since december 2002 i have been counting dead people. to be more specific i have been collecting news reports about migrants that have been killed while trying to get to europe. since i have started i have found news articles documenting a total of 1354 1356 deaths and these are only those incidents that have […]
bought a new lamp today after having spotted it yesterday night on the way back from the theatre. it is a cheap (ok, actually they charged me €20 for it, so it is not cheap) plastic lamp that emits a cold, ugly blue neon light and makes a cracking sound once in a while. tres […]
up until now i have been pretty sure that things around me are going down. i mean since i am 15 or so, thing’s around me close down: it may be no secret that i was totally in favor of my school closing down, but for the rest it is usually bad: municipal swimming pools […]
yesterday i saw john & jane, a film about call center workers in new bombay by Ashim Ahluwalia, which is running as part of the berlin film festival. the filme is an impressive, beautifully shot (but sometimes slow) portrait of six persons working in a call center (‘4th dimension’) which provides a range of services […]
it is almost four years ago that i finally finished my thesis (‘The freedom of movement of workers in the context of the Eastern enlargement of the European Union’ – download the pdf here) and concluded my studies in comparative political science at the University of Amsterdam. After finishing the thesis and getting my diploma […]
seems like everybody and her mother have bluetooth enabled phones nowadays. in the last few weeks i have had repeated pairing requests from unidentified mobile phones while working on my laptop in the train. for the uninitiated, a pairing request is a precondition for establishing a connection between two bluetooth devices: the contacted party has […]
it seems that the dutch are not the only ones to prepare themselves for the Soccer World Cup. In berlin advertisements of the german red cross have started to appear on billboards in various s-bahn stations. the advertisements show a young red-cross paramedic (with a 70es haircut, a reference to ’74?) that bandages the knee […]
i blogged about the helipads in São Paulo back in october of last year. seems like i am not the only person fascinated by the phenomenon of intra-city civilian helicopter traffic: The transmediale06 media arts festival in Berlin features a short video by french artist Richard Nicolas about the helipads of São Paulo: The sky […]
seems like everybody and his mother needs an ipod nowadays. first it is american senators who need the shiny device in order to understand that copying is not all that bad as the MPAA and RIAA tell them. next thing you know it is the starving masses in our former colonies that demand the accessory […]
one of the the most notable achievements of the dutch in recent history has been the introduction of targeting aids in the men’s rooms in public toilets. the whole thing seems to originate from amsterdams schiphol airport (having such a fine airport makes living in amsterdam much more bearable than it would be otherwise). it […]