June 22, 2011
On Monday, 20 June, Jan Leugs, who worked at the local supermarket in Ten Boer, Groningen, died at age 100. Even at his age he worked two mornings a week and could still drive a car, which is why this made the news. They say he was a very cheerful man, but got suddenly ill and passed away. RIP.
(Link: telegraaf.nl. Photo of elderly man by Frank Mayne, some rights reserved.)
Tags: centenarians, Groningen
May 24, 2011
The Dutch owner of café De Kachel in Groningen who fought against the smoking ban and racked up some 20,000 euro in fines has been invited to speak in Scotland about the smoking ban. Back in February 2009 Gerhard Sannes was the first café owner in the Netherlands to be fined for repeated smoking in his establishment, earning him international attention. He runs a small one-person pub and felt pushed to go out of business if he were to apply the ban, which he fought.
In Scotland, some 700 pubs have closed because of the smoking ban. The Scots are interested in the Dutch system, which allows small pub owners, usually self-employed owners with no staff, to allow smoking.
I cannot help but point out the irony of flying to Scotland at the moment, which is not possible because of volcanic ash. But maybe the ash will clear up on time.
(Links rtvnoord.nl, gic.nl)
Tags: Groningen, smoking ban
May 2, 2011
Writes Mark Wagenbuur:
In an attempt to free more spaces the Railways built an electronic system near the railway station of Utrecht. It monitors the time bicycles are parked so bicycles that are parked too long (more than 14 days) can be removed to make much needed room for other bicycles. This is a trial in Utrecht and Groningen.
The system seems to do more than just spot orphan bicycles though. It will also show cyclists which sections of a parking garage have the most free spots. If like me you have ever tried to find the empty spot in the bicycle parking garage next to Central Station in Amsterdam, the only one always seemingly on the fourth floor, you know how useful such a system could be.
(Video: Youtube / Mark Wagenbuur)
Tags: Groningen, Mark Wagenbuur, parking, Utrecht
April 30, 2011
Ben van Berkel of Amsterdam’s UNStudio designed this new building for the Dutch tax service, digs Belastingdienst will have to share with the national loans and bursaries programme, DUO.
Lots of nice colours on the inside, as Dezeen shows.
The structure was designed so that it can easily be re-purposed into an apartment complex should the current owners ever get bored.
(Photo: UNStudio)
Tags: Groningen, tax office
February 13, 2011
Last Friday the World Championships Cooking Pea Soup and Stamppot 2011 were held at the kitchens of the Euroborg football stadium in Groningen. Dozens of Dutch amateur and professional chefs, and one German, battled for the honour of calling themselves the best pea soup chef or the best stamppot chef of 2011 (stamppot is potatoes mashed with vegetables).
The winners of the 16th edition were one J. Krist for pea soup, and one E. Grootte-Bromhaar for stamppot.
Dutch pea soup, called snert, is traditionally made with split peas, several types of pork, celeriac, and additional ingredients like onions, leek and carrot. It is often served with rye bread and bacon, and like stamppot is a staple of the Dutch kitchen.
A 19th century recipe for Dutch pea soup from a cook book called Betje de Goedkope Keukenmeid (Betty the Cheap Kitchen Maid) goes as follows:
Prepare the green peas by soaking them overnight in rain water. Hang the peas and the water you soaked them in over the fire, and boil off most of the water. Now that the peas are done, rub them apart with a wooden spoon, and add bits of salted bacon and sausage, a bit of celery and black salsify; some people like to add onions also. If you don’t want pea skins in your soup, either rub the peas apart over a sieve once their done, or use split peas.
(Video: Youtube/RTVOOG. Photo by Remco Brink, some rights reserved.)
February 12, 2011
Writes the High Perfomance Computing and Visualisation department of the University of Groningen:
Scientists can now use our new enormous multitouch screen. […] We turned our existing 3D theatre with a big cylindrical screen into one that can detect 100+ simultaneous touches. We mostly used off-the-shelf hardware components and public domain software. Apparently size does matter and the result is really impressive.
[…]
Now we have such a touch screen we can use it for driving our existing software, but the initial goal was to facilitate the scientists studying Geographic Information Systems and a research group that studies interaction methods for touch screens. Having such a huge screen changes the way people interact with data and with each other. They could easily work on part of the screen in their own little environment but could switch very fast to a more collaborative approach.
Link: Quick Online Tips. Video: Youtube / 1LLUS.
Tags: Groningen, screen technology, screens, visualisation
February 8, 2011
From the small village of Heiligerlee, Groningen comes a young man, Jan Boelo Drenth, 22, who is in the process of hitting the Dutch fashion world by storm, straight out of school.
Just being good is not enough, you need connections. Jan Boelo had met Dutch icon Edgar Vos (who died a month ago), got inspired by his passion and left to study Fashion Design at the Utrecht School of Art. Already in secondary school he won an annual art competition organised for a few schools schools in the area with a dress he had designed. The rest is history in the making.
Jan Boelo started his own label in 2010 and has been dressing Dutch celebs such as Victoria Koblenko, Carice van Houten and Ellen ten Damme. His style mixes rock and gothic elements with sexy and original modern elements. All I really know is that we want to be able to say ‘I told you so’ when he’s hugely popular.
(Link: rtvnoord, Photo: janboelo.com)
January 18, 2011
Scientists at the University of Groningen together with the city’s UMCG hospital are researching the possibilities of having patients ‘hibernate’ to suppress immune system reactions after operations, which could damage organs. In the winter and even in the summer certain types of animals hibernate to save energy and can do so without any damage to their organs. Imagine a heart transplant patient recovering nice and slowly to make sure it all goes well. OK, it sounds like an episode of House to me, too.
According to Wikipedia, “there are many research projects currently investigating how to achieve ‘induced hibernation’ in humans. The ability for humans to hibernate would be useful for a number of reasons, such as saving the lives of seriously ill or injured people by temporarily putting them in a state of hibernation until treatment can be given.
(Link: rtvnoord, Photo by Flickr user Thelearnr, some rights reserved.)
Tags: Groningen, hibernation
December 20, 2010
Onix from Groningen (and from Helsingborg, Denmark) were unanimously declared Architect of the Year 2010 last week. The jury praised among others the power of their innovation, their craftsmanship, their consistent societal attitude and their sense of responsibility.
Levs Architects from Amsterdam won the audience award after an online vote, Bright reports.
(Photo of an Onix bridge in Sneek, Friesland by Flickr user JelleS, some rights reserved. The bridge won its makers another prize, the Wood Innovation Award 2010.)
October 31, 2010
What do you do if your countryside is so flat, even the holes duck for cover? Why, build the highest climbing wall in the world of course.
Meet Excalibur, the 37 meter climbing extravaganza of Bjoeks Klimcenter in Groningen. The tower was built in 2004 by Polsar, also from Groningen—the same owners in fact.
(Link: Damn Cool Pics, which has some interesting photos of the tower made by cameras dangling from kites. This photo by Jan Lafeber, who released it into the public domain.)
