-Jean Leuwenhock? Do you mean Antonie van Leeuwenhoek?
(ahn-tow-nee vahn lay-wun-hook)
-Van Gogh. Seperate. With guttural g's. Which I won't ask you to pronounce.
-the guy who discovered Tasmania was, not surprisingly, cold Abel Tasman.
-Windmills: They're now mostly converted to houses, part of national heritage, and/or tourist attractions. The majority was used to grind about everything looking remotely like grain. So, mostly bread industry, not power industry. The famous ones were used to pump water from lakes in the province of (then) Holland. The land thus gained is called polder. Yes, they're protected by dikes. Dykes. Whatever. Sometimes whole rows of them were used if the water had to be transported higher up than normal. Pretty good work for the 17th century. There are some (generator) windmills (the ugly metal high ones) but they're not very common. The Netherlands being such a plain country, one would expect more, but it all has to do, I guess, with the abundant supply of methane gas as an energy source (and a relatively environment-friendly one at that too)
Dikes were originally built not along rivers, but at a 90 degree angle to stop the water flooding too far across the low grounds. Later techniques made it possible to construct the dikes as we know them today. The only problem I know of is once in a while, people drive off of them and roll over until they hit a cow. But hey, that's the price we pay. Reminds me, it's been almost four years since we were evacuated because of high water levels. I remember it even made it to CNN. The poor guy had to pronounce "the town of Ochten" and he did so quite admirably, I remember. I also have some vivid memories of the weird Japanese reporter screaming at the camera making strange gestures at the camera, trying to explain to the Japanese what was about to happen. And I laughed at the Americans who thought the entire country was about to flood :]
-Who invented the Hansje Brinker legend anyway? I believe it's purely American, it certainly isn't told here. Hm.
Reminds me of one awful thing the Dutch did. They caused the horror of Santa Claus.
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to Baloo: The Order of the Arrow is an organization in the Boy Scouts of America that is for the best and brightest (I guess I was never nommindeed to the organization), they have sort of secret histroy (at lest that what the folks in my troop told me) and I didn't know much about them. Of course later I learned that the biggest thing the Order did was go to the 5 week of Kia Kema (the local summer camp owned by the Chickasaw council) and clean up the camp. I really didn't get many details about them, but it sounded alright.
------------------ HMS White Star (your local friendly agent of Chaos:-) )
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If I remember my geography correctly, "Holland" is the name of two western provinces (appropriately named "North Holland" and "South Holland") along the coast. To my knowledge, the natives call their country "Nederland", but I could be wrong...
------------------ "I think, therefore I go fast. (Cogito ergo zoom)" -Frank Gerratana, July 12, 1999
Ooh, the Order of the Arrow is similar to the Order of the Bat'leth.
------------------ Elim Garak: "Oh, it's just Garak. Plain, simple Garak. Now, good day to you, Doctor. I'm so glad to have made such an... interesting new friend today." (DS9: "Past Prologue")
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The Order of the Bat'leth was the most elite of all Klingons in DS9's "Apocalypse Rising". All they did was do very little, and get inducted.
Sounds similar to the Order of the Arrow.
------------------ Elim Garak: "Oh, it's just Garak. Plain, simple Garak. Now, good day to you, Doctor. I'm so glad to have made such an... interesting new friend today." (DS9: "Past Prologue")
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The current provinces of South and North Holland, or, in Dutch terms, Zuid- and Noord-Holland, are roughly the area formerly called Holland. This was the richest of the 7 provinces united, (I believe, but history isn't as important here as in the US) in 1579 (union of Utrecht against the Spanish) and it is from Holland the merchant ships sailed and innocent people were oppressed in colonies, a practice which didn't stop until 1975 with the independence of Suriname. (yes, we still have the antilles but at least we don't extort them anymore) (Currently there are 12 provinces, one of which is completely artificial)
The Dutch refer to themselves as Nederlander (plural Nederlanders) and to The Netherlands as Nederland. The language is called Nederlands. Holland is used mainly on trucks and containers and such (the poor people in Panama or something wouldn't know where the ship that says "Nederland" comes from :]) and it's also used sentimentally, or in a flippant way. Only rarely is Nederland called by the plural name "de Nederlanden" (this is mostly done in official documents, like on passports, and in titles like "Beatrix, koningin der Nederlanden" which, of course, means "Beatrix, queen of the Netherlands) And no, Beatrix is not at all a common name here, before you ask. But neither is my name. Or my last name, which is very rare indeed (if I meet another Warrink, I can be dead certain he's related to me)
------------------ "We both said 'I really love you.' The Shriners loaned us cars. We raced up and down the sidewalk twenty thousand million times." -They Might Be Giants, "She's an Angel"
------------------ Elim Garak: "Oh, it's just Garak. Plain, simple Garak. Now, good day to you, Doctor. I'm so glad to have made such an... interesting new friend today." (DS9: "Past Prologue")
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RW, I am from Batavia, and the local museum is called the "Holland Land Office" because of its Dutch entrepreneurs who was given the surrounding land to develop it. I heard that "Batavia" comes from Batavi, which is Dutch. Care to give me some more info on the origins of "Batavi"?
------------------ "I do whatever the voice of Charles Capps tells me to do."
------------------ Elim Garak: "Oh, it's just Garak. Plain, simple Garak. Now, good day to you, Doctor. I'm so glad to have made such an... interesting new friend today." (DS9: "Past Prologue")
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