Showing posts with label Netherlands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Netherlands. Show all posts

Dec 4, 2015

Free College Living

Humanitas is one of the Netherlands’ main social services organizations. It provides support to people who are temporarily unable to manage on their own, and one of its major areas of focus is elder care.

Social isolation and loneliness is a chronic problem for the elderly, but a Humanitas nursing home has come up with a unique solution. The home offers free housing to local students if the students agree to spend a minimum of 30 hours per month interacting with the 160 elderly residents. The time can be spent doing anything from helping with meal preparation, shopping trips, teaching seniors to use computers, playing games, or just sitting and talking. The students might also learn a thing or two in the process.

Sep 6, 2013

Brussels Sprouts

If you hate the taste of Brussels sprouts it might be due to your DNA. Brussels sprouts are among the group of cabbages grown for edible buds. The leafy green vegetables are typically small, and look like miniature cabbages. The Brussels sprout has long been popular in Brussels, Belgium, and may have originated there.

In Europe, the largest producers are the Netherlands and Germany. Mexico tends to cultivate them in the Baja region from December through June.

Brussels sprouts have potent anticancer properties. Although boiling reduces the level of the anticancer compounds, steaming and stir frying do not result in significant loss.

Many people seem to not like Brussels sprouts. Scientists explain that there is a mutated gene possessed by about half of the population that prevents a person from tasting the bitter-tasting chemical used to grow Brussels sprouts. If a person does not possess this gene they can taste the chemical, thus making them much more likely to dislike Brussels sprouts. Apparently, I do not have that gene.

Aug 2, 2013

Internet Usage

Iceland (96%), Norway (95%), and Sweden (94%) have the highest percent of populations using the Internet. The Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg, Bermuda, and Finland all have over 90% of their respective populations using the net.

Canada is 16th with 86% of its population using the Internet. The US ranks 28th, with 78% (244 million people) online.

China has 591 million people using the Internet, but that is just 44% of the country's 1.3 billion population.

Apr 17, 2013

Four Person factory

Dirk Vander Kooij's furniture-making company, Studio Dirk Vander Kooij, in the Netherlands needs only a skeleton crew of four people. The hard work is carried out by an old industrial robot that Vander Kooij fashioned into a 3D printer. He converted an old industrial CNC (computer numerical control) extruder into an interfaced mechanical arm that prints, level after level, continuous layers of low-resolution plastic into furniture.

Using plastic recycled from old refrigerators, the machine "prints" furniture the way an ordinary printer uses ink to print documents. Many analysts expect 3D printing to revolutionize manufacturing, allowing more small firms like his to make products without hiring many people.

Feb 7, 2012

3D Printing First

Have written before how 3D printing is becoming more and more mainstream, but the following is amazing.

A 83-year-old female patient had developed a chronic bone infection and doctors believed reconstructive surgery would have been risky because of her age and so opted for the new technology.

A transplant jaw made by 3D printer claimed as first time a 3D printed object has been used in an operation. The implant was made out of titanium powder - heated and fused together by a laser, one layer at a time. Once completed, the part was given a bioceramic coating.

The lower jaw was fitted to the woman's face June 2011 in the Netherlands. Shortly after waking up from the anesthetics the patient spoke a few words, and the day after was able to swallow again. She went home after only four days.