arts and culture – Page 6 – Bluegreen Butterfly

Wooden shoe-making in Netherlands

PhotoHunt 98: Wooden
These are some of the photos I took in Netherlands during our trip last October. These are in the countryside where life still rolls with the wooden shoes and windmills. The wooden shoe factories gained it’s reputation across the world and gathered display collection as far as Korea and Japan. One thing with wooden shoes is that they warm the feet when its cold and cool the feet down when its hot.

Netherlands shoe factory

A wooden shoe-maker showing us the traditional shoe making using the same tools as old as the use of clogs themselves.

wooden shoe maker

These are the finished products. Colorful and Imeldific shoes.

wooden shoes

One more. This is what the unpainted old shoes look like:

wooden shoes of the Netherlands

PhotoHunt

Challenges facing humanity

Do I see the Tower of Babel here?

These are the enumerated challenges facing humanity today:

Make solar energy affordable
Provide energy from fusion
Develop carbon sequestration
Manage the nitrogen cycle
Provide access to clean water
Reverse engineer the brain
Prevent nuclear terror
Secure cyberspace
Enhance virtual reality
Improve urban infrastructure
Advance health informatics
Engineer better medicines
Advance personalised learning
Explore natural frontiers

Castle-restaurant in Amsterdam

Amsterdam castle

It was our night out in the heart of Amsterdam. This is De Waag, an old castle long since converted to a restaurant. De Waag, or old weighing station, was originally a gate in a castle built in 1488, but became a weighing house in 1614. It’s now a restaurant where you can get a fine pastry or coffee in the morning or a dinner at night. Dinner late at night is especially seductive because the place is lit by hundreds of candles in chandeliers.

“De WAAG” (formerly called “Sint Anthoniespoort”). Dutch WAAG = English “Weight”.
It was build in 1488, and it is located on “De Nieuwemarkt”. The building is remarkedly well preserved. Here in ancient times the products from the VOC-ships (nutmeg,cotton,pepper and the like), were supplied, weighted out by poorly verificated measures and sold by auction to merchants and the public. The building looks somewhat like a mediaeval castle and (see the Weeping Tower above) it was part of the Old City Wall. It was the Oldest Place of Communication in Amsterdam and to day it is still a marketplace.The Waag functioned as a city-gate. Rembrand van Rijn frequently visited this building and it is in this building that he painted “The anatomical lesson of Dr. Tulp” (1632). To day inside “De Waag” a good restaurant flourishes. Behind “De Waag”, on a distance of about 200 meters, and alongside the water, the Weeping tower was build.

Dealing with an edgy CEO

Yahoo! hotjobs’s article I read today is interesting: 4 Things You Should Never Say to the CEO. As some executives appreciate opinions and whatever honest things you can say, some are very serious and a “terror” to his subordinates that a single mistake or wrong remark might cost an employee his job. If your boss is like that, these are some things to remember never to say to the perfectionist CEO: “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”, for it just means you were not prepared and researching or studying well your assignment and presentation. And bossy doesn’t like that. And never make fun of a corporate program if you want to last in the serious company, to some it is a grave insult. You get it? No funny things because everything had to be dealt with seriously in the job, as they said, “Skip the jokes, especially at the beginning of a presentation.”; Just show your seriousness at work and never say “That can’t be done.”, something is impossible, for no bossy would not tolerate that, and other weak and negative forces around him.

All these so you would know who is the boss here!

Laziness museum

Hey guys, if Amsterdam has Marijuana Museum, so has Bogota, Columbia Laziness Museum, to get people during the holiday season to think about laziness and its opposite, extreme work, and perhaps reach some balanced conclusion. Featured are sofas placed in front of televisions, hammocks or beds – anything associated with the avoidance of work. Visitors will have to shed their laziness long enough to get into the museum soon, for it closes in a week. For those overwhelmed by the traffic, the fumes, the fast pace of life or the pressures of work, the museum, sponsored by the city government is much visited, and could be ideal :-).

The most searched words in China

Shanghai shares had risen 97 percent last year, and we had seen them emerged into economic power, so it is just not surprising that the four of the most Googled words in China in 2007 pertains to money and technology. In most countries “sex” ranks first in the most Googled word, but in China it is far down below the honors, for it is beaten by a parade of financial and technological giants:

“QQ”, a Chinese instant message service and a brand of car, ranked first;
China Merchants Bank, second;
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the third;
and the word “stock” make it to the fourth of the most searched item.

But it is interesting though that while “qiu zhi,” or “seeking knowledge,” “what is a blue chip” and “how to invest in the stock market” were the most searched inquiry on Google in China, the most search questions on the global list are “what is love” and “how to kiss”.

Trip to the Taj Mahal

le 21 décembre 2007

The advantage of having a tour guide was that, there are many advantages, Ha; he knows the goings and way through the place, so we head off to the Taj Mahal so early in the very cold morning before seven, for him, so that we will avoid the crowd, which he also always said for us to be aware of pickpockets.

There are entrances leading to the main gate to the Taj. The Southern Gate faces the old Mumtazabad (Modern Taj Ganj). It is meant for pedestrians or the pedlars only. On the right side of the gate is a tomb of red stone which is surrounded by court Yards and crowned with a dome, said to have a grave of one lady companion of Mymtaj Mahal, and due to this reason, the building is called the tomb of a Maid of Honour.

Eastern gate faces towards Fatehabad. There is a domed tomb erected on the elevated platform near this gate, built in the memory of another wife of Shah Jahan called Sirhindi Begum, and so the gate is known as “Sirhi Darwaza”. The main building is eight sided, having twenty four arches, a big hall and a veranda.

The western gate is the main entrance of the Taj Mahal, facing towards Agra cantonment and Agra city. There is a red sand stone edifice erected on a beautiful terrace outside this gate which is known as Fatehpuri Begum, another wife of Shah Jahan. There we entered through the west gate. There were guards on the entrance, and no matter how they seemed to be very old and outdated, the guns would still prevent troublemakers. Upon buying the tickets, which is 750 rupees each, (now they only accept rupees, dollars are not accepted since it is devaluating) there is a complementary bottled water, great. There are lines for men and women to enter where each one is inspected and all bags opened. Food are not allowed, and if you have one in your bag, it will be confiscated and thrown for the monkeys to catch. There were just so few people there that we made it through easily and fast through the gate and the be in the Fore Court leading to the main gate of the Taj Mahal, where photographers were selling their services. Though we have our cameras, I asked hubby to hire one of those photographers for you know, they are professionals, and just great, along with the album it also comes with the film.