November 13, 2010
OK, so I am told that this happens to all bloggers… I have no story for you today. Nothing. Zip. Bupkis. The great donut in the sky. Etc.
Maybe later today.
In the meantime, news about the Netherlands in English can be found at the following great sources:
November 11, 2010
Once former homeless man Jerry Winkler recently found out his deceased dad was a millionaire and that he had access to an inheritance, he decided to help the homeless instead of cashing in. In exchange for a say in the foundation bearing his father’s name, Winkler has decided to not lay any claims to the inheritance of some 3.5 million euro. One of his first projects will be to organise a Sinterklaas party for homeless mothers and their kids.
(Link: zibb)
Tags: homeless, Sinterklaas
November 10, 2010
Contrary to the myths about the Dutch and marijuana, the authorities will let you own five plants even though it is technically illegal. Professional illegal growers usually have hundreds of them and then they really do give off a smell. To try and find these plantations Dutch authorities have apparently been handing out 30,000 scratch and sniff cards in The Hague and Rotterdam with a marijuana odour this week to alert citizens to what their neighbours may be up to. “Though it remains technically illegal, the Netherlands decriminalised the consumption and possession of under five grammes (0.18 ounces) of cannabis in 1976 under a ‘tolerance’ policy.”
Authorities believe there are some 40,000 illegal cannabis plantations in the Netherlands — hidden away in attics, apartments or warehouses. About 6,000 plantations are busted every year.
Of these about 300, each with between 600 and 1,000 plants, were uncovered in Rotterdam alone.
This reminds me of our posting about a German woman who complained that it “smelled like Amsterdam” at the neighbours. Another rookie myth is that Amsterdam has the coffeeshops and the pot, but in fact, pot, much like prostitutes, can be found throughout the entire country.
(Link: google.com, Thanks Greg! Photo by Eric Caballero, some rights reserved)
November 9, 2010
Built in 1941, but only completed after WWII in 1947, the Maria Christina neighbourhood in Heerlen, Limburg, was designed by German architects Karl Gonser and Hans-Georg Oechler by order of Hitler and has been protected heritage since 2008. The locals have long referred to this neighbourhood as the ‘Hermann Göring’ neighbourhood, as the story goes that he actually visited the area before construction started. Although thousands of houses were originally planned, the neighbourhood ended up with 240 homes of different sizes, clearly meant for families with many children (many small rooms upstairs and big gardens by local standards), in this case German mine workers that were to take over the mines from the Dutch.
A plaque I read while visiting the neighbourhood explains that the houses with big attics had saddle roofs masoned with rare bricks called ‘vechtsteen’, bricks made of clay that came from the region along the river Vecht. There is also a rumour that houses were broken down in the province of Zeeland, all the way across the country just to building these houses, which is plausible considering that there was ‘vechtsteen’ to be had in Zeeland.
As you can see in both pictures, some houses have a 17th century Dutch bell gable. The first picture shows a row of houses with prominent bell gable houses, while on other streets, the bell gable house is in the middle of the row. My personal impression was that I was looking at row houses in Ireland, and that I was not in the Netherlands.
Many houses on either side of the bell gable house in the second picture are for sale and surprising inexpensive: 135,000 euro on average for 125m2 of living space. To give you an idea of how affordable that is, neigbours of mine in Amsterdam, the country’s most expensive city only rivalled by Utrecht, are trying to sell their 110m2 house for 335,000 euro, down from 349,000.
November 8, 2010
I was looking for Eppo magazine at the Primera Heijm newsagent’s today, but at first could not find it with the rest of the comics.
If you see Eppo for what it is though, a ‘re-imagined’ comics magazine for thirty and forty somethings, you ought to look in the grown men’s section.
Although truth be told, I still think it ought to be put with the rest of the comics. That way kids can also reach it.
Tags: Eppo, magazines, newsagents
According to a report by the United Nations Development Program released last week, Dutch women are closest to being equal to men.
The UNDP measured gender inequality in 136 countries. After the Netherlands, gender inequality was the lowest in Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, and the highest in Yemen, Congo and Niger. Among the developing nations, gender equality is the highest in Burundi. The indicators used for measuring inequality were maternal mortality, adolescent fertility, parliamentary representation, educational attainment and labour force participation.
See also: Women have low impact on Dutch work force.
Link: UN Dispatch.
November 7, 2010
Last Tuesday tenpages.com, a website that letd readers buy shares in upcoming books based on their first ten pages, won the Accenture Innovation jury Award 2010. The audience award was given to Catawiki, the personal-library-manager-meets-ebay.
Tenpages.com works something like this:
It looks to me like this could go one of two ways. On the one hand, this could finally free authors from some of the iron grip traditional publishers have, and on the other, this could turn into a vanity press scheme on speed. The safeguard against the latter scenario is that the publishers involved so far all have a reputation to live up to and we all know that serious publishers would never throw their good name away.
See also: Public Enemy to produce next album through Sellaband
Tags: crowdfunding, publishing, vanity press
November 6, 2010
Consumer watch dog Consumentenbond interviews people that have ‘golden oldies’, devices that despite their age still function beautifully.
Mister Strubbe is still using an ancient PC with MS-DOS and Wordperfect 5.1 installed, which never causes him problems with hackers, which has no viruses, never breaks down, always works. But has Steve Jobs finally been able to convince him to make the switch? You’ll have to watch the video to find out.
Video: Youtube/Consumentenbond. Link: Sargasso.
Tags: Apple, Consumentenbond, elderly, iPad, Microsoft
November 5, 2010
The debate about winter tires is back in time for Christmas. In February when there was actual long-staying snow on the ground, I wrote a big posting about why winter tires are a good thing, but not always necessary.
The ANWB (Royal Dutch Automobile Association), Veilig Verkeer Nederland (Safe Traffic association) and others are highly recommending winter tires this year and guess what? We’re apparently facing a winter tire shortage, if we can believe the hype over at newspaper De Telegraaf (in Dutch).
It could easily be seen as a marketing stunt in a country where winter tires are not obligatory and are only useful maybe a few weeks out of the year if at all, depending on which part of the country you live in and if we actually get some snow and/or ice. Anyone who drives to Gemany or Austria to go skiing is obliged to switch tires, but many people go by bus that have winter tires or fly to their skiing destination.
“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. Ordinary tires are cheaper, but much more dangerous altogether in winter conditions.”
It’s still a toss up. The car I drove last winter had what the Dutch call ‘summer tires’. We drove down to France, but waited until the snow had melted on the highway here to drive down safely. Driving more carefully and more slowly in winter was part of my driving theory exam here in the Netherlands. I like the bit about driving off in second gear to get more grip when there’s snow on the ground.
(Link: depers)
November 4, 2010
When I passed the zoo in Amsterdam yesterday, I spotted these metal statues on a grassy plot near the Nijlpaarden bicycle bridge. There are a T-rex, a centaur, a woman carrying a basket on her head, a monkey and others. I don’t think this is an official display, considering the unkept area it was in, but the people of the neighbourhood seemed to enjoy the little ad hoc park.
I haven’t been able to find out who made them, so any hints are appreciated.
