Speaking of towers of books, this one is in the recently built main branch of the Amsterdam public library, in the children’s books section. The top has pillows in it so that children can sit there and read.
May 31, 2009
Tower of children’s books in Amsterdam public library
Tags: Amsterdam, interior decoration, libraries, towers
Men become stupid when talking to pretty women
After having recently realised the superpowers of the shimmery, shiny, hot gold bikini top on stage and men’s collective drooling response to it (shutting up in mid-sentence, staring, being turned on and slightly ashamed about it around women), this one is for all of you.
The Radboud University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands confirms what I saw recently in a room full of mostly heretosexual men: pretty women stop men in their tracks.
The study found that after speaking to a female, men become markedly less competent at tasks like maths or word games. And if that woman is someone the man finds attractive, they become even worse. Single or not (as if that would make a difference!), when speaking to women, men’s ability to carry out a task drops. But during the study, when they spoke to other men, their abilities remained unchanged. Women’s performance stayed the same throughout.
I bet you gay men also follow this pattern. Someone tell me, I want to know. And if I extrapolate, I suppose gay women totally keep their cool. I want to know, too!
And then, this song is just great, as is Hugh Laurie. Here we go with a golden oldie, The Sophisticated Song.
“…when you ask me what’s on my mind,
all I can think to answer is ‘fluh-uh’ ”
(Link: thelondonpaper.com)
Tags: Hugh Laurie, Nijmegen, Radboud University, sexual attraction
Tower of books for Spijkenisse signed MVRDV
It’s time to write more about Dutch design firm MVRDV now that Rotterdam, as well as the nearby city of Spijkenisse, where this library is to be built, are getting architectural makeovers.
Completion of the building is scheduled for fall 2011. With a surface of 10,000 m2, this public libray will be an example of energy efficiency and advertise reading through its design of a book mountain. In addition to the book collection and reading areas, the library will accommodate commercial facilities, offices, an auditorium, conference rooms, and exhibition spaces.
Let me see:
– I have problems with the fact that direct sunlight is hitting books, although there is talk of solar protection. Probably a normal response.
– Call me politically correct, but all that climbing for the elderly and the likes got my attention. Again, I could be wrong, but that is more often than not a problem in the Netherlands.
– I do like the Dutch ‘obssession’ with showing the insides of buildings (the Muziekgebouw aan het IJ in Amsterdam came to mind). I once read that even showing the insides of canned foods worked well in the Netherlands.
– The whole Library of Alexandria meets Louvre Pyramid “in traditional Dutch barn yard style typology” needs some getting used to. Apparently, the shape and choice of materials is a reminder of the agricultural history of Spijkenisse, “now a suburban area of Rotterdam with statistically a low average of readers.” Politely put, it’s full of low income families who just don’t read (or can’t) and couldn’t care less what their ‘burb of Spijkenisse used to look like.
So yes, please build these folks a nice public library. Right on.
(Link and photo: dezeen.com)
Tags: MVRDV, Spijkenisse
May 30, 2009
Supply the poor government with some much needed transparency
Brenno de Winter needs your money to force the government to become transparent. On June 11, he will organize a benefit in Amsterdam of which the proceeds will go to this war chest.
During his recent attempts to figure out how many local governments are using so-called Free and Open Software, several of these governments have been actively conspiring to thwart De Winter’s efforts. They ‘forgot’ to send some of the required documents, billed him for their time, and 22 municipalities and three provinces outright refused him the documents they are obliged to send, forcing him to start a separate law suit against each one of them.
De Winter expects costs to run up to EUR 7,000, an amount he is unable to cough up himself. If you can spare some cash, you can send some his way to bank account 4241287 c/o Stichting Vrijschrift in Workum. You can also visit the benefit event at the Pick-up Club at the NDSM wharf in Amsterdam, which starts at 5:30 pm on Thursday, June 11, and which features an introduction to WOBing by De Winter, and a debate about transparency between journalists, hackers and civil servants.
I am an adviser to the Stichting Vrijschrift (Scriptum Libre in English) and can tell you they are legit. Their only weakness is their unwillingness to toot their own horn, so let me list some of their feats:
- Instrumental in defeating software patents in the EU
- Acquired financing for GPS devices for the Dutch chapter of Open Street Map
- Working to convince the government of the benefits of open educational materials, such as text books that any teacher can edit and improve.
(More info at Iusmentis (Dutch). About the picture, is it normal that spray bottles like this one have an extra grip for a sixth finger?)
Tags: benefits, freedom of information, law, municipalities, provinces, transparency
Optimize websites, lose lawsuits
Remember that story about the website that lost a lawsuit due to how Google summarized its contents in search results? Well, the judge’s opinion came in yesterday, and it gets even crazier.
What went on before? Miljoenhuizen.nl had a web page on which the words “Zwartepoorte” and “failliet” (bankrupt) appeared together, although totally unrelated. According to Zwartepoorte the Google summary of that page caused people to conclude that the company had gone bankrupt, and so it asked Miljoenhuizen.nl to change the webpage to undo that impression. The latter refused and the former sued.
Miljoenhuizen.nl’s owner had—let me quote the court—“organized his website in such a manner that it scored “high” in Google, [so] the defendant has a responsibility in this matter.” In other words because the defendant ranked high in the search engine, he lost the case. He probably never helped himself by telling the judge how easy and trivial it is to change the page in a way that Google would no longer produce the damaging text.
Some good news for Miljoenhuizen.nl though is that it managed to net Solv (Dutch), the respectable internet law firm of amongst others Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm—he who once convinced a court that Kazaa was legal, although by then the filesharing company had fled to Australia only to be convicted there, perhaps because lesser legal minds roam the steppe of Southland.
(Full verdict here (Dutch, PDF). Link: Iusmentis. Joris van Hoboken, expert on the confluence of law and search engines, has an opinion in English.)
Tags: abstracts, BMW, courts, freedom of speech, law, search engine optimizations, search engines, SEO
May 29, 2009
Dutch food bank founders receive international award
A Martin Luther King Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded yesterday in Amsterdam to the founders of the Dutch Food Bank, Sjaak and Clara Sies, presented to them by Isaac Newton Ferris, a nephew of the assassinated US African American civil rights activist. The award is intended as a token of appreciation for those who unselfishly spread Dr King’s message of tolerance and equality, and apparently not just in the United States: last year’s award went to Job Cohen, Mayor of Amsterdam.
The initiative of Sjaak and Clara Sies has also helped emphasised that even though many outsiders keep calling the Netherlands “a welfare state”, the couple have clearly shown that this rich country actually has poor people.
(Links radionetherlands.nl, ad.nl)
May 28, 2009
Museums open doors to photo contest for Wikipedia
De Waag Society and a bunch of other friends of digital culture have organized a photo competition called Wiki Loves Art (Dutch), which will take place during the entire month of June in which museums will open their doors to amateur photographers. The photos which must accompanied by a Creative Commons by-sa license before you can enter them will be used as illustrations for Wikipedia. A great initiative!
Apparently museums have historically frowned upon people taking photos of their prized possessions—officially because of all kinds of nonsensical reasons such as that flash might scare the objects, but the unofficial reason is that photos of their art on of mugs and posters is a significant source of income, on which the museums would like to maintain a monopoly. But now, some of them have decided to open up their doors to amateur photographers, so that Wikipedia, which traditionally has been a victim of the no photo policy, can start to illustrate its articles.
Prizes, apart from the warm glowing feeling you get when helping Wikipedia, include 500 euro to be spent on photographic equipment. Some of the participating museums include the Van Gogh in Amsterdam, the Van Abbe in Eindhoven, the Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag (lots of yummy Mondriaan), the Naturalis in Leiden, NAI in Rotterdam, the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Delft, and the list goes on. Earlier similar contests were held in the US and the UK.
(Link: Bright.nl (Dutch). Photo of the Waag building in Amsterdam by Michiel Verbeek, some rights reserved.)
May 27, 2009
Biggest carpaccio
Restaurant De Lakei from Kaatsheuvel, Noord Brabant, has made the biggest carpaccio in the world last Sunday.
So claim Brabants Dagblad (Dutch) and various other publications who all seem to be based on this Hart van Nederland broadcast (Dutch, about 10:45 minutes in—here‘s the stream link for those allergic to Windows Media Player). The attempt took place in the old fire station and the record claim was verified by an unnamed notary in jeans and a light brown jacket. The proceeds went to a good cause.
(Photo of a totally unrelated plate of carpaccio by Flickr user highlimitzz, some rights reserved.)
Tags: carpaccio, Kaatsheuvel, Noord-Brabant, records
May 26, 2009
Foldable mobile office with desk and chairs
When Tim Vinke says mobile office, he means mobile office. His Kruikantoor—the name is a pun on the word for wheelbarrow, kruiwagen—can be folded and wheeled anywhere.
Bright adds (Dutch) that this was his graduation project at the Minerva Academy in Groningen earlier this year. The object will be displayed at the graduation exhibition (Dutch) from July 4 through July 9.
Source photo: TimVinke.nl.
Tags: mobility, offices, wheelbarrows
May 25, 2009
Mystery epigraph on church bell solved
Sixty years after a poetic text was engraved on the bell of the St. Pancratius church in the town of Haaksbergen near the German border, no one would have imagined the underground author making himself known.
When it came time to replace the church bell after the war, the town called upon the people to come up with a suitable text. The one chosen was from someone under the pen name ‘NNN’, which in Dutch read: “Mijn voorganger, door ‘s vijands nijd geroofd, gesmolten tot kanon, vervang ik thans, in groote dank, omvat mijn roep de vrijheidsklank.” (Roughly and quickly, “My predecessor, hatefully stolen and smelted into a cannon by the enemy, I now replace, with great thanks, as my ringing encompasses the sound of freedom.”
A man from the area, Ronald Floors, just happened to meet Wil Hekhuysen from Apeldoorn who told him his story a few days ago. Originally from Amsterdam, Hekhuysen did not want to be sent to a work camp in Riga during WWII, so he ended up going underground in Haaksbergen. Since he couldn’t really participate in the ‘contest’, he sent in his inspiration under a pen name, which was the favourite. He said to Floors that he was very proud he’d won, but couldn’t tell anyone. For years, he didn’t feel the need to make this known, until now. Ronald Floors looked everything up in the town’s archives after hearing the story and it checked out.
(Link: telegraaf.nl)
Tags: church bells, Haaksbergen, WWII