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Koken
‘De gemiddelde kooktijd is sterk gedaald in Nederland. Door de week ligt die nu nog maar op 17 minuten. Dat noem ik niet koken, dat is assembleren.‘― Theo Roos (1997)
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The Discoverers, Daniel J. Boorstin (ISBN 978-039472625-0, Vintage)
This book by Daniel Boorstin was first published in 1983. I read the Dutch translation around 1995 at which time it made quite an impression on me. In my mind it was still among the best books I have read. End of last year I decided to read it again but in the original English version this time. Reading it a second time it was not such a revelation anymore compared to the first time. And luckily for me I read much in the past 30 years to enlarge my ‘knowledge’ of history. But it was still a good refresher…
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The Making of the Atomic Bomb : 25th Anniversary Edition, Richard Rhodes (ISBN 978-1451677614, Simon & Schuster)
Last year ‘revolved’ about the history of the atomic bomb with the Oppenheimer movie being released. To brush up on my Oppenheimer I read 2 biographies, one by Abraham Pais and the other one the Pulitzer Prize winning American Prometheus. And then I decided to finally read book by Richard Rhodes about the making of the atomic bomb which also won a Pulitzer Prize. This book is much more than a history of the Manhattan project, it is a history of science around the beginning of the twentieth century, especially the discovery of nuclear physics interwoven with a bit of…
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FEV vacationing
End of last year I had to say goodbye to my almost 7.5 year old diesel lease car. Because of the changed regulations and tax laws I ended up getting a full electric car from Audi with a theoretical range of slightly over 500 km. This summer was the first time we went on vacation with it and we suffered a bit from anxiety range because the 500 km range is not reached by far if you are traveling on the highways. We went to the Vosges in France which was around 550 km from home for us. Except for…
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2500 km on the Stromer
Recently I managed to go to work again a couple of times on my Stromer ST3. As a result I finally reach the 2500 km milestone on it commuting to work.
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Napoleon. Deel 2: van Keizer tot mythe, Johan op de Beeck (ISBN , 9789022329979, Manteau)
New summer holiday so time to re read part 2 of the Napoleon biography from Johan op de Beeck. Although equally good as part 1 this book was a bit harder to get through the second time. It has not so much to do with the writing but all the more with the events in the life of the subject. Where part 1 described the rise of Napoleon, part 2 is about his decline. Things start to go wrong relatively early on in this roughly 750 page book. Nations and even some of his own government officials scheme against him,…
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Tumbas : Frits Zernike
Famous Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate Frits Zernike lies buried in graveyard Zorgvlied in Amstelveen near Amsterdam. He is buried together with his sister Elisabeth who was a writer and a poet. In the nineties the tombstone was removed and a new one was ‘inaugurated’ recently. If you understand Dutch you can watch a short documentary on the site of Groningen University. Another Dutch Nobel laureate, Gerard ‘t Hooft was present and assisted in the unveiling of the new tombstone. If you like visiting graveyards then Zorgvlied is probably a good one, well laid out and maintained and with many…
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Magnum Force
Magnum Force is the first sequel to Dirty Harry. In this second movie Harry has to investigate vigilante killings of criminals. It starts with the assassination of crime lords but after a while also small time criminals are shot. It turns out that the executions are performed by police officers. They believe Harry will be on their side but are of course mistaken. Even though Harry is trigger happy he sees himself as working in the system and obviously he only shoots the ‘right’ people. How to know who are the right people is a problem that the movie, like…
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Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry probably doesn’t need an introduction. This movie came out in 1971 and is a classic. Clint Eastwood stars as San Fransisco police inspector Harry Callahan. When the movie came out it caused a lot of commotion because of the violence used by Callahan. in the movie Harry is chasing a psychopath killer nick names Scorpio and both use excessive violence. The only difference is that Scorpio kills innocent people and Harry only kills criminals in firefights defending himself. Criminals that surrender are arrested, not shot.So Harry is a cop that uses excessive violence only when provoked and then…
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