March 13, 2010

Half a billion euro’s worth of unclaimed guilders floating around

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 11:36 am

Before the euro was introduced as a pan-European currency in 2002, the Netherlands used the venerable guilder.

Until 2006 citizens could still exchange their guilder coins and bills for euro. The deadline for trading in guilder banknotes is 2032, and the Dutch national bank (DNB) estimates there are still about half a billion euro worth of guilder bills floating around.

According to Z24, DNB bases its estimates on the missing banknote numbers. About 24 million banknotes are still to be traded in.

See also:
* Rules for trading in guilder bills (Dutch)
* Oxenaar exhibit in Museum for Communication, The Hague

(Photo by Robin Papa, some rights reserved)

Tags: , ,

March 8, 2010

Women with partners prefer part-time jobs

Filed under: General,Science by Branko Collin @ 8:08 am

Dutch women with partners are very happy with their part-time jobs and do not aspire to work full-time, a recent study reveals.

Professor Jan van Ours of the University of Tilburg who performed the study together with Australian researcher Allison Booth, told De Pers: “People often assume that [Dutch] women go for a part-time job to be able to raise children. But women won’t start to work more once the children have grown up. A part-time job is not an intermediate phase, but a goal in itself.”

More than 50% of Dutch women between the ages of 25 and 54 work part-time, FD reports. Within a heterosexual relationship it is often the woman who performs the most household tasks. This doesn’t change if the woman works more.

Meanwhile, the barbarous practice of alimony continues unimpeded in the Netherlands. Sure, let women work part-time, but don’t punish the ex-husband for his ex-wife’s lack of ambition.

See also:

(Photo of Jean Gautherin’s Le Paradis Perdu by Thierry Caro, some rights reserved)

Tags: , ,

March 7, 2010

Dutch brewer makes world’s strongest beer

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 3:32 pm

The beer arms race is still on. Brewers Het Koelschip from Almere have come up with Obilix, a 45% alcohol beer that will surely attract the attention of both beer aficionados and comics trademark holders.

Last month previous champ BrewDog ousted Germany’s Schorschbock with 41 percenter Sink the Bismarck. Pussies!

Het Koelschip suggests you drink their beer like a gin, sipping it from a nice cognac or whiskey glass.

(Link: Food Holland.)

Tags: ,

March 6, 2010

Catawiki, personal catalogue, wiki and shopping website in one

Filed under: Online by Branko Collin @ 11:33 am

Last week the readers of Belgian online magazine Netties, an early supporter of Wikipedia, voted Catawiki the Best Website in the Dutch language.

Catawiki is what you would get if you merged Librarything, an online personal library catologue, with eBay, and squared the result. It was founded in 2009 by René Schoenmakers and Marco Jansen, who bought an existing Flemish comics database with 110,000 entries to get started. Later catalogues for stamps, coins and telephone cards were added. The site bills itself as the catalogue for and by collectors.

Although Catawiki can be used to just show the world which books, comics and even barf bags you own, you can also use it to sell items.

(Link: Eamelje.net.)

Tags: , , ,

February 27, 2010

Paul Signac painting discovered in Volendam hotel

Filed under: Art,History by Branko Collin @ 1:48 pm

A painting by French neo-impressionist Paul Signac and estimated to be worth 100,000 euro has been discovered in Hotel Spaander in Volendam, spokes person Marcel Rutten confirmed to AD yesterday.

The painting was a payment for the painter’s stay at the hotel in 1894. Hotel Spaander has a collection of about 1,400 paintings. It billed itself as a painter’s hotel back in the day, still does, and apparently it was not uncommon that residing artists paid their bills with their art. The Signac’s value though was unknown to management, which estimates that this is the best paid bill in its history.

The Signac representing a view of the harbour used to hang off a rusty nail in the lobby. Artists who wish to stay at the hotel can still do so in exchange for paintings, as long as the subject is Volendam, according to RTL Nieuws.

Signac was a contemporary of Vincent van Gogh, with whom he corresponded.

The painting’s true value was discovered during the preparations of an exhibition of the hotel’s art for the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen.

(Photo of the roof of Hotel Spaander by Flickr user FaceMePLS, some rights reserved)

Tags: , , , , ,

February 26, 2010

Zienzine, fanzine from Schiedam

Filed under: Art,Comics by Branko Collin @ 12:03 pm

Should you happen to find yourself in the slow train between The Hague and Rotterdam, you might come across this monthly fanzine made by Schiedam artist Ronald de Graaff and friends.

Zienzine is set up as a platform for contributing artists. It is distributed for free (in the train, and at the addresses of some of the makers), which is why each edition is limited to 250 copies. The editors are trying to put back issues on the web for those who don’t often find themselves in the slow train between The Hague and Rotterdam, but so far have only managed to make issue 0 of the five that have been published available for download.

The first issue contains stories about Volkswagen plagiarism, pinhole photography, and doodles and cartoons. There is also a recipe for vegetarian boerenkoolstampot. If you want to know how not to pronounce this word, see here (featured earlier).

I discovered Zienzine from the print edition of Zone 5300. Zone’s latest is filled with comics from Flanders, and may be had for a few more days. It appeared last December, but I could not review it then. TNT Post never delivered my issue, and I finally got to rectify that last week.

Tags: ,

February 24, 2010

New Van Gogh discovered

Filed under: Art,History by Branko Collin @ 3:41 pm

Museum De Fundatie in Zwolle has a painting in its collection that it claims was made by Van Gogh. The painting is called De molen ‘Le blute-fin.’ According to the museum, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has confirmed its authenticity.

Although it was known in the art world that this painting existed, people so far have refused to attribute it to Vincent van Gogh. According to NRC it has motifs that were atypical for the 19th century painter. It was originally discovered in 1975 by Dirk Hannema, the museum director who let himself be fooled by Han van Meegeren’s fake Vermeers, and that also would not have helped.

See also: ‘Hidden’ painting by Van Gogh discovered, about a different painting.

Tags: ,

February 23, 2010

Web service lets grannies embroider your handkerchief

Filed under: Online by Branko Collin @ 1:20 pm

Do you need an embroidered handkerchief, but you lack a grandmother with a taste for needle craft? Fear not, smartlapjes.nl employs needle-wielding grandmothers with lots of spare time who will embroider a phrase of your choice onto a handkerchief for only 10 euro.

The delivery time of any given ‘smartlapje’ is ‘when it is ready.’

According to Bright, the site is a part of the Liefde in de Stad (Love in the City) art project.

(Image: a screenshot of smartlapjes.nl)

Tags: , , , , , ,

February 22, 2010

Touchy Remix touch screen in a table

Filed under: Design,Technology by Branko Collin @ 4:01 pm

A classy looking table with a built-in computer, projector (HD, i.e. 720 lines) and touch screen. According to commenters at Engadget who have used this device it has some spots where the touch screen doesn’t work well. Intactlab from Amsterdam is nevertheless not afraid to charge a 1,000 euro daily rental fee for the Remix.

You have to admit, it looks cool.

An iPhone dock is optional.

(Source photo: Intactlab)

Tags:

February 21, 2010

Man gets bike thrown at head from seventh floor

Filed under: Architecture,Aviation,Bicycles by Branko Collin @ 2:41 pm

A man from Nieuwegein near Utrecht had to be taken to the hospital last Monday after being hit in the head by a bicycle thrown from an apartment building, Telegraaf reports.

A fight on the seventh floor which the 18-year-old victim had nothing to do with resulted in a bicycle being thrown off the balcony. The victim was about to enter a car for a driving lesson when the bike partially hit him and the car.

The victim has filed charges for attempted manslaughter. The suspect turned himself in on Wednesday and was arrested, according to the Utrecht police.

(Photo by Mike Porcenaluk, some rights reserved)

Tags: ,