I have driven the all electric Nissan Leaf for just short of three months. And -other than the range- the topic of choice has been its near silence. So we decided to use it as a moving studio. We recorded Joost Biesheuvel and Croon Parade on the backseat of the Nissan for Bright.nl and the result is amazing. The camerawork and editing was done by Marten van Gelder from Geschikte Gasten.

I was asked to write a story about the crisis. Not focusing on the negative, instead trying to prove that there are chances to be had in entertainment. ‘Does humour sell better during the crisis?’. I talked to Howard Komproe, laughingcoach Maarten Vos, Goeroes zonder Grenzen and Endemol. Generally speaking they all agreed that there are not necessarily more opportunities, but hard times force people and organisations to be more creative and find new possibilities to make money.

The highlight of my research was talking to Maarten Vos. One of his eye-opening remarks: ‘People think they laugh because they’re happy. But most of the time laughing is a reaction to shame, embarrasment or another negative emotions. The laughing itself is wat gives you a joyous feeling.’

Last summer I got my first taste of the Evoque when I got to drive it in Wales. And I was absolutely positively impressed by both the car and the company that makes it. It took a while before we got a chance to drive it in the Netherlands for a video, but eventually we did and it is online now.

In a couple of weeks we’ll be driving the Fisker Karma and the new Porsche 911. I’ll keep you posted.

As I have told you, this year I got to interview Peter Schreyer, Kia’s design director. And he turned out to be a charming, smart and gentle man. And he just got my unanimous, neverending respect for sending a hand drawn christmas card.

Bright #43 is about to hit the shelves. For a preview you can visit Bright Night this evening. I wrote an update on the Nissan Leaf longterm test, an item on the electric DeLorean and an article on the Nissan GT-R. With photography by Roelof Bos. Other highlights include the Bright 25 for 2011 (with the Nissan Leaf as one of the entries) and a nice piece on The Internet of Things. Jaron Lanier would not be pleased.

The University Medical Center Groningen is looking for medical students to enter their programme to become specialists. Together with Sander Tiekstra, who has been flying solo for a couple of months now, I have come up with a way to make a campaign site within the new UMCG site.

Tomorrow I’ll be hosting another night for Floss. Interviewing artists and scientists who talk about their fascinations. The theme for tomorrow night: tradition. And there will be food as well. Unfortunately you’re too late if you want to join us, but as a consolation I’ll tell you how nice it was afterwards, okay?

Last week I had to be in Amsterdam for a couple of days with the entire family. Adidas introduced their new F50 miCoach soccer boots in the same week. So me and junior headed to the Ajax training ground to have a go. My first time ever on real soccer shoes. Full review (in dutch) on Bright.

Last weekend I travelled to Abu Dhabi. Had some fun in a dragracer, a Radical and some competition karts. But best of all was talking to Wolfgang Warnecke, Shell’s chief scientist. The man must have been the inspiration for ‘the Wolf’ in Pulp Fiction, cause he is badass. Even though he works for an oil company, he predicts a future in which either battery electric or hydrogen electric cars will be our main source of transport. He has done some calculations on the overall CO2 that is necessary for producing and driving cars and decided he should buy a Porsche 944 to be living green. Considering the life expectancy of the Porsche the trade-off of the higher CO2 emissions while driving are negated.

On the Bright website there’s a short interview with the man.

Even though I spend practically every tuesday and wednesday in Leeuwarden at the Academy for Pop Culture, I rarely write about it. Mostly because to me it has been such a steady everyday thing, that I sometimes fail to realize how special it is. The clip that Kevin Geurts made, reminded me that it definitely isn’t.