Zo schieten we niet op mensen. Hebben we een keer een toplied - Ik ben verliefd haakje openen - shalalie - haakje sluiten - en dan kiezen we zo’n gewoon, zeg maar doodgewoon, stemmetje om het te zingen. De eerste prijs lag echt voor het grijpen en nu wordt het weer maximaal middenmootje op het Eurovisie Songfestival. En vergis ik me of zingt Sieneke - ze ziet er uit als een gezellige moeke maar is zeventien - in het begin zelfs heel even vals? Deskundigen plenty bij drasties, dus kom er maar in.
Nog even in de herinnering halen. Pierre Kartner maakte in 1977 een liedje, waarvan na veel soebatten eindelijk 1000 singeltjes mochten worden gedrukt. Nu zijn er wereldwijd 30 miljoen exemplaren verkocht van zijn smurfenlied.
Doodzonde dat Sieneke gewoon niet smurft.
On Sunday evening, in one of the oddest and most disappointing Dutch song contests, the Netherlands chose the act to sing the song ‘it’ had already chosen for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
As for the song - Ik Ben Verliefd (Sha la lie) - or I’m In Love (Sha-la-lee) - the only good thing about it is that it’s sung in Dutch; maybe that will disguise the total vacuous-ness of the lyric.
Believe me, I sat down to watch the National Song Contest with some vestige of hope. I’m always hopeful that the Netherlands will come up with something amazing. After all, the Dutch have won this Eurovision contest on four occasions since 1956. Last year, young Ralf even took the crown at the - much smaller - junior version of the competition, and his self-penned ditty was also in Dutch. read on>> Lees verder hier »
De veerboot over de Schotse rivier de Clyde stopt er mee. Vandaar dat Schotten in de toekomst in een Nederlandse bus vervoerd zullen worden. Herhaal: bus!
Het betreft hier de amfibiebus van Splashtours (Rederij Tonissen) die vanaf de weg zo het water induikt. Niet voor niets kreeg Splashtours in 2007 de Ketelbinkieprijs voor meest innovatieve Rotterdamse ondernemer. Probleem is wel dat sinds 2007 nog nooit een bus lang genoeg heeft gedreven om in gebruik genomen te worden. En de eerlijkheid gebiedt te zeggen dat ook de amfibiebus in Schotland zich na een paar testritten al weer in de garage bevindt, of op de werf, één van beide.
It was not a sinking feeling exactly. But Stagecoach’s hopes that its trials of a new amphibious bus would go off without a hitch were dampened on Monday when the vehicle had to be dry-docked for repairs.
Stagecoach is testing the Dutch-built £700,000 amfibus as a possible replacement for passengers who face the loss of the existing ferry service between Renfrew and Yoker from the end of March.
The “amfibus”, seen here testing the water between Renfrew and Yoker on the River Clyde, developed a minor technical glitch after its second crossing – forcing the trial to be suspended while the vehicle was repaired. read on>> Lees verder hier »
CarAdvice.com - Moves to save Saab have taken another step forward overnight with the European Commission approving a 400 million euro (AUD$633 million) loan from the European Investment Bank to help establish Saab Spyker Automobiles N.V.
European Union competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, said the loan to Saab will not cause “any undue distortions of competition” and complied with the aid rules it set out. read on>> Lees verder hier »
Saturday night Sarah Palin was caught using “hand”-written notes during a Q & A session at the National Tea Party Convention this weekend. Even though the questions were ‘pre-screened‘. Ironically, during the appearance, Palin also criticized President Obama for using a teleprompter during speeches.
On Fox & Friends this morning, the hosts defended their colleague’s Telepalmer notes. Gretchen Carlson suggested that it was a brilliantly clever plot to draw attention to Obama’s use of a teleprompter:
CARLSON: I think she did it on purpose. I think she did it on purpose, yeah. Because it’s an exact opposite of reading off the teleprompter with a script written for you with every word in a sentence and here’s she’s just taking crib notes on her hand. It makes her look like she can just talk off the cuff and she just jotted down a few couple notes before she went out to give a big long speech.
DOOCY: I think she did it because she probably does it a lot. I do that all the time. […]
KILMEADE: But to sit there and look at, and do the interview and look down at her hand, I think that is — like you said before, Gretchen — folksy, absolutely, down-to-earth, I can identify. But if you’re going to write on your hand, why not just say, ’staffer, hand me a card.’ And then it would be okay.
CARLSON: Nah, like I said, I think it was on purpose. But anyway, we we may never know. read on>> Lees verder hier »
Wall Street is boos op de Democraten. Ze hebben veel geld in de Democratische partij gestoken en daarmee de verkiezing van president Obama mogelijk gemaakt. En toch blijft dat gezeik over bonussen, meer controle en een hervorming van het financiële stelsel maar aanhouden. Kortom: Wall Street heeft er goed spijt van. De financiële wereld gaat de Republikeinen steunen, schrijft Glenn Greenwald.
Political science professors could require students to read this article from today’s New York Times and little else would be needed to convey the essence of the American political system. The article describes how Wall Street — which poured massive amounts of money into the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party over the last several years, ensuring unparalleled access and influence — is now threatening to support the Republicans if Obama keeps saying mean things about them. Wall Street executives are angry that, after duly purchasing the Democrats (they have receipts and everything), the Obama White House is now rousing the dirty rabble with their anti-banker rhetoric: read on>> Lees verder hier »
“We’ve always known that America’s reign as the world’s greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic.
What we’re getting instead is less a tragedy than a deadly farce. Instead of fraying under the strain of imperial overstretch, we’re paralyzed by procedure. Instead of re-enacting the decline and fall of Rome, we’re re-enacting the dissolution of 18th-century Poland.”
Reageren op ikjes. Hier kunt u reageren op het ‘ikje’ dat vandaag is gepubliceerd op de Achterpagina van het NRC Handelsblad. Op de NRC-site kan niet meer worden gereageerd op het stukje dat door de lezers zelf wordt ingezonden. Het alternatief op drasties. Is uw ikje niet geplaatst door het NRC dan kunt u het publiceren op drasties in de categorie Trots Op Ikje. Opsturen via ‘contact us’.
Ik had per internet een pasje besteld om naar een grote beurs te gaan in het CNIT in La Défense. Tot mijn grote schrik stond er een rij van wel honderd mensen om zich te laten registreren. Ik baande me een weg naar voren en zei luid: ‘Ik moet absoluut nu naar binnen, neem me niet kwalijk dat ik voordring’.
De hôtesse maakte mijn badge klaar en opende deur. Net voor ik naar binnen ging vroeg iemand: ‘wat is er dan zo belangrijk dat u niet op uw beurt wachten kunt?’
‘Ik heb een hekel aan wachten’, zei ik en ging onder luid geloei de hal binnen.
Belinda Luscombe, de kunstredacteur van Time Magazine, die Ayaan Hirsi Ali en de neoconservatieve professor Niall Ferguson introduceerde op een feestje van Time Magazine, vertelde dat het voor het eerst is in al de jaren dat ze Ayaan heeft gekend, dat ze een vriendje heeft.
“Ayaan is prachtig, maar vind maar eens een vriendje met een fatwa op je hoofd.”
It appeares the 16-year marriage of celebrated historian Niall Ferguson and former newspaper editor Sue Douglas has ended. The Harvard professor has left his wife for Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a glamorous Dutch-Somali lawyer threatened with death for scripting a film critical of Islam, according to MailOnline.
Last month Ferguson and Hirsi Ali, 40, were photographed sharing a tender embrace at a literary festival in India. Ferguson, who is a director of the Centre for Policy Studies, a rightwing think-tank, is thought to have met Hirsi Ali last May at a Time magazine party in New York.
They were captured posing for a photograph - his arm around her waist - after being introduced by Belinda Luscombe, the magazine’s arts editor. She told the Mail on Sunday: ‘In all the years I have known Ayaan, she’s never had a boyfriend.
‘She’s gorgeous, but with a fatwa, it’s tricky to find guys.’
Miss Hirsi Ali fled from Africa to the Netherlands in 1992. She has admitted lying in claiming asylum to escape a forced marriage. read on>> Lees verder hier »
Tonight, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin spoke to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, TN, an event that was ditched by other high-profile Republicans who disliked its for-profit model. After her speech, organizer Judson Phillips asked Palin several questions. One of them was about what needs to be done when there is a “conservative House and a conservative Senate.” Palin jumped right in and said, “We’ve got to rein in the spending, obviously.” However, she then seemed to forget her next talking point and glanced down at her left hand, as if there were notes she had scribbled down. She went on to talk about “energy projects.”
Oliver Willis also caught Palin reading off of her hand. He points out that she made fun of President Obama during her speech for his use of a teleprompter. The Huffington Post’s Stefan Sirucek provides some more compelling images, like the one on top. Watch it here>> Lees verder hier »
On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace conducted a 25-minute interview with Sarah Palin, a paid contributor to Fox News. Palin told Wallace that she doesn’t think President Obama will win reelection in 2012 if he “continues on the path he has America on.” However, Palin indicated that his chances of winning would dramatically change if Obama simply declared war on Iran:
Wallace: How hard do you think President Obama would be to defeat in 2012?
Palin: It depends on a few things, say he played — I got this from Buchanan — say he played the war card. Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decide to really come out and do whatever he could to support Israel–which I would like him to do. That changes the dynamics of what we can assume will happen between now and three years. Because I think if the election were today, Obama would not be elected.
Wallace: You’re not suggesting that Obama would cynically play the war card?
Palin: I’m not suggesting that, I’m saying if he did, things would dramatically change if he decided to toughen up and do all that he can to secure our nation and secure our allies. I think people would shift their thinking a bit.
Late last year, Palin mistook Iraq for Iran when she suggested that the U.S. has to crack down on Iraq to prevent nuclear war. In 2008, Palin appeared to claim that the U.S. needs to “win” the non-existent war with Iran. During her interview with Wallace, Palin also confirmed that she would consider running for President in 2012 and that it would be “absurd” not to.
Stel een blok ijzer hangt aan een dun touwtje. Aan de onderkant van het blok hangt ook een touwtje. U trekt met een flinke ruk aan het onderste touwtje. Welk touwtje breekt?
a) Het bovenste touwtje.
b) Het onderste touwtje.
c) Beide touwtjes.
The Jersey Journal - This is about Peter Stuyvesant and Jersey City — specifically when the city was born. Stuyvesant, governor of what would eventually become New York, was himself a political figure and now finds himself in the middle of a modern debate. Should he give way to more recent historic figures who resonate more with the present population?
Yesterday morning, without any warning, workmen removed the bronze Stuyvesant statue from its place in front of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School (School 11), put it on the back of a truck and drove off. The stone-etched words on the statue were cut out and the afternoon was spent jackhammering the base. The surprise attack took local historians and conservancy people off guard, and they spent the afternoon calling each other. read on>> Lees verder hier »
Nur ein paar Knochenreste und Zähne mit Kronen waren von der verbrannten Leiche übrig geblieben. Die sterblichen Überreste des Diktators Adolf Hitler, der am 30. April 1945 Selbstmord begangen hatte.
Wenig später geriet Hitlers Leibzahnarzt, SS-General Blaschke, in amerikanische Kriegsgefangenschaft. Dort zeichnete er aus dem Kopf den Zahnstatus seine mächtigsten Patienten nach. Blaschkes Aufzeichnungen [..] galten sechs Jahrzehnte lang als verschollen. Bis Zahnärztin Deprem-Hennen (39) sie aufstöberte und auswertete. Diagnose: „Es ist sehr wahrscheinlich, dass Adolf Hitler starken Mundgeruch gehabt hat. Er hat sich sehr schlecht ernährt und litt unter Parodontose. 1944 kam eine Vereiterung am Oberkiefer hinzu, sodass ihm ein Backenzahn entfernt werden musste. Hitler war wohl sehr schmerzempfindlich. So leistete er sich den Luxus, seinen Leibzahnarzt Johannes Blaschke für eine Wurzelbehandlung achtmal in die Reichskanzlei zu befehlen, normalerweise wird das in ein bis zwei Sitzungen erledigt. Wahrscheinlich hatte Hitler, wie viele Menschen, Angst vor dem Zahnarzt.“ ganze artikel - Bild.de
”The greatest country that ever existed on the face of the earth.” (George W. Bush); “That shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere.” (Ronald Reagan)
Feeding America is annually providing food to 37 million Americans, including 14 million children. This is an increase of 46 percent over 2006, when we were feeding 25 million Americans, including 9 million children, each year.
That means one in eight Americans now rely on Feeding America for food and groceries.
Feeding America’s nationwide network of food banks is feeding 1 million more Americans each week than we did in 2006.
Thirty-six percent of the households we serve have at least one person working.
More than one-third of client households report having to choose between food and other basic necessities, such as rent, utilities and medical care.
The number of children the Feeding America network serves has increased by 50 percent since 2006.
“President Obama is getting more angry criticism today. Boy, this guy can’t get a break. Apparently, though, he told a group of high school kids in New Hampshire, and I quote: ‘When times are tough, you tighten your belts. You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college. You prioritize.’ And needless to say, people in Vegas are extremely upset. In fact, the mayor of Las Vegas said the president is not welcome in Las Vegas. I happen to agree with the mayor. How dare the President tell high school kids not to blow their college money in Las Vegas. We’re in a recession right now. What about Siegfried? What about Roy? What about their tigers? The tigers cannot survive on eating magicians alone. They need money.” –Jimmy Kimmel
WASHINGTON, NYT - An academic board of inquiry has largely cleared a noted Pennsylvania State University climatologist of scientific misconduct, but a second panel will convene to determine whether his behavior undermined public faith in the science of climate change, the university said Wednesday. The scientist, Dr. Michael E. Mann, has been at the center of a dispute arising from the unauthorized release of more than 1,000 e-mail messages from the servers of the University of East Anglia in England, home to one of the world’s premier climate research units.
Dr. Mann, in an e-mail response to a request for comment, said he was pleased that the panel had found “no evidence of any of the allegations against me.”
“Three of the four allegations have been dismissed completely,” he wrote. “Even though no evidence to substantiate the fourth allegation was found, the University administrators thought it best to convene a separate committee of distinguished scientists to resolve any remaining questions about academic procedures. This is very much the vindication I expected since I am confident I have done nothing wrong.” read on>> Lees verder hier »
Reageren op ikjes. Hier kunt u reageren op het ‘ikje’ dat vandaag is gepubliceerd op de Achterpagina van het NRC Handelsblad. Op de NRC-site kan niet meer worden gereageerd op het stukje dat door de lezers zelf wordt ingezonden. Het alternatief op drasties. Is uw ikje niet geplaatst door het NRC dan kunt u het publiceren op drasties in de categorie Trots Op Ikje. Opsturen via ‘contact us’
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