De Efteling (1)
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Janelle (4)
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I’ve lived in the Netherlands for years, and had never heard about De Efteling until a friend told me. Granted, it’s for kids, but it sounds like so much fun that I might have to check it out myself soon. The park opened in 1935 and now includes a huge array of fantasy attractions (see this link for details). In the summer, the park is open from 10 am to 9pm. It’s a little pricey ...
Public Squares art group celebrate Toronto blackout anniversary (3)
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Cory Doctorow (2462)
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Todd sez, "A new group of activists in Toronto, the Public Squares, coordinated the temporary conversion of the intersection of Bloor and Spadina into a piazza with trees, fountain and dozens of revellers. From the group:" Blackout Anniversary Five years ago the lights went out on some 100 million people. We spilled out of our home-box, work-box, shopping and car boxes. We stepped away from computers, microwaves and TV's. The streets became our living rooms ...
Point/Counterpoint: the case for and against young adult science fiction (4)
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Cory Doctorow (2462)
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Over on IO9, a pair of essays by Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz presenting the case for and against writing young adult science fiction: It's great news that young people are getting exposed to SF at an impressionable age, without apparently feeling any particular stigma about it. And yes, a lot of those people will eventually come to view SF as "kid stuff" and stop reading when they reach adulthood. But if even 20 ...
Medaille (1)
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sander (2)
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Dutch word of the day (2)
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medal, prize-medal [noun] [de medaille, de medailles] ['mee-daj-ju'] The word "medaille" is the topic of conversation on Dutch sport news these days, and probably not only in the Netherlands :-) Even though a small country, the Dutch participate in many sports at the Olympics, ranging from sailing to fencing. Sometimes we see Dutch sportsmen/women competing who we have never heard of! The Dutch typically do well in hockey, swimming, rowing and judo where "we" expect ...
Clock Museum - Robbed! (1)
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Now I've heard everything. They robbed the Dutch Clock museum this past weekend! Yes. According to Dutch newspapers on the night of friday to saturday, 2 very valueable clocks were stolen from the museum. A third was badly damaged as thieves threw it at security, apparently trying to pursue them. Sounds like an interesting time to finally go to the Dutch Clock Museum, which is certainly not at the top of most tourists' lists. The ...
Olympic Welcome Home (1)
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When it is all over, and you're done watching the olympic games, you might find yourself in Amsterdam. Perhaps during the games you found yourself admiring the skill and spirit of the Dutch olympic athletes? If so, you could join the welcome home festivities at the old Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam south. Itself a beautiful piece of early 1900's architecture, the stadium will be open to the public and Dutch Olympians will appear there immediately ...
Troep (1)
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laura (24)
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1. mess, rubbish, junk [noun] [de troep, no plural] ['troep'] "Troep" is what you typically find in your attic: old junk. Quite a few synonyms exist for "troep" (see 'Related words'). "Troep" is also used to describe a disorganised state of a room or place, or - by some people - of a hairdo: the so-called "Coupe troep" ("Messy haircut") ;-) Examples: - "Zijn kamer is één grote troep omdat hij nooit opruimt."("His room is ...
Cannonball champ 2008 with eight metre splash (1)
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The national cannonball (”bommetje”) champion of this year is Freddy van der Pol who also won last year, according to De Pers (Dutch, video here). His splash at Zwembad Noord in Stadskanaal reached a height of 8.60 metres, not nearly enough to break the record of 12.4 metres. The status of the title is itself heavily contested as there is a competing championship that broke away from Zwembad Noord’s in 2001, organised by Sportfondsen. Their ...
The Law on Internet, geek lawyer’s book ready for pre-order (1)
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Arnoud Engelfriet is a geek turning lawyer, and a prolific blogger. That puts him a couple of notches ahead of other technology-oriented legal professionals in that he knows what he is talking about when discussing the meeting of law and technology. In September he will discuss this meeting a lot when he publishes his first book, De wet op internet (”The Law on Internet”—the Dutch title unfortunately lacks the second ambiguity). If you want to ...
Haarlem mayor ‘corrects’ the Chinese although wrong (1)
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There is no honourable way of putting this: the Mayor of Haarlem is, er, not very well informed. Bernt Schneiders has fallen into the old trap of thinking the Dutch really invented book printing and played Dutch uncle to the Chinese for making what he thinks is a mistake during the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games when they claimed that book printing is a Chinese invention. Schneiders wrote a letter to the Mayor of ...
Emergency car help strictly for the highly educated (1)
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An insurance company in Dordrecht offers an emergency help service that caters to people with high vocational education, university level education and middle and upper management personnel. The company National Academic claims it can offer prices that are lower than that of the competition, ANWB (the Dutch automobile association) and Route Mobiel. Although the car insurance has been around for two years, the emergency help can now be offered separately from the car insurance, which ...
Deep-throating herring (1)
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Algemeen Dagblad published the five best and the five worst herring stands of the Netherlands of 2008. The only true way to eat a herring, as any Dutchman knows, is to take the critter by its tail, heave it high above your head, and then take a big bite. And no, it doesn’t have to look as gross as portrayed here by the newspaper’s anonymous photographer. Deep Throat meets La Grande Bouffe. Between dikes. Via ...
Supercomputer wins game of Go (1)
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Engadget writes: You know how Go nerds are always going on about how magical they are since supercomputer AI hasn’t yet cracked the ancient board game, and rarely beats even an average Go player? [...] Well, those folks can wipe the smug grins off their faces as they’re faced with the sobering reality of defeat: Dutch supercomputer “Huygens” has defeated a human Go professional in an official match at the 24th Annual Congress of the ...
15/8 Febo not weird enough (1)
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16/8 Should cylists wear (1)
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Nieuws uit Amsterdam - Page2RSS (0)
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16/8 Should cylists wear wig? Should cyclists wear a wig? 16 August 2008 - The number of people who die in Amsterdam traffic accidents has risen slightly during the past two years. The municipality therefore intends to tighten traffic rules, het Parool reports. Should it consider making wigs mandatory for male cyclists? Earlier this week, the Guardian published an analysis of bicycle safety habits by Stuart Jeffries. In Anglophone countries, it is common for cyclists ...
Bibliography of Europe's largest, private collection of Science Fiction novels. (4)
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Ralf says: Heinz-J??rgen Ehrig, a German Science Fiction fan, has collected about 130.000 Science Fiction books, magazines, fanzines, etc. Since his death in 2003, his widow, the SciFi author Marianne Sydow has spend gazillions of hours cataloguing his collection and is now publishing the bibliographical data on a monthly basis in a paperback + CD outfit for a small fee. Unfortunately she finds it hard to get any subscribers, which is a shame really. It ...
Illustrated book about cats written by Amazon Mechanical Turk (25)
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Bjoern sez, "'Amazing but True Cat Stories' is a collection of stories about feline antics, illustrated in vivid 8-bit color by true mspaint artists. Stolen pants, pooped-on veterinarians, fur on fire, foretold seizures, and much more! This book was entirely written by the anonymous crowd. All stories and illustrations were submitted by workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk. I selected, edited and laid out the stories in a short but sweet coffee table book. The idea ...
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nikan said:
I was writing about crowdsourcing blogposts in webtropic and here is something even bigger: crowdsourcing a whole book!
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benhamin said:
what a wonderful idea, stories that we can all relate too... and all have one to share. Be good to see this apply to other episodes and experiences in life.
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Tj Nelson said:
for michael..
How to get into a club by pretending you're a DJ (22)
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These Australian guys conducted an experiment and videotaped it: Can you beat the lines at a club and get in by wearing a record bag and pretending to be a DJ? Guy 1: Alright AJ, it's been a long night but we've proven some truths about the record bag. What are they? Guy 2: I've proven I can get into any club I like, skip any queue, pay no cover charges, go up to the ...
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Ooble said:
Must try this. I need a stupid hoodie, apparently.
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Robin said:
A bit of social engineering at work, if the Kiwis don't find the Aussie accent too annoying, this is a great video.
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SFSlim said:
The best hack is always the social hack.
Travel Photography Equipment - What To Pack? (8)
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Darren (207)
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What photography gear should I pack when I’m traveling? Today Christina Dickson answers this question. Image by Dean Forbes. It’s your first trip out of the country as a real “photographer”. Your clothing is packed. Your suitcase is at the door. Now there’s only one question: What photography gear do you bring? In 3 days I head off to Ecuador as a photographer for a philanthropic missions group. While there, I get to spend an ...
Travel Photography Equipment - What To Pack? (3)
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What photography gear should I pack when I’m traveling? Today Christina Dickson answers this question. Image by Dean Forbes. It’s your first trip out of the country as a real “photographer”. Your clothing is packed. Your suitcase is at the door. Now there’s only one question: What photography gear do you bring? In 3 days I head off [...]
