Magere Hein

Wim Sonneveld, Dutch cabaret artist, actor and singer, died on this day in 1974. regards, Hein

I know, I know, it's horrible... But some old mullets never die. Hideous! Perhaps there's still time to save the children! Unfortunately the dedicated website www.mulletsgalore.com is closed, but the good people of The Wayback Machine have archived some of its splendid work. regards, Hein

On the other hand, it seems that members and former members of the Dead Kennedys, performers of romantic ditties like Holiday in Cambodia and Too Drunk to Fuck, are all alive, although that Wikipedia article states that members Klaus Flouride and D.H. Peligro have health issues. regards, Hein

My list of things that will go the way of all flesh before 2030, at least in western countries, in alphabetical order: Cash Chess clubs Civil liberties Commercial air transport Deathlist Democracy Fax machines I People's Republic of China Petrol regards, Hein

Don't know about the twitch but he did lose his sense of smell which facilitated his move back to Portsmouth. I've never been to Portsmouth, so I don't know what it smells like, but is it that awful? regards, Hein

Betty Ford. regards, Hein

Well, yeah. It's Van der Valk! Strange as this may seem, till yesterday I wasn't aware of the existence of that series. As far as I know it wasn't aired on Dutch TV and in those years there was no way of receiving British TV in the Netherlands, as cable and satellite TV weren't invented yet. Besides, I see it was broadcast by ITV, which isn't distributed by Dutch cable networks to this day. That picture accidentally hit one of my joys in life: trams and metros. When I was a child I went to school in trams like this: (Note that the colours are modern, they were painted in a shitty brown then, like the one on the right.) I loved trams then, I love them still. Wherever I am, I won't give an opportunity to ride one a miss. regards, Hein

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iSee.Owww! iM oota here Where to? iCeland? regards, Hein

iSee. regards, Hein

iBeam? PS: Note the colour matching the tram in the previous entry. Is that an Amsterdam tram, BTW? regards, Hein

Indeed, welcome to DL, where anthropomorphic personifications have a life. regards, Hein

Bloody hell, do they build power lines of cardboard in Massachusetts etc. ? That's a measly force 10 storm. Strong wind alright, but hardly cause for more damage than a few blown-off roof tiles, downed road signs and broken tree branches. Perhaps a few broken window panes. Power lines are supposed to withstand that kind of wind.We have things in the New World that you might not be familiar with on the Continent. They're called trees. I know you mentioned tree branches but we've got big ones (trees, that is). When a 60mph wind blows through, it knocks down trees that are not in the best condition. These masses of several tons of wood fall upon power lines. You really got power lines that will withstand that? We have a few trees. We even have a few woods. You'd laugh your arse off if you'd see them, but I live in a densely populated country, where land is at a premium. We build power lines well away from trees. In most parts of the country that's easy, as most area is grassland, field, built-up area or open water. In built-up areas we use underground power lines. In wooded country the trees are chopped down at both sides of power lines, often with a motorway alongside. Problem solved. I can imagine that such measures are not economical in the USA. Last time we had a power outage due to damaged power lines was 12 December 2007, when an airforce helicopter crashed into one near Zaltbommel. regards, Hein

Bloody hell, do they build power lines of cardboard in Massachusetts etc. ? That's a measly force 10 storm. Strong wind alright, but hardly cause for more damage than a few blown-off roof tiles, downed road signs and broken tree branches. Perhaps a few broken window panes. Power lines are supposed to withstand that kind of wind. regards, Hein

Today's addition to Room 101 must be Gerard Kemkers, coach of Dutch speed skater Sven Kramer, for stupidity beyond the call of duty. An angry Kramer tosses his sunglasses away after Kemkers gives him the bad news After 7000 of Kramer's Olympic 10,000m race Kemkers had a brain fart and made Kramer skate two consecutive inner lanes. The referees had no choice but to disqualify Kramer after a race that would have won him his second gold. [Edit to add: I see Tomb raider already posted about this event -- MH] regards, Hein

Not. Good. But will she die soon? regards, Hein

Certainly: And if a ten-ton truck Kills the both of us To die by your side Well, the pleasure - the privilege is mine [Edit to add: damn, already posted -- MH] and Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head Always cheerful. regards, Hein

Well, well. Congratulations seem in order for OoO, Mrs OoO and the OoOlet. Well done! regards, Hein

Then there's: The Shangri-Las - Pink Floyd - and for our Dutch readers: Jacques Herb - regards, Hein

The scientific community is a quarrellous lot. This is part of the job description, not some unfortunate accident. And it's a Good Thing too, as in: the moment all scientist agree, science is dead. Just because scientists disagree, science advances. If you want simple answers to your questions, go to a priest rather than a scientist, for the scientist will answer both yes and no. Strangely enough there's an answer to that one. Those scientists are humans, with all weaknesses that come with being human: they make mistakes, they want fame and fortune or they simply can't be arsed to do their job properly. Science is just a method of looking critically at the evidence and using that evidence, rather than received wisdom, as a basis for theory. Evidence may be scarce and ambiguous and is always open to more than one interpretation. As a result, the findings of science are always wrong, only less so than the findings of other sources of knowledge. The history of science shows that not a single scientific theory has stood the test of time. There's always some pesky little observation that ruins an elegant theory. That theory is then replaced by a more intricate one, still wrong, but better at explaining the observations. Meanwhile in Portland, Maine... We'll live, I guess. As I understand it, mammalian species exist for an average of a million years before going extinct. To the best knowledge we have existed for a few hundreds of thousands of years, so we have quite some time left. Of course we'll ruin quite a bit of our environment in the 21st century and hundreds of millions, possibly billions, will die as a result, but that's nowhere near extinction of the human race. The big tragedy will be the hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of other species that will go extinct due to our inability to restrict our numbers. As I understand it, our most pressing problems with the environment will solve themselves within the next few decades. Fossil fuels run out within the next 50 years and will become too expensive to use well before that. We will restrict our energy use PDQ, not because we like to, but because we can't afford not to. As a now dead Dutch news commentator W.L. Brugsma once said: there's only one environmental problem: people. There are far too many already. This will change this century. I hope by voluntary measures, but I fear that the four classic agents of destruction, Death, War, Famine and Pestilence must do the dirty work. After that there'll still be people, only fewer by one or two orders of magnitude. regards, Hein