February 18, 2010
A 38-square-metre house for low income families in The Hague was converted into this studio apartment by Robert-Jan de Kort (RDKA) and Teun van den Dries (Eckhart).
It can be rented for 155 euro a night, smoking and shoe-wearing not allowed (Maff provides you with fluffy slippers). The price per night goes down the longer you rent the apartment. Facilities include a car park, wifi, coffee, and a library of 100 films.
(Source photo: Maff.nl. Link: Bright.)
Tags: The Hague
February 17, 2010
Says Dan Schwartz:
In 2006, Laarman’s Bone Chair revolutionized the design process by using an algorithm to translate the complexity, proportion and functionality of human bone and tree growth into a chair form. The algorithm, originally used by the German car industry, enabled him to reduce and strengthen his designs by optimizing material allocation, weight and stability, while minimizing material input. In his own words, he sculpted “using mother nature’s underlying codes.”
The upcoming exhibition is the culmination of five years of trial and error, exploratory material research and his continuous quest to translate science into functional objects of beauty, now on a monumental scale. His new body of work expands on his core investigations; it includes Skyline Storage, Fractal Bookshelf, Stair Cabinet, and Half Life Lamp, a sustainable lamp made from living cells.
The upcoming exhibition will start March 4 at Friedman Benda in New York.
See also: WirePod by Joris Laarman.
(Source image: Susan Grant Lewin Associates)
Tags: Joris Laarman, New York
February 16, 2010
There I was, just popping over to the Turkish shop across the street when I noticed that the billboard on the corner had changed adverts.
And there I was trying to find a link between Vancouver and The Netherlands!
I know that this advert would never be accepted anywhere in Canada and that it’s no big deal here and simply funny. There’s a cultural difference right there. No freaked out parents claming this traumatises youth. It’s a nice change from the usually photoshopped tits and ass featuring underaged girls for useless products. As if the men’s speed skating outfits weren’t revealing enough.
Tags: advertising, Vancouver
The snow keeps coming down in the Netherlands, something that has not happened for at least 15 years according to my Dutch neighbourg who uses winter tires on his car. In fact, anyone who drives to Germany, Italy and France is obliged by law to have them on their car.
Winter tires are not obligatory in the Netherlands. With serious snow falls once every decade or so, it seems logically. However, this year, with an increase in accidents, all kinds of organisations are realising that saving money has come first and safety comes second.
“Not enough buses use winter tires” claims newspaper De Gelderlander. The biggest bus company Connexxion has none and they believe it doesn’t make a difference. Arriva, a smaller bus company, uses ‘all-season’ tires, which are really good for three seasons — not snow fall or a slippery road.
All-season tires were designed for wet and dry driving, while snow tires were designed for slippery conditions and very cold temperatures. And yes, we have had both from one day to the next here.
Touring cars use winter tires because they drive to countries like Germany, and taxi and transport companies switch to winter tires as well. Both of them can’t afford accidents.
Mini-vans that transport handicapped and mentally challenged children to school in the region of Utrecht don’t use winter tires, as their bosses apparently can’t afford them and they aren’t obligatory anyways. The story on telly was that parents were upset, drivers felt bad and the municipalities said the van companies should pay for the tires and the van companies said the municipalities should subsidise them. The cheapest van company wins the transport contract, so including winter tires is a big no-no. And saving money comes before safety again.
Recap: winter tires are good when the road is covered with snow and is slippery. All-seasons are good in many conditions, but don’t have the grip of winter tires and braking takes longer, which is dangerous. Ordinary tires are cheaper, but much more dangerous altogether in winter conditions. Winter tires are rarely needed and aren’t obligatory, but it is risky.
For days on end, when the snow kept coming down, the Dutch automobile association and Dutch road safety association told people to stay home altogether, which gives you an indication of how dangerous they thought the road was no matter what tires you had on your car.
(Link: gelderlander.nl)
February 15, 2010
On February 6th, Dutch singer Stef Bos was awarded a prize in Pretoria, South Africa for his contribution to the Afrikaans language and music. It was the first time ever that a foreigner has received such an award.
His new CD ‘Kloofstraat’ which will be out in March will have songs that are almost completely written in Afrikaans, a language Stef must speak quite well since he lives half the year in Cape Town. The rest of the year he lives in Antwerp, Belgium, as do many Dutch people.
Here’s Stef Bos singing his first Dutch hit from 1990, ‘Papa’ that seems to be a classic song dedicated to fathers.
(Links: radio.nl, stefbos.nl)
Tags: South Africa, Stef Bos
February 14, 2010
After walking past a Dutch liquour store in Rotterdam with odd bottles of absinth and vodka with a dead scorpion in it, it was time to have a look inside the store for more oddities. The Dutch make vodka, with some success, which is usually very expensive and often nowhere near as good as any Russian or Polish stuff, and I have sampled enough to say so.
And then I saw Trump vodka, towering over another bottle of the disturbing dead scorpion stuff. The staff saw me reaching for it and immediately all three staff members (two sons and a dad kind of outfit) said it was Dutch vodka made in Rotterdam exclusively for Donald Trump by the Wanders Distillery.
Click here for a pic of Donald posing with his potion.
The staff proceeded to tell me that it was picked out of a taste test over many others vying for the job. I am impressed and maybe I’ll try it some day. And maybe grab some scorpion drink, too.
Tags: Donald Trump, vodka
February 13, 2010
UWV, the Dutch unemployment agency, is suing and sometimes prosecuting formerly unemployed people who followed UWV’s incorrect advice on how to report earnings. The victims participated in a scheme active from 2004 to 2006 in which they could start a company while still receiving benefits.
UWV’s argument revolves around the criterion for the amount of hours worked. Originally, the agency only counted billable hours, but since then it has started counting all hours that one puts into a business. UWV found discrepancies between what entrepreneurs reported to them and to the tax service. As databases of governmental agencies are linked, and the tax service gives single person companies certain breaks depending on the amount of hours they put in, it was easy for the agency to figure out the differences in hours reported.
NRC reports that people who have only recently recovered from unemployment have received fines as high as 50,000 euro, with an average of 15,000 euro. Ronald van der Krogt of union FNV says that as much as 42% of all participants in the reintegration program applied the rules incorrectly, in hindsight. “Allegedly those people are all frauds. You cannot maintain such a thing with a straight face. If that is the rule, then the rule is wrong. UWV are failing big time.”
Judges’ hands appear to be tied. A ruling from 1996 found that UWV’s most recent interpretation of the law is the correct one. (Which by the way strikes me as odd, since the reintegration program is a much more recent affair.) This means that even sitting at the office and reading a paper or picking your nose would have gotten you branded a fraud if you forgot to report those hours as work.
UWV has said it will take FNV’s complaints very seriously.
(Link: Geen Commentaar.)
Tags: benefits, FNV, unemployment, unemployment benefits, unions, UWV, work
February 12, 2010
That Dutch beer brand will stop at nothing to push beer to anyone who’ll drink it, not even inappropriate and untargeted marketing.
You have to watch hilarious video (merriment gets going at 2:40).
(Thanks Greg!)
February 11, 2010
A recent study by HBB Consultancy revealed that the Elfstedentocht, a rare and gruelling outdoor skating race, is a better known and higher valued sports brand in the Netherlands than the Olympic Games, Algemeen Dagblad reported yesterday.
Both events are about as old, but the Elfstedentocht is held on average every seven years, when conditions in Friesland are harsh enough to freeze over 200 kilometres’ worth of canals. On the list of strong sports brands, the Olympics only get a peek in at three, after the Elfstedentocht and football goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.
As for the athletes, Van der Sar is better liked among men, whereas women prefer speed skater Sven ‘Svencouver’ Kramer.
Although Ajax is rated the top brand among football teams, arch rivals Feyenoord take off with the best appreciated stadium (De Kuip).
(Photo by Remko van Dokkum, some rights reserved)
Tags: brands, Edwin van der Sar, Elfstedentocht, Olympic Games, speed skating, Sven Kramer, winter
February 10, 2010
Dutch public transport companies have forced a new payment system onto their users, the ‘OV Chipkaart’ (‘Public transport chip card’), and are now complaining that travellers do not understand how the system works.
Rather than buying a ticket, you have to hold a chip on a card to a reader, once for checking in and once for checking out. Not surprisingly, a lot of people forget to check out, and in doing so lose the deposit that was subtracted from their digital wallet when they checked in. Until now most transport companies have refunded these lost deposits, but nu.nl reports that the refunds won’t be given forever.
Bus company Connexxion told the news site: “We look at this on a case by case basis. If you bump your head often enough, you’ll eventually learn not to.” Qbuzz, another bus company, estimates that it will keep giving money back for only a few more weeks.
Metro company RET of Rotterdam reports that people forget to check out about 0.5% of the time. Since the deposit is higher than the average amount of money the transport companies expect to make on a single fare and they do not have to do anything in return, that’s going to be a nice windfall for them.
The previous system (Strippenkaart) had a built in moneymaker like that too, in that you had to buy several tickets at once, which would undoubtedly get lost in one’s sofa to emerge only when the last date you could use the card on had gone by. Although it was possible to buy a ticket for just a single trip, these tended to be a lot more expensive.
The introduction of the OV Chipkaart also seems to have gone hand in hand with price hikes, Dutch News reports:
The government is to assess whether the switch to the new public transport smart card has made using buses and trams more expensive, Trouw [newspaper] reports on Tuesday.
There are have been numerous reports of price increases in recent months but the introduction of the OV Chipkaart had been coupled with a government pledge that travel would not become more expensive.
Uselog describes a host of usability problems with the OV Chipkaart.
(Photo by Franklin Heijnen, some rights reserved)
Tags: fraud, money, public transport
