Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau has been previously mentioned in MeFi. A historical quirk and geographical jigsaw, these days the complicated border criscrossing this Belgo-Dutch town had become little more than a tourist attraction. What happens, however, when a dead body is found, and nobody knows in which country it lies?
posted on Mar 12, 2008 - View this thread

Is this the most beautiful bookstore in the world? The Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen, Maastricht opened its doors in November. Located in the city's old Dominican church - which for years had been used as a bicycle parking garage - the building has been extensively redesigned by Dutch architects Merkx + Girod. From the images you can find on the web you can see that it is a bookshop made in heaven. Many books in English too.
posted on Dec 30, 2007 - View this thread

It has been called the Last Battlefield of World War II in Europe.
posted on Dec 10, 2007 - View this thread

You got your Rube Goldberg machine in my department store catalogue. (Or the other way around, I'm not sure.)
posted on Nov 5, 2007 - View this thread

Just lately I was thinking of the Dutch Invasion. No, not this one. Not this one either. I mean this one. There was, of course, Shocking Blue, with their classic hit, Venus, and their lesser-known Never Marry a Railroad Man and Mighty Joe. Then there was the George Baker Selection, with Little Green Bag and Una Paloma Blanca. Then you've got the very, er... unique Ma Belle Amie, by Peter Tetteroo and the Tee Set. And how 'bout that Golden Earring, eh? Radar Love? Amirite? And of course, the inimitable Focus, with their mega-hit instrumental, Hocus Pocus. By now you're probably asking yourself "Why didn't they ever put a bunch of these Dutch bands out on little platforms sticking out of the ocean, and throw in some go-go girls, and film the whole thing from helicopters?" Well, THEY DID! Those crazy Dutch!
posted on Oct 19, 2007 - View this thread

If European and North American societies are morally responsible (print-friendly) for safeguarding free speech, should we also take financial responsibility for its proponents' safety (pf)? Hitchens seems to think so.

Today's moral dilemma is brought to you, of course, by the West's favourite Voltairian nightmare: prominent Islam critic, former Dutch MP, and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
posted on Oct 9, 2007 - View this thread

Last weekend's PICNIC'07 conference in Amsterdam featured a Green Challenge: to come up with the best marketable green idea that could be developed and sold to consumers within two years. Dutch decentralized renewable energy company Qurrent took down the big €500,000 prize for the Qbox: a device which creates optimizing energy algorithms for all devices in a home. See also: Green Thing.
posted on Oct 1, 2007 - View this thread

Amsterdam: a deal has been made that will shut down a third of the prostitute windows in the city's famed red light district [nsfw] and turn the buildings into shops or housing. Advocacy group De Rode Draad (The Red Thread) worries that a shortage of windows will push prostitutes away from the safe, monitored areas. [via QI]
posted on Sep 25, 2007 - View this thread

Guess who's censoring references to evolution out of David Attenborough documentaries? That's right, the Dutch. See the differences; here's a detailed write-up by a Dutch biologist and documentary enthusiast comparing the two versions side-by-side (in Dutch).
posted on Aug 28, 2007 - View this thread

Dutch East Indies. "After a wonderful youth in the Dutch East Indies, today Indonesia, my family and I went through three and a half years Japanese occupation. I lost my father, I lost the country I loved, I lost everything, but I kept my memories. ... So here I am, 79 years old, sitting behind my computer, going back to the Dutch East Indies."
posted on Aug 16, 2007 - View this thread

Dutch Submarines has mystery pictures of submarines and/or their doings with some great answers. For example, there is the story of the use of submarines as seaplane carriers yes, really.
posted on Apr 15, 2007 - View this thread

Hear our demands: give us back New York. Just think of the possibilities! Join the struggle. Or else.
posted on Apr 1, 2007 - View this thread

Mirin Dajo (1912-1948, born Arnold Henske) was pierced thru the torso (YouTube) with fencing foils and skewers many times, without bleeding or showing any sign of injury. Warning: some links contain graphic content.
posted on Feb 9, 2007 - View this thread

Play Pac-Man against real live crickets for science and fun.
posted on Sep 27, 2006 - View this thread

Clara the rhinoceros. Hansken the elephant. Monster from the deep. Prints from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam [previously].
posted on Sep 12, 2006 - View this thread

Secret agent Huub Lauwers was parachuted into occupied Holland in 1941 to relay intelligence back to London. His capture by the Germans marked the beginning of the Englandspiel, a deadly game of cat-and-mouse intelligence that cost the lives of over fifty agents. Lauwers frantically tried to inform the SOE that he had been caught, but the Baker Street Irregulars just didn't get it. Or did they? [more inside]
posted on Aug 6, 2006 - View this thread

Fokke & Sukke are a strange couple of birds. Having dominated the funnies in various Dutch print media for over a decade, their irreverent antics are now available in English, regrettably under the tamer monikers Duck & Birdie (click "previous" for more gags). [more inside]
posted on Aug 4, 2006 - View this thread

Rangaku (literally "Dutch Learning") refers to the body of knowledge developed in Japan during the Sakoku period (1641-1853) during which the country was closed to foreigners. As the Dutch trading post at Dejima was effectively an enclave of the Netherlands, for 212 years it was just about Japan's only way to keep tabs on European scientific progress (pdf). Rangaku has influenced Japanese medicine, anatomy, engineering, meteorology, and chemistry, among other fields.
posted on Aug 3, 2006 - View this thread

During a 1987 radio broadcast, Dutch comedian and writer Wim de Bie decided to take Ry Cooder up on his offer and give him a call. Hilarity ensued (RealAudio). Note: the song is played until about 1'55", phone conversation follows.
posted on Aug 2, 2006 - View this thread

Dutch broadcast station VPRO's website is Holland’s biggest platform for alternative music. Here's a link to a shitload of streaming live concerts and tracks. You'll have to do a bit of cut and paste once there, but it's the easiest way for me to link to the list. For the cut-and-paste-inept, there's a standard interface, but the site's not in english.
posted on Jul 8, 2006 - View this thread

An interesting chain of events culminated today in the resignation of the Dutch cabinet: Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali^{^} embarks on a career in the Netherlands' political fast lane, in her spare time writing the screenplay to the film^{^} that got Theo van Gogh^{^} killed^{1, 2, 3, 4}, plans to leave parliament for a job in the US¹, meanwhile sees the legality of her citizenship called into question by an overeager minister of Immigration^{^1}, causing her to step down early. [more inside]
posted on Jun 29, 2006 - View this thread

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (née Magan) has already been mentioned in several times in Metafilter. Whether you consider her a couragous campaigner for women's rights and against Islamofascism, or a crass opportunist, there's no denying that she's some character. However, it now seems that her Becky-Sharp-ish rise to fame and power also left a similar trail of embittered ex-friends and lies that has ended up landing her in serious trouble with fellow right-winger (also previously mentioned in Metafilter) Rita Verdonk, Dutch Immigration Minister. Before feeling too sorry for Ayaan, consider that she's moving to Washington DC, where she's landed a job at the American Enterprise Institute. I'm sure she'll fit right in...
posted on May 15, 2006 - View this thread

Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds, Charles McKay's 1841 classic work on mass hysteria and national crazes, still surprisingly readable and engaging. Among the classic examples in McKay's book are the South Sea Bubble, one of the earliest and largest financial bubbles, and the witch hunts of Europe (related: try the 1628 Witch Hunt simulation). Most people remember him best for his history of Tulipmania, the Dutch flower-speculation explosion of 1647 and 1648... except that it may not have been a delusion at all, but rather a rational response to changes in regulation.
posted on Apr 23, 2006 - View this thread

When Iranian paper Hamshahri (in Persian) launched a contest for Holocaust cartoons, an Israeli group responded in turn with a contest of their own for cartoons that make fun of Jews. Too bad it closed yesterday, or the Dutch branch of the AEL could submit theirs. (WARNING: some of the linked content may be offensive to readers' ethnicities, cultures, religions, or tastes.)
posted on Mar 4, 2006 - View this thread

One of the great virtues of the internet is the manifold ways in which it has revolutionised the arts. The postmodern works of contemporary artists Pomme & Kelly (Google Video), when viewed together in context, form a striking example of a well-placed critique of popular culture, and modern living at large. The zeitgeisty meta-irony of their seemingly content-free interpretations of popular songs are only enhanced by the fact that, in a clever keeping with style, they blog about it as well.
posted on Feb 28, 2006 - View this thread

When was the last time your country's minister of Justice expressed his policies in rap form? Here's the Dutch justice minister's Piet Hein Donner's debut on the mic (mp3). [more inside]
posted on Feb 27, 2006 - View this thread

The Memory of The Netherlands is an extensive digital collection of illustrations, photographs, texts, film and audio fragments from a large variety of Dutch cultural institutions. There are about 50 collections (in english).
posted on Feb 19, 2006 - View this thread

Meet Rita Verdonk, shit-stirrer extraordinaire. The Dutch Immigration and Integration minister wants everybody to start speaking only Dutch in public from now on. Pity she fails at that herself, needing to resort to a foreign language to describe her constituents' feelings on the matter. After that, she flies to a refugee camp in Kenya to tell the people there that they should f*** off to their own countries. Well, maybe they'll be safer there than in Holland under the oversight of Ms. Verdonk. Or maybe not... Pity that her media forays appear to prevent Iron Rita from putting her own department in order...
posted on Jan 31, 2006 - View this thread

Life without Theo - one year on. It's not that Holland's cherished troublemaker wasn't aware of the possibility - he had been threatened more than once. He just sincerely believed that no-one would harm the "village idiot", as he liked to call himself (salon link). Today, the skilled polemicist who regarded it his constitutional right to insult anyone but would at the same time engage anyone in reasonable, friendly debate is remembered in various ways. [more inside]
posted on Nov 2, 2005 - View this thread

Today in the Netherlands, public broadcaster BNN aired the first episode of sex- and drug-themed television show "Spuiten en Slikken"; the punning title translates to either "Shoot Up & Pop (Pills)" or "Squirt & Swallow". [more inside]
posted on Oct 10, 2005 - View this thread

"I don't feel your pain." Mohammed Bouyeri, the man who confessed to killing Dutch filmmaker and writer Theo van Gogh, surprised judges and television viewers alike yesterday by breaking his silence for only the second time since the start of his trial. On monday, when asked about his hate for the same Western society that gave his parents work and asylum, he gave only this short answer in Arabic: "I pray that God protect me that I should ever think differently than I do now." (WaPo link, reg. req'd) [more inside]
posted on Jul 13, 2005 - View this thread

"We're Hunting The Jews" go the chants at the Feyenoord soccer stadium in Rotterdam whenever Ajax is in town. Supporters of Ajax, one of the top Dutch football clubs based in Amsterdam, call themselves "Jews" or "Super Jews" based perhaps on historical Jewish communities. They wave Israeli flags and wear Stars of David in one of the oddest traditions in sport. Of course, the story wouldn't be complete without their opponents chanting "They've forgotten to gas you!" and hissing to mimic the gas chambers. Further complicating matters is the mosque being built overshadowing Feyenoord's stadium. Ajax wants the Jewish symbolism to stop to prevent further embarrassment, but this isn't the only case of "Jewish" clubs in European football, and the reaction they provoke.
posted on Feb 26, 2005 - View this thread

Update from Holland. After the filmmaker Theo van Gogh's murder by Mohammed Bouyeri, the Dutch creed of tolerance has come under siege.
posted on Dec 27, 2004 - View this thread

Two months before that fatal May 6th I asked on this site why Pim [Fortuyn] so far hadn’t been shot. Readers were perplexed and asked if I had lost my mind, because something like that "would never happen in Holland". Right.

In an update to their van Gogh file, Peaktalk offers translations [via Zacht Ei] of some excerpts of the writings of murdered filmmaker Theo van Gogh, which previously appeared (in Dutch) on The Healthy Smoker, van Gogh's web site, which now lives on as The Quit Smoker.
posted on Dec 23, 2004 - View this thread

H2OLLAND. Get your feet wet with an exposition of projects.
posted on Jun 14, 2004 - View this thread

Walking with Vermeer - stroll through 17th century Delft via movie clips based on original drawings. Or tour his house and studio via a 3D model to see a full inventory of household objects and to get some homely historical perspective on making love, birthing babies or dealing with trash and excrement. And if you want to research further, Essential Vermeer is the definitive resource for everything from historical research to current exhibits.
posted on Feb 25, 2004 - View this thread

Dutch government is distributing cannabis as a prescription painkiller to pharmacies to treat chronically ill patients. The Netherlands are the first country to supply the drug itself, in accordance with United Nations rules on narcotics. This Radio Netherlands article contains an interview with an American expatriate who is now a licensed supplier.
posted on Sep 1, 2003 - View this thread

Threat of ban to Dutch cannabis cafés...
It'd be like an airplane without wings! Surely the whole point of buying some weed at these places is to smoke it on the premises?
posted on May 29, 2003 - View this thread

April 30 is Koninginnedag. Time to party, drink beer in huge crowds (Amsterdam 2001) or to get rid of your stuff in the attic on a "vrijmarkt". Kids love selling all kinds of junk. Queens love Queensday too. Vote for the top 10 Queen outfits. Finally, this one's for the monkeys. Click on Koninginnedag.
posted on Apr 30, 2003 - View this thread

Follow the pollen trail... The recent volatility on the stock market has nothing on the Tulip Mania that swept Holland in 1637. They went so gaga over over the colorful heralds of spring that one blossom obsessed fella, for example, sold a brewery to buy a single bulb. It's become an example of what happens when we become economically overconfident. Myself, I'd rather deal in flowers than money, anyway.
posted on Apr 3, 2003 - View this thread

Holland part of Axis of Evil? The Dutch parliament was shocked by a US legislative proposal giving an official green light to a US invasion of the Netherlands should it be deemed necessary to free US citizens from the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Pretty please, leave us alone, Jesse Helms.
posted on Jun 13, 2002 - View this thread

Dutch government resigns over Srebrenica report...
Dutch Prime Minister Mr Wim Kok announced the resignation of his centre-left government today over a report on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia.
posted on Apr 16, 2002 - View this thread

Dutch Legalize Euthanasia "The Netherlands has become the first country in the world to legalise mercy killing after a controversial law on euthanasia came into force on Monday." While tolerated for nearly two decades, opponents are comparing the practice to Nazi Geramny. Is this a step forward for those living with severe pain and no hope in sight?
posted on Apr 1, 2002 - View this thread

Drive through drug shops Make things easier for tourists, Dutch contemplate expeditious way to buy drugs
posted on May 2, 2001 - View this thread