30 November 2009
From the
New York Times:
Some things seem doomed in the digital age, and the atlas is one. Who needs to plow through a book to track down a map, when you can call it up within seconds on Google Maps? An online map is also likelier to be up-to-date than the printed one, which could have been published years ago. Put like that, the prognosis doesn’t look great, but that’s for traditional atlases, not the new ones developed by Joost Grootens, a Dutch designer. By reassessing the type of information we might like to find in an atlas, and experimenting with different ways of depicting it, Mr. Grootens has created a beautiful series of books that give us a richer, clearer picture of the places we are looking up than we ever could hope to find on the Internet. Thanks to his latest book, the Vinex Atlas, Mr. Grootens on Sunday was awarded the Netherlands’ most prestigious design award, the Rotterdam Design Prize.
Historically, [The Netherlands] has excelled in graphic design, and continues to do so thanks to Mr. Grootens and his peers, like Experimental Jetset, Mevis & Van Deursen and Irma Boom. Recently it has emerged as a force in product design too, helped by Eindhoven, Droog and the rest of the design system. If you compiled a checklist of the things that are likely to foster a healthy design culture, the Netherlands would be one of the few countries to tick every box. Government grants for young designers. Cheap studios. Great design collections in museums, like the Boijmans in Rotterdam and Stedelijk in Amsterdam. Enlightened manufacturers, such as Royal Tichelaar Makkum (another Rotterdam prize nominee) and Moooi, the furniture company launched by Philippe Starck’s Dutch understudy, Marcel Wanders. All of this has created a vibrant design scene that has enabled Dutch designers to thrive and attracted talented foreigners.
There are concerns that the Netherlands is ill-equipped to adapt to the changes now sweeping through design. This is a global issue. Designers everywhere are struggling to redefine their role as the environmental and economic crises deepen, but that process need not necessarily be negative. Another issue is whether the Dutch will be as adept at the new design disciplines, such as service design and social design, which apply the principles of design thinking to a range of problems, as at they have been at the traditional process of creating beautiful objects and imagery. In principle there is no reason why they shouldn’t, but the United States has taken the lead in service design, and Britain and Scandinavia in social design. Despite the gloom inside the Netherlands, outsiders are more optimistic about the prospects for Dutch design. “Crisis? You’ve got to be kidding me.” Paola Antonelli, senior curator of design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, said laughing. “They should get over themselves, although I guess it’s the self-criticism that makes them so good.”
Read the full article
here
27 November 2009
With airline passengers getting increasingly concerned about their carbon footprint, the Dutch airline KLM has turned to oil made from the seeds of the camelina plant. On Monday, a KLM Boeing 747 that was partly fueled by camelina oil flew over the Netherlands in a test flight with about 40 passengers aboard. Airlines have been searching for alternatives to conventional jet fuel. Last January, Continental used a combination of algae and jatropha, a tropical shrub, on a short flight. And Japan Airlines tested a camelina mixture earlier this year. Camelina is often found as a weed in flax fields. Advocates tout it as a so-called drop-in fuel — meaning neither the engine nor the aircraft needs to be modified to use it — and it does not interfere with normal crop growth.
More at the
New York Times
25 November 2009
From
BBC News:
Rotterdam does not feature highly on lists of must-see sites in the Netherlands. Heavily bombed by the Germans during World War II, Europe's busiest port lacks the rustic charm of Amsterdam. But city authorities are aiming to turn it into an international showcase for water management, making a virtue out of what was once its biggest threat. Although the story of Hans Brinker shoving his finger in the dyke to stop it from bursting is a myth, Dutch expertise in this field is not in doubt. With much of its land mass below sea-level, the country has been battling the sea for centuries, using dykes and windmills to control the flow of water. The Netherlands has established a plan to bolster its flood protection system by making it:
* Bigger, with higher sea barriers
* More natural, through schemes to widen rivers, reinforce the coastline with sand and start building floating homes
* Smarter, using technology to provide an early warning system and evacuation plan
Rising sea levels are not the only problem facing the country. Increased urbanisation is putting pressure on sewage systems and increasing the risk of flooding, and the country is subsiding at an even faster rate than the sea level is increasing. "We're getting more water out of Germany from the river Rhine, more from heaven, water out of the sea and out of the soil, so water's coming from four sides and we have to have answers for all four aspects," says Rotterdam's Vice-Mayor Lucas Bolsius.
Rotterdam's ultimate goal is to make itself climate-proof - able to withstand whatever the weather throws at it - by 2025. In addition to hi-tech water management systems, the city is also exploiting "soft technology" such as water plazas, green roofs and multi-purpose storage facilities. More ambitiously, it plans to develop a 50-hectare (120-acre) floating housing development, with a neighbourhood of environmentally friendly houseboats. The showcase for this development is a floating pavilion under construction that will be completed in time for the start of the Tour de France in Rotterdam next July. Rotterdam hopes to share its knowledge, exchanging ideas on low-cost methods of flood protection with both developed delta cities and developing countries - like Mozambique - that face a similar threat from water.
Read the article
here
14 November 2009
From the
Guardian:
Nancy Kienholz's house is in an obscure neck of the woods, to say the least. After a long drive to her hometown, Hope, Idaho, the man at the Ellisport Bay marina directs us to "follow the signs to Beyond Hope and then take a left". A postwoman escorts us the last few hundred metres, through a nature reservation where beagles chase after young deer and wild turkeys wander through the trees and points us to the sculpture of a fighter jet bearing a toothy grin which is parked in the front garden of her log-cabin home on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille. Nancy Reddin Kienholz, the fifth (and final) wife of the Californian sculptor Ed Kienholz who died of a heart attack 14 years ago, emerges from behind the screen door of her home and studio.
Nancy and Ed's biggest environmental sculpture, The Hoerengracht (Whores' Canal) – a garish, life-size depiction made over five years in their Berlin studio of a 1980s Amsterdam brothel district – will stand alongside paintings from the gallery's permanent collection of Dutch masters depicting prostitution scenes from the 17th century. It will be the first time that the gallery has exhibited a modern installation. "It's as good as it gets," says Nancy. When the letter from Nicholas Penny, the director of the National Gallery, arrived earlier this year inviting her to exhibit The Hoerengracht – whose name is a pun on the elegant street Herengracht or "Gentleman's Canal" – because he wanted to compare it to the Dutch old masters such as Vermeer and De Hooch, Nancy thought it must be a joke. Simultaneously, a work she calls the "precursor" to The Hoerengracht, Roxy's, based on a whorehouse in Nevada Ed visited in the 1940s and which had shocked him to the core, is going on show in a Berlin gallery. Back in Hope, in the gymnasium of the bat-infested former schoolhouse, a team of workers is making the final preparations before packing the huge Hoerengracht. The work is to be put into 40 wooden crates and loaded on to flatbed, air-ride trucks, taken to New Jersey, transported across the Atlantic, then driven to the National Gallery where it will be reassembled.
The Amsterdam city authorities have been trying, and succeeding, for several years to reduce the number of window prostitutes, replacing them in many cases with jewellery and fashion designers as they struggle to find a balance between sex tourism and gentrification. New laws mean brothels have had to change beyond recognition – the wallpaper and carpets seen in The Hoerengracht have been replaced by white tiles which can be hosed down after each session. "As a result," says Annemarie de Wildt, curator at Amsterdam's Historical Museum, to which the artwork will transfer after London, "The Hoerengracht captures the spirit of a particular moment in time which has all but disappeared."
Much more
here
11 November 2009
From the
New York Times:
On the harbor directly across from Centraal Station, a symbol of Amsterdam’s next cultural evolution is rising from the ground — and, by sometime in 2011, cinephiles in the city will be rejoicing. The organizers behind Filmmuseum, an Amsterdam institution that has been an important agent in screening and preserving old movies, broke ground in September on a site they hope will widen the museum’s audience and appeal.
The museum’s current location, within the Vondelpark, close to the Museum District, has its limitations. The new harborside building, say the museum’s spokespeople, will help the museum move beyond its core vision — serving as a tool to educate movie geeks. The new space will offer state-of-the-art, modern viewing spaces; the organizers hope to draw more than 200,000 visitors per year to the new building. The prospect of yet another monumental building lining the waterfront underscores the ongoing transition turning the city’s harbor into a major, modern cultural draw.
Read the article
here
Filmmuseum.nl
08 November 2009
5 Dutch Days NYC:
5 Dutch Days is a five day cultural event which takes place in New York City every November. It celebrates the continuous influence of Dutch arts and culture in New York City and brings together arts and cultural organizations from across the city. Programs include walking tours, lectures, concerts and contemporary art offerings. This year the 5 Dutch days take place from November 12-16, 2009.
As part of the event author Marc Resch delivers an informative and fun presentation on his book, Only in Holland, Only the Dutch. Using a combination of personal experiences and research, Marc will present a captivating portrayal of Dutch culture.
Date: Saturday, November 14, 2009
Time: 4:00pm
Free. RSVP recommended, as space is limited.
Location:
TRESPA DESIGN CENTRE
62 Greene Street
New York, NY 10012
212.334.7122
www.trespa.com
05 November 2009
From
Reuters:
The Dutch are among the lowest users of marijuana or cannabis in Europe despite the Netherlands' well-known tolerance of the drug, according to a regional study published Thursday. Among adults in the Netherlands, 5.4 percent used cannabis, compared with the European average of 6.8 percent, according to an annual report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction, using latest available figures. A higher percentage of adults in Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic and France took cannabis last year, the EU agency said, with the highest being Italy at 14.6 percent. Usage in Italy used to be among the lowest at below 10 percent a decade ago. Countries with the lowest usage rates, according to the Lisbon-based agency, were Romania, Malta, Greece and Bulgaria.
Cannabis use in Europe rose steadily during the 90s and earlier this decade, but has recently stabilized and is beginning to show signs of decline, the agency said, owing to several national campaigns to curb and treat use of the drug."Data from general population and school surveys point to a stabilizing or even decreasing situation," the report said. The policy on soft drugs in the Netherlands, one of the most liberal in Europe, allows for the sale of marijuana at "coffee shops," which the Dutch have allowed to operate for decades, and possession of less than 5 grams (0.18 oz). The full report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction is available at
Reuters (PDF file).
More
here
05 November 2009
From the
Associated Press:
The Netherlands Antilles has launched an amnesty program that will provide residence and working papers for thousands of illegal immigrants. Hundreds of people lined up outside an immigration office in St. Maarten on Wednesday, the third day of the six-week amnesty program. As many as 70,000 immigrants — mostly Haitian, Guyanese and Jamaican — are estimated to be living on the five Dutch islands in the Caribbean without valid residency papers or work permits. Under a program called the "Brooks Tower Accord," papers will be given to those who can prove they have lived in the territory since Dec. 31, 2006, or can show a valid contract from an employer.
Associated Press
03 November 2009
From
Paste Magazine:
Yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of the controversial murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. Van Gogh collaborated with Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somalian-born woman who fled to Europe and became an outspoken critic of cultural Islam. They worked together on a short film entitled Submission, about the abuses perpetrated against Muslim women, which was broadcast on Dutch public television in August of 2004. Several months later, a Dutch-born Muslim man of Moroccan descent named Mohammed Bouyeri shot van Gogh to death in Amsterdam, stabbing a note to his chest that threatened Hirsi Ali’s life and calling for a jihad to avenge the making of their incendiary film. Bouyeri is now serving a life sentence in prison and the murder was labeled a terrorist attack.
Although tensions surrounding immigrant and ethnic issues were already high in the Netherlands at the time of van Gogh’s murder, his death is credited as prompting the rise of the right-wing, anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders. Wilder’s growing Party for Freedom (PVV) currently leads in the polls. To counteract the tension following van Gogh’s death, the city of Amsterdam launched the “We Amsterdammers” campaign, aimed at uniting ethnic groups and creating anti-discrimination posters. Although “We Amsterdammers” has been criticized as out of touch with the reality of ethnic tensions, there have been no more “terrorist attacks” since van Gogh’s murder, a fact that city officials attribute to the campaign’s effectiveness. Integration expert Jean Tillie said, “[Wilders’] party is constantly bashing Muslims. The fact that nothing else has happened, proves how effective the policies have been.”
Read the article
here
Dutch mark 5th anniversary of filmmaker's murder (Associated Press)
The Dutch marked the fifth anniversary Monday of the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim fanatic, a brutal killing that continues to shape politics in the Netherlands. Van Gogh, a distant relative of the famous painter, was shot and stabbed on an Amsterdam street Nov. 2, 2004, setting off a spate of mosque burnings in a country once renowned for its tolerance. The effects of the murder were far-reaching, and Dutch debate about the integration of Muslims — who make up 5 percent of the 16 million population — continues into the present. The murder aided the rise of Geert Wilders, an anti-immigrant politician whose party leads in recent polls.
Television stations were running documentaries and films Monday about the killing, and politicians, fans and members of Van Gogh's family were to gather later at a monument in a park near the spot where he was killed. "We learned from it," Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen said of the murder on NOS radio Monday. He compared its effect on the Netherlands to that of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States — noting that while the scale of destruction was different, the attackers' ideology was the same. A dozen members of Bouyeri's circle were arrested later for terrorism-related crimes such as throwing explosives at police or plotting attacks on landmarks. Cohen said his role has been to "just try to hold things together" in a diverse city where tensions between various groups continue to run high. "Every day it's a new challenge all over again," he said.
In some ways the anti-immigrant politician Wilders has tried to assume Van Gogh's mantle, creating his own provocative film, "Fitna" which linked Islam and violence. Van Gogh fans say Wilders lacks the filmmaker's sense of irony. There have been some positive developments in race relations in the Netherlands since 2004, not least because no new terrorist attacks have taken place. Many Dutch are weary of debates over Islam, and other issues sometimes force immigration and terrorism off the front page — notably the financial crisis. Still, public interest in any crime escalates if it involves ethnic Moroccans or Turks. And immigration issues dominate politics. One leading story in papers Monday features allegations illegal immigrants are delaying their deportations by faking illness. Another is about a report by a government think-tank labeling Wilders a "right-wing extremist. Wilders rejected the term, and shot back that his political opponents are "accomplices" of Bouyeri.
Read the article at the
Associated Press
Other:
AT5: Local Amsterdam news: Van Gogh murder has changed the city. (In Dutch)
www.theovangogh.nl: Van Gogh's official website. (in Dutch)
01 November 2009
From the
Financial Times:
Cycling along a street in the east of Amsterdam five years ago on Monday, Theo van Gogh, the outspoken Dutch film-maker, was shot and, as he slumped on the ground, his murderer slit his throat and pinned a letter to his dead body. The killing of Van Gogh, targeted by a second-generation Dutch Moroccan because of a film critical of Islam and notorious anti-Muslim remarks, shocked the nation and intensified an already heated debate about the "Dutchness" of the country's 1m Muslims. Five years later, Geert Wilders, the far-right politician who was among the critics of Islam threatened in the blood-stained letter attached to Van Gogh's chest, still lives under the permanent police protection hastily arranged after the murder. In a sign of prevailing sentiment, Mr Wilders' Freedom Party, which would seek to end all immigration by Muslims and ban the Koran, has seen a surge of support and is polling 17 per cent of the vote , enough to make it the second biggest party in parliament were an election held tomorrow.
Job Cohen, Amsterdam's centre-left Jewish mayor since 2001, acknowledged that little had changed since he used a Holocaust Memorial Day speech almost two years ago to warn that fear and suspicion among ethnic groups were at a postwar peak. But investment by the city in "anti-radicalisation" programmes has made a tangible, if unverifiable, difference, he says. "We're more able to find people who might radicalise and we have found methods to bring them, as much as we can, to a more normal path," he said. "I think the risk of [a Van Gogh-style murder] happening again is much lower." As well as encouraging teachers, youth workers and others to signal concerns about the 2 per cent of young Muslims seen as at risk to radicalisation, the city has sought contact with mosques and religious organisations and tried to foster "social networks".
Read the entire article
here.
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Shop Only in Holland
» Karadzic challenges war crimes court's legitimacy
Radovan Karadzic has filed a motion challenging the legitimacy of the U.N. war crimes tribunal prosecuting him for allegedly masterminding Serb atrocities throughout the Bosnian war. Karadzic claims the Security Council overstepped its powers when it created the court in 1993. Prosecutors have not yet responded to the former Bosnian Serb leader's motion, which was released Monday. Karadzic is also protesting that he does not have enough time to prepare his defense.
More at the
Associated Press
» Dutch drivers to pay car tax by kilometer
The Dutch government has approved a bill to impose a tax on drivers for every kilometer they are on the road, which it says will reduce traffic jams, fatal accidents and carbon emissions. Beginning in 2012, drivers of an average passenger car will pay euro0.03 per 1 kilometer (7 US cents per mile). But annual road taxes and purchase tax for new cars will be abolished, reducing the cost of a new car by 25 percent. The government says nearly six out of 10 drivers will benefit under the system, which shifts the tax burden to people who drive the most and at peak hours. Congestion is expected to be halved and carbon emissions cut 10 percent.
More at the
Boston Globe
» Dutch arrest Somali terror suspect wanted by US
Dutch prosecutors said Tuesday they have arrested a 43-year-old Somali man wanted by U.S. authorities for allegedly financing Islamic extremist terrorists. Prosecutors said in a statement the man lived in Minneapolis before leaving the United States in November 2008; he arrived in the Netherlands about one month later. The identity of the man, who was arrested Sunday at an asylum seeker's center in Dronten about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northeast of Amsterdam, was not released in line with Dutch privacy laws. The statement by the national prosecutors office said American authorities asked for the man's arrest and have sought his extradition. The Dutch statement says U.S. prosecutors suspect the man arrested Sunday of bankrolling the purchase of weapons for Islamic extremists and helping other Somalis travel to Somalia in 2007 and 2008.
More at the
Associated Press
» Jailbroken iPhones taken hostage by Dutch hacker
So a strange development took place on Sunday–a Dutch hacker is currently holding what amounts to several jailbreaked Apple iPhones. When you jailbreak an Apple iPhone, you force the resetting of a password that controls remote access to the general password coded in at the factory level. Now, if you’re smart, you’ll quickly change that password to something you know well. But a lot of people either got lazy or busy or just plain forgot, because they left their iPhones in the original password setting. And that’s where the Dutch hacker swung in. He changed the passwords, effectively locking people out of their own phones until they pay him a ransom of five euros via PayPal. Meanwhile, Apple considers jailbroken phones to have voided their warranties, so it’s pretty much either pay off the hacker or lose your phone until he’s arrested and forced to confess.
More at
Gadget Review
» Belgium to rent Dutch jail cells
Tight on space in its jails, Belgium will start renting 500 cells at Tilburg prison in neighbouring Netherlands. The agreement will make up for the shortage of cells across Belgium and send roughly 500 prisoners away for three years. Belgium will pay 30m euros (£26.8m) a year for sending its detainees across the border. No prisoners who are "an escape risk or a risk to society" will be sent to Tilburg, Dutch officials said. "The Netherlands is putting the prison and its personnel at Belgium's disposal for placing at least 500 detainees over a period of three years," the Dutch justice ministry said.
More at
BBC News
» Dutch augmented reality firm Layar raises $1 million
Dutch augmented reality company Layar is about to close “more than $1 million” in its latest, undisclosed round of funding, according to Venturebeat.com. The company, which launched its product in April this year, has created technology using a phone’s GPS, compass, and accelerometer to display images and other data on top of a mobile phone screen. To use the application, currently available on Android devices, the iPhone, and as of Wednesday, Symbian Nokia phones, users point their phone at an object which appears on the device’s screen with information—or what the company calls “content layers” displayed on top of it. The layers, the equivalent of pages in a web browser, are created by developers, and so far, the company’s website says there are around 178 of them. The layers range from real estate ones, like Trulia, which will allows a user to point to a house and pull up information, to one for the London Underground and another for Wikipedia.
Read the entire article at
Moconews.com
