30 September 2009
From
CBS News:
"You can’t really have reform without a public option," former governor Howard Dean, a prominent public-option advocate, said recently. "If you really want to fix the health care system, you’ve got to give the public the choice of having such an option." Promising as this sounds, it seems increasingly likely that the public option will be a liberal dream deferred. Republicans and conservative Democrats, panicked that the government plan will squash competition and the medical industry as we know it, are slowly killing the idea. Even President Obama, who has endorsed the idea unambiguously, has indicated a willingness to compromise on the issue.
Liberals, understandably, are in agony. But they can take at least some comfort in looking overseas--where one tiny country has managed to build a popular and successful universal health care program based entirely on private insurance. That country is the Netherlands, which several years ago overhauled its health care system and achieved most of the goals the liberal reform movement holds dear: near-universal coverage, affordable insurance, and quality health care. Under the new system, the Dutch government has required that everybody gets insurance; in return, it makes sure insurance is available to everybody, regardless of pre-existing medical conditions or income. Although the government finances long-term care through a public program, it has turned over the job of providing basic medical coverage exclusively to private insurers, including some for-profit companies.
But the real secret to success is what happens behind the scenes, in the way government watches and regulates the insurers. The big worry with private insurance is always that carriers, eager to make a profit, will try to avoid paying the large medical bills that people with serious health problems inevitably generate. And the main way insurers do that is by avoiding such people altogether--a practice known as "cherry-picking"--which can ultimately destabilize the entire insurance system. The Dutch government prohibits cherry-picking. Insurers cannot turn away applicants, or charge them more, because of pre-existing medical conditions or risk of illness.
Read the entire article
here
28 September 2009
From
BBC News:
In 1996, voters in California approved a referendum that made it legal for the first time in decades in the US for people to consume cannabis for medicinal purposes. More than a dozen states have followed suit since and several others - the most recent of which is Massachusetts - have approved laws decriminalising the possession of small amounts of the drug. Now, there are moves afoot in California to go further to fully legalise marijuana. Evidence of the impact that the approval of medicinal marijuana has had on some areas of California is clear in Oakland. Across the bay from San Francisco, it has come to be known as Oaksterdam, in a nod to the symbolic global capital of marijuana deregulation, Amsterdam. The relaxed approach to marijuana use in this part of Oakland has led to the opening of several marijuana dispensaries. They are establishments in this once deprived area of town which sell a broad array of cannabis related products, from food products such as brownies and cereal bars laced with cannabis to traditional marijuana for smoking.
Politicians like Tom Ammiano, who represents one of the most liberal districts of San Francisco in the California state assembly, have been paying close attention. Mr Ammiano came into politics as a trailblazing gay rights activist in the 1970s and has long advocated greater tolerance of cannabis use. Earlier this year, he took that approach one step further and introduced a bill in the California state assembly which, if approved, would grant cannabis the same legal status in the state as alcohol and tobacco. That would put California ahead of even Amsterdam, where marijuana use is tolerated but not altogether legal.
Read the entire article
here
26 September 2009
Hudson River festival today
The city of Albany invites the public to a free Hudson River Fair from 12 to 6 p.m. on Saturday in Albany Riverfront Park. The festival is part of the state's ongoing celebration of the Hudson Quadricentennial and will include a Dutch encampment with tours of the Half Moon, a replica of Henry Hudson's ship, and blacksmiths, ship's crew and artisans; entertainment, including eba Dance Theatre's "Henry Hudson & His River," singers Nanna and Ankie from the Netherlands, Albany Pro Musica and the Skip Parsons Riverboat Band; members of the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe, who are direct Mohican descendants, will present costumed dancers and singers, drumming and oral history presentations by tribal elders.
More at
TimesUnion.com
From
Newsday:
More than a dozen sailing ships from the Netherlands are in Albany to help New York's capital commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage of discovery. The vessels have joined the Half Moon, a replica of the ship Hudson sailed for the Dutch while exploring the river that would later bear his name. The ships are docked along the Albany waterfront for Saturday's festival celebrating the Hudson quadricentennial and the state's Dutch roots. The event will include music, arts and crafts exhibits and cultural demonstrations of 17th-century Dutch and American Indian life in the New World.
Read the article
here
25 September 2009
From
NRC International:
A multiple train collision south of Rotterdam has left one driver dead and caused chaos on the rail network and roads in the area. Two freight trains were involved in a head-on collision on Thursday evening. A derailed section landed on a parallel track, where the international passenger train to Brussels was approaching. Its driver spotted the accident just in time to slow down and minimise the impact. A couple of the 150 passengers were slightly injured. The viaduct was damaged by waggons piling up under it.
The area was quickly evacuated after the pile-up, because it was feared the freight trains transported inflammable liquids. This later turned out not to be the case. The A15 motorway remained closed until the morning rush hour and rail traffic south of Rotterdam remains suspended while the wreckage is cleared. .
Read the article
here
23 September 2009
Bicycle freeway underneath existing elevated highways (BrightNYC/New York Times)
From the
New York Times:
It was Saturday night in the meatpacking district. The velvet ropes were out; a rumbling bass pulsed out of every club. Well, nearly every club. At Cielo, which says on its Web site that it is “purpose-built for dancing with a centrally located sunken dance floor,” no one was shaking it. Instead, a rapt crowd, many of them sitting on the purpose-built dance floor, watched two teams of Dutch and American designers make pleas for their plans to improve bicycle riding in New York City.
As a part of New York’s all things Dutch celebration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival, the Bike Slam, a four-day conference that was part infrastructure symposium and part reality television show competition, was held Sept. 9-12. New York City’s Transportation Alternatives, the pedestrian and cyclist advocacy group, and Amsterdam’s Velo Mondial were the hosts. After days of touring the city on bikes and brainstorming to create a vision to spur a million more cyclists onto New York’s streets, the two teams were coming into the final stretch and pitching their plans. Anything — cost, infrastructure and political battles be damned — seemed fair game.
Both teams were appalled by the lack of safety at the off ramp from the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan. Team New York called for a Budnick Bikeway style lane, raised and separated from traffic, that might connect all the way to Lafayette Street. But Team Amsterdam had more tricks up its sleeves. How about bicycle freeways? asked Carmen Trudell, a New York architect and City University professor. Imagine a bicycle speedway running under the shadow of Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, a rain-free place for athletic cyclists out on training rides or those who just are not going to go at a “Dutch pace.” The idea helped cinch the victory for Team Amsterdam in impressing the judges.
Read the article
here
21 September 2009
The
Huffington Post has a slideshow of Princess Maxima in New York for the 400th anniversary celebrations.
21 September 2009
From the
Wall Street Journal:
Though it enjoys a well-deserved reputation as a vibrant and cosmopolitan city, Amsterdam is not usually considered a gourmet paradise. But the last ten years have seen huge changes in the Dutch capital. Fusion cuisine, molecular gastronomy and, more recently, the organic movement have all found their time and place in its evolving food scene. Unlike nearby Belgium and France, the Netherlands' ambivalent attitude toward food -- often alleged to be overly tolerant of bland dishes and poor service -- has left it open to immigrant cuisines: Indonesian, Thai, Moroccan and Japanese being just a few. What's more, the Dutch are travelers. Top Dutch chefs have almost all trained or gained experience elsewhere, and they all draw inspiration from time spent abroad.
Amsterdam's high-end restaurants have always attracted a business clientele, but now they're also hoping to win over the foodies -- well-traveled types who are curious about food and demand value for money.
While many of Amsterdam's well known, larger Indonesian restaurants serve the ubiquitous "rijsttafel" -- a prosaic range of small dishes to share -- Blue Pepper breaks the mold. The small, experimental restaurant just west of the center of town serves its guests Pacific Rim-oriented tasting menus. Javanese-style monkfish with a kencur carrot and candlenut puree is fragranced and full of smoky, charred flavor: innovative but tasting recognizably of itself. For many Amsterdam chefs, the latest culinary trend is emphasizing the pure flavor of individual ingredients.
Read the entire article
here (includes information for several restaurants in Amsterdam)
20 September 2009
From
BBC News:
Battle of Arnhem veterans watched as hundreds of soldiers parachuted over southern Holland, 65 years after the operation nicknamed "a bridge too far". After the display by 900 British, Dutch and US troops, veterans attended a memorial service. The September 1944 battle saw 20,000 Allied soldiers dropped behind German lines to capture bridges. More than 1,500 British troops died. Major John Merrylees, of 4 Para, called Saturday's display "quite a spectacle." He described conditions for the jump as "perfect", but warned "fewer and fewer" veterans were able to attend such services."
The operation, the brainchild of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, was commemorated in the 1977 Hollywood film A Bridge Too Far. Arnhem veteran George Barton, 89, from Slough, Berkshire described how he came to be captured during the operation: "The anti-tank gun I was looking after was hit by a tree that fell from above and put it out of action. "I went to tell my colonel and by the time I came back my men had gone - I didn't know where they were. "We hadn't eaten properly for days, so I went off looking for food." He added: "I found a greengrocer's shop - it had a cellar and in it were sacks and sacks of apples.
Read the article
here
17 September 2009
From
Reuters:
A state rescue of the Netherlands' banking system came under grave threat on Thursday from the collapse of a vital asset sale deal between ABN AMRO and Deutsche Bank. Coming two days after the European Commission said the Dutch government had given Dutch financial group ING (ING.AS) an unfairly good deal to guarantee a portfolio of troubled mortgage loans, the news raised major questions about the future of government plans for the troubled financial sector. In the midst of the two crises an Amsterdam court struck another blow to the government, ruling that ex-Fortis shareholder group FortisEffect can call witnesses in its case for compensation over market losses.
The Netherlands was forced into bold measures a year ago when a crisis of confidence and a liquidity crunch threatened most of the major Dutch banks. In a matter of days, the government bought Fortis's Dutch operations for 16.8 billion euros -- including the pieces of ABN AMRO [ABNNV.UL] that Fortis had bought just a year earlier -- and pumped 10 billion euros into ING. In January, it struck a deal to take most of a huge portfolio of mortgages from ING at 90 percent of face value, cutting the bank's risk profile and helping it shore up capital ratios.
Analysts said Deutsche Bank would most likely end up suing the Dutch state to win the deal it originally agreed to last year, where the German bank would buy commercial bank HBU, 13 advisory branches and two corporate client units. Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the prospect. The finance ministry said Tuesday it is still in talks with the EU and hopes for a successful conclusion.
Read the article
here
15 September 2009
From the
Wall Street Journal:
So Barack Obama praised the Netherlands' health-care system last week. This is according to Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, who met the U.S. president on Friday. We'd be eager to learn what Mr. Obama found so attractive about the Dutch system, since its defining characteristic is its abandonment of a "public option" in favor of nationwide competition between private insurers. The Netherlands used to have a mixed public-private system, with most people insured under the state plan. That was until rising costs and long waiting lists forced the liberal Dutch to conclude that big government was an inefficient way to provide universal coverage. Having scrapped state-run health care in 2006, every Dutch resident now chooses from a number of private insurers for his coverage.
There is an individual mandate, but the required basic coverage really is basic, and it costs about €100 ($146) a month. That coverage, which comes with a €155 deductible, is affordable in part because it isn't larded with special-interest giveaways. There are no requirements that a basic policy cover, say, chiropractic or liposuction. This is where competition comes in, as insurers vie for customers by selling additional services at competitive rates. And Dutch competition knows no artificial borders that would restrict insurers to operate in only one of the 12 Dutch provinces, for example.
There are also no tax incentives tying employees to their employers. The Dutch usually buy their insurance directly, which gives them a clearer idea of the actual costs while ensuring that people don't lose their coverage when they lose or change their jobs. The social goal of insuring poor people and those with pre-existing conditions is also solved without a public option. The Netherlands has its version of guaranteed issue—insurers must accept any applicant. But in return, akin to what some Republicans in the U.S. have suggested, they receive subsidies for covering people who are already sick. Likewise, the insurance of children and low-income families is tax-financed. The Dutch system is far from perfect. But it's closer to traditional American ideals of free enterprise than anything the Democrats have so far proposed.
Read the article
here
15 September 2009
From the
New York Times:
The celebration riveted the nation. The government spent years in planning, the news media tracked every development, and residents flocked to the events in droves. The reason for all the hoopla was the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival in New York Harbor, which was marked with a week of events around the city that concluded in Lower Manhattan on Sunday. But the place where this anniversary is being celebrated so fiercely is the Netherlands, the small, waterlogged European nation of 17 million people 3,650 miles away. The Dutch organized and paid for the week’s events, running up a tab of about $10 million. The Dutch media dispatched about 50 reporters to New York, with a major television station running nightly half-hour updates on the proceedings during prime time. And thousands of Dutch citizens crossed the Atlantic to take part, including Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, who declared New York the greatest city in the world.
But aside from perhaps hearing cannon fire, spotting the stately profiles of the Dutch sailing vessels shipped across the Atlantic for the occasion, or bumping into a gang of blond, blue-eyed sailors in Brooklyn Heights, New Yorkers, a busy bunch and long accustomed to spectacle, basically went about life as usual. “It’s bigger there than over here,” said Babette Bullens, 38, who lives near Holland’s border with Belgium and was making her first trip to New York. “If you talk to New Yorkers, they don’t know what’s happening. It’s very disappointing,” she said in Battery Park on Sunday. The reason for the Dutch interest, of course, is that the arrival of Hudson’s ship, the Half Moon, led to the founding of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. Hudson was British, but his financial backer was the Dutch East India Company. (“Who paid for the voyage,” the crown prince said, “really counts.”)
“It’s just another event,” said Ralph Montuoro, 67, of Queens, getting off his bicycle to negotiate the mostly Dutch crowd in Battery Park on Sunday. “We didn’t even know about it.” And even if some Dutch were disappointed by the level of interest, most went out of their way to say they understood. “New Yorkers have a lot going on here,” said Vivi van Leeuwen, 34, of Breda. “New York is the capital of the world, and the Dutch are proud of their history here and don’t mind sharing that pride.”
Read the article
here
13 September 2009
From
AFP:
Alarmed by the side effects of its tolerant approach to soft drugs, the Dutch government announced plans this week to limit drug tourism by reserving hundreds of cannabis-vending coffee shops for locals. "The sale of hashish and cannabis in coffee shops must be limited and aimed solely at the local user," said a cabinet statement on Friday, days before a mayoral ban on marijuana sales enters into force for eight such shops near the Belgian border. Faced with the dilemma of criminal control over cannabis cultivation and the "nuisance" created by millions of drug tourists a year, authorities have been taking an increasingly tougher stance on recreational drugs. Some analysts point to a growing conservatism under the Christian Democrat-led government. In the clearest indication yet of its global vision for the future, the cabinet on Friday broadly adopted the advice of a committee it had appointed to help in a review of national drug policy.
A draft new drugs policy is to be presented to parliament by year-end. The Netherlands decriminalised the consumption and possession of under five grammes of cannabis in 1976. There are some 700 licensed coffee shops. Paradoxically, cultivation remains illegal and the two-billion-euro-a-year industry, according to police, is effectively in the hands of the criminal underworld. In another unintended consequence, several border towns complain of the burdens associated with a weekly influx of tens of thousands of tourists, mainly Belgian, French and German. Among recent steps taken to deal with these problems, Amsterdam has said it would halve its number of coffee shops, citing criminality, whole other cities are to close those within a certain radius of schools.
Read the entire article
here
13 September 2009
From the
New York Times:
Beginning Sunday, not far from where the saltwater of the sea and the freshwater of the river bearing Henry Hudson’s name intermingle in an estuary that nestles along the island of Manhattan, the documents that began it all will be on display: meticulously preserved ledgers with ornate scripts, delicately colored maps and drawings, an official government pronouncements that gave birth to New Amsterdam and led ultimately to the creation of the City of New York. A new exhibition at the South Street Seaport Museum, “New Amsterdam: The Island at the Center of the World,” is being mounted in conjunction with the Dutch curator Martine Gosselink and the National Archives of the Netherlands, which lent the museum some extraordinarily well-preserved artifacts as part of the 400th anniversary celebrations of Hudson’s arrival.
From 1626 there is a letter that was once folded to form its own envelope; it is now torn and stained by the fingers that must have handled it, addressed to “High and Mighty Lords.” It is a dispatch from Pieter Schaghen to the directors of the recently formed Dutch West India Company, whose title implicitly recognized that the way east lay elsewhere. The letter disclosed the latest news about New Amsterdam from a Dutch ship that had arrived home: reports that “our people are in good spirits and live in peace,” that they have sowed and reaped their grain, that the cargo contained 7,246 beaver skins and 48 mink skins. And that, oh yes, the settlers had “purchased the Island Manhattes from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders.” That casual pronouncement is one of the sources of the Dutch claim to the colony and has been referred to as New York City’s “birth certificate.”
If the short-lived Dutch venture in North American colonialism would not have been judged an unambiguous success at the time, it still shaped a different culture than those created by the British immigration to colonial outposts like Plymouth and Jamestown. New Amsterdam was marked not just by the diversity of its inhabitants, but by the shifting layers of experience over this brief period, encompassing free-market bustle and controlled trade, Dutch rule and misrule (followed by British versions of the same). There were even distinctive aspects to African enslavement. Dutch cruelty elsewhere was answered, perhaps, by a different approach here, the catalog suggests, one in which slaves had ownership rights, and slave testimonies had legal standing. The complexity of this short history and its lasting impact on the character of New York suggest that the way we analyze more recent colonial and imperial ventures by various nations tends to be somewhat crude. Between the pages of these documents, and even between their lines, are intricacies worthy of deeper understanding.
Read the entire article
here
“New Amsterdam: The Island at the Center of the World” opens Sunday and runs through Jan. 3 at the South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton Street, Lower Manhattan; (212) 748-8600.
10 September 2009
From the
New York Times:
All of this could have been his. But when Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of Orange, the presumptive next king of the Netherlands, strode the warship deck on Tuesday to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival at New York Harbor and the subsequent founding of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, he was about 345 years too late to stake a territorial claim. The cross-Atlantic relationship formally ended in 1664 when the island was handed over to the British. Yet Willem-Alexander’s brief comments delivered on the deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum to kick off the weeklong celebration betrayed no grievances.
Speaking briefly in a black suit and striped tie and standing next to his wife, Máxima, an Argentine who spent five years working in banking in New York, his comments were straightforward. He discussed the similarities between New Yorkers and the Dutch (diverse, tolerant, hard workers), he made the obligatory wish of 400 years more of friendship, and was generous with his praise: “The better you know the Big Apple, the more you love this great city,” he said.
The ceremony, which will be followed by a week of activities, was full of pomp. The 75-piece Royal Netherlands Navy Band belted out tunes. Sailboats and military vessel slid by in the background, including the Half Moon, a replica of Henry Hudson’s vessel. A 21-gun salute echoed down the river. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton thanked the Dutch for their “investment” of 24 dollars to purchase the island of Manhattan and for their later support for the independence of the United States of America. A playful Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg offered his “warmest velcome” — drawing out the v — to the royal family and gave the royal couple a custom bowl from Tiffany & Company inscribed with scenes of the city. (Princess Máxima called it “a lovely, lovely bowl” and promised to put it in a “very, very special place in our house.”)
Read the article
here
10 September 2009
From the
Wall Street Journal:
The Netherlands Bankers' Association, or NVB, will implement a code of conduct for banks next year that will limit the level of bonuses awarded and strengthen corporate governance, the association said Wednesday. According to the Code for Banks, bonuses for board members may not exceed their fixed income by more than 100%. The code also determines that bonuses can be reclaimed, "if long term targets will not be met," NVB spokesman Kees Verhagen said to Dow Jones Newswires. "This also means that in practice bonuses will often be paid in terms related to achieved targets and not all at once in advance anymore", he added. The code also requires strengthening of governance, risk management and auditing for banks.
NVB said that the code will apply from Jan. 1, 2010, and banks must report on the implementation of the code's regulations in their annual reports. NVB, with almost 100 member banks, said an independent commission will monitor the implementation of the Code for Banks. "The members of this commission will be appointed in close consultation with the Dutch Ministry of Finance", Verhagen said. Shareholders and supervisory boards will also play an important role in monitoring the compliance of the code, he said.
Read the article
here
08 September 2009
From
AFP:
Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Maxima of the Netherlands joined celebrations Tuesday in New York to mark the 400th anniversary of explorer Henry Hudson's arrival in Manhattan aboard a Dutch ship. Six days of events, starting with a parade of NATO warships, Dutch barges, yachts and a replica of Hudson's ship "Half Moon," were planned in New York harbor. "Princess Maxima and I are overwhelmed with this tremendous welcoming to New York," the crown prince said. "It is wonderful to still be able to see the Dutch influences across the city, from transportation and art to music and food."
In 1626, the Dutch bought Manhattan from the indigenous Lenapes people for the equivalent of 24 dollars. The settlement was known first as New Amsterdam and then, under British rule from 1664, as New York. The river sweeping along the city is called the Hudson. "Henry Hudson arrived on these shores 400 years ago and helped lay the foundation for what would later become New York City," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the ceremony.
Read the article
here
Dutch royals visit NY 400 years after Henry Hudson
Dutch Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife, Princess Maxima, got a rousing welcome from West Point cadets as they visited the U.S. Military Academy for the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage. The royal couple headed up the Hudson River after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mayor Michael Bloomberg welcomed them to Manhattan. Tuesday's festivities included NATO vessels, Dutch barges and a replica of Hudson's ship, the Half Moon. A Dutch naval ship offered a 21-gun salute.
The prince says New York was built on the values of Dutch-American pioneers, including a passion for liberty.
From
Associated Press
07 September 2009
From
Gothamist.com:
Yesterday, New Amsterdam Village, the miniature Dutch village, opened up in Bowling Green Park as part of the ongoing festivities surrounding the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's arrival. Dutch ambassador to the United States Renée Jones-Bos and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe made the village's opening formal by cutting a Gouda cheese! Through Monday 14th, between 11am and 7pm, the public is able to sample and purchase sample and purchase Dutch agricultural products and foods, including stroopwafels, cheeses, herring sandwiches, dollar pancakes, cut flowers, flower bulbs and more. And authentic Dutch people are making wooden shoes, blowing glass, and holding floral and culinary workshops.
Lots of pictures
here.
See also:
New Amsterdam village popping up at Bowling Green
07 September 2009
From
Reuters:
The mother of a 13-year-old Dutch girl planning to sail solo around the world has come out against the expedition. Laura Dekker had intended to begin the two-year voyage on September 1 but a court blocked her departure and placed her under supervision. "If it was up to me, I would not let Laura go," her mother Babs Muller told Dutch daily De Volkskrant this weekend. Until now she had not criticized her daughter's plan out of fear of losing contact, she said, but added: "I would rather have a daughter I never see again than a dead daughter." Muller, 48, who has lived apart from Laura and her father since Laura was six, said she thought her daughter was technically capable of making a world trip but she was worried about her safety in ports and psychological isolation at sea.
The court ruled the trip posed risks to Dekker's psychological development and ordered a psychologist and child protection authorities to examine how she would cope alone on the boat. A hearing is due on October 26 to examine their findings. Laura, who was born on her parents' boat and spent her first four years at sea, said after the ruling she still planned to make the trip on her 8.3-meter (27-foot) yacht Guppy.
Read the article
here.
04 September 2009
From the
Associated Press:
An unemployed recluse who attempted to slam his car into an open-topped bus carrying Queen Beatrix was acting alone and targeting the royal family, police said Friday. Karst Tates killed seven bystanders and himself when he plowed through layers of spectators waiting to catch a glimpse of the royal family on April 30, the Queen's Day national holiday. Prosecutors say they still do not know for sure Tates' motive for the attack in the central city of Apeldoorn, which played out live on national television to a horrified public. "We have no final answer to the ultimate question: Why? That answer had to come from Karst T. himself," said the country's top prosecutor, Bart Nieuwenhuizen.
Police said the 38-year-old man confessed as he lay slumped and bleeding in his car that he intended to hit the royal family. He went into a coma shortly afterward and died of his injuries the following day. Among his final words, Tates called Crown Prince Willem-Alexander a "fascist ... a racist," said Tom Driessen of the national investigation bureau that carried out the probe. Driessen said Tates made no attempt to avoid hitting members of the public as he slammed through police barriers at 70 mph (112 kph), but that after ramming spectators he veered away from the royal bus and crashed into a stone obelisk. "Had there been no spectators, Karst T. would likely have hit the royal bus," Driessen said. Television images repeatedly broadcast over the next day showed a scene of carnage, with badly injured victims littering the road and first aid workers trying to revive them while police scrambled to surround Tates' car.
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said that despite the attack members of the royal family were keen to keep Queen's Day an open occasion when the royals can mingle with the public. However, he signaled that security will likely be beefed up in the future. "You can never totally rule out things happening, but you can draw lessons from the past and do as much as you can to protect the lives of the royal family," he told reporters in The Hague.
Read the entire article
here.
03 September 2009
From
Gothamist:
Those likable Dutch, to celebrate the quadricentennial of Hudson's arrival in New York harbor in 1609, are busy right now building a replica colonial village at Bowling Green. It's part of the NY400 Week celebration, which officially kicks off Tuesday September 8th, and includes a massive Dutch music, art, and dance festival on Governors Island (The New Island Festival), tours of the replica of Hudson's ship The Half Moon , sailing races, the unveiling of the New Amsterdam Pavilion (a gift from the Netherlands at Peter Minuit Plaza, Battery Park), an historic walking tour co-hosted by Russell Shorto, author of the stellar book The Island at the Center of the World; and a boatload more activities!
But the New Amsterdam Village opens this week, on Friday, and consists of 12 traditional Dutch canal houses, a windmill, and a demonstration model of a contemporary Dutch greenhouse. Open to the public, this is where you can sample and purchase Dutch agricultural products and foods, including stroopwafels (YES!), cheeses, herring, dollar pancakes, cut flowers, flower bulbs and green roofs. Authentic Dutch people will also be making wooden shoes, blowing glass, and holding floral and culinary workshops; and this is where you can borrow those orange Dutch bikes for free. (BYO Old Amsterdam weed.)
Read the article
here.
01 September 2009
From
Gizmodo:
Everyone wishes they could fly, but this 19-year-old kid spent three years building his dream from balsa wood, rip-resistant foil and plastic wrap. And amazingly, the 85-foot-wingspan craft has already hopped a distance of about 35 feet. The modest distance (and height of about 5 feet) isn't a bad start in human-powered flight for a do-it-yourselfer. Dutchman Jesse van Kuijk hopes to go further in the future, without the bike chain powering his propeller slipping off its cog.
Though he's never flown in a real plane, Jesse says he studied self-powered craft like the Gossamer Condor and the English-Channel crossing Gossamer Albatross. He also got tips from the Albatross' pilot, American Bryan Allen, who is now a software engineer for the Mars exploration project.
Read the entire article
here.
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