Aangeschoten wild

Bezoekers op deze foto leefden zich uit op Zuid-Amerikaanse dansritmes.

Inholland
InHolland University will terminate nine study programmes that were deemed to be substandard. The Delft branch of InHolland University will stop teaching computer science. For a programme focused on naval architecture, InHolland is currently looking for partnerships in the region. 

Bikes
It is a typical Dutch image: a train station with bikes parked everywhere. The community of Delft is fed up with bicycles that are parked outside of the racks at Delft Central Station, however, and as such all bikes parked ‘illegally’ in and around the station will be removed as of May 9, 2011. In the meantime, Delft is building hundreds of new bikes racks, so that everyone will be able to park their bikes correctly.

Crime wave
According to Dutch police records, the police arrested more suspected robbers this year than during the same period last year. In the first quarter of 2011, the Dutch police recorded 710 robberies and arrested 243 suspected robbers, compared to 822 robberies and 187 arrested suspects the year before. The number of robberies had been on the rise since 2007, reaching its peak in 2009 when 2,898 robbery-related incidents were reported. This led to the start of a Robberies Task Force, headed by the Mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb, which has apparently helped stem the crime wave.

Reprimand
Dean Marco Waas, of the faculty Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, has been reprimanded by the Works Council. The Works Council states that the restructuring of the model construction and processing lab was already completed before the council had a chance to look at it. Members of the Works Council said it was not the first time that Dean Waas has exceeded his authority and asked the Executive Board to intervene. Dean Waas said that the project had already been running for three years, but admitted the action was wrong. The Executive Board was surprised, unaware that there had been a problem.   

Online NL
The Netherlands Internet Domain Registration Foundation (SIDN) issued more domain names last year than in any previous year. SIDN, founded in 1996, issues all domain names ending in ‘.nl’. SIDN’s 2010 annual report states that it registered 514,230 new domain names in 2010, bringing the total number to 4,192,454. Some 1,500 new domain names are issued every day. “With the total number now at 4.3 million, this means ‘.nl’ is in third place among the 250 country domains worldwide,” says Roelof Meijer, SIDN’s director. Meanwhile, Dutch kids aged between 9 and 12 have the highest number of internet profiles of all European children. Some 70 percent of Dutch kids have a social networking site personal page, according a recent European Commission report. Those with the lowest profile are French kids, with just 25 percent having social networking site pages. And in 13-16 year-old category, the Netherlands also has the highest percentage: 87 percent.

No ban
To the displeasure of the PVV Freedom Party, the provincial government of North Holland voted down a proposal to ban municipality employees from wearing Islamic headscarves at work. The proposal was tabled by the populist PVV, which charges that headscarves symbolise Islam’s oppression of women and hinder social integration. The PVV said that governmental councillors and civil servants should set a good example by being the first to ban Islamic headscarves.

Big Google
The Dutch Data Protection Authority (CBP) has charged US internet company Google with intercepting people’s private information in the Netherlands via insecure wireless networks. Google has destroyed this information. The CBP, which functions as a privacy watchdog, said Google vehicles, which photograph Dutch streets for Google’s ‘Street View’ service, collected information that included financial and medical information. Google also collated the identification numbers of 3.6 million secure and insecure WiFiRouters. The CBP started investigating Google’s private information collection methods in the Netherlands in May 2010.