Things We Learned on Bing Today: KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) Founded in 1919

Since we are a bit pressed for time today and we want to find out new information on the latest round of police crackdowns against protestors in Istanbul, Turkey, stemming from the government's decision to graze historic, scenic Gezi Park in Taksim Square, we are going to return to an old stand-by.

For these segments, we ask a major search engine a general question. Today, it was: "When was KLM founded?"

As it turns out, the Dutch carrier happens to be the world's oldest airline operating under its own name. KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) was founded in 1919; the major hub of the airline is Shiphol Airport in Amsterdam.

KLM has 136 destinations around the globe. It merged with Air France in 2004, and the Dutch airline is also a member of the SkyTeam Alliance.

Perhaps, it's time to go back and visit Amsterdam, we we did in 1993 to revisit the Vincent Van Gogh Museum!

The Netherlands is also one of the countries in which the blog receives the most amount of hits, though per capita, we think either Latvia or El Salvador might be the two countries in which we are most popular...........perhaps?!

http://www.klm.com

http://www.rnw.nl/

Silly Image to Fill Space- Apathy

Hmmmmmmm..............

Yeah............

I thought about going back to our quotes from Sunday comic strips, especially since we love "Knight Life" by Keith Knight, which is awesome today as it always is, and, it is funnier than "Hagar the Horrible," but............

I'm just not in the mood.

By the way, Keith Knight is not related to my friend Chris Knight, who has a birthday today.

One is an African-American living in Los Angeles, the other is a white guy living in Reidsville, NC.

If you wanna know who is who or whom is who, well.............

Just Google it (or, maybe Bing it)........................

10 People Who Will Decide Who Becomes Prez (1 of 10): Rock and Roller in Seatlle Suburb

Name: Steve Nichols

Age: 48

Reisdency: Bellevue, Washington.

Job: Rock and Roll Guitar Player

Will Likely Vote: Obama

***_Notice: please see disclaimers at the end of this entry


The suburban vote will be crucial for both President Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney. Center-right political pundit David Brooks said (if our recollection is accurate) that the shift in the politics of suburbs in places like Philadelphia, Seattle and Raleigh were ones which enable Obama to win over John McCain in 2008.

Washington state has voted for Democrats in every election since 1992 and even though there are Republican strong-holds in places like Spokane, Yakima and Everett, we expect that Obama will carry the state again this year.

Bellevue, Washington, right across the lake from Seattle, is actually considered one of the best places to live in America, according to Wikipedia. The 2010 Census indicated that the 98006 zip code had a population of 122, 363, and the town was on the boom until the economic recession of 2008.

Among its famous citizens are Ann and Nancy Wilson who formed the band Heart; they objected to the use of their song "Baricuda" at the 2008 Republican Convention.

Bellevue is sister cities with Yao, Japan, and three other cities around the globe.

DISCLAIMER: Steve Nichols is a fictional character, though there are at least two relatively famous people with that name including an American soap opera actor and an American car design engineer.

The image is actually of guitar player/producer Mark Hermann who has played for the likes of Foreigner and Joe Walsh. We have no idea what his age, residential area and politics are.

SIDEBAR: Pigs swimming in the Bahamas?! Yes, there is a hysterical short piece in the current issue of "Mental Floss" about these creatures. They were apparently left by a fleet for a barbecue, which never occured.  Of course, this might hurt the magazine's circulation in Karachi, Pakistan!

There is also a wonderful photo on the search engine bing.com of multi-colored buckets in the African nation of Burkina Faso.

And, lastly, we noticed that we had a hit from Algeria today....we are quite impressed that you were able to discover us!


http://www.bellevuereporter.com/

http://www.mentalfloss.com/

http://www.bing.com/

Silly Picture to Fill Space- Breakfast

Well, we are pressed for time and it has been a very long and agonizing day, so we will keep this very short today. Initially, we were going to post a breakfast image for Easter Sunday, since traditionally here in the United States, Sunday brunch is a major tradition of the holiday. And, perhaps, if Bing is right, Miss Shirley's Cafe is the best place for breakfast in Baltimore, Maryland, where we hope we are very popular.

Also, we would like to thank visitors from Ecuador_ of all places, and Brazil for checking out our blog today. I am aware that the capital of those two countries are Quito and Brasilia, respectively, but of course, if asked on "Jeopardy!" some wise guy from Passaic, New Jersey, would beat me to the punch.

No Turkish Bride_It Was an April Fool's Joke

It is time to come clean and admit that I am NOT marrying a woman I met on the Internet named Sibel Turkan Atasoy who lives in Afyon, Turkey. She is a fictional name, and if any woman, living in Afyon, Turkey, or elsewhere actually has that name we will be floored.

I took the middle name from the great Turkish actress Turkan Soray.

I must also profess that I was April Fooled myself as University of Utah Utes gymnastics coach proclaimed that his team had landed the top gymnast in the world on collegegymnasts.com.

Interestingly enough, we asked Bing who was the top-ranke gymnast in the world and they said Sharaya Musser. She happens to be a highly-accomplished gymnast at Penn State, but we are 99-percent sure that she is not actually the 'best in the world.'

I guess this means so much for the power of search engines!