June 8, 2009

Three treasures discovered in same month in same city

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

Last month, three coin treasures were found in Groningen during archaeological digs. Don’t get all excited though, as a coin treasure is defined as anything over five coins, or as Blackadder character Baldrick would have it, some coins. The biggest find was a collection of half-stuivers, stuivers and double stuivers (a stuiver is the Dutch equivalent of a shilling or a nickel) in a jar, estimated to be worth three monthly salaries at the time they were minted, reports Blik op Nieuws (Dutch).

So who gets the loot? After a find of celtic silver and gold coins near Maastricht two years ago, archaeologist Wim Dijkman of the city of Maastricht told Z24 (Dutch): “According to the law, half of the estimated value goes to the owner of the land, the other half to the finder. Since this find has become an official one, the finder is the city of Maastricht.” That find was estimated to be worth several hundred thousand euro, and since Maastricht wanted to keep the coins for its own collection, it had to pay the land-owners from its own purse.

(By the way, the coins in the picture were found in my own wallet and are not an official treasure.)

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June 6, 2009

Netherlands beats England at cricket

Filed under: Sports by Branko Collin @ 10:39 am

No idea how special this is, but the Netherlands beat England at cricket, at the Lord’s cricket field yesterday—which apparently has a special place in the hearts of cricket fans. At some time during the match, The Times thought the game was in the bag for England and wrote optimistically: “Luke Wright scored a scintillating 71 as England set the Netherlands 163 to win the opening match of the World Twenty20 having been put in to bat under leaden skies at Lord’s.”

The tone of the press changed considerably later on as the game turned, suggesting that Twenty20 was just a young upstart version of real cricket, and that England hadn’t brought their best form. England scored 162-5 against the Netherlands’ 163-6, and that was, as it seems, it. “It took 125 years before we could experience something like this,” Dutch cricket association chief Marc Asselberghs told Algemeen Dagblad—though that appears to have been in reference to the luncheon before the match.

The only thing I know about cricket is that according to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it’s the rudest invention in the universe. (Oh, and what Jiskefet says.)

To the inhabitants of Albion who would like to reclaim some lost ground, there’s always fierljeppen, kaatsen and klootschieten (although the Germans rule the latter). Also, I am pretty sure the korfballers would be over the moon if anybody took some interest in their sport, one where the world championships are seemingly decided between Belgium and the Netherlands each year.

Link tip: Jon.

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June 2, 2009

Wiki Loves Art started with a bang

Filed under: Online,Photography by Branko Collin @ 1:40 pm

The Wiki Loves Art photo competition kicked off with an event held at the Joods Historisch Museum (JHM, Jewish Historical Museum) in Amsterdam yesterday. Museum director Hetty Berg explained that they had become enthusiastic about the idea of a photo hunt for Wikipedia after hearing about the positive experiences had by the Jewish Museum in New York during the precursor of this event in the US and the UK, Wikipedia Loves Art. She went on to highlight some of the objects that could be photographed, pointing out what made these objects special, which I thought was really helpful in portraying these objects.

Three professional photographers roamed the museum to help out the 40 or so amateur ones, and I know this certainly helped me. That was an excellent idea from the organizers! One tip I found useful and would never have thought of myself is to use a timed release when using a tripod under low light conditions. This helps the camera stop wobbling after you press the release button.

The first photos of yesterday’s hunt are slowly appearing at http://www.flickr.com/groups/wikilovesart/. I posted my first batch there yesterday, but they still haven’t appeared, so who knows how many are still waiting in a queue. If you are in the Netherlands or planning to visit, the competition runs the entire month of June, during which you can show up with your camera (and sometimes with your tripod and flash—check the rules) at any of the 36 participating museums.

Update: the rules of several of the museums have been added to their pages at the Wiki Loves Art website—some of the museums will only be accessible during guided tours for which you have to register. Regardless of the motives for this restriction I think on the whole this is a good idea. It means the photographers get professional guidance, and the museums get to build confidence about events such as WLA.

(Photo of a lamp that used to adorn stairs in the Hirsch building in Amsterdam. The museum’s own photography gives little indication of the size of these things, so I put myself in the frame for comparison. I will be posting my photos for this comp at a Flickr account I created for it instead of at the 24 Oranges one.)

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June 1, 2009

Mail-a-dinner

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 11:48 am

Bills, bills, leaflets, a postcard, mashed potatoes with endive and sausage … if it were up to Amsterdam start-up Mailfood, your mail would never look tastier. The company mails out TV dinners in packages that fit a mailbox, the big advantage being that you don’t have to be home for the delivery. Prices seem reasonable, at EUR 7,50 for the above mentioned dinner, although it doesn’t say whether that includes delivery. The big question is, what will your food look and taste like after it’s been dropped from a meter high and inspected by the cat?

(Link: Bright, Photo of an endive potato mash with meatless sausage by Jasja Dekker, some rights reserved)

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May 31, 2009

Tower of children’s books in Amsterdam public library

Filed under: Design,Literature by Branko Collin @ 6:31 pm

Speaking of towers of books, this one is in the recently built main branch of the Amsterdam public library, in the children’s books section. The top has pillows in it so that children can sit there and read.

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May 30, 2009

Supply the poor government with some much needed transparency

Filed under: General,Online by Branko Collin @ 7:15 pm

Brenno de Winter needs your money to force the government to become transparent. On June 11, he will organize a benefit in Amsterdam of which the proceeds will go to this war chest.

During his recent attempts to figure out how many local governments are using so-called Free and Open Software, several of these governments have been actively conspiring to thwart De Winter’s efforts. They ‘forgot’ to send some of the required documents, billed him for their time, and 22 municipalities and three provinces outright refused him the documents they are obliged to send, forcing him to start a separate law suit against each one of them.

De Winter expects costs to run up to EUR 7,000, an amount he is unable to cough up himself. If you can spare some cash, you can send some his way to bank account 4241287 c/o Stichting Vrijschrift in Workum. You can also visit the benefit event at the Pick-up Club at the NDSM wharf in Amsterdam, which starts at 5:30 pm on Thursday, June 11, and which features an introduction to WOBing by De Winter, and a debate about transparency between journalists, hackers and civil servants.

I am an adviser to the Stichting Vrijschrift (Scriptum Libre in English) and can tell you they are legit. Their only weakness is their unwillingness to toot their own horn, so let me list some of their feats:

  • Instrumental in defeating software patents in the EU
  • Acquired financing for GPS devices for the Dutch chapter of Open Street Map
  • Working to convince the government of the benefits of open educational materials, such as text books that any teacher can edit and improve.

(More info at Iusmentis (Dutch). About the picture, is it normal that spray bottles like this one have an extra grip for a sixth finger?)

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Optimize websites, lose lawsuits

Filed under: Automobiles,Online by Branko Collin @ 12:18 am

Remember that story about the website that lost a lawsuit due to how Google summarized its contents in search results? Well, the judge’s opinion came in yesterday, and it gets even crazier.

What went on before? Miljoenhuizen.nl had a web page on which the words “Zwartepoorte” and “failliet” (bankrupt) appeared together, although totally unrelated. According to Zwartepoorte the Google summary of that page caused people to conclude that the company had gone bankrupt, and so it asked Miljoenhuizen.nl to change the webpage to undo that impression. The latter refused and the former sued.

Miljoenhuizen.nl’s owner had—let me quote the court—“organized his website in such a manner that it scored “high” in Google, [so] the defendant has a responsibility in this matter.” In other words because the defendant ranked high in the search engine, he lost the case. He probably never helped himself by telling the judge how easy and trivial it is to change the page in a way that Google would no longer produce the damaging text.

Some good news for Miljoenhuizen.nl though is that it managed to net Solv (Dutch), the respectable internet law firm of amongst others Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm—he who once convinced a court that Kazaa was legal, although by then the filesharing company had fled to Australia only to be convicted there, perhaps because lesser legal minds roam the steppe of Southland.

(Full verdict here (Dutch, PDF). Link: Iusmentis. Joris van Hoboken, expert on the confluence of law and search engines, has an opinion in English.)

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May 28, 2009

Museums open doors to photo contest for Wikipedia

Filed under: Photography by Branko Collin @ 10:58 am

De Waag Society and a bunch of other friends of digital culture have organized a photo competition called Wiki Loves Art (Dutch), which will take place during the entire month of June in which museums will open their doors to amateur photographers. The photos which must accompanied by a Creative Commons by-sa license before you can enter them will be used as illustrations for Wikipedia. A great initiative!

Apparently museums have historically frowned upon people taking photos of their prized possessions—officially because of all kinds of nonsensical reasons such as that flash might scare the objects, but the unofficial reason is that photos of their art on of mugs and posters is a significant source of income, on which the museums would like to maintain a monopoly. But now, some of them have decided to open up their doors to amateur photographers, so that Wikipedia, which traditionally has been a victim of the no photo policy, can start to illustrate its articles.

Prizes, apart from the warm glowing feeling you get when helping Wikipedia, include 500 euro to be spent on photographic equipment. Some of the participating museums include the Van Gogh in Amsterdam, the Van Abbe in Eindhoven, the Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag (lots of yummy Mondriaan), the Naturalis in Leiden, NAI in Rotterdam, the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Delft, and the list goes on. Earlier similar contests were held in the US and the UK.

(Link: Bright.nl (Dutch). Photo of the Waag building in Amsterdam by Michiel Verbeek, some rights reserved.)

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May 27, 2009

Biggest carpaccio

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 11:44 am

Restaurant De Lakei from Kaatsheuvel, Noord Brabant, has made the biggest carpaccio in the world last Sunday.

So claim Brabants Dagblad (Dutch) and various other publications who all seem to be based on this Hart van Nederland broadcast (Dutch, about 10:45 minutes in—here‘s the stream link for those allergic to Windows Media Player). The attempt took place in the old fire station and the record claim was verified by an unnamed notary in jeans and a light brown jacket. The proceeds went to a good cause.

(Photo of a totally unrelated plate of carpaccio by Flickr user highlimitzz, some rights reserved.)

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May 26, 2009

Foldable mobile office with desk and chairs

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 8:37 am

When Tim Vinke says mobile office, he means mobile office. His Kruikantoor—the name is a pun on the word for wheelbarrow, kruiwagen—can be folded and wheeled anywhere.

Bright adds (Dutch) that this was his graduation project at the Minerva Academy in Groningen earlier this year. The object will be displayed at the graduation exhibition (Dutch) from July 4 through July 9.

Source photo: TimVinke.nl.

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