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GOOD NEWS – the tug and pull between labour and management is still healthy in France.

I tried to take a train from Amsterdam to Portugal. It was possible, but tricky, since all the French trains are parked. In the end, I was forced to fly.

My previous train journey had me taking an Italian sleeper train to Paris, … dashing from one rail station to the next by public bus, … and connecting to a Dutch train to Amsterdam. All the French trains were on strike.

Yep, I missed my connection.

But if tourists need suffer to maintain the right of comrades to protest of the government increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62 (MERDE!), so be it.

Worse, age for pension from age 65 to 67. (MERDE MERDE!)

A car was set on fire as students and policemen clashed in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, France on Oct. 18.

Sarkozy, are you an enemy of the people? … Off with your head.

Hey … You can’t make an omelette in France without smashing the chicken coop to smithereens for a few weeks.

Joie de Vie, mon Cheminots amis. I sing L’Internationale with you.

Note: Other travelers, like my friend Blythe, teaching English in France, are not nearly so open minded as moi.

I was passing through, a ship in the night. In the rain and drizzle I wandered the canals and pleasing pedestrian cobbled streets.

It’s nearly unchanged since the last time I was here. The window girls now have mobile phones. But they are just as disingenuously pleased to see you ogle as they were in 1976.

Lonely Planet:

… this beautiful city has found its old self – quirky, creative and open-minded. ….

Not long ago the Netherlands swung towards the right, with crackdowns on immigration, religious freedom and red-light districts. Even in freewheeling Amsterdam, people were asking themselves: is too much tolerance a bad thing?

You can breathe easy: the soul-searching is over. The core values of Dutch society that we knew and loved have emerged intact. Newcomers who integrate are welcome; practising a faith is OK, as is the right to turn away from it. …

What’s the result of all this permissiveness?

The Dutch, so far as I can see, are the nicest, most relaxed, nationality in Europe. I’ve never had a bad experience with anyone from the Netherlands.

Though I enjoy the local cuisine (Stropwafle McFlurry and Donairs) this climate sucks. It makes Vancouver seem a fun sun destination. Yet all the hostels are full. What are these dopey backpackers doing here?

I booked a flight to sunny Portugal.

Travel tip: In Amsterdam don’t enter a “coffee shop” for coffee.

Did I sample?

… I’m pleading Ribliatti.

And don’t enter a Starbucks for coffee. The Pikes that costs $2.10 in Canada will drain your fannypack by over $4 in Europe.

I spent almost 2 weeks in the port city. My first night I met a group of architecture students from Beijing. They come regularly to Netherlands to study the creative gambles here.

During World War II, the German army invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. Adolf Hitler had hoped to conquer the country in just one day, but his forces met unexpectedly fierce resistance. The Dutch army was finally forced to capitulate on 14 May 1940, following Hitler’s bombing Rotterdam and threatening to bomb other Dutch cities.

The heart of Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed by the Luftwaffe …

Rotterdam was gradually rebuilt from the 1950s through the 1970s. …

I did a lot of walking. And gawking. Gawking at the extreme and unusual architecture.

This is a High School.

One night I stayed at a hostel in the Cube Houses.

The highlight for most of us was the Erasmusbrug bridge.

More interesting photos tagged Rotterdam.

My photos did not turn out very well. Again.

I like Rotterdam. But the ghastly weather made me want to guzzle a bottle of Absinthe. And slice off my own ear.

Did you know that many Dutch don’t appreciate Van Gough?

An American study …

… more than six texts per waking hour …

… 43% of teenagers now say texting is the #1 reason they get a cell phone.

… Teens are sending 8% more texts than they were this time last year …

… Voice usage has decreased by 14% …

Details via Mashable

Last we heard, John was hiding out in caves on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

But he still maintains his official cover, a Professor at TU Delft.

It’s perfect. Who ever knows where the professor is? … They hardly work.

I wandered on to campus during “Open House”. Pretending to be some dufus visitor. Taking photos of statues not Newton.

And pretending to admire student prototypes like this Ferrari branded vacuum cleaner:

What kind of institute of Technology is this, anyway? … The student bikes you couldn’t give away as scrap metal. Why aren’t they researching derailleurs? Disk brakes?

It was surprisingly easy to get up to John’s 18th floor lair.

Quickly I found his office. … But not quickly enough.

Colleagues told:

He stepped out.

… Gone for a while.

To New York.

… at least a week.

Foiled.

_____

If you don’t know the back story, John Long was “turned” while a working student at Bell Northern.

He co-patented a computer chip that looked like a coin, revolutionizing pay phone technology, as you know. Black ops tagged him then and there as a potential recruit. And started building his career.

Soon he was flying around the world (how convenient), expert witness in patent infringement cases.

Someone bought him a chair at prestigious U of Toronto. … At his age? … hmm

Next he was asked to head research at Delft University of Technology, one of the three leading Universities in electrical engineering. … When he got that job, why didn’t we start asking serious questions.

So naive. We were so naive.

And John’s still out there. Somewhere.

I’m hoping John Le Carre bases a novel on John’s story.

Her 10yr term as Canada’s Auditor General is coming to an end.

That’s a shame.

Sheila Fraser has been an effective government watchdog. And watchdogs are what government needs.

… She made headlines across Canada when her report on the sponsorship scandal rocked the country’s political scene.

She confirmed serious problems in the federal government’s management of its Sponsorship Program for a four-year period beginning in 1997. In a few very troubling cases, sponsorship funds were transferred to Crown corporations using what the Auditor General called “highly questionable methods.”

That is, they appeared to have been designed to pay significant commissions to communications agencies, while hiding the source of funding and the true nature of the transactions. Parliament and the parliamentary appropriations process were not respected …

I LOVE those long term appointments of watchdogs. We need more of those at all levels, in all kinds of governance.

In a much-anticipated report, released yesterday, Auditor-General Sheila Fraser concluded the Harper government’s stimulus program was well-managed but criticized the purchase of military helicopters as overbudget and at least a half a decade behind schedule.

National Post – The stimulus audit

Her replacement is yet to be named.

MG Siegler on TechCrunch:

… I’ve used it almost everywhere I’ve been for just about a week now. There’s no question in my mind that this has replaced my MacBook Pro as my go-to machine.

But here’s the really crazy thing. It’s not just the size of the thing that I love so much (I have the 13-inch model) — which is amazing — it’s the speed. This thing boots up in less than 15 seconds, ready to go. My i7 iMac with 8 GB of RAM takes something like 2 minutes. My i7 MacBook Pro takes at least 30-45 seconds, and it has an SSD drive.

Applications seem to load quicker. Files transfer quicker. The thing shuts down in about 3 seconds. Macworld has the initial benchmarks. They don’t lie. It just screams. …

Goodbye, MacBook Pro. The New MacBook Air Is That Good.

Turns out the aging Core 2 Duo processor is not a problem. An all Flash memory machine makes up for any loss of speed.

Click PLAY or drink the Apple Kool-Aid on YouTube.

Having played with a couple now, I can’t believe any woman could resist. They are ideal for ladies that only want to carry a purse.

The $999 base price looks great. But I’d recommend more memory. And a number of accessories, including adapter cables. It only has 2 USB ports and a video out port.

If I bought one, I’d end up spending around $1400

The newest version of MS Office for Mac is getting praised, as well. No reason not to switch to Mac.

Before seeing the new show, now playing in Amsterdam, I knew I’d love it.

At least 20 friends from Cirque told me I would, and they tend to be very critical of their own product.

TOTEM is great. Weird, but great.

Normally I go to see the acrobatics. The more flips and twists, the better.

This show does not have as much acrobatics as usual. But I still loved it. Our group, mostly women’s judges from World Championships, enjoyed a backstage tour.

Themes: evolution, physics, indigenous peoples … Totem has plenty of monkeys. … I assume that’s Darwin juggling flourescent balls in the big plexiglass cone. (Why didn’t I think of that act! I’d be rich.)

The hoop dancer, Nakotah LaRance, is fantastic. He does a traditional act straight up. It’s awesome.

In another act, First Nations peoples are on roller skates! … And it’s intensely sensual. Only Cirque would conceive something like this.

Sometimes the shocking costumes are a distraction. But they really work well in this show.

Not shown there is the best of all, the Crystal Man, a human disco ball. That suit has 4,500 mirrors, costing $15,000. And they have 3 back stage!

The music is wonderful: Bollywood, First Nations drumming, ambient, world beat, didgeridoo, throat singing, even flamenco.

As in all the new shows, the computerized lighting effects are critical. Click PLAY to watch a feature on how they were created.

Robert Lepage created this show, a mad genius. I never attempt to decipher the plot lines of Cirque shows. Better to let it wash over you.

Click PLAY or watch Lepage on YouTube.

Last shout out. Everyone loves one comic character, an oddball Italian tourist. (Or something.) That guy is hilarious, perhaps my favourite Cirque clown yet.

If you get the chance, see it. TOTEM is an astonishingly mature show for one so new. I doubt they’ll tinker with it much. It works.

Disclosure: Cirque du Soleil paid for my ticket. But I rave about their shows even when I’m buying. The disclosure is that I love CdS. I’m a bloody fan boy. You can’t trust my opinion.

Blogging the World Gymnastics Championships on my coaching site.

Here are a couple of great videos of the amazing gymnasts.

I’m tempted.

The latest, greatest home run being hit out of the park by Apple. Starts at $999.

Click PLAY or watch a user generated ad on YouTube.

Details on Apple.

Upsides: less than 3lbs, long battery life, all flash memory storage, more …

Tempting. But likely a 5lb full-featured laptop is better for me.

Daring Fireball linked to this amazing statistic – 60 percent of Apple’s sales are from products that did not exist three years ago