Rose Cantine

I just posted my top 10 favorite hotels and B&Bs in Amsterdam on the Mapplr Editor’s Choice website. If you are coming to Amsterdam in the summer, you should book now. The B&Bs are often filled months in advance.

Coming soon: favorite restaurants in Amsterdam, favorite hotels and restaurants in Paris, Barcelona and San Francisco.

As if the experience of flying weren’t bad enough already with lousy (or non-existent) airline food, precious little leg room, massive delays, packed flights and idiotic security “theater” measures, here comes Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulatory authority, with a deranged plan to make the flying experience completely unbearable: Ofcom is allowing UK-registered airlines to let passengers use mobile phones on flights.

In addressing the question of “potential discomfort and anti-social behaviour” (I love the use of the word “potential” as in the “potential” of me falling to the ground if I jump off the top of a building), Ofcom leaves it up to the airlines who are certainly to be trusted in ensuring the welfare of passengers.

The Ofcom document says in part:

 . . . Some of the responses to the consultation also raised concerns about passenger welfare and the potential for discomfort, anti-social behaviour and “air rage” on board. At an operational level, such considerations fall to the airlines and Ofcom notified the CAA of the non-confidential comments received during the consultation and passed comments on to them. Security concerns were also expressed and these fall within the remit of the Department for Transport (DfT) - Transport Security Branch. These issues are outside Ofcom’s remit and it will be for these regulatory bodies to consider the safety, welfare and security issues relevant to them.

1.6 The UK CAA, in liaison with the Department for Transport (DfT), requires that airlines have appropriate procedures to deal with disruptive passenger events and further requires that such events are notified through the formal reporting system. 

Here’s my response: if an airline allows calls on flights, I will most definitely look for ways NOT to fly on their planes.

The historic events of May 1968 — the student revolt and workers’ strikes — have been captured on film and camera but where are they now? A remarkable website created by the French newspaper Liberation has compiled many of the videos and images, a lot of them never seen before. Go to http://mai68.ina.fr.

I saw this interview by French writer, Marguerite Duras, known for the novel “L’Amante” (The Lover). The interviewee is Romain Goupil, who at the age of 16 is confident, witty and so very grown-up. The video is interspersed with clips showing Goupil and the other student leaders are a “town hall meeting” where other students are agitating for freedom of expression. They are all so serious and they’re smoking.

Click here to see a selection of videos from the entire collection.

May 1968 was a very special time for a lot of people. They believed that they could change things profoundly — end stupid wars like the one in Vietnam and create a society where wealth is shared more equitably among people, where women have equal rights, workers are not exploited, etc. Much of what they fought for came to fruition, such as women’s rights. But in still too many places including countries like France, the US, the Netherlands, the rights won by women, workers and ethnic minorities continue to be under attack. The stupid wars have not stopped. On the contrary, here we are again . . . this time in Iraq. You’d think people would have more sense. Where are the students? I’ve seen a lot of anti-war demonstrations but nothing like 1968.

Fabian Cancellara (CSC) won the Milan - San Remo race (300 km) yesterday (22 March 2008). Paolo Bettini made an early attempt to take and keep the lead. Oscar Freire seemed to be up to something but Cancellara prevailed in the end. It was a beautiful day to ride from Milan to San Remo, and the views of the Mediterranean from the race course were simply astounding.

For photos and details on this “classic”, go to Pezcyclingnews.

Coming up this spring:

Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders): April 6

Paris-Roubaix : April 13

Amstel Gold Race: April 20

Liege-Bastogne-Liege: April 27

Giro d’Italia: May 10 (and they are starting in Palermo, doing a short round in beautiful Sicily)

It’s been raining for two days in Amsterdam. That’s probably why I’ve been blogging so much. Here are a few blog posts I’ve written across a variety of blogs.

Brunch, lunch, dinner in SF: Absinthe does all three quite well

Why having WiMAX in your device won’t necessarily make you get WiMAX service

FCC finally agrees that 200 Kbps is NOT broadband

The UK is facing a grave threat: the dramatic decline in the number of curry houses. The culprit: new immigration rules that exclude skilled curry chefs from Asia. According to the Financial Times:

The problem for restaurateurs is that most of their new chefs come to the UK on sponsored visas from Bangladesh. That has been tougher since 2006, they say, and will get tougher still when the new system takes effect in November. It will count for naught that a would-be immigrant can mix a mean masala. He will need fluent English and a high-level cooking certificate too.

The government has suggested that curry houses should employ east Europeans, who need no such qualifications. “We tried that, but it didn’t work,” said restaurateur Abdul Latif, glumly watching his depleted kitchen staff at work at his Black Country establishment. He added: “We had an east European sous chef, but his chapattis were wiggly at the edges, like maps of Russia.” In addition, it transpired that east European economic migrants spoke a different variety of broken English to Bangladeshi ones.

To read more click here.

Chinook salmon vanish without a trace

Supermarket data breach compromises 4.2 million accounts

Seth Godin: Why bother having a resume?

37 Signals: Keep it simple, stupid