn years old). In one of the reactions someone answers the question of someone who wants to know if there is a 'place' in our universe where the Big Bang occurred. He/She states it nicely:

If by "origin" you mean "point of origin", then we already have that answer. The big bang was not an explosion which occurred at one point in space, spewing matter and energy out everywhere. The big bang was a big explosion OF space, and spewed out a glob of space which began to expand, making points more distant from each other.

So you cannot ask "where" the big bang occurred, because if you take all the points in space as far as can be seen, all of those points in space were at one single point at the moment of the big bang. So the best answer to "where" is "everywhere".

It may be nonsense (I don't think so, but I am not very well educated on the Big Bang topic), but if it is in a simplistic way correct, I like it :)

All modern humans descended from the same small group of people

Researchers have produced new DNA evidence that almost certainly confirms the theory that all modern humans have a common ancestry.

Ever since a member of my year club told me about the Dawkin's book, I all the time stumble onto stories which are related to science and religion... This one which I blogged from Digg is a lovely piece on evolution and read the reactions given by it's readers...

read more | digg story

45% of Europeans watch TV online

"A new study from Motorola has found that an amazing 45% of Europeans now watch television online.The survey covering the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain found that the French lead Europe in terms of online television consumption with 59% of people choosing to watch previews and episodes of their favourite shows via the web."
What is not stated here: 45% of all Broadband users. Nevermind, I am pretty curious about the use of watching through www.uitzendinggemist.nl in the Netherlands.

read more | digg story

My dear old asus p2b :)

The inside of my old desktop computer from 1998. The apparatus still functions pretty well with its overclocked celeron 1 Ghz proc. Right now it contains a 40 gig hd and the Ubuntu os and it runs like a charm. My plan is to donate it to one of my grandmothers as it contains only one big firefox button in the middle of the screen saying: The big internet for everything. As far as I'm concerned everything is online (email, wordprocessor, calendar and the rest, finally those old people only need to remember what butto to push)

Dorem i Fasoll a Sido (i.e. 3FM Awards)

The 3FM Awards 2007 were held in Pop Temple Paradiso in Amsterdam. This former church now served as an "altar" for the Dutch pop music (not necessarily  in the Dutch language, most artists sing in English).
The Grand Opening was the most spectacular part (although on tv it did not look as catchy as on stage). First a lecture by Eric Corton, after that a spectacular mix of music and music videos (lot's of different styles combined into one mix) and after that Claudia de Breij hanging from the cross (pictured below during the preparations) just like Madonna did in her criticized show. Claudia her song was about her act not being offensive at all. 

 

Slashdot | 48% of Americans Reject Evolution

Slashdot | 48% of Americans Reject Evolution. WTF?!?! Is the world finally coming to an end? Is the Apocalypse there? Of course it is not a /. article, but a poll by Newsweek, you can read it here.
It states that 48% of the USA residents do not believe in evolution. Furthermore, 34% of college graduates (!) accept the Biblical story of creation as fact. Also we (earth and everything) were created by a godlike figure and not more than 10.000 years ago...
I am totally flabbergasted. Even more because of 91% (!) of the adult Americans say the believe in god.

But, this hits the alarm bells in my mind:

Nearly half (47 percent) of the respondents felt the country is more accepting of atheists today that it used to be and slightly more (49 percent) reported personally knowing an atheist. Those numbers are higher among respondents under 30 years old, 62 percent of whom report knowing an atheist (compared to just 43 percent of those 50 and older).

Like thinking for yourself is merely a crime... (at least, that is what I read in those sentences).

Quickly religions seem to take over the world once again. I hope it is their last gasp. But infiltrating everywhere, even paleontologists claim official degrees and tell the world that it is only 10.000 years old...

Cars and bikes

The same as the previous tow-away dog post. The removal of bikes + cars. Well, I can see how to remove a bike which is parked in front of this house. I am really curious about the cars. Again I have some very interesting mental pictures.