July 12, 2017

Rare bee makes comeback in Limburg

Filed under: Nature by Orangemaster @ 11:03 am

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Nature lovers, rejoice: the little flower bee (pics) (Anthophora bimaculata) has been spotted in the North of Maastricht for the first time in 44 years. It was last seen in the Netherlands in the run up to the oil crisis of 1973.

On 18 June Kees Goudsmits spotted a female of the species (shown here) and a few days later on 23 June someone spotted a male in places where mines used to be, and they seem to be making their way North to places like Eindhoven.

This bee is so special, it doesn’t have a Wikipedia page in English (hint). Until the end of the 20th century, it was normal enough to see the little flower bee in the Eastern and Southern provinces. After WWII, the bee eventually disappeared, with the last one spotted in 1973 in the town of Tienray, Limburg.

(Link: naturetoday.com, Photo of Anthophora bimaculata by Ivar Leidus, some rights reserved)

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July 10, 2017

Bike path under Rijksmuseum is making millions

Filed under: Bicycles,General by Orangemaster @ 10:06 am

The bike path under Amsterdam’s world famous Rijksmuseum has turned into a veritable cash cow for the city. Although it is illegal for scooters and mopeds to use this bike path, between November 2014 and January 2017 no less than 27,000 fines of 90 euro were issued to these tenacious road users caught on camera, amounting to a staggering 2.4 million euro in fines.

The city has even put more obvious signs, but it’s not working. A few days ago, local TV station AT5 stood outside there for an hour and a half and saw four scooters get fined at what is now 95 euro a pop.

What’s the big deal? Well, even back in 2003 when the bike path was being renovated, there were discussions about making it off limits to cyclists, but the museum was quickly struck down on that point. The path had been open to cyclists for ages, so that wasn’t going to fly. However, making it illegal for scooters and mopeds was acceptable, but obviously not everyone thinks it applies to them.

Here’s our previous story about it: bike path under Rijksmuseum and read its entire glorious history from Bicycle Dutch.

(Link: waarmaarraar.nl)

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July 7, 2017

Vertical forest to pop up in Utrecht

Filed under: Architecture,Dutch first,Nature by Orangemaster @ 4:13 pm

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In Utrecht near Central Station, in the new district of the Jaarbeursboulevard, Milanese firm Stefano Boeri Architetti will erect the ‘Hawthrone Tower’, a Dutch vertical forest after having won an international competition.

“The 90-metre-tall tower will be covered by 10,000 plants of many different species, aimed at creating ‘an innovative experience of cohabitation between city and nature.’ The green façade will allow Hawthorne Tower to absorb more than 5.4 tons of CO2, scrubbing the air for healthier living conditions for both residents of the tower and the wider city.

Construction will start in 2019 and should be finished in 2022. As well, on the ground floor it will also house a ‘vertical forest hub’, a research centre for the implementation and education of urban forestation worldwide, open to the public.

(Links and photo: dearchitect.nl, archdaily.com)

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July 6, 2017

Goats on the roof of the farm

Filed under: Animals by Orangemaster @ 7:43 pm

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In Oude-Tonge, South Holland, two organic goat farm owners decided to build a new shed with a very different type of roof: one with a grass field growing on it.

“We didn’t want just another roof, we wanted something original”, explains Aafke van Tilburg. When a new shed had to be built for the kids (baby goats), that’s when the plan to have a grass field growing on it that measures 850 square metres came together.

Once the grass is properly growing and the field around it is ready, the couple will let some 200 kids climb and frolic about on it. The fun part of course that anyone driving by will be able to see a heard of white goats floating above the typically flat agricultural landscape.

The interviewer prompts Aafke and says, “Soon you’ll attract busloads of people”. Aafke replies, laughing, “Maybe I should start a shop”.

(Link: rijnmond.nl, Screenshot of film)

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July 5, 2017

Making 3D dishes and food for the elderly

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 2:44 pm
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Chef Jan Smink of top Dutch restaurant De Librije in Zwolle, Overijssel talks about the possibilities of making 3D printed dishes in the video below, where he shows us a creation made from celeriac and hazelnut paste with mushrooms, fermented garlic and more celeriac.

Smink segues into explaining that in Dutch retirement homes where 8% of the elderly have problems swallowing food, 3D printing could be useful for making their lives easier. It means they wouldn’t have to have their food blended to be eaten through a straw, which takes away from the social aspect of eating. Imagine making things like white asparagus puree, printing it out and eating with everyone else. That can be done since a 3D printer can make one-off orders, something a factory cannot easily do.

Of course, with a restaurant like Michelin-starred De Librije, not everything should be printed out, but it’s nice to hear from a chef that even people who don’t frequent his establishment could benefit from 3D printing.

Last year we told you about a 3D printer for pancakes at a restaurant in Ruurlo, Gelderland.

(Link: bright.nl)

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July 4, 2017

Colourful photos of bike crates and old graffiti

Filed under: Art,Photography by Orangemaster @ 2:38 pm

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Although these crates can be found on bikes all over the country, these ones on instagram are from Amsterdam. The gallery features milk creates, supermarket crates, baskets and wooden boxes, to name but a few of the creative ways people kit out their bikes. As opposed to other western countries, the Dutch are more about dumping their bags and groceries in the front crate than cycling with a backpack.

And then across the country in Nijmegen, Paul de Graaf took pictures of the 30 odd years of graffiti peeled off the sides of punk rock venue Doornroosje, with a cool timeline from 1984 until today. He says it is a lot like the rings of a tree. Besides having the biggest names in music play there, Doornroosje is also known as one of the first places in the country that openly sold sold marijuana and hash.

Graffiti-Doornroosje

(Links: instagram.com , imgur.com)

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July 3, 2017

Renzo Piano’s KPN Tower in Rotterdam gets expansion

Filed under: Architecture by Orangemaster @ 10:42 pm

The leaning tower designed by Renzo Piano at the foot of Rotterdam’s Erasmus bridge overlooking the Maas River was completed in 2000, and is now set to undergo extensive renovation and expansion as part of the company’s relocation from The Hague to Rotterdam. The renovations will be led by Rotterdam firm V8 Architects, which has involved Piano in the decision-making process.

With a new 20 year lease agreement for the building, KPN have the opportunity to add further enhancements to what is already a distinctive building. The intention is to achieve this in a sustainable manner, creating viable future workplaces from existing offices in the country. The core of the project seeks to maintain the identity and integrity of the existing tower with interventions.

With construction underway, work on the KPN Tower’s renovations is set to be completed by the end of 2017 when we can do a before and after kind of thing. The other notable Piano building in the Netherlands is the Nemo Science Centre in Amsterdam, built in 1997, which is also on the water.

(Link: archdaily.com, Photo of Rotterdam, KPN building by Roel Wijnants, some rights reserved)

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July 1, 2017

Playfully improvised bongs for festivals by Marloes Haarmans

Filed under: Photography by Branko Collin @ 2:25 pm

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London and Amsterdam based conceptual photographer Marloes Haarmans made a series of photos of improvised bongs for Vice.

The thing that Vice, tongue firmly in cheek one assumes and hopes, tries to solve in this summer fantasy is the problem of the prototypically Dutch rained-upon music festival, where all your paper is rained wet but somehow your marijuana or tobacco arent’t, and you need something to help you light up.

Bongs made from pineapples, squirt guns, sex toys, rubber boots and airbed pumps are displayed for your enjoyment.

And that is all there is to it.

(Photo: Vice / Marloes Haarmans)

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June 28, 2017

Copyright for robot artwork, a future decision

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 9:28 am

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A year ago when a group of scientists, developers, engineers and art historians from organisations including Microsoft, Delft University of Technology, the Mauritshuis in The Hague and the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam revealed an artwork called ‘The Next Rembrandt’ made from collating data of 168,263 Rembrandt paintings, it was about a new way of creating a work of art.

This year instead of having data and computers creating a Rembrandt, we now have a robot actually painting works resembling old masters, but the question then arises: who owns the copyright of these works? We found out last year that copyright cannot be held on artworks made by non-human animals because copyright can only be held by legal persons, so that means robots don’t count.

“Earlier computer-generated works of art, machine learning software generates truly creative works without human input or intervention”, and again that could easily apply to a painting rabbit. The argument is that since copyright can also be held by companies because they too are ‘legal persons’, there should be some sort of copyright on the artwork that robots produce. On the other hand, suing a rabbit or a robots over copyright seems like an exercise in futility and madness.

Despite all the different laws, rules and distinctions in different parts of the world as well as the ginormous amount of computational power available to us today, one day we’ll have to decide if we want artworks created by intelligent computers to be protected by copyright.

(Links: phys.org, theguardian.com, Photo www.artmarketmonitor.com)

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June 26, 2017

Radioactive items discovered in antique cupboard

Filed under: Animals,Art,History by Orangemaster @ 11:17 am

Cupboard-rijksmuseum

An 18th century collector’s cupboard with mostly apothecary items apparently had 56 hidden drawers at the back of it, with all kinds of objects in them, some of which have turned out to be radioactive.

During the renovations of the museum a few years ago, the cupboard was properly restored and cleaned. After a thorough inspection of all the drawers, experts found some uranium, a common material used for colouring glass back then. Radioactivity was only discovered in the 20th century by Henri Becquerel, although Marie Curie eventually coined the term.

Researchers found almost 2000 different bits of flora in the drawers, including seeds, flowers, roots, animal parts, rocks, minerals and fossils, all used to entertain guests of the unknown original owner. The cupboard is two metres high and was made around 1730 in Amsterdam. It was moved to England soon after and bought back by the Rijksmuseum from an art dealer in 1956.

The curious cupboard is currently on display at the Rijksmuseum.

(Link and photo: nos.nl)

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