All Things Holland

I wanted to share a little gem of Dutch news. Last week was the miss universe contest, and although its horribly plastic I normally end up watching it. This year like most years they had the costume contest, which is incredibly stereotypical for most countries ( miss Bahamas was a pirate [a pretty cool one though]). So I wanted to share with you Miss Netherlands 2012, Nathalie den Dekker....with attached windmills.

Our posts have been getting less and less frequent and I apologize. We've hit a dry spell with ideas. But this latest post about the flag was awesome (in my humble opinion). It really got me thinking. (That and I got an awesome email from a friend today) I have 4 ideas for post stories. Each will take some detailed research though. Yet each I really want to do. But which would you rather hear? This is also kind of a test to see who reads this here bloggy or who would actually take the time to comment. If no one votes I'll just pick one and write it up when I have time. If one is chosen however, I'll be even more determined to get it written in a timely manner. Here are your choices. 1) But I thought the Dutch flag was orange? Was there ever another type? (The answer is yes... maybe?) 2) What does Spain have to do with the founding of the Netherlands? I thought they were practically an offshoot of German? I touched on this briefly (2 years ago!) but there are more juic

If you were given the job of creating a flag to represent your country, how would you design it?  Myself, I would probably think of some symbols of your country then hand over the design portion to an artist, with the plan of choosing colors that aptly represent where you live.  What have most countries of the world done?  Three bars filled in with color.  Lets talk about the Netherlands flag.  This "orange" country has a drab flag, but not only is it drab it's deceiving.  So many countries use red, white, and blue that it is confusing. + A little sun bleaching,  Luxembourg +Sea sickness       France + Dyslexia ,  Russia                                                                                                               And so many more just check out the Slovak Republic , Paraguay , Croatia , and the flag for the Bronx , New York.  My one question is "what happens if you don't have a color printer"

I have looked at Dutch long enough!  I am going to teach myself and you my dear readers how to pronounce it as well.  At least we should be able to read it right?  Een enkele taal is nooit genoeg (one language is not enough)  And some noticeable differences in letter pronunciation are G, J, R, ch, and of course the vowels.  -I have copied this box out of smartphrase.com- Vowels   a • short like a in h a rd, but even shorter, or • long like a in c a t, but even longer e • short like e in s e t, but even shorter, or • long like a in l a ne i • short like i in b i t, but even shorter o • short like o in h o t, but even shorter, or • long like oa in b oa t u • like u in h u rt, but even shorter, or • long like oo in b oo t, said with pursed lips eu • long like u in h u rt, but with tightly rounded lips oe • long like oo in b oo k, but with rounded lips ie • long like ea in ch ea t     Ch/Sch-   like  lo ch   G - li

Check this baby out!  Yahoo Story.   (I had a different picture posted here but you couldn't tell the length of it) Here's a quick post for you. A yacht that Steve Jobs commissioned is finally finished (October 27, 2012). Sadly it's after he passed (A year and a few days later). Why is this on this blog? Because it was built in Aalsmeer Holland by a Dutch shipbuilder. Figures the Dutch are good at building quality sea going vessels. Just slightly southwest of Amsterdam with a 'harbor'. Here's a brief synopsis of the article. There are more pictures of the boat there too.  Just over a year after Steve Jobs's death, shipbuilders in Aalsmeer, Holland have finally finished the yacht that the Apple visionary spent years designing. Her name is  Venus . (Or should that be iVenus? Sorry to easy).  B uilt entirely out of aluminum, the yacht was designed by Jobs personally along with some help from French designer Phillipe Stack. The ship is between 7

(This information borrowed from The Blauvelt News written by Kristine Brower) Slow news weeks. No posts because I've been lazy and haven't set aside the time to do the research I want to on the topics I want. But, did find this neat quick article about Halloween in Holland. Saint Martin's Day, November 11th, is a celebration in Holland similar to 'trick-or-treat' as we know it. People in Holland go around receiving treats by ringing on doorbells and signing songs for which they are given sweets or tangerines for their efforts. They travel with lanterns singing songs similar to this. Elf November is de dag, Dat mijn lichtje, Dat mijn lichtje. Elf November is de dag, Dat mijn lichtje branden mag. (Thanks to Google Translate) Eleventh of November is the day, That my light, That my light. Eleventh of November is the day, That my light may burn. Why do the Dutch celebrate Sint Maarten (Saint Martin)? One dark and stormy night, Martin was alone. He onl

My roommate sent me this video.  Here's some more information from the creator of this video  about the protests and what other nations are trying to do.  The video was made to spark similar ideas in other countries. What if most of the world started riding bikes more than driving.... interesting thought.  

This is neat. Check these out. Yahoo story with pictures Longer story here . Dutch historian Jo Teeuwisse from Amsterdam (hence the reason it's here) discovered 300 negatives in a flea market and began to research the sites of the photos. She overlaid modern pictures of the same sites with the negatives from WWII creating this 'ghost' image. Her Flicker site is here with many more pictures. Her site mentions that originally this began as just a research tool for her job as a historical consultant and grew into her passion/hobby. She believes that linking these pictures to sites we recognize heighten their impact. I agree. Sure we see lots of pictures from WWII all the time but that was then and there is hardly any lasting  physical evidence now, but when you see the sites today and they look so peaceful and nothing like they were then; it adds an extra amount of weight to them.  If you have the time check out her site where she has tons more pictures. If you don'

      The Shell oil company has been in the news lately.  Recently they have been accused of spilling oil in the Delta region of Nigeria.  Shell's full name is the Royal Dutch Shell company.  Shell blames the leaks on sabotage, which run the illegal oil purification centers in the area.  They have been in trouble in the past for their involvement during Apartheid in South Africa.  This time it turns out that oil has been spilling into this watershed region which has contaminated the ground and the water which was once a productive fishing center.    Shell has been brought to court in the Netherlands by a group called Friends of the Earth.  Their lawyer's name is Jan de Bie Leuveling Tjeenk.  In comparisons to other oil spills, the spill in Nigeria is double the amount that was spilled into the Gulf during the BP oil disaster.  Shell has been accused of treating this oil spill in Africa differently than how they would handle the spill if it happened in North America or Euro

I had a case of 'Hey, I know that guy" the other day. I found another actor who is Dutch, who knew. Rutger Hauer Born in Breukelen, Netherlands 1944. (Yes that is where Brooklyn in New York got it's name from, I think I should post about that more some other time). I posted the picture of him that made me say "oh that guy". Anyone guess what movie the above picture is from? Anyone? Batman Begins, He played Mr Earle. The 'corrupt' businessman CEO leading Wayne Enterprises while Bruce was gone/dead. He gets what's coming to him in the end; "Didn't you get the memo?" Great stuff. Rutger is also known for playing a villain in Blade Runner. Recently he hasn't played many high profile roles besides the occasional guest start on TV shows. More info on his early life thanks to Wikipedia . His films IMDB . The man even has his own website ! Neat did you know facts about Rutger. His first and last name both end with er! -Got his st

Being interested in my family culture, Dutch/German, etc., I have heard the name Friesland, Frisian and Friesian pop up time and again.  Firstly, I heard of the region in association with the horse breed that originates from that region, the world famous Friesians .  They are beautiful black horses that trace their origins from the forest horses found in that area.  They were used as light war horses in medieval times and today they dominate in whatever equestrian field they are put in; they are to put it simply, fancy. The second occurrence of the name Friesland comes from playing a very nerdy but oddly educational game which taught me the ancient provincial names of Europe, the Middle east, the Mediterranean and Northern Africa.  Friesland at one point in time was a power in and of itself.  They were originally called the "Frisii" and they inhabited the coastal Netherlands as well as northwestern Germany, they even had a distinctive pottery style called "Terp Tritzu

Dutch the official language of Suriname In a fierce foreign language debate we argued which language is the most endangered.  The center of the conversation was German.  I raised my voice, "If there is any language that is in danger of becoming extinct it would be Dutch," I said.  "Most Dutch people speak English, and the Netherlands is so small."  "German is spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and in communities in the United States and around the world."  The conversation concluded and we all went back to our tasks at hand, but a lingering thought still circled around in my head.  Did I misspeak?  Are Dutch people themselves worried about the legacy of their language?  And where exactly is Dutch spoken? Dutch people do speak English a lot and very well.  According to the 2005 Eurostat statistics the Netherlands has the highest percent of English speakers in Europe in the 80% zone; with Belgium, Germany and France taking the next places.  However

Check out this slideshow of Amsterdam's Canals from BBC news . I'll summarize the captions on the pictures here if you don't feel like looking at pretty things. But seriously, click on the link and check out the pictures. >>Amsterdam is the most watery city in the world (must be one ahead of Venice then....). 1/4 of it's surface is covered in canals and harbours. Touring the canals has now become a prime tourist attraction with over 200 canal tour companies now operating carrying over 3 million passengers a year. With the growing canal tour industry, locals fear the larger boats and higher number of boats will cause issues with locals and their smaller boats. There are rules about how loud and what you can do on the canals with police patrol boats always call. Houseboats, once the inexpensive way to live in Amsterdam, are now rising in cost and rivals that of small apartments. It is illegal to swim in the canals except for special occasions (I wonder if it'

Remember last year when Forbes published a 'Happiest Countries' Report? This year the United Nations published their first World Happiness Report and guess where the Netherlands are? This explains the ranking system. 1) Denmark 2) Finland 3) Norway 4) NETHERLANDS USA comes in at 11. Yahoo has an interesting take on the Netherlands. They ask a chicken or the egg question. Do the bicylces and Tulips exist because the Dutch are happy or are they the reason for Holland's happiness? The Happiness Report is 1 of 2 reports filed this year ranking the countries of the world. The Happiest Countries Report shows a snapshot of the state of the world's happiness. While the second report " Happy Planet Index " (The Forbes article) tallies how a country balances personal well-being, environmental impact, and life expectancy. This list includes more countries that a vacation going would be interested in. The Netherlands is farther down this list.

A post! Due to a dearth of ideas (see what I did there? Wordsmart word) by me or the other author (cough cough); I was hoping a great story would be found using Google. Sadly, no. But I did finish a good book recently (Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum) that included a solid bit set in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam bit had me focused on Houseboats, which is a much bigger thing than I thought, and English Words with Dutch origins again. One I hadn't really thought of in a while that Ludlum referenced. Behold the Mighty Waffle Here in America. When we think Waffle our first thoughts are probably Belgium Waffles or Eggo (the surprising good readymade toaster variety). But did you know that Waffles are very old? The Dutch word Wafel (mid 13th century) and the Frankish word Walfre (1185) both come from the root word walfa which means honeycomb or cake (how about both!). Wikipedia goes into great detail about the origins of the Waffle and Waffle through the years. Fascinating bit compari

It's the wrong Holland but still. Holland MI is city located on the coast with Lake Michigan settled by Dutch colonists in the 1800s. I plan on visiting someday, maybe in time with the Tulip festival like we talked about before, and posting pictures. I plan a post on this city soon. In the meantime, check out this song by Sufjan Stevens. It's kinda sappy and slow but neat, especially set to pictures of Holland. Sufjan Stevens is from Detroit MI and loves all things Michigan.

iTunes free song of the week last week was a song called Amsterdam by Imagine Dragons. I've never heard of them but it's a catchy Alternative song. But it made me think. In my own personal music collection. I have a few songs named Amsterdam. Three to be exact. This may give to much away about my music tastes but hey, I'm out of ideas for posts as evident by the lack thereof. I don't read into song lyrics deep enough sometimes, so not sure what some of these are talking about but most are hardly about the city itself.  1) Amsterdam by Imagine Dragons Just got this one like I said. Not sure yet. Here it is below. Make you want to ride a train.  2) Amsterdam by Guster Couldn't find a good video for this one. But here is the song. I guess, it's easy to get lost in Amsterdam... 3) Amsterdam by Coldplay My favorite of this bunch. Turns out it's called Amsterdam because Chris Martin wrote this in Amsterdam. The song says nothing of the canal fille

Sorry for dropping off the face of the earth these last few weeks. Class has started for both of us and it's hard to find time. Excuses Excuses. This may be a bit dry. I won't be able to put a picture up of every Olympian for the Dutch, but here is a summary of their Olympics. I'll rehash some wins I've already talked about and try to focus on the new ones. The Netherlands finished the Olympics in 13th place overall with 20 medals total. 6 Gold, 6 Silver, and 8 Bronze. A higher count than Beijing but one less Gold. Still, a good haul for the Dutch, finishing ahead of larger countries like Spain and Brazil. Medals Women's Cycling BMX - Bronze; Laura Smulders Women's Road Race - Gold; Marianne Vos Men's Cycling Track Keirin - Bronze; Teun Mulder                Keirin is a form of sprint cycling where the start is speed controlled. Read this .  Equestrian;       Women's Individual Dressage - Silver; Adelinde Cornelissen       Men's

I decided to wait a few days for the medals to pile up before posting an update. (If this was a blog about USA or China I wouldn't be able to keep up!) The Netherlands won 5 more medals since last I posted. 2 Golds in Swimming and 3 Bronze in other sports. Pushing their total to 8 ranking them 11th overall. Women's 8 Rowing - Bronze. Gold went to USA with Silver to Canada. I found a picture of the Dutch women's rowing team after they won. Looks like they are having fun regardless of getting 3rd. No offense to the lady in the middle but you can almost hear her snort from here. Men's 100kg Judo - Bronze (Henk Grol). Gold went to Russia, Silver to Mongolia and Netherlands tied for Bronze with Germany. Henk Grol. Sounds almost like a name from some Dan Brown novel (pictured below, chiseled). Dutch men aren't ready to be out matched in the tough guy department by the women just yet. Women's 50m and 100m Freestyle (swimming). 50m Freestyle (2 Dutchwomen Medal

The Netherlands won another medal today in a sport that I used to put in my group of Olympic Sports that aren't televised and should be. Then I looked it up on youtube , and maybe there's a reason why it isn't aired a lot.  Judo is evidently not the fist flying craziness I thought. To me it looks more like Tai Chi sped up. Regardless, Edith Bosch (Pictured Here in the White) won a bronze medal in the Women's -70kg Judo. She had won the same medal 4 years ago in Beijing.  Continuing Holland's tradition of Women who can kick your butt.

The Olympics began with a bang (or was it Bond) last Friday night. The Dutch entered the stadium wearing their traditional Orange. Gota love those pants. Their uniforms actually won best dressed on this yahoo blog . It also seems the Dutch Women's Field Hockey team has gained worldwide attention before even taking the field to defend their Beijing Gold. Both for their play on the field and their uniforms. An article about it here  Yahoo . And a photo gallery here . Wow. The medals began coming in on Sunday for the Dutch when the Women's 4x100 Free Style Swimming Relay team secured a silver medal. Falling just behind Australia and beating team USA for second place. Followed soon after by Marianne Vos finally winning her elusive Olympic Gold Medal in Olympic Road Race Cycling. Here's a picture of her crossing the finish line (that is one excited and exhausted looking person) and one of her accepting her medal.  As of Tuesday, the Dutch are in 16 place for to

             So I have bought my Raleigh bike but that doesn't mean that I should stop talking about them, ha!  Instead of talking about a Dutch bike brand let's talk about a Dutch cyclist shall we?  Here enters famous cyclist Joop Zoetemelk.  He is a bicycle racing legend.             He has finsished the Tour de France 16 times, which is a record, and he also won the race in 1980.  Not to mention the Olympics and 67 other professional races that he has either won or raced in the top 10 in.  Joop started off as a regional champion speed skater before turning to cycling.  This guy , who has actually become better looking as he ages (if that tells you anything), is an athlete and a robust one at that.  In the 1980 Tour de France which he won, it was claimed that he only won because a competitor Bernard Hinault had dropped out of the race.  This is what Joop had to say about that "Surely winning the Tour de France is a question of health and robustness. If Hinault doesn

   Looking for some inspiration in 1972 the Beach Boys packed their bags and their recording studio and settled down in the Netherlands to record their album "Holland". They hoped that the change of scenery would snap their band leader Brian Wilson out of his depression. Although they did end up getting Brian to come along, 3 attempts, he did not contribute much to the album. (except it seems his very creepy EP Mt.Vernon and Fairway{ A fairytale})      Sailing and port towns are the themes of the CD which is applicable whether you are off the California coast or in the canals of Amsterdam. The single from the album "Sail on Sailor" sounds much like Stevie Wonder, who was a major player in the music scene around that time. "Holland" was famously expensive to record, which makes sense since they needed to send all of their gear to Holland; and it was recorded in the tiny town of Baambrugge which is in the interior of the Netherlands.      

As I type this there are 3 days, 18hrs, 33 mins, and 57 seconds left before the start of the 2012 London Olympic Games. In 2008 the Netherlands won 16 medals. 7 Gold, 5 Silver, and 4 Bronze. The Golds came from; Women's Cycling Track Individual Points Race (figures), Equestrian Dressage Individual, Women's Field Hockey, Women's Lightweight Rowing, Men's Marathon Swimming, Women's Freestyle Relay Swimming, and Women's Water Polo.  Silvers; Women's Judo -57KG, (Sailing) Women's 2 person Dingh and Women's Keelboat, Equestrian Dressage Team, and Women's 8 rowing. Bronze; All came in Judo different weight classes. 2 men's and 2 women's.  What do I take from all those medals? Dutch women kick butt. I would say at least 75% of the medals won were won on women's sports. Nice. They were 12th in the total medal count that year. According to the official BBC website, it looks like around 182 athletes will be competing in sp

Black licorice. The Bane of kids everywhere (in honor of the new Batman movie coming out tomorrow I had to slide that in there). In America when we hear the word licorice, we normally think of the straw looking red kind or the nasty tasting black tar taffy. In Holland, licorice is known as Drop and primarily comes in black and 2 flavors. No stringy red ropes either. Drop comes in these lozenge style shapes. And so I've read, I have never tried the stuff, it is a different flavor than what we're thinking of. One website states that Holland consumes the highest per capita consumption of licorice in the world. Or almost 4 1/2 lbs of the salty stuff a year. Wait, did I say salty? Yes, you read that correctly. Drop comes in a variety of flavors from sweet like we're used to, to this salty flavor. There's soft sweet, soft salty, hard sweet, and hard salty. With added flavors of honey, coconut, mint, etc. The current craze seems to be making the lozenges in the shapes of t

Speaking of bicycles I have been doing some research on bicycles lately. I am a fan of Raleigh bikes but while researching I came across a Dutch brand for road bikes, who would have ever thought (sarcasim). The Netherlands has a strong bicycle racing heritage and one such Dutch brand is Koga-Miyata. Now you might say "wow that name sounds Japanese", and you might be right. In fact you are right. The founders of the brand were originally a joint venture between Miyata a forward thinking Japanese brand and a Dutchman, who just so happens to be the knowledgeable son of the founder of another important Dutch bicycle brand Batavus . Koga-Miyata's are known as a well made bicycle brand, and the design and assembly are all done in Holland. What gave K-M it's good name was the 1980's Tour de France. The company sponsored the Ijsboerke cycle team using the Koga-Miyata FullPro-L bike. Since 2010 the koga-miyata brand no longer exists, instead they have changed into

How to begin...Yesterday while listening to "Afdwaalt" again I decided to check out the rest of Eefje de Visser's artistry. "Man, all of her music is pretty good!" exclaimed a certain surprised person. So, naturally this surprised person decided then and there to buy her album called "De Koek" (The cake). Everyone knows that buying the hardcopy of a CD feels so much better than spending less for the MP3 downloads, so I searched and searched for this CD. It goes to say that very few of these CD's were made, and those that can be found are over the cold salty ocean. Finally I found a website which was recommended by her own official website, bol.com. Here I began digging my hole. Of course it was going to be a tad bit more expensive to buy a CD that was being sold using Euros but I didn’t mind too much. What did worry me was that the website was positively, absolutely, completely written in Dutch. So I may now proudly say that yes I do k

In 1967 THE James Bond (Sean Connery) decided to step away from the world of James Bond films. EOS studios thus had to find a replacement. It came down to 5 men. 2 Brits, an American, a Australian, and a Dutchman. John Richardson, Anthony Rogers, Robert Campbell, George Lazenby, and Hans de Vries. None of those names ring a bell? George Lazenby won the part for the 6th Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. A movie that has been lauded both as the worst and one of the best Bond films in the franchise. If you haven't seen it, you should. It was the Bond film that 'Breaks the Fourth Wall', Bond gets married, wears a kilt, and goes skiing. But the reason for this post is instead of this; (Yes, THAT is James Bond) We could of had this. Improvement? Probably not. He looks a wee bit angry. Plus, no one watches OHMSS anyway. So, did de Vries have a movie career after Bond? Ha, no. The only notable movie rolls I can find for him were pre bond. And that was

The search is over. I have been looking for a band (that I have actually heard of) who are Dutch for a long time. This band I found almost by accident. I heard their song on the radio, used an app on my phone to identify who it was, then looked at their bio. Low and behold they're dutch! Who am I talking about? Golden Earring Founded in 1961 (A little before my time) in The Hague, Netherlands. Their big international successes were 'Radar Love', 'Twilight Zone', and 'When the Lady Smiles'. I've only heard the first 2. You're probably thinking, "I've never heard of this band." Listen to these songs and you'll say, "Oh, those guys." Here's Radar Love (My favorite of the 2) And Twilight Zone The band members include (very Dutch names); George Kooymans, Rinus Gerritsen, Barry Hay, and Cesar Zuiderwijk. They're still performing today with the hopes of releasing a new album soon. Obviously, they're

This morning I was researching a new article I want to post soon and stumbled across another (dare I say better) Dutch blog. http://stuffdutchpeoplelike.com/ Read their about page, very witty. It's written by someone not native to Holland but who lived there for 7 years (Slightly Jealous) and geared towards a more humorus view. I have never visited. I only read articles and watch documentaries on the country. Makes this little blog we do sound weak and uninformed.... http://blogs.transparent.com/dutch/ This is the one I've been reading. More geared toward learning the language but also very imformative. I've linked you to these because (obviously) I'm not allowed to straight copy from their blogs (even if I wanted to) without contacting them for permission and even then, I can only use 10% of what they wrote. Moral of the story. We'll keep plugging away here on All Things Holland but if you want honest to goodness firsthand knowledge check out these other

Remember around a month ago when the news story hit about Ray the Forest Boy who randomly showed up one day in Berlin, Germany? Well I forgot to post this but it has been found out who Ray the 'Forest Boy' actually is. 20 yr old Robin van Helsum of Hengelo Netherlands (100 miles east of Amsterdam). What allowed the police to finally determine who 'Ray' was? His stepmother. She recognized his picture on the news. He went missing 9 months ago. Now that he has been exposed as a hoax and not the Forest Boy who had been living in the woods for 5 years; Robin may face stiff fines and penalties for the extra police time and work put into his case which could cost as much as $40,000. 'Ray' originally walked into Berlin claiming he had been walking for 5 days after spending 5 years living out of a tent in the 'wild' where he had buried his father. One Berlin police officer said that there were things right from the start that did not match to his story. Lik

No post for a few days. This time I have a legitimate reason. No electricity.... So I was going through my old emails last week and stumbled upon a story someone sent me back in 08. I read it at the time and thought nothing of it. Turns out the man who did this feat was Dutch! Check out a news story on it. They can wrap it up better than I. Dordrecth, in Western Netherlands. Johan Huibers completed his 3 year $1.6 million dollar project. According to him, he had a dream about this. I wonder if he cheated and used modern day construction tools. Tourist Attraction. Sidenote: 25 days till the Olympics!

Sorry about the dearth (wordsmart word) of posts these last 2 weeks. Been away and busy. But today I was searching the news feed for a good Dutch story. Let's see; Dutch National Soccer coach steps down, nah, Forest boy really Dutch citizen, maybe later, oh, Royal Dutch Shell.... wait like Shell Gasoline? Remember when I did an article about Dutch companies? Well how about a company I had no idea was Dutch. A Huge Gasoline Company. BP is British; Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConoccoPhillips are American; Total S.A. is French; But who knew Shell was the shortened name for the Royal Dutch Shell company. Shell, founded in 1907 and headquartered in The Hague, is the 5th largest company in the world and 2nd largest Energy company. Shell operates in over 90 countries producing 3.1 million barells of oil daily with 44,000 stations worldwide. The name "Shell" actual came from when The Royal Dutch Petroleum Company merged with a British company (The Shell Transport and Trading Co

The title means -descending-.  Dit is goed, toch?

The London Olympic Games begin in less than 43 days. I thought it would be appropriate to break down which sports the Netherlands will be competing it. Here's the breakdown. -Archery -Track and Field;         Discus, heptathlon, marathon, shot put, decathlon, hurdles, various sprints -Badminton (I didn't know that's how it's spelled!)     Interestingly their athlete in this is Jie Yao who now resides in Holland. The competetion level in China is so great, she moved to the Netherlands to have a better chance of making the olympics. -Cycling    BMX, road, track, mountain biking -Equestrian    Dressage, eventing, jumping -Fencing -Field Hockey -Gymnastics     Trampoline, artistic -Judo -Rowing -Sailing -Shooting -Swimming -Table Tennis (similar story to Badminton) -Taekwondo -Triathlon Some of those sports never get televised. It'd be interesting to see. Especailly table tennis or something. I'm not sure of the total number of Dutch Athle

( Courtesy from Ken Jennings [yes that Ken Jennings] on www.woot.com ) Ok this is a little dry, and on the factoid side but very interesting. I think I'll do an article on it later. Doubt I can match the detailedness. But for now, I couldn't have said it any better Mr Jennings. I'll edit it for readability. He starts off with the Question; Are Tulips Native to the Netherlands? It begins.... "[Sure] windmills, wooden shoes, and heroin are pretty great, but, as signifiers of the Netherlands go, there’s everything else and then there’s the mighty tulip. What could be more Dutch than a field of brightly colored tulips, swaying in the wind? The Netherlands still produces three billion tulips every year, and its Keukenhof garden, near Lisse, is the largest tulip display in the world. But would it surprise you to know that tulips aren’t Dutch at all—that the de facto national flower is, in fact, a fairly recent immigrant? Tulips are actually native to the steppes of