The goal of this outstanding timelapse was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy along with one amazing mountain – El Teide, which is Spain’s highest mountain at an altitude of 3,715 m. The whole timelapse was filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011 by Norwegian filmmaker Terje Sorgjerd. The film also includes an accidental sandstorm which can be seen at 00:32. This is definitely one of the best timelapses I’ve ever seen and it’s worth resharing over and over again. Enjoy!
A follow-up for the 7 billion video. This time National Geographic takes us into the commonality of the expanding population. So, are you typical? I am not. At least so far
Bloomberg’s Game Changers is quite an interesting documentary about Google’s founders – Sergey Brin and Larry Page – starting from their first meeting at Stanford till today’s new media mega-company which is on a collision course with the old media businesses like newspapers, books, television and movies. The video is around 50 minutes long but it’s captivating and definitely worth watching. Enjoy!
Here’s a couple of things from the year that is coming to an end. 2010 had a good taste for me. Let’s hope for a healthy and fruitful 2011. Here we go:
got a Specialized. This means that 2010 was a good year for riding, which reminds me that I miss Bulgaria – best place to mountain bike.
got accepted at Rotterdam School of Management to study Supply Chain Management.
spent 2 weeks with my niece and nephew. Priceless.
left for Netherlands and started studying again
What am I looking for in 2011? So far I am looking for some health, happiness, and strength so that I can work hard and write some important bullet points at the end of it as well. Main objectives are to graduate, get a job, and settle down somewhere (most probably Romania).
… you’re watching TV and you see that Romania is one of the most expensive countries in EU, comparing percentages and not actual values (a 20% increase from 100 Euros to 120 is different than a 100% increase from 20 to 40 Euros).
… it snowed heavily a couple of days ago and there is ice on the streets. Drivers are freaking scared, driving tiptoely. Nevertheless, the seatbelt is still shivering and hanging alone in the car while drivers swear at authorities for not cleaning the streets.
… you go to the City Hall to get a new birth certificate which costs 0.5 Euros. Desk No. 1: you get a form and a slip with how much you have to pay. You go to Desk No.2 with the slip and in exchange you receive another slip, a bit more sophisticated. At Desk No. 3 you present the last slip and give the 0.5 Euros. You get a stamp on it and return to Desk No. 1 where you submit the receipt and the form. You go back tomorrow to pick up your certificate. You may call it crisis optimization.
… you hear that the quality of a product can be established by the difference between the acquisition and retail price. According to the TV, all labels in Western Europe display the 2 prices so that customers can see seller’s profit. I haven’t seen such a thing so far but can’t say it doesn’t exist. The quality of a product is therefore given by its acquisition price, not by a certificate. This reminds me of the Food Miles discussion.
… you’re watching TV and see a 2 month old clip you saw on the Internets. Nothing strange so far until you see that the clip is being tailored in such a way that it fits the news.
It’s no news anymore that flights have been cancelled or delayed all over Europe in the last days. Unfortunately, I was among those people that had to wait hours for their flight, sleep on the floor, or try to get to a check-in desk just before the plane takes off. But, fortunately, I had no constraints when it came to timing (didn’t have to catch a business meeting or some kind of strict schedule) and I flew alone – really felt sorry for those families with children sleeping on the airport floor, God knows for how long.
Schiphol during Winter
The good part from all this chaos is that I learned a couple of things about airports, which I would like to share with you, might be helpful one day. I will start with a couple of Internet resources I found very useful when planning my trip. I flew from Schiphol/Amsterdam but I had to travel by train to the airport. It seems that in the Netherlands the snow is a big issue. Many trains were delayed the day it snowed and, unfortunately, there are no other good alternatives. Traffic jams make the trip by car less attractive and buses don’t usually run between cities (at least I couldn’t find any). Therefore, before going somewhere by train in the Netherlands it’s a good idea to check the status on their website – ns.nl. You have real-time information about delayed or cancelled trains. You should have in mind that tickets can be bought from ticket machines only with credit cards or Dutch debit cards using the Dutch PIN system. An international debit card wouldn’t get you a train ticket. Other alternatives for buying a train ticket are the ticket office where you can pay in cash (be aware of the working hours) or some of the ticket machines that accept coins.
One website I found very useful in checking flight statuses is flightstats.com which has up-to-date information about all important airports and flights. If you’re flying from Schiphol, you can also check their own website. The good part about this airport is that the train station is exactly underneath. This means you can easily go by train wherever you want in the Netherlands and even head towards Belgium, France, or Germany. The airport has self-check-ins which are very easy to use and you can even drop your luggage by yourself. You should be aware that the newly installed machines for luggage drop-off do not accept backpacks or smaller bags. If you have a regular or even big suitcase, then you can do it by yourself. Otherwise, you have to go to a regular check-in in order to drop off your luggage. Have in mind that when flights are cancelled the check-in desks are used as ticketing offices as well. This means that it will take much more time to get to the desk than normal.
Guy sleeping in Schiphol
After passing the security check you will enter into the Gates Area where you can do some shopping, reprint your boarding pass (similar check-in terminals are present there), charge your phone/laptop and enjoy looking at the airplanes. You should know that Schiphol Airport offers only 1 hour of free wireless. If things are chaotic that day, better to carefully listen if your gate number hasn’t changed or check that using the special terminals I was talking about earlier.
Michelle is an old friend of mine from favit. We worked together on my last project there. I am saying this because I just saw that my ex-colleagues are working on something new and I realized that Michelle doesn’t fit there anymore. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to the new favit and I am sending Michelle my best regards.
