March 3, 2011
A couple of days ago Dutch director Jamel Aattache uploaded his short thriller Buren (Neighbours, 2004, 10 minutes) to YouTube. It is about living in an increasingly egotistical society. Very Twilight Zone-like. The film is subtitled in English, takes place in Rotterdam, and stars Esmée de la Bretonière.
(Video: YouTube / Jamel Aattache)
Tags: Rotterdam, short films, shorts
March 2, 2011
Photo: Sew-O-Phone, 2007.
Launched in the Fall of 2010, Repositoire Printemps, a dynamic art and design label by Dennis de Bel, label focuses on ‘design-interventions’, exploring the possible and impossible in both the physical and virtual world.
His work is inspired by everyday life. Associations made between everyday objects and media result in hybrid forms and ‘new media’. Recognizable but subtle and clever. His work focusses on: consuming design/design interventions/questionable design.
(Link and photo: trendbeheer, via: dennisdebel)
Tags: Dennis de Bel, inventions
March 1, 2011
The Province of Friesland is the only place in Europe where peewit (aka lapwing) eggs can be collected on cultural-historical grounds. As of today, 1 March 2011 and until 9 April 2011, people in Friesland can go egg hunting, but have to ask permission from the provincial council by phone text message before taking each egg they find. Despite objections from bird protection groups, a total of 5,939 eggs can be collected. Twittering them would be a lot cooler, but hey.
In the province of Friesland, it is a tradition to be the first one to find the year’s first peewit egg (‘kievitsei’, in Dutch). Unlike other birds who lay their eggs in nests, the peewit (aka Northern Lapwing) lays its eggs in the ground. Friesland has tons of open fields where people go ‘egg hunting’. The finding of the first egg is a symbol of spring and is always news.
(Link: dutchnews.nl, Photo of eggs by wiccked, some rights reserved)
February 28, 2011
Dutch MPAA representatives Brein have broken the law by removing computer equipment worth hundreds of thousands of euro without a court order, law professor Ton Jongbloed told Tweakers.net last Tuesday. Brein seized 8 servers from hosting provider Al Transa last January.
The Brein foundation claims that the servers contained the warez site SWAN, although its not clear how it reasons that this makes it OK to break the law. Owner Craig Salmond says he will report the foundation to the police for theft, unless Brein gives back his hardware and offers a formal apology. His lawyer added that computervredebreuk, illegal hacking of a computer would also be a possible charge. Internet lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet sees a charge of fraud as more likely to lead to a conviction, whereas the lawyers of IT en Recht are putting their money on a charge of vigilantism.
According to Webwereld, Brein gained the ability to log in to Salmond’s servers before they took the computers. Engelfriet thinks a charge of theft is unlikely to stick, as the maintainer of the 8 computers, another provider called Worldstream, voluntarily handed the machines over to Brein.
On a totally unrelated note, in December 2010 a judge decided to keep a 16-year-old script kiddie another two weeks in jail (by now he has been released) after he allegedly had hacked websites of MasterCard and Visa in retaliation for their treatment of Wikileaks front man Julian Assange. Call it a hunch, but I have severe doubts that we will ever hear of Brein manager Tim Kuik receiving a similar treatment at the hands of his good buddies at the Justice department. I doubt he will even ever spend a second in jail, at least not for copyright related matters. He just doesn’t fit the profile, never mind that the wealthy Brein foundation is in a much better position to make the prosecutor look silly than a gormless teenage high school student is.
(Photo by Malene Thyssen, some rights reserved)
Tags: brein, copyright, crime, fraud, hacking, prosecutors, theft
February 27, 2011
This doorknob is called the Doorclaxon, the knob part is squishy, and will be presumably make a noise when you squeeze it. Designed by Dieter Volkers. His website is silent about whether the knob/bell is actually for sale.
(Photo: Dieter Volkers. Link: Core77.)
Tags: doors
February 26, 2011
The citizens of the port of Emden want their harbour back. A minor snafu with Google Maps makes it appear that the harbour belongs to the Netherlands, not to Germany, Sueddeutsche.de reports. The city has tried to rectify the error. Spokes person Eduard Dinkela told the paper: “Google is one of the largest communications platforms on the Internet, yet I do not seem to be able to reach them.”
Although everybody agrees that it is silly to suggest the border runs through Emden’s harbour, the actual position of the border is disputed, Radio Netherlands writes:
Historically, the exact location of the border was never properly settled between the Netherlands and Germany, although nobody has ever suggested that Emden’s harbour is actually Dutch. Germany says that the border runs through the Dollard estuary, close to and just below the Dutch dykes that line it. The Dutch claim the border runs down the middle of the estuary. The issue is theoretical rather than contentious.
Tags: cartography, Delfzijl, Emden, geography, Germany
February 24, 2011
February 23, 2011
Today exactly 30 years ago, the Dutch government used 5 tanks, armored vehicles, a helicopter, nearly 3,000 soldiers (MP and special army units) and police, and two types of teargas (illegal use), to end a protest in my hometown of Nijmegen against the demolition of a centuries old residential area for a parking garage.
The major point was that there was (and still is) a lack of housing in Nijmegen and throwing people out of their homes to make way for a parking garage seemed like a good reason to fight.
The Mayor signed posters that read in capitals:
1. DON’T USE VIOLENCE.
2. DON’T THROW MOLOTOV COCKTAILS, FIRE BOMBS AND THE LIKES.
3 REMOVE YOURSELF.
UPDATE: Free and legal download of the punk track in the background and more by Nijmegen’s The Squats (Thanks Marco!)
(Tip: Thanks Rob!, Photo: studiezaal.nijmegen.nl)
Tags: Dutch army, Nijmegen
February 22, 2011
Artist Rufus Ketting recreated a mural from the famous Belgian comic strip Gaston Lagaffe (known in Dutch as ‘Guust Flater’) because he liked the idea of paintings that could wreck important business deals.
Created by Belgian comics writer and artist André Franquin in 1957, Gaston Lagaffe works at French-language comics publisher Spirou in Brussels whose ultimate goal is to sign contracts with the rich Flemish Mr De Mesmaeker, seen here running away, as he often does. Prunelle (crying at the desk) is one of Gaston’s bosses, always desperately trying to get those contracts signed.
The mural can be viewed at Frank Taal gallery in Rotterdam until March 12.
(Link: Via Trendbeheer. Photo by Pim Top, used with permission.)
Tags: Gaston Lagaffe, Rotterdam, Rufus Ketting
February 21, 2011
Eight months ago the city of The Hague refused to provide Louise van Luijk with a passport, even though as a Dutch citizen she has the right to one. Last Monday (Webwereld) or Tuesday (De Stentor) Van Luijk was heard by an appeals court which expects to have a ruling ready on March 23.
As part of new European rules for biometric passports, Van Luijk would have to provide the state with her fingerprints, which she refuses to do. For that reason the city has refused to issue her a passport. Van Luijk claims this is a human rights issue, as all kinds of official activities in the Netherlands require being able to identify yourself.
The Dutch government wants to store fingerprints from passports in a central database—not required by the new European law—, and Van Luijk fears that the French company managing this database could sell her private data to other parties. The fear may be unfounded, but the Dutch government does not have a good track record when it comes to securing the private data of its citizens.
According to De Groene Amsterdammer, passports are required if you want to register with the Chamber of Commerce, file a report with the police, register a newborn with the municipality, vote, buy a house, and so on. Van Luijk’s personal experience is different: when her child was born, the city accepted a copy of her birth certificate as proof of her existence. People in the Netherlands are obliged to identify themselves to the authorities when asked.
Tags: biometrics, civil rights, fingerprints, passports, privacy
