Jim Morrison, the famous lead-singer of ‘The Doors’, allegedly died on the third of July in 1971 at the age of 27. The news spread like wildfire around the globe, soon followed by an enormous amount of rumors. Jim died under mysterious circumstances. As with the passing of all great artists a lot of people can’t believe it is true and claim that Jim is still alive. The claims are often accompanied by statements like “Jim staged his own death to get away from the business” or “to get out of a record deal” and the list goes on and on and on…

As someone who is skeptic by nature I don’t believe all this talk about Jim not being dead and faking his death and stuff like that. I just enjoy what is left of Jim (& The Doors), two handful of great records. Did I already mention I’m a skeptic? Well, I’m a skeptic.
Well, I was a skeptic………

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The global warming hype is omnipresent. You can’t turn on a news channel or read a newspaper without being dictated the ‘global warming’ issue. Although the ‘global warming’ (or climate change) theory is really just a prediction the media report on it as if it is a fact. Why is there so little attention for theories that oppose the ‘global warming’ theory?

You have to hand it to the global warming theorists: they use a brilliant strategy. From now on I will use the term globiwarmis^®™ for ‘global warming theorists’ to save some typing. Their strategy is to predict doom and adopt the ‘act now!’ solution. There is really no way that the globiwarmis can lose. Here is how…

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I found this somewhere on the net. I literally tore it of the page to put it in my own webspace.

My good friend and colleague Karel Kubat offered me a good suggestion to kill some time (thanks Karel). “Flock of Dodos” is a documentary on intelligent design and evolution. Very interesting stuff regardless which side you are on. It is currently on YouTube, 9 pieces of 10 minutes each. Get your fix now… links are included.

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Help me eens herinneren… was het niet in mei 2006? Ja, het was in mei 2006. Minister Donner heeft weer eens een aangescherpt wetje door de eerste kamer gedrukt. Of hoe zou Pronk dat zeggen? “Donner heeft er weer een wetje doorheen ger-r-r-rommeld”. Ik hoor ‘t Pronk zeggen.

Nu kun je van minister Donner zeggen wat je wilt maar het is wel een gluiperig, achterbaks mannetje. Althans dat is mijn mening, zo komt hij op mij over. Mijn vertrouwen in hem gaat niet verder dan ik hem kan gooien. Het is iemand waarvan je ten stelligste vermoed dat hij twee gezichten heeft. Of beter: in ieder geval meer dan één.

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When it comes to politics I regard myself a true liberal, although I’m not politically active and not a member of any political party. As a liberal I grant myself and all others far-reaching liberties. However liberty and responsibility go hand in hand. That said, my version of liberalism can be summarized into the phrase “live and let live”. Ones freedom ends (or is restricted) where one person invades the freedom of someone else. Then there is the law. I believe all your actions should also be in compliance with the law. When someone chooses to break the law he or she will have to accept the consequences for that. In a worst case scenario ones freedom can be restricted as a consequence of breaking the law. Now this may be a very simplistic view but it is at least pretty clear. Now where are the dire straits?
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Today is the birthday of one of my musical heroes since I was a little boy of around ten. The first time I heard his music I knew: this is it. This is what music should sound like. A highly energetic, loud and fast kind of music I never heard before.

I regularly enjoyed live shows where the music had even more power and energy than the records. While the band was finishing one song Herman already started the intro of the next song on his piano.

Herman Brood was born on the 5th of november 1946. He would have been 61 today were he still alive. Not forgotten, sorely missed.

Just a quick note: I created a new theme for my blog. Unfortunately this theme is not suited for distribution since it contains graphics specific for my blog called “BloggEd!”

If you are using wordpress as well and you are interested in this theme please leave a comment. If enough people like it I will create a generalized version suitable for any wordpress blog out there. This takes some time though so I will only do this if enough people like the theme.

Kirk out.

De aanblik van de grijze lucht op deze saaie dag deed niet vermoeden dat er nog iets opmerkelijks zou gebeuren vandaag. Het was echt zo’n vacuum gezogen dag. Je gaat alleen de deur uit omdat het nodig is. In dit geval was de broodtrommel zo goed als leeg behoudens een klein grijs muisje dat daar al een paar weken woont. Het kan verbeelding zijn maar sinds het muisje in mijn broodtrommel woont lijkt het brood veel eerder op te zijn dan ervoor.

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“I’m a backdoor man” sang Jim Morrison way back when. I would have to change that to “I’m a backend man” as a software engineer working primarily on backend computer systems.

As a backend-man I hardly get to design user interfaces or any other things that will be noticed by the users of the applications. The challenges at the backend are numerous and as such my job is very satisfying. However when friends and relatives ask what I do all day I can’t show them anything. There’s no visual evidence of my labor.

One of my friends managed to escape the backend-life to focus on design. The great thing is that every once in a while he can show some of the great things he has accomplished.

Lately he contacted me to check out his latest work of art. Stuff like this makes online shopping more fun. He created a really great Rube Goldberg machine.

Check this out now!

All credits go to these guys 

Je kunt het lang uitstellen maar het is een strijd tegen de tijd waarvan je van te voren weet dat je die gaat verliezen… Dus ik pak mijn verlies en bezoedel mijn maagdelijk witte blog met de eerste post. En uitgerekend op de dag dat je genoeg moed verzameld hebt om je blog te ontmaagden heb je niets te melden.

Of ik zou moeten verhalen over het voorval waar ik geen voorrang verleende aan een van rechts komende automobilist. Ik wist dat hij voorrang had maar de auto voor me dook ook nog net voor ‘m uit. Daarom moest de van rechts komende bestuurder afremmen… en wie remt verliest de aanspraak op voorrang. Dat zijn de regels die gelden in de asfalt-jungle.

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