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The Last Stand
This 2013 movie was directed by South Korean Keen-woo Kim and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first lead role 10 years after Terminator 3. Arnold plays Ray Owens, a former LAPD policeman who has retreated to being sheriff of the quiet bordertown Summerton Junction, far away from the violence of LA. Unfortunately the quiet life is soon about to end as a Mexican drug lord manages to escape and heads for Summerton Junction at high speed in souped up Corvette. His men are already on site secretly building a bridge across the canyon so that the drug lord can make…
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Safe
This is a movie from 2012 starring Jason Statham. It could also have been called Save as Statham plays Luke Wright, ex cop, now living as a tramp because the Russian maffia threaten to kill everyone he talks with for more than 5 minutes. Finally ready to give up and throw himself in front of a subway train his path crosses with that of Mei, a little girl working for the Chinese maffia and on the run for the same Russian maffia. She saves Luke from suicide, he saves her from the mob. After this intro the movie becomes the…
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Star Trek 10. Nemesis
The last movie with the TNG crew and the end of a 10 movie series that began with ‘Star Trek. The Motion Picture’ in 1979 and ends with ‘Star Trek. Nemesis’ in 2002. The first 5 movies suffered from varying quality and seemed to struggle to translate the themes central to TOS episodes into stories worthy of a full length movie picture stories but from ‘Star Trek. The Undiscovered Country’ onwards this was no longer an issue. From that moment the movies expanded thematically and stylistically bringing something different every time. The transition from TOS to TNG crew was nicely…
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Star Trek 9. Insurrection
Movie number 9, the third TNG based one. And another good one if you ask me. It has drama, suspense and mystery, betrayal and even a love story with Picard as one of the lovers. Of course it stays all very dignified, Picard never losing control. The movie starts with Data malfunctioning and being out of control on an undercover mission on the planet of the Ba’ku. The Enterprise goes to pick him up and to investigate the reason his malfunctioning. While doing so they uncover a plot against the Ba’ku in violation of the Prime Directive. The crew of…
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Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character, Richard Feynman, Ralph Leighton (ISBN 978-0393061321, W. W. Norton & Company)
This 500+ pages book contains all the stories from Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman and What do you care what other people think. If you have already read these 2 books and maybe own them then there is not much new. Unless you are a true fan. There is a foreword by Freeman Dyson and an afterword by actor Alan Alda. From these I learned a few new things like that there has been a play about Feynman by Alan Alda called QED. The stories also have been reordered a bit compared to how they appeared in the 2 separate…
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Star Trek 8. First Contact
This is the first completely TNG movie without any TOS characters involved anymore. In it 2 stories are cleverly intertwined. The first one is the one about how humankind developed the warp drive and made contact with the Vulcans, the First Contact with extra terrestrials. The second one is about the Borg attack on Earth to assimilate humanity. Before being destroyed by the Enterprise the Borg launch a sphere that travels back in time in order to prevent the first warp flight and ET contact resulting from it and by doing so avoid the Federation ever being formed. The opening…
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What do you care what other people think, Richard Feynman (ISBN 978-0393355642, W. W. Norton & Company)
This is the follow up of the bestselling Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman. It is quite a bit thinner, only 230 pages or so and of a different nature. Where Surely You’re Joking had a lot of relatively short funny stories with Feynman playing the ‘comedian’ this book is a lot more serious in tone. This has a lot to do with the stories that are bundled in this book. The first part is mainly focusing on his younger years, how he met Arline; how they got married and discovered she had tuberculosis on until her death. The second half…
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Star Trek 7. Generations
As the title suggests this is the first Star Trek movie with the TNG crew starring. It is actually a transition from TOS to TNG in the sense that a couple of the old crew still appear at the beginning of the movie when Kirk, Scottie and Chekov join the maiden voyage of Enterprise B as guests. The promotion tour including press on board turns into a rescue mission for a couple of El Aurian space ships trapped in a energy ribbon. The Enterprise also gets caught in the energy ribbon during the rescue and Kirk is pulled into space…
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Philips Natlab. Kraamkamer van ASML, NXP en de CD, Paul van Gerven (ISBN 978-082707410, Techwatch Books)
Ik kwam dit boek toevallig tegen in een artikel en heb het gelijk gekocht vanwege de link van Natlab met ASML. Het is een kleine 400 pagina’s dik maar ik heb het deze week voor de tweede keer gelezen en het was in 4 dagen uit. Voor wie interesse heeft in technologie uit de lage landen is dit eigenlijk verplichte kost. Het is bovendien vlot geschreven want anders had ik het niet in 4 dagen uitgelezen. Omdat de productontwikkeling vaak een race tegen de klok was lezen vele hoofdstukken bijna als een thriller. Het Natlab ontstond in 1914 en groeide…
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Star Trek 6. The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek 6 begins like many of the previous Star Trek movies with titling against a starry sky. But the accompanying music score is uncharacteristically ominous. This creates certain expectations and the movie doesn’t disappoint. This is the last Star Trek movie with the TOS crew and it ends with a thriller in whodunnit in Agatha Christie style with Spock taking the role of Hercule Poirot. A few months before retirement Kirk and his crew have to go on a diplomatic mission to escort the Klingon high chancellor to a meeting with the federation to discuss a peace treaty. The…
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