June 1, 2011
As promised I have uploaded lots and lots of photos to Flickr for you to watch. Visit the exhibition (well, most of it) from the comfort of your armchair.
I still have to add a bit of meta-data but most of what needs to be there, is.
While you’re at it, don’t hesitate to visit the Artzuid Flickr pool with work from photographers much more talented than I.
(Shown here: Equus by Yubi Kirindongo)
Tags: Art Zuid
May 30, 2011
Is art supposed to be elitist? It seems a lot of people did not get that memo, as the 2011 edition of the open air Art Zuid exhibition in Amsterdam drew quite a crowd this Sunday. The bashful sun did not hurt, nor did the accessible, often cartoonish art.
There are some more photos below the fold, and I will post lots and lots more on Flickr as soon as I have the time.
(more…)
Tags: Art Zuid, outdoors, sculptures
May 29, 2011
Science fiction blog IO9 noticed the new Raveleijn attraction at Efteling in Noord-Brabant, and the steam-punkiness of it all.
The show tells the story of the evil count Graveheart who has his subjects building mechanical creatures that destroy the land. It is up to the ancient Order of Ravens, a order of magical knights, to stop the threat and return, er, order. Six shows are performed each day in the new, 35 million euro Raveleijn compound, and there is also a spin-off TV series.
Both the back-story and the TV series were written by hit children’s horror story writer Paul van Loon, who lives just around the corner from Efteling in Drunen. He is a serial winner of the Nederlandse Kinderjury award, a literary prize awarded by children. Van Loon usually swipes the awards for the younger age group, with Francine Oomen ‘owning’ the 10 to 12-year-olds. Remarkably, when the children were asked in 2002 what the best children’s books of all time were, it was J.K. Rowling who took off with most of the prizes instead of Oomen and Van Loon.
(Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Arch who released it into the public domain)
Tags: amusement parks, children's books, efteling, Francine Oomen, knights, magic, Middle Ages, Noord-Brabant, Paul van Loon, ravens, story telling
May 28, 2011
Laura Dekker, the 15-year-old who is busy circumnavigating the globe by herself on her trusty ketch Guppy, has reached the island of Hiva Oa, half-way the Pacific.
I visited the Atuona village where I was welcomed by the mayor right upon arrival and I have since already collected three flower necklaces… The people here are really very friendly, and they find it sad that they could not organize a big party for my arrival because they did not know the time of my arrival. Actually, this is exactly the reason why I did not want them to know in advance. This way my trip becomes a lot more fun and spontaneous.
Earlier this month Dekker got a nasty cut on her foot when a big wave threw her into her cabin: “If I avoid standing on my foot, the pain is bearable, and I am now quite busy practising the flamingo stance.”
Today Dekker hiked up the volcano (“once you are in the clouds, it gets colder and there are fir trees growing everywhere, which really doesn’t make me think that I am now in the middle of the Pacific Ocean”), so I am guessing the foot is coming along fine. If the New Zealand born Dutch girl manages to reach her point of departure five days before her 17th birthday, she will be the youngest person to have solo sailed around the world, an honour currently held by Jessica Watson of Australia.
Hiva Oa has a population of just under 2,000 people and is the place where both Paul Gauguin and Jacques Brel spent their autumn days.
See also:
Tags: Laura Dekker, records, sailing
May 26, 2011
Once we escaped the Schiphol airport tunnel earlier today, not just did I get to enjoy 5 minutes of free wifi, but Dutch rail was kind enough to tell me where I was, and where I was heading.
March last year the first Dutch Rail train was outfitted with free wifi. By then other European rail operators had already introduced wireless networking on their trains. In the Netherlands, both Arriva and Connexxion managed to get to the wifi grail before Dutch Rail. Arriva’s and Dutch Rail’s implementations are heavily sponsored by the national government.
Tags: Dutch railways, wifi
May 25, 2011
Former parliamentarian James Sharpe of the right-wing extremist Freedom Party (PVV) won an injunction against free newspaper Spits last week.
Spits is no longer allowed to call James Sharpe a ‘porn baron’. The epithet is ‘biased and unnecessarily hurtful’, internet lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet alleges.
One imagines the porn industry will be elated to see itself officially disassociated from Sharpe by a court of law.
Sharpe, son of a black immigrant and married to a Romanian woman, won a seat in parliament on a platform of hatred against immigrants, but resigned his seat when it became clear that he had lied about his Hungarian porn empire having a run-in with the law. This was during a time when Freedom Party front man (and single member) Geert Wilders still tried to get rid of representatives with a shady past—until he realised that this way he would soon be running out of viable candidates.
(Image: the Freedom Party logo. Any association with the logo of the Dutch Nazi party is, I am sure, as coincidental as flying the Dutch Nazi party flag.)
Tags: Dutch Antilles, Hungary, newspapers, parliament, porn, PVV, Romania, Spits
May 23, 2011
Today the members of the 12 provinces will be electing a new Senate (in Dutch, Eerste Kamer) in the Netherlands.
It could be make-or-break time for the current right-wing cabinet who stand to lose a majority. There are three scenarios, likely to be decided on a single vote. 1) The government keeps its outright majority and continues on its merry way. 2) The government loses its majority and needs to negotiate a deal with the SGP (fundamentalist Christians who believe things like women should not be allowed to hold jobs). 3) The Senate will have a left-wing majority, and Prime Minister Rutte will have to negotiate majorities on a case by case basis.
As the left is fairly divided, none of the scenarios will be very problematic for Rutte. He might even forgo an alliance with SGP, who could mistakenly demand too much power in return for what little they have to offer.
The outcome may in fact be beneficial to Rutte personally, whichever way it turns out. A feisty senate—a political body otherwise mostly known for its roll-over-and-play-dead mentality—is what he is going to get anyway, and now at least he gets to show off his political acumen. For somebody of his ‘tender age’ (44) that’s not a bad place to be.
The election results are expected to be made public on Wednesday, although according to Elsevier the press will have their predictions ready around 4:30 pm this afternoon.
(Photo by Petra de Boevere, some rights reserved)
May 22, 2011
In 2009 students of Delft University broke the European amateur altitude record with a rocket called Stratos. In 2012 they wish to get halfway the edge of space with a rocket called Stratos II.
The students, members of the Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering association, successfully tested propellant at artillery range ‘t Harde during DARE Launch Day, two weeks ago. Stratos II will be a two stage rocket which will be launched in Norway in 2012.
DARE launched five rockets at its launch day, all of which contained an egg. Two of the eggs survived.
The first amateur rocket to reach space was the GoFast rocket (2004), built by the Civilian Space eXploration Team of the USA.
(See also: Youtube video by De Stentor. Image: DARE mission patch.)
Tags: DARE, rockets, space travel, TU Delft
May 21, 2011
Last Thursday a cartoon depicting an altar boy raped with a crucifix was stolen from the Limburgs Museum in Venlo, Limburg.
According to Nieuwsblad, the thief took the drawing and just walked out.
The cartoon was made by Peter van Straaten for Vrij Nederland magazine, and netted the artist the Inkspotprijs 2010 award for best political cartoon of that year. It was part of an exhibition on cartoons, and was to be shown in Utrecht in October.
Meanwhile Toby Sterling reports that a priest of the Roman Catholic Salesian order was discovered to have been a board member of the Martijn Foundation, which tries to promote child abuse [1]. The priest’s membership was known to his superiors, who did not think it a big deal. Predictably the Catholic Church claimed “the church utterly rejects pedophilia”. “Dutch Catholic Church spokesman Pieter Kohnen said Saturday that […] if Superior Claes did not act quickly to reform the Dutch Salesian order’s leadership, the matter would be referred to Rome.”
[1] I’d link to the Association’s website, but it portrays children in a sexualized context, which might get readers in trouble.
(Illustration: Vrij Nederland / Peter van Straaten)
Tags: Catholicism, child pornography, Martijn, politics, Venlo
May 20, 2011
On 1 March 2011 the Dutch started a 9-month process in which bank cards with magnetic strips are replaced by chip-based ones. Paying in stores with a bank withdrawal is the most popular card based payment method. Cash is still good for 66% of all payments in brick and mortar stores, but paying with bank cards makes up almost all the rest of the payments, according the 2010 annual report of the Dutch National Bank.
The new chip-based cards must by stuck into a device rather than swiped through it, and this leads to problems with forgetful customers leaving their cards at the till, according to De Pers. The newspaper quotes Hans de Jong of the Esso van Hasselt gas station in the North of Amsterdam: “People keep forgetting their cards. I easily end up with ten to fifteen of them. I tend to wait a week for our customers to collect their cards, after which I will cut them in half.”
The chip based card is being introduced because it is allegedly safer than the swipe card.
Tags: money, payment methods, shopping
