Diederick Kraaijeveld makes art out of scrapwood, and he is exhibiting this wooden depiction of the next president of the USA, Barack Obama, at the Manifest Hope Washington in the American capital this weekend. Kraaijeveld who operates under the pseudonym Oud Hout (old wood) writes about the piece:
The tie of Obama was made of fishing boat wood, found on the beaches of Mombassa, Kenia.
I will take the work—all 120 centimeters of it—along with me on the plane as hand luggage which is cheaper than shipping it. Especially since the organisation was kind enough to provide sleeping arrangements in DC. This is a beautiful opportunity for somebody like me who once studied American History: to be present at a historical inauguration. No, I don’t expect to be in the front row.
Check the rest of the website where you’ll find a scrapwood Volkswagen Beetle, a scrapwood Porsche, a scrapwood Ruud van Nistelrooij, scrapwood Converse Allstars, and much more lovely iconopornography. Scrapwood: not just for furniture anymore.
Link: Trendbeheer (Dutch). Image edited to restore an approximation of the original by removing an unsightly watermark.
Last year the government raised the age limit for compulsory education from 16 to 18 years, but 16 year old Robbin Robijn probably could care less. He no longer has to go to school, because the government has just given him an exemption. Reason: the success of his company. Robijn, living in a village called De Kiel in Drenthe, turned 16 last month, and for the past year has been selling microcars of a type known as brommobiel—a car that’s legally a moped, and that’s not allowed to go faster than 45 kph. 
A male Royal Python, a popular pet, travelled more than 3,000 kilometre in its owner’s car, hidden underneath the mudguard after having escaped from the house half a year ago. After Raymond Oosterbroek from Deventer had traded in his car, car salesman Marten van Kastel of Tonny Keijzers’ in Apeldoorn went to take photos of the Volvo S40 for their website. That’s when he discovered the snake. “At first I saw something brown, then noticed that it was a snake’s head, then suddenly I saw it move. It gave me quite a scare,” 
