September 17, 2012
This cute video by filmersblog.nl shows Dutch people aged 1 – 100 tell their age.
It’s been doing the rounds on the Internet for a couple of weeks, but if you haven’t seen it yet, you should. Linguists have already discovered the video and noted that different age groups pronounce words differently (the people were all filmed in Amsterdam, so that variation wasn’t regional).
(Video: Vimeo / Filmersblog)
Tags: Amsterdam, linguistics
September 15, 2012
De Telefoongids to fire hundreds of employeesThe phone book company that is trying to silence Alexander Klöpping is planning to fire 30% of its 800 employees, Z24 reports.
According to European Directories, the ‘restructuring’ is necessary for a print-to-online transition. The company has also declared that it plans to continue distribution of its paper phone book, despite opposition of Dutch parliament, amongst others.
Klöpping had registered the domain sterftelefoongidssterf.nl (‘die, phone book, die’), which he redirected to the presumed cancellation page of the phone book.
Snack producer Royaan can no longer use its famous brand Van Dobben in supermarkets if it wants to continue its merger with Ad van Geloven (of amongst other the Mora brand).
The Dutch anti-monopoly agency NMa has determined that Royaan must license the brand for supermarket use to another manufacturer during a period of six years according to NOS. After that the brand must be discontinued. The brand may still be used in snack bars; according to NMa there are still enough players in that market to keep it healthy. The intended merger of the snack giants was announced in November 2011.
Krokets or croquettes are a Dutch snack that consists of ragout deep-fried in a breadcrumb jacket.
A recent, nationwide experiment in which dentists could determine their own rates must be stopped the court in The Hague said last Wednesday.
According to Z24, dentists’ rates had risen 6% since the start of the experiment. When Dutch parliament indicated in July it wanted to have the experiment stopped, the association for dentists sued the caretaker minister for public health, but lost. The experiment started in January of this year and was to run for three years.
Tags: business, competition, croquets, croquette, dentists, free markets, kroket, krokets, markets, monopolies, Mora, phone books, shorts, Telefoongids, Van Dobben
September 14, 2012
A new series of charity stamps (‘kinderpostzegels’), which are sold door to door by school children raising money for poor kids in poor countries , will feature the ‘Triple AAA’, aka Princesses Amalia, Alexia and Ariane, the daughters of Prince Willem Alexander and Princess Máxima. The Triple AAA joke was said by the Prince himself once, we can’t take credit for that.
Starting 26 September, one of the 200,000 school children who sell these stamps will ring my neighbour’s door bell and sell him pics of the young blonde Dutch royals. In November, the stamps will be available for purchase at the post office.
(Link and photo: binnenland.nieuws.nl)
Tags: Prince Willem Alexander, Princess Alexia, Princess Amalia, Princess Ariane, Princess Máxima, stamps
September 13, 2012
Dutch company VolkerWessels has just unveiled a Dutch invention called the HERA System (Highly Ecological Recycling Asphalt System), which is said to recycle asphalt “cleaner, better and cheaper”. The first HERA in the world was recently installed at the Rotterdam Asphalt Plant.
Asphalt is normally produced and recycled by directly heating raw materials. The HERA System reuses almost 100% of old asphalt, has much lower harmful gas emissions and saves on costs. As well, the asphalt produced is of high quality and last longer.
The HERA System was developed together with Swiss company Ammann, a major player in asphalt production facilities.
Watch the corporate Dutch video with drummers and cooking meat comparisons.
(Link: www.agentschapnl.nl, Photo VolkerWessels)
September 12, 2012
The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has recently purchased a painting by South African artist Marlene Dumas featuring deceased al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. This ‘major work’ can soon be admired at the long-awaited reopening of the museum on 23 September in a room entirely dedicated to Dumas where 35 of her works will be exhibited.
Marlene Dumas works and lives in Amsterdam. How many clams the museum handed over for the painting is unknown. Osama will be sharing wall space with Young Men (not the women in the picture), the name of a series of drawings that was started in 2001. Dumas has drawn portraits of ‘young men with an Arabic look, from terrorists to innocent men in Amsterdam’.
(Link: binnenland.nieuws.nl, Photo of Paintings by Marlene Dumas by pavement-hopscotch, some rights reserved)
Tags: Amsterdam, Marlene Dumas, Osama Ben Laden, Stedelijk Museum
September 11, 2012
Until January 2013 Museum Het Valkhof in Nijmegen will hold a unique exhibition entitled ‘Pop Art in Europa’ featuring European Pop Art, a style usually associated with the United States and the likes of Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein. More than 100 works of European Pop Art from the Netherlands, the UK, France, German, Spain, Portugal and Belgium can be admired, something that has never been shown this way before, with many works that have never been on display in the Netherlands.
Find out more about Hamilton, Arman, Richter, Polke, Deschamps and many other who were inspired by film stars, politics and daily life, and arguably had more in-depth meaning than their American counterparts. The Dutch end is being held up by such artists as Wim T. Schippers, Woody van Amen and Rik van Bentum.
And while you’re there, have a good look at the building of the Museum Het Valkhof, which got a major face lift some years ago. The residents of Nijmegen either love or hate, although when I lived there it was mostly bewilderment. It’s a big glass thing that shines bright when there’s sun, located right next to a very big park, the Valkhof Park which boats large Roman ruins.
(Photo of Wim T. Schippers’ floating rock Het Is Me Wat by Wikipedia user Stamper, some rights reserved. Link: Bright.)
Tags: Het Valkhof, Nijmegen, Pop Art, Wim T. Schippers
September 10, 2012
Amsterdam Central Station is getting a new bus terminus, and architects Benthem Crouwel have decided to adorn the terminus’ roof with the word ‘Amsterdam’ in giant red glass letters.
Famous Dutch graphic designer Piet Schreuders is worried that the letters may not be spaced correctly (kerned, as typographers call it), and watches the roofing process like a hawk, sharing his observations at Typographica.org.
Today, in September 2012, the middle section of the roof is still missing, so all we can see is AM…RDAM. (The letters STE won’t be inserted until 2013, when construction of the underground North-South tram line at this location is expected to be finished.)
Being worrisome by nature, we typographers can’t help expressing some concerns: did the architects and roofers calculate everything exactly right? Will the missing letters fit into the remaining space? And did the roofers adhere to proper kerning specifications?
Fact: the word AMSTERDAM starts and ends with the letter combination AM. The first worrisome fact: the space between the first A and M is five windows … but between the second A and M—oh, horror—it is only four.
Earlier this month the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam presented its new logo which had too much space in it, right at a position that suggested a case of ‘English disease’, as the Dutch call it—the habit of putting spaces in compound words. That space caused a lot of buzz on the Internet—I doubt Benthem Crouwel’s typography will yield a similarly rich word of mouth.
(Illustration: Benthem Crouwel Archtitects)
Tags: Amsterdam Central Station, Benthem Crouwel, English disease, Piet Schreuders, typography
September 9, 2012
Consumer watchdog Consumentenbond has compared two types of broadband Internet in the latest issue of its magazine Digitaalgids, and concluded that cable and fibre optic are equals.
Fibre-optic providers have apparently been claiming that their product is better than that of cable Internet providers.
Webwereld quotes Digitaalgids:
Consumentenbond is quick to point out a couple of advantages of fibre optic compared to cable. Theoretically, fibre can reach 1 gigabit per second, and it offers upload speeds that are as fast as download speeds. The average Internet user currently has no use for those speeds, which may be why fibre adoption is going fairly slow at the moment. Consumers may also have real choice of providers in the future, whereas cable networks are typically controlled by a single provider.
(Photo by Jacek Szymański, some rights reserved)
Tags: cable, Consumentenbond, fiber, Internet
September 8, 2012
Being in debt is a valid reason to be fired as a police officer, a court has ruled.
The Centrale Raad van Beroep, an appeals court for civil servants, came to this conclusion in the case of a police man with ‘many debts’, as NOS Nieuws puts it. He had been reprimanded in 2005, and when that did not work he was fired in 2009.
The court argued that officers with access to all kinds of databases open themselves up to blackmail, which makes them a greater security risk. Police officers are therefore expected to live up to higher standards.
In the Netherlands jobs are protected. You can only fire an employee through the courts, unless there is a strong reason for immediate dismissal.
Tags: blackmail, courts, debts, economic crisis, jobs, police
September 7, 2012
Back in 2010 Dré Urhahn and Jeroen Koolhaas painted favelas in Brazil, now they are helping to revive one of the worst neighbourhoods in the US, Germantown in Philadelphia, which is full of drugs, murder, poverty and violence.
The goal of the Philly Painting project is to revive the neighbourhood and turn it into a new historic landmark. Follow the link and watch some videos about the project.
Over the course of their residency, Haas & Hahn are being challenged to consider design not just for a block but for an entire commercial corridor. Philadelphia’s Commerce Department, a major partner in this effort, recognizes the potential of a major project like this to radiate optimism and serve as catalyst for additional positive change and commercial potential.
There are photos galore here.
(Link: www.rnw.nl, Photo of Philly mural by dwweber, some rights reserved)
Tags: Philadelphia, US
