Three years after the start of the U.S.-oriented news.google.com, Google launched a Dutch version of their news portal on 26 January. Surprisingly, this has upset Dutch newspapers, who believe that Google should have asked them for permission to index their articles. More »

Last week science fiction writer Ray Bradbury challenged the city of Los Angeles to build monorails to relieve the congested freeways; sometime in the next five years, he wrote, all traffic across L.A. will freeze. More »

Last night a Liberian cargo ship off the coast of the island of Terschelling lost dozens of containers in a heavy storm. The Dutch island’s beaches are now littered with stuff; the lost containers reportedly contained shoes, hammers, corned beef, aluminum suitcases, toys and … hamburgers. The police of the mainland town of Harlingen has sent a ‘mobile unit’ to the island to assist the island’s police force in preventing people from stealing the Liberian hamburgers. More »

CBS reported today that last year the Netherlands saw a population growth of only 30,000, the lowest since 1900. The scant growth is largely due to the large number of emigrants. More »

Otters are rare in the Netherlands; the last native one was killed in a road accident in 1988. Since 1992 Staatsbosbeheer (National Forest Preservation) has been trying to reintroduce the otter in Dutch waters. Today five new ones were introduced in the Overijssel nature park De Wieden. More »

When Hong Kong Disneyland was filled to capacity by 11:30am today, an angry mob of parents tried to force their way into the park after the gates were closed. Furious crowds pushed and grabbed on to fences. Some lifted their children over the fences into the park and others climbed over themselves. More »

The Netherlands government is introducing a new passport in August 2006 with an embedded RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip that contains digital information about the holder, such as name, birthday, fingerprint and pass photo. However, a company from Delft demonstrated on Friday on the TV show nieuwslicht how easy it is to read (or destroy) the biometric data on the chip from a distance of around 10 meters. More »

This week a Dutch bus touring company in Noordwijk confirmed that it is testing an automated system that observes drivers with small cameras and sensitive sensors for signs that may indicate that the driver is nodding off. The new system is intended to reduce the number of accidents caused by bus drivers falling asleep. More »

After a lot of rumours it is now official that Disney acquires Pixar for $7.4 billion. I think this is a great deal for both companies. I was disappointed a few years ago when Michael Eisner let go of Disney’s contract with Pixar, but now it looks like Disney will continue to distribute Pixar’s films as it has for the last 12 years. More »

I think bats are very cool. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen one here since I moved to Holland seven years ago. According to vleermuis.net (“the network for information about bats in the Netherlands”), 21 different bat species have been seen in the Netherlands. More »