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Kung Fu Killer
Kung Fu Killer is a 2015 Hong Kong martial arts movie starring Donnie Yen. Yen plays Hahou Mo, a police martial arts instructor that is imprisoned after killing a man by accident in a fight. When a mysterious killer starts to pick off top martial artists Yen’s character volunteers to help the police to find the killer. As the story evolves it becomes clear that Hahou Mo knows more about the killer’s motives than what he is telling the police. The story follows the killer as he challenges the different martial artists each specialised in a different area with the…
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The Universal Test of Citizenship
The Americans have had their civics test for many decades. Certain politicians around here (in Europe) have been proposing a similar test for new immigrants as a way to share our common values and culture and to integrate the newcomers in our society. The proposal has been problematic from the start for various reasons I do not wish to go into here. In essence the problem is that the rules don’t seem to apply equally to all. So why not go for a universally applicable test : A test for citizenship of our Solar system What is the most abundant…
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Fibonacci Primes
The Fibonacci series is often mentioned so most people are probably familiar with it. It starts with 0, 1, … and all other numbers are obtained by taking the sum of the 2 preceding numbers in the series so we get : 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, … and so on. The first 2 numbers are squares of a natural number : 0 = 02 and 1 = 12. In 1964 the mathematician J.H.E. Cohn proved that there is only 1 other number in the series that is a square of a…
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De architecten van ASML, René Raaijmakers (ISBN 978-9082579826, Techwatch Books)
Ik kwam een verwijzing naar dit boek tegen op het LinkedIn kanaal van ASML. Aanleiding was de Chinese vertaling van dit boek. Ik had hiervoor al met veel plezier Natlab gelezen dus was de beslissing om dit boek te kopen en te lezen snel genomen. En ik heb er zeker geen spijt van gehad. De 640 pagina’s zijn voorbij gevlogen. In de 2 weken van de kerstvakantie was het boek uit. Een aantal hoofdstukken over de ontwikkeling van de eerste stepper op het natlab zijn overgenomen uit het boek Natlab. Dit boek gaat verder in detail in over hoe Philips…
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The Taking of the Pelham 123 (2009)
After watching the movie from 1974 I naturally also had to see this modern adaptation from 2009. It start Denzel Washington as luitenant Garber and John Travolta as the criminal with the plan to hijack the subway. Most of the story is the same although there is an additional twist with Garber being suspected of having taken a bribe while selecting a new train. That makes him suspicious and everyone has to wonder if he is not in with the criminals. Obviously this only works when you watch the first time. It also adds a little drama to the main…
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Curious Equations (1)
Came across this equation. Can be proven by simply calculating both sides. (t – 8)3 + (t – 1)3 + (t + 1)3 + (t + 8)3 = (t – 7)3 + (t – 4)3 + (t + 4)3 + (t + 7)3
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Delen door 2
Een man vraagt aan een goochelaar wat zijn specialiteit is. “Meisjes doormidden zagen”, is het antwoord. “Dat is moeilijk zeker ?” “Helemaal niet, ik kon het als kind al.” “Heb je dan zusters ?” “Jawel, drieënhalf.”
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A History of Pi, Petr Beckmann (ISBN 978-0312381851, St Martin’s Press)
(a history of) Pi first came out in 1970 and the author was a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Colorado. Beckmann fled Czechoslovakia at the age of 14 to escape the Nazis. In the introduction Beckmann states that he could write his own personal history of pi without having to worry about canonical viewpoints held by historians and mathematicians. The book is therefor not a rigorous historical and/or mathematical account of the history of pi. Rather it is an eclectic trip through time making stopping at societies where the knowledge of advanced. It starts with several pre…
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Blaise Logic
“I have made this letter longer than usual because I lacked the time to make it short.” ― Blaise Pascal
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The Taking of the Pelham 123 (1974)
As the title suggests this is about the 1974 version of The Taking of the Pelham 123. Despite being almost 50 years old the movie is still more than enjoyable. It stars Robert Shaw and Walter Matthau as the bad guy and the good guy respectively in the simple plot of 4 gangsters hijacking a NYC subway and holding the passengers hostage for ransom. Most of the movie takes place on the subway car and in the subway control center following how the negotiations between gangsters and the city evolve. New York has to pay 1 million dollars to be…
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