National Coming Out Day was founded by Robert Eichberg and Jean O'Leary on October 11, 1988 in celebration of the first gay march on Washington D.C. a year earlier. The purpose of the march and of National Coming Out Day is to promote government and public awareness of gay rights and to celebrate homosexuality. Now the Dutch government has set this day as an official Celebration Day. Starting 2008 October 11th will be National Coming Out Day in The Netherlands. :-)

Virgin just put out a list of the 11 most bicycle friendly cities arround the world and guess what? Amsterdam is number 1. In my own experience I found it strange to find San Francisco here in the list (ok there is this nice Golden Bridge biking tour – but for the rest of the city, cars rule) and not e.g. Bejing  - remember Katie Melua’s nine million bicycles...

Amsterdam
Portland
Kopenhagen
Boulder
Davis
Sandnes
Trondheim
San Francisco
Berlin
Barcelona
Basel

The new novel of David Leavitt is about Ramanujan, the brilliant Indian mathematician who surprised everyone in the beginning of the 20th century with his  Ramanujan prime and the Ramanujan theta function. The book is however focussed on the relationship between Ramanujan and the guy who brings him to Cambridge, Hardy.
Ramanujan died when he was only 32.