August 4, 2012

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam buys rare drawing by teacher Rembrandt

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 1:37 pm

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has bought this drawing of the Nerva Forum in Rome by Pieter Lastman for GBP 145,000 at an auction at Christie’s in London.

Historiek.net reports that Lastman made this drawing in 1602, Rembrandt’s birth year. It is one of his only two known Italian drawings in the world.

Lastman was a teacher of Rembrandt van Rijn and Jan Lievens. The former only studied for half a year with the master, but it is believed that Rembrandt’s use of light was influenced by what he knew about Caravaggio through Lastman.

Another important Rijksmuseum acquisition is a wooden sculpture by Hendrick de Keyser (1565-1621), the Screaming Child from 1615, which disappeared in 1897 and hasn’t been seen since. An anonymous donor gave it to the museum, which will display it in 2013 after the reopening of its main building.

Tags: , ,

August 2, 2012

Gay Pride canal parade to feature Turkish boat

Filed under: Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 11:33 am

For the first time, Amsterdam’s Gay Pride canal parade will feature a Dutch-Turkish boat that fits 80 people. However, the organisers say that it’s mostly gay Turkish men on the boat and that they have few lesbians. “Many women are still afraid of coming out of the closet although many of them simply don’t have an affinity with the whole Gay Pride thing,” explains one of the female organisers.

They could already be full, but the Dutch film in the link says they could use 10 more lesbians. The whole point of the boat is to show that having a Turkish background and being gay goes together in a positive way. And even though they didn’t get any entrepreneurs to sponsor the boat, they’ve only had positive responses, as “emancipation takes time”.

(Link: www.lokum.nl, Photo of Gay flag by sigmaration, some rights reserved)

Tags: , , ,

August 1, 2012

Vampire stars suck the life out of bright stars

Filed under: Science by Orangemaster @ 10:58 am

Hugues Sana of the University of Amsterdam explains that the brightest stars in the universe are getting the life sucked out of them by vampire stars, also called O stars. According to researchers, a third of the vampire-victim pairs are eventually expected to merge and become one.

“These stars are absolute behemoths,” said Sana, lead author of this study. “They have 15 or more times the mass of our Sun and can be up to a million times brighter. These stars are so hot that they shine with a brilliant blue-white light and have surface temperatures over 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit.”

(Link: www.theregister.co.uk)

Tags: , ,

July 31, 2012

Civ Orbis, Amsterdam in 1572, wins prize

Filed under: Technology by Orangemaster @ 9:00 pm

Civ Orbis, a Dutch mobile phone app, has won ‘Best App from a Satellite Location’ at the iOSDevCamp 2012 (scroll down for Civ Orbis), which was held in Amsterdam from 20 to 22 July 2012.

Civis Orbis allows the user to experience the cities of Europe as they existed in the 16th century. Using maps from the Civitates orbis terrarium, you can explore and learn about Amsterdam, Cologne, and Bruges, with more cities on the way. As you visit each landmark in the cities and learn interesting historical facts, you be able to check in, share the experience with your friends, and see what others have posted. You also be able to select tours tailored to your interests in each city.

And yes, it is available for iPhone (iOS) and Android.

“We wrote this app from scratch in less than 48 hours,” explains Nelson Ferraz of the Civ Orbis Team.

(Link: appsterdam.rs)

Tags: ,

Commuters watching the Olympic gymnastics program at Leiden railway station

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 4:20 pm

On other days, the central area of the Leiden railway station is a funnel through which the Dutch railways tries to hurry its customers as quickly as possible past fast food concession stands while at the same time relieving them of as much money as possible.

Yesterday, however, people took a few minutes between trips to catch an event of the London 2012 Olympics as shown on two big screens hung by the rail road operator from the ceiling. Wooden benches, fake grass, cheerful umbrellas, and table cloths had turned the place into ‘London Park’, as Dutch railways call it.

Metro notes that the railway stations Utrecht Centraal, Den Haag Centraal, Eindhoven and ’s Hertogenbosch have also received the London Park treatment, albeit at a smaller scale.

Tags: , ,

July 30, 2012

Best mud pit for pigs in Buren

Filed under: Animals by Branko Collin @ 8:58 am

The Lekker Dier foundation, a farm animal welfare group, announced last Thursday that the best mud pit for pigs in 2012 is the one in the farmyard of the Van Leeuwen family in Buren.

“This pit is large, nice and deep, and muddy. Perfect for a lovely cool down in this warm weather.”

This year marked the eighth time the trophee was awarded. Only one percent of the 12 million pigs in the Netherlands have access to mud baths. Pigs use mud baths to regulate their temperature and to keep their skin clean from parasites.

Buren is a village near Tiel, in the largest province of the Netherlands, Gelderland.

Check the Stad Tiel article for some photos of happy (and even smiling) pigs.

(Photo of pigs in the USA by US Department of Agriculture / Lance Cheung, and therefore in the public domain)

Tags: , , , , , ,

July 29, 2012

Sagrada Familia gets Dutch coating

Filed under: Architecture by Branko Collin @ 11:21 am

The Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, Spain, will receive a protective coating this year by a Dutch company from Winschoten, Groningen .

NOS Nieuws reported last Tuesday that manager Ton van de Klashorst decided to leave for Barcelona without an appointment last year (“we figured, let’s swing by”), and hope for the chance to speak with the supervising architect. Originally they got half an hour, but this quickly turned into two and a half hours, during which the company got to demonstrate their coating.

The coating is supposed to protect the stone against pollution and water.

Construction of the Sagrada Familia started in 1882 and is expected to be completed in 2026.

Tags: ,

July 28, 2012

Anti-social bicycle racers a pest on the cycle path

Filed under: Bicycles by Branko Collin @ 1:07 pm

Now that we finally have sunny weather, parents with children and older people are hesitant to get on their bikes for fear of being run over by bicycle racers.

Cyclists union Fietsersbond told Spits that anti-social bicycle racers even take the second spot of issues that cyclists complain about, after tuned up mopeds.

Apparently sports riders cut off regular cyclists, and their high speeds create a sense of unsafety. This year two cyclists were killed in accidents with bicycle racers on bike paths.

Fietsersbond thinks that wider cycle paths may be a solution. An idea they feel warrants further study is letting groups of bicycle racers move to the car lane—cycling on the road is illegal in the Netherlands where there are obligatory cycle paths. The union is supported in this by the union for bicycle racers, NFTU, but road safety organisation VVN is vehemently against the concept of cyclists in the car lane.

See also: article by Mark Wagenbuur about how the Dutch differentiate between regular cyclists and bicycle racers.

Tags: ,

July 27, 2012

Amsterdam’s sewers are full of hard drugs

Filed under: General,Science by Orangemaster @ 8:54 am

Test the sewer waters in a city and scientists will tell you about your city, a bit like reading tea leaves, but a lot more accurate. Apparently, Amsterdam’s sewer water is full of cocaine and XTC, as scientists tested the water of 19 European cities. There is also a lot of cannabis floating around, but come weekend, ‘coke’ and XTC take over as the dominant hard drugs of choice, both also very popular in Antwerp, Belgium. In Scandinavian cities they’re more into speed.

Measuring sewage samples is said to be produce more reliable data about drug use than surveys, where people often provide sociably acceptable answers.

“What about countries like Amsterdam?” An American sheriff who obviously failed geography claims he was “crossing over bodies lying in the street” when he visited Amsterdam. I bet he was saying that to entertain the posse behind him. Tip: the War on Drugs is a complete wash. Both sides kinda come off silly in this video, although the sheriff takes the space cake.

(Links: www.at5.nl, nos.nl, Photo: DEA)

Tags: , , ,

July 26, 2012

Dyslexic boys sail off just to get a normal education

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:20 pm

Two brothers, Enrique (15) and Hugo (13), both said to be highly intelligent and very dyslexic, have been denied education for more than a year (two years for Enrique) because local schools are unable to provide them with a suitable, adapted education. However, they are required to go to school until the age of 18, and home schooling is forbidden in the Netherlands, so staying home is illegal, but no school will have them. According to television show EenVandaag, some 16,000 children (!) are not attending school because there’s no adapted education for them, something the government keeps cutting down on.

Their mom explains that they had to work hard to read as good as the rest of the class in secondary school, but they couldn’t take proper notes, even legible ones. However, they understand better than the rest everything they are being taught and are being held back because they are dyslexic.

Remember Laura Dekker, the sailor girl who was allowed to circumnavigate the globe for a year? Well, she was allowed adapted education from the World School, so the brothers are going to do the same thing to force the government to give them an education. They are going to pull a ‘Laura Dekker’: they’re going to sail for a year and do their homework. Oh, and they are totally going to hit up children rights’ groups abroad to plead their cause and point fingers at the Ministry of Education. Their dad is a sailor and will follow them around by boat as well as help with their homework.

(Link: www.eenvandaag.nl, Photo of a sailboat by the US Navy)

Tags: ,