Throw eggs or tomatoes at images of members of the royal family. Everything is possible on Queens Day – soon to be Kings Day. And that is precisely why the Dutch monarchy is rock solid, according to Peter Jan Margry:“Queen Beatrix was the first queen to step off her pedestal on Queens Day. She went
On May 4 and 5 we commemorate our dead and celebrate our freedom. But the Germans are still working on Vergaanheitsbewältigung, coming to terms with the past. Commemorating remains complicated, because is Germany only a perpetrator or also a victim? In Germany there is no commemoration of the dead
During the Second World War, artists had to register with the Kultuurkamer, an institute set up by the Germans. Without registration they were not allowed to exhibit in public. Jews were not allowed to register at all. How did the Dutch view this collaboration with the occupying forces after the war
Infectious diseases are back with a vengeance. Roel Coutinho, professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases at Utrecht University, recently gave a lecture about infectious diseases in the past and present in the Boerhaave museum. According to him, an epidemic is still impossible to predict, but
We should cherish our 200-year-old Constitution – the second oldest in the world – more, because unknown is unloved. While an old constitution actually contributes to prosperity. That is what Professor of Constitutional Law Wim Voermans says in a special on the constitution of De Gids. On March 27,
Archaeologists have found the largest Stone Age burial field in all of northwestern Europe near Dalfsen in Overijssel. The cemetery contains 120 graves. Due to this enormous amount of graves, scientific theories can be thrown into the trash:in prehistoric times, burial was not reserved for a few, bu
Our Orange Lionesses have qualified for the Football World Cup, but where the supermarkets of our national mens team have been stunting with orange knick-knacks for weeks in advance, there is now little fuss in the country. Why actually? And how is it possible that we are only now participating for
Despite the neutrality of the Netherlands during the First World War (1914-1918), there was soon a shortage of many products. The border with occupied Belgium was locked and both warring parties torpedoed merchant ships at sea or captured the cargo. If we are to believe the English, the Netherlands
This month it is seventy years ago that the Allies liberated the Netherlands. The censorship of news and propaganda distorted the truth during the five years of occupation. So no one really knew what had happened. The posters in the exhibition Goed Fout show how decisive the occupier was in proclaim
Steven Gilbers raps and does special linguistic research. About Tupac Shakur, the duration of vowels in milliseconds, hip-hop feuds, and what they all have to do with each other. It is a Saturday afternoon in the very last parallel session of a linguistic conference. The young Steven Gilbers (23) l
Last month, the Meertens Institute launched the SagenJager, a digital route planner full of folktales through the Waterland area. On foot or by bike you can enjoy a beautiful piece of landscape and at the same time soak up the folk culture of this area. Witches, wizards, ghosts and water monsters:th
Those who adhere to the Paleo Lifestyle should avoid grains, sugar and foods with artificial additives. “What wasnt on a cavemans menu doesnt belong in your diet either,” is the adage. But what did that caveman actually eat? Did prehistoric humans adhere to the paleo diet themselves? Paleo Lifestyl
The first inaugural lecture in Esperanto was held at the University of Amsterdam on 13 March 2015. Frederico Gobbo thus accepted his chair in Interlinguistics and Esperanto. In addition to the language itself, his research focuses on the – still very lively – culture of the Esperanto movement. We h
The 18e century was the century of the Enlightenment:new ideas about the freedom of the individual and the equality of all citizens arose. In the Netherlands, these ideals suddenly became very concrete when the Batavian Revolution broke out in 1795. In contrast to other countries, equality was a gre
National or ethnic stereotypes such as that Germans are humorless and the English are hypothermic have been around for a long time. Contrary to popular belief, they are not a product of nineteenth-century nationalism; they are older. An important birthplace seems to be the twelfth century. Due to in
A year ago, Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in northern Nigeria. Then-President Goodluck Jonathan did little to find them. He was judged on this in the elections at the end of March:Nigerians from the north voted en masse for the Islamic former general Muhammadu Buhari.
The Netherlands has been at the forefront of international astronomy for at least a hundred years. David Baneke delved into the world of Dutch astronomy and discovered why we are so good at it. The historian of science delivers with The Discoverers of Heaven a very accurate description of all import
New observations including the APEX radio telescope show that the star that European astronomers saw in the sky in 1670 was not a nova, but a much rarer and more violent phenomenon:a stellar collision. The event was spectacular enough to be visible to the naked eye, but the traces it left were very
To Weapon! is the somewhat bloodthirsty theme of the Week of the Classics. Clash of arms was common in fifth century BC Greece. In this period, Greek city-states such as Sparta, Athens and Thebes often clashed with each other. In addition to naval battles, the cities also fought their wars on land.
The Week of the Classics has started again. From 19 to 27 March, antiquity will be in the spotlight, this year with the theme To weapon!. Warfare and especially honorable victories were important in classical antiquity. Roman emperors were supposed to be victorious generals. How else could they guar
Can modern technology help decipher Linear A, the Minoan script that still holds its secrets well? Dr. Ester Salgarella, a researcher at St Johns College, Cambridge, not only believes so but also attempts it with the open access database SigLA (https://sigla.phis.me/), which she built in collaborati
The Joan of Arc ring recently sold in London A few months ago, in London, a silver ring it was sold for 400,000 euros. Its peculiarity? Having adorned the finger of the Maid of Orleans, or Joan of Arc , the French heroine and saint sentenced to death for heresy and burned at the stak
Vespasian. It was he who instituted the urine tax The Roman emperor Vespasian (7-79) he earned the reputation of miser also due to some taxes bizarre taxes on the population. In reality, the economic-financial one was one of the most serious problems to which the first of the Flavi was for
He liked women rather round, but not too plump. Bulky, obese ladies were completely unappealing to him. As a consummate seducer, he preferred experienced married women who could offer much more in bed than innocent ladies. Alexander Fredro knew how to have fun. Eventually, however, he was also hit b