April 5, 2013

Napoleon letter praises the Pyramid of Austerlitz

Filed under: History by Orangemaster @ 10:15 am

A letter written by Napoleon Bonaparte 200 years ago has been found in an antique shop in the small town of Ermelo, Gelderland. It was written to General Auguste De Marmont, Napoleon’s adjutant, praising him for the building of the Pyramid of Austerlitz in Woudenberg, a tribute to Napoleon.

Apparently, it is the only letter in which Napoleon mentions the Dutch monument. The letter will be put up for auction eventually. Last December, another letter written by Napoleon in 1812 fetched 150.000 euro.

(Link: www.omroepgelderland.nl, Photo of Pyramid of Austerlitz by evil nickname, some rights reserved)

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April 4, 2013

Nineteenth century Netherlands plans to reclaim everything

Filed under: Architecture,Technology by Branko Collin @ 10:10 am

This map by Belgian citizen and inventor Jerôme Wenmaekers from 1876 shows his plans to reclaim the entire Zuiderzee, including the Wadden Sea.

According to De Verdieping van Nederland, Wenmaekers plans required the use of his own dike building machines, but the inventor would not release the plans for those until he got the reclamation concession. On the other hand, the minister of public works would not approve the plan as long as he could not see how the machines worked. Both parties remained in that deadlock and in the end it was Cornelis Lely whose plans were used.

Lely’s plan was much less ambitious, but still very ambitious—his Flevoland polder is the largest artificial island in the world by a wide margin.

The green inset in this second map from 1866 shows the area Wenmaekers wanted to reclaim. According to NRC, for 70 years (between 1850 and 1920) the Dutch discussed what to do with the country’s ‘wet heart’, which led to at least 581 publications. One plan even called for the reclamation of the North Sea.

(Source: Nationaal Archief, via Martin Wisse)

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April 3, 2013

Promo video for Rijksmuseum shows 17th century chase

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 2:57 pm

The Rijksmuseum (or Rijks Museum) in Amsterdam, home to many a Dutch master, has been partially closed to the public for renovations ever since 2003 and will be reopened on 13 April by Queen Beatrix in the last month of her reign.

Sponsor ING made this video in a shopping centre in Breda of a 17th century shop lifter being chased by the city watch. The tableau vivant at the end depicts Rembrandt van Rijn’s ‘Night Watch’, the most prominent work in the Rijksmuseum’s collection. (Rijksmusem means ‘state museum’—there are several Rijksmuseums in the Netherlands, but if there is no city name attached people assume it is the one in Amsterdam).

Yes, it’s that same ING, the Dutch bank too big to fail. Its managers are now complaining that their salaries are too low. But at least they get to play patron of the arts with my tax money. These are the same arts the government no longer had money for after they loaned 10 billion euro to ING. Welcome to neo-liberal Upsidedownia.

(Video: ING/YouTube. Image: crop from the video)

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April 2, 2013

Park-and-ride actually increases car use, an unintended effect

Filed under: Automobiles by Orangemaster @ 6:02 pm

Park-and-ride, which was meant for people to drive and freely or easily park near train and subway stations to then continue their commute apparently increases car use instead of decreasing it. Dutch researcher Giuliano Mingardo surveyed some 700 commuters at nine railway park-and-ride sports around Rotterdam and The Hague a few years ago at small and large parking lots. Adverse effects included people parking and then walking somewhere, technically using up a commuter’s spot, people driving or cycling to a railway station instead of commuting the entire way, and generally using the car more because parking was cheap or free.

According to Mingardo, he believes that park-and-ride facilities “do present a net increase in traffic volume rather than a reduction”.

In the Netherlands, parking in and around train stations that are not park-and-rides are either physically impossible (a car cannot actually stop anywhere), only for permit holders or terribly expensive. It is still socially acceptable to be late for work when public transport goes haywire like in the winter, but it is still very important and expected in many professions for people to arrive at work or at a client’s with their own car.

(Link: www.theatlanticcities.com, Photo of Park and ride sign, England by Ell brown, some rights reserved)

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April 1, 2013

Computer science unpopular in secondary school

Filed under: IT by Branko Collin @ 12:38 pm

Only 1 in 20 Dutch secondary school students choose to take a computer science course, Webwereld reports.

On average Dutch high schools have one computer science teacher who received their last training ten years ago.

I remember when computer science was introduced at my grammar school in the mid-1980s, the instructors were our regular maths teachers who often did not know what they were doing. The booklet that came with the course was flimsy—I had finished reading it before the semester started and spent the rest of my time programming games. What was worse was that the course was aimed at the few who were interested in programming, even though learning how to use a word processor and a spreadsheet would have been more useful to the majority of the pupils.

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March 30, 2013

Court limits serial letter writer to 10 letters a month

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 9:36 am

Mustafa Karasahin of Dordrecht was told by the court last week that he had to limit the amount of letters he sends to the city of Dordrecht to ten a month for the next two years.

Called a slumlord by Binnenlands Bestuur (huisjesmelker, literally ‘house milker’), Karasahin apparently sent the city of Dordrecht 2,247 letters over the past years. The city estimated that it would have to spend 400,000 euro a year to reply to Karashin’s letters, complaints and freedom of information requests if he kept at it. It had to employ four civil servants just to deal with Karasahin’s past missives, according to Radio Rijnmond.

The judge ruled in favour of the city because Karashin indicated his letter writing campaign was intended as a form of harassment.

Deputy Mayor Piet Sleeking of Dordrecht sees the court’s decision as a good starting point for further reducing civil liberties. Maybe parliament should get involved, he feels, and think about “when using a right becomes abusing a right”.

Karasahin owns 40 buildings which he apparently lets to migrant workers. He has started letting others write his letters for him.

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March 29, 2013

Still to be opened Apple museum changes venue

Filed under: Technology by Orangemaster @ 11:22 am

Back in December 2012 we told you about the Netherlands’ first Apple museum opening its doors in Ureterp, Friesland on 16 March 2013, but that didn’t happen due to space issues at the original venue.

Instead, the Apple museum will be housed in a farm in the tiny village of Orvelte, Drenthe. Picture a quaint Dutch village of 230 souls with a blacksmith, a glassblower, a clog maker, an old fashioned sweets shop and an Apple museum.

We’re all still waiting for the official opening date; we’ll keep you posted.

(Link: www.hyped.nl, Photo: two of the many Apples cluttering my closet)

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March 28, 2013

Amsterdam also gets trendy barber shop

Filed under: Fashion by Orangemaster @ 10:19 am

With very manly advertising about taming the beast, Amsterdam now has its own equivalent of Schorem, a man’s hairdresser that Rotterdam has.

Barber shaves & trims lets guys have a nice, old fashioned razor shave or a beard trim as well as a coffee, beer or even whisky while they get pampered.

(Link: www.amsterdamadblog.com, Photo of Barber pole by *Sally M*, some rights reserved)

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March 27, 2013

Top chef snubs Michelin to make normal food

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 1:56 pm

It’s not the first time a restaurant decides to send back a Michelin star, but this time a two-starred restaurant has decided to do it.

Top chef Ron Blaauw has decided to toss aside his two Michelin stars from his eponymous Amsterdam establishment on the Sophialaan and offer simpler dishes at normal prices. “Sixteen appetizers, four kinds of bread, a water menu, etc., there just no need for all that anymore.”

The restaurant will be renamed Ron’s Gastrobar with maximum prices of 15 euro for main courses. If that’s not trendsetting, I don’t know what is. Oh and nom nom nom.

(Link: www.at5, Photo by FotoosVanRobin, some rights reserved)

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March 26, 2013

Dutch still own most bikes per capita in the world

Filed under: Bicycles by Orangemaster @ 10:11 am

With a population of some 16.6 million inhabitants, the Netherlands still topping the list of most bicycles owned is not very surprising. However, when it comes to calculating the actual amount of cyclists, this quirky list has some issues, as not everyone who owns a bike is necessary a cyclist and other leaps of logic.

I also noticed that the picture used to represent Amsterdam was not right, and now I see it is Delft (to the right of the train station is my guess), a major student city.

In the Netherlands 27% of all trips and 25% of trips to work are made by bike. About 1.3 million bicycles were sold in the Netherlands in 2009, at an average price of 713 euro each. Amsterdam, the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, is one of the most bicycle-friendly large cities in the world, with 400 km of bike lanes and nearly 40% of all commutes in Amsterdam are done on bike.

And no, we don’t do bike helmets and yes, please get over it. You didn’t point that out about Asian countries now do you? Reads like a major cultural bias to me. The Belgians who cycle a lot as well have to wear bright yellow vests to get around and if you’re ever cycled in Brussels or Antwerp, you’d be wise to do the same, especially considering the constant construction.

I had to laugh when a good friend from Canada suggested that cycling was a great way to meet new people and that I should do it to. I told her that would be like her driving a car to work to meet people. We had a good laugh.

(Link: top10hell.com)

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