Queen's Night

Live music, many many temporary outdoor beer bars, mild weather ... Amsterdam's version of Mardi Gras.

Funny, you don't look Irish

Lift-off

Good for her:

US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in January, has been declared fit enough to attend her husband's space shuttle launch.

Nasa astronaut Mark Kelly said his wife's reaction to the doctors' decision had been to pump her fist and say: "Awesome!"
Ms Giffords narrowly survived the shooting spree by a gunman in Tucson, Arizona, that killed six people.
Mr Kelly is commander of the Endeavour, due to lift off on Friday.
It will be one of the last space shuttle missions and the launch will be attended by President Barack Obama and other VIPs.
"I have met with her neurosurgeon and her doctors, and... they have given us permission to take her down to the launch," Mr Kelly told CBS News. "I'm excited about that," he added.

Easter Saturday video

Music by Sharon Van Etten:

Happy Easter!

Delivery van

The DHL truck is different here.

Dive Dubai

Translation:  "We have a female diving instructor"

My Beach

No patio or garden at my apartment ... but across the street in front of the tree is an area between the bike racks that is usually vacant on the weekend (those racks are overflowing with commuter bikes Mon-Fri) ... so I have a folding camp chair I take out there when the weather is nice ... as it's been UNBELIEVABLE this week ... and that's my beach.  It's not much beach, but you take what you can get!

Dude ...

The pink sunglasses ... come on ...

It is currently 77 degrees in Amsterdam ... in April

And it's going to be close tomorrow!

Internet City, Dubai

We were working in one of Oracle's buildings in Internet City.  Weather was 85-95 degrees while there, never saw a cloud .... just sand haze.

Saturday run to the bakery

Never really got sunny today but mild weather is good enough.

Corner in front of the bakery, 3 blocks from home

My bike parked across the street from the bakery

Herenstrat, heading home from the bakery, I live at the end of the next block

Rambo

My hair cutter Yolanda's Staffordshire Bull, "Rambo" ... while I was waiting to get a haircut today.  He's going to be 80+ pounds when he grows up, fortunately he's very friendly.

Her 4-week-old baby Danny was also in the salon but slept through my entire visit.  Danny is well guarded.

Leiden

Took advantage of a sunny, mild Sunday and put my bike on the train to explore someplace new, the university city of Leiden and the surrounding lake district.  Gorgeous day.

Meanwhile back home

Orcas say -- back off, monkeys!

Whale watchers and other boaters will have to stay twice as far from Puget Sound's orca whales to avoid disturbing the endangered species, under new rules issued Friday by the federal government.
Boaters also won't be allowed to cut in front of a whale to intercept it, but the government dropped plans to ban vessels from the west side of Orcas Island during summer after public opposition, according to documents released by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The new rules take effect next month, and will apply to everything from yachts and whale-watching tours to kayaks and sailboats. Commercial fishing boats and container ships and tankers traveling in established fishing lanes will be exempt.
The population of Puget Sound's southern resident orcas has dropped more than half from historic highs and now numbers an estimated 86. The marine mammals were listed as federally endangered species in 2005, largely as a result of pollution, declines in chinook salmon, their key food source, and harassment by vessels.

Seattle Times

Sounds like a Tom Clancy novel

A British sailor aboard a nuclear-powered submarine has apparently shot dead a crew member and seriously wounded another while the vessel was on a goodwill visit to an English port, officials said.

The suspect was overpowered by colleagues and visiting dignitaries aboard HMS Astute and arrested on suspicion of murder.

Police and military officials said the incident was not related to terrorism, but offered few details about what may have prompted a sailor to open fire during a tour of the submarine by local officials in Southern England.

Britain's Press Association news agency reported the dead and injured crewmen were officers. The suspect was a sentry armed with an SA80 service rifle. Submariners do not routinely carry loaded firearms aboard ships, but those on sentry duty are armed.

Southampton city council leader Royston Smith said he was in the submarine's control room when a man entered, said something, then retreated to a corridor. Two shots rang out before the man walked back in and opened fire.

"I decided the best form of defence at that point was probably to disarm the chap," Smith told the BBC.

In Soviet Russia, blog posts you

MOSCOW — At the end of a week of cyberattacks on popular, freewheeling Russian Web sites, which bloggers have blamed on shadowy government agencies, a top official with the federal security service on Friday proposed a ban on Skype, Gmail and Hotmail here because their use is “uncontrolled.”

An adviser to President Dmitry Medvedev, whose blog has been disrupted, was quick to criticize the proposal, and the communications minister, Igor Shchyogolev, ruled out the idea. But a spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said it was worth studying and called the FSB’s proposal “quite well-reasoned.”  The foreign e-mail and communications Web services use encryption technology that makes them inaccessible to the security agency, said Alexander Andreyechkin, head of the FSB’s information and special communication center. That, he said, represents a threat to national security.

 Washington Post

Governments around the world will continue to try to reign in the free exchange of information represented by the Internet.  They will always say it is about 'security.'  My advice?  Encrypt everything.  Overwhelm them with data they can't possibly track.  Fight every aspect of government intrusion into this realm, or corporate co-opting of the infrastructure.

This is only about the continued of existence of any semblance of freedom on the planet, though ... no biggie.

Superbus

Dutch astronaut Wubbo Ockels is behind this concept 20-million dollar bus that can carry 23 people at 155 mph.

I get the feeling it will be used mostly to shuttle people about 2 miles from the airport to the beach in Dubai.

The Joy Formidable

Red Alert?

From the home office view the other day ... I don't know which alarm they were testing, but it worked, I was alarmed.

Bike commute

Took the bike for a 'quick' run to the office in Den Haag to drop off some paperwork today ...

Unfolded and ready to disembark in Den Haag in the 'bike section' of the train

Lunchtime in The Hague

Back home in Amsterdam, from my front door ... what a crappy day, huh?

C*O*P*S Amsterdam

8:30 Wednesday morning.  Whatever the cops found on this guy, they didn't like it, and he ended up being cuffed and taken away in an unmarked VW Golf.  I wonder if he found being arrested in front of the Totalitarian Art Gallery ironic.

April 5

Priorities

Is it bad news for Google that product architect Jonathan Rosenberg, the guy in charge of little projects like Search and Android, is resigning from Google?

I'd say it's more of a good sign for Rosenberg!  He was only planning on staying at Google for another couple years until his daughter started college, then he was interested in doing other things.  New CEO Larry Page was looking for long-term commitments from members of his team and rather than change his priorities, Rosenberg said "guess I'll resign now, then."

Of course, nobody ever really leaves, do they?  Because after an unspecified amount of time off, Rosenberg will continue to act as a consultant for Google!

Storage

Looked like rain tonight.  Folding bike at the bottom of my stairs ... only 2 more flights down from there to the street!

Well that can't be good

This is the 'leak' of contaminated water into the ocean from the Fukushima nuclear plant.  By 'leak' what they mean is apparently 'fire hose.'  Current estimates are that seven TONS of contaminated water is leaking from the plant every HOUR.

Bike pic

Still experimenting with the new folding bike ... don't really want to lug it up 4 flights of stairs every night, it does weigh 26 pounds and it is a narrow winding staircase (remembering my building is about 200 years older than the oldest building in Port Townsend).

But locking the frame and rear wheel to the railing outside my front door while I quick-release the seat (with pump built into the post) and store it in the umbrella stand just inside our building's front door ... that could work.

Handlebars lowered to railing height, seat post pulled, chained to railing through frame

Survivor

Three weeks after being washed out to sea by the tsunami in Japan, this dog was spotted on top of floating debris by the Japanese Coast Guard.  At first they tried a rescue by helicopter, but the noise of the helicopter frightened the dog and it hid from them.  When a boat reached the raft of ruined housing material, the dog was rescued.  So far they have no idea about who the owners were, or their fate.

UPDATE:  Two year old "Ban" was recognized by her owner, a Japanese woman who saw coverage of the dog's rescue on TV.  Ban jumped up and gave her owner a big wag when she turned up at the animal shelter.  Check out the video, there is no mistaking a dog's recognition of its owner!

Good news, Bad news for Obama

Sure ... bad news that Obama has to deal with Afghans (and most certainly some foreign agents fomenting violence) running around murdering U.N. personnel because that loony pastor in Florida burned a Koran and they heard about it.  And ... seeing yourself burned in effigy must never really be a good thing.

On the other hand, I think Obama can show this picture to the people still under the delusional belief that he's secretly a Muslim and say "Ya think?"

Nieuwe Spiegelstraat ... bike highway

Sun and boats are out on Saturday

New bike in the rack

New Wheels

In the Netherlands, you can take your bike on the train, but not during rush hour and only if you pay an extra ticket price.  But if you have a folding bicycle, you can take it on any time and for free.  When I commute on the train down to our office in The Hague, it's about a 45-minute train ride and then a tram ride, walk, or bike ride to the office ... 10 minute bike ride, and we have secure underground bike parking at the office.

I don't have a car ... I live in the middle of Amsterdam and it's insanely expensive to park here, and I don't need a car for the job ... but it's Amsterdam, so I have to have a bike.  Got a cheap one when I first came here, now it looks like I'll be here for at least another year, so ....

Got a folding bicycle today at a shop down near our office in The Hague.  Very helpful staff, found just what I was looking for after a little online research, a Dahon 7-speed internal hub folder ... weighs about 25 lbs., folds up to a little bigger than the wheels, little magnets hold it together folded, easy to transport.  I'm hoping to take a lot of day-trips on the train this spring to see other cities in Holland that I haven't been to since moving here.

Here it is chained to the railing outside my building's front door (the black door on the right).