After the famous ‘to go Dutch’, ‘Ducth courage’ and a ‘Dutch wife’ we might need a new one: Dutch Trust. I guess the definition would be something like: to trust someone who can not be trusted.

What happened? The Dutch government in the past couple of weeks introduced the following new rule:

• All telephone and internet connection information is kept for 12 months, twice as long as European regulation dictates. The CDA, one of the ruling parties, even opted for 18 months, but this idea was refused because the costs would be to high(!). Link (in Dutch).

Apart from the new law the following two bits of information also came out in the last two weeks:

• The Dutch government is talking to the US government to have ISPs snoop on their own customers. The idea here is that ISPs will be made responsible for the pirate copies their customers download from the internet. Link (in Dutch).
• The minister of Justice announced today that in Holland every day 1700 phone calls are tapped. You might ask whether this is a big number or not. Compared to the US, where 2800 phones are tapped every year, one could argue it is. Link (in Dutch).

Now if you think the Dutch would go out on the street and demonstrate, you are right. There was a big demonstration today in Holland where the truck drivers honked 3 times to express their disapproval of the upcoming 3 cent tax increase on gasoline. The government was not impressed. Link (in Dutch).

Spaceless is a concept for zero-footprint balcony furniture — it’s a deck with pop-up, fold-flat recessed benches and tables, so that your little balcony can be a clear space when you want one, then turn into an al fresco dining area when needed.

Link (via BoingBoing)

Worm the Rotterdam stage for culture and music is on sale on marktplaats.

Disregarding a very positive response by the Rotterdam Council for Art and Culture (RRKC) to WORM’s plans concerning 2009-2012, it will not be possible to keep the organisation afloat with the amount of money assigned to it by this same council. It seems like we have perished amongst the waves of good intent, crushed by cultures mammoth-tank vessels in a pond which is too small. The fact that we would perish for budgetary reasons only – if RRKC’s advice is utilised in its present form - seems ridicules and has caused for much grief at Achterhaven 148.

Mike van Gaasbeek, the financial director and a good friend of mine, indicates that every bid from at least €400.000 will be taken seriously.

Link

People who read my blog now that I frequently post articles I have read on Boing Boing. This post is not different from that rule. There is just one funny twist about this one: I find it unbelievable that I have to read an American blog to know what is happening in Leeuwarden. Afterall my sister is living there.

So much for the intro.

Henk Hofstra installed a couple of fried eggs in the center of Leeuwarden. The project is called: art-eggcident. Each of the eggs is about 30 metres wide and will remain in the city for the next six months.

Today I went to visit the Euromast in Rotterdam and made a couple of foto’s from the skyline. I used hugin to stitch them together. And here is the result:

Every year on the 30th of April the Dutch queen celebrates her birthday. The day is celebrated with bands, beer and kids selling stuff on the street.

I lived in Rotterdam from 1990 until 2000 and during those years “koninginnedag” has always been a pleasant party. I would normally watch a band, buy a beer and walk to the next stage to have a look at another band, buy another beer… Oh and there is (almost) always the added benefit of great weather.

That does not seem to be possible anymore. Due to some soccer related troubles, Rotterdam had in the past, you are now no longer allowed to drink a beer in the street. You are only allowed to drink beer in front of a bar surrounded by a metal cage. You are not allowed to leave this prison before finishing your beer (I admit, that is a nice way to spent prison time).

It seems that the beer cage only goes for Rotterdam. I think it is a shame that Rotterdam accepted these rules. Koninginnedag is a day for party.