Thank you, Leonard ...

... for a fantastic concert last Saturday in Ghent. It was a magical night, cloudless, warm breeze, perfect soundmix, great musicians and you, of course. Although I must admit I've never been much of a fan: Leonard Cohen, that's sixties stuff (before my time) and The Future is a CD my mom used to play a lot. When I bought tickets it was more of a 'let's go see him because he may never be coming back' kind of motivation so I was completely caught off guard by your impact. Of course you are a ladies man, but still. And what a playlist. You started at 20PM and played till a couple of minutes before midnight, half an hour intermission included. Such energy, such grace, such a gentleman.

By far the most sexy 75+ I ever saw :-)

Who'd have hunched it was Belgium?

As a starter: I'm not convinced. Hunch.com, the new toy created by Caterina Fake (Flick'r) basically claims to personalize the internet by asking its users a bunch of questions, thus creating profiles and link these to services, products, destinations, ... based on gathered profile data. I don't see why I would bother leaving my very personal information on likes and dislikes out there in Cyberspace but hey, maybe that's a generational thing.

What Hunch.com also does (and my guess is that's where the money is) is data-mine this pile of data. They keep a blog in which they come up with fancy new demographics. On the subject of travelling:
- women prefer to travel to Europe: in particular to 'civilised countries like Belgium, Ireland or Greece
- when Americans in general travel they again think Belgium and the UK are the countries to visit
- Europeans on the other hand seem to think Finland is the country to visit

Hunch.com claims that their registered users have already answered more than 50 million questions and are registering at a rate of 3000 a day. It would be interesting to know where they come from.

One example of user feedback: 'whoooaaa! (...) It's so accurate! 80% of the stuff (in this case: recommendations linked to his profile) I already have/use.

My point exactly. Where's the added value? Why bother?

Scary stuff, living in the States

... even when you are a law-abiding, succesfull, well integrated Syrian immigrant. Just finished the Dave Eggers book "Zeitoun", the unbelievable tale of a Muslim entrepreneur who decides to stay at home when Katrina is about to drown New Orleans. His family (wife, 4 kids) have left town and during the first couple of days he peddles around in a cano, helping people, distributing food, feeding animals, ... till the day he gets arrested in his own home as a looter and a terrorist.

What follows defies even the most pessimistic views on American society and the States as a police state where army and special forces can disregard even the most minimal of civic rights.

Zeitoun is alive and well and still living in New Orleans.

And about Katrina: it wasn't Katrina that flooded New Orleans. It was the neglect of engineers who didn't build the necessary safety constructions to protect the city. New Orleans was flooded before Katrina hit the coast. And when she did, she veered away from New Orleans and never reached it. You could say the engineers displayed the same human arrogance as the police forces.

How to survive the Apocalyps

It seems even in End-of-The-World scenario's there is a wide gap between the Have's and the Have not's. If you are rich enough (and crazy enough, I might add but maybe both go together) you can buy yourself a 50K package to survive in a luxury shelter when nuclear winter sets in.

The complex has everything, even a jail and ... Internet, apparantly. I would think that, after a nuclear or other blast, .... never mind.

Depressing thought, spending the End-of-Your-Life amongst people who think this is a great idea. No wonder Fastcompany thinks it's a design crime.

Another holiday gone by

Just back from two weeks in a beautiful holiday home which we'll remember especially for its salamanders on the walls, frogs and toads in the swimming pool, incredible starry nights, great view, great wine, great quiet and of course, great kids and a very restful stay. Dordogne country, swamped with Brits, the village being St Meard de Gurçon, the hamlet Les Bonnins. (Looking at their website, going to live there and help them out a bit would be a good idea ...)

Byebye Florane, we will miss you.