Gizmodo: the netherlands

The Citadel: The World's First Floating Apartment Complex

Dan Nosowitz — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:00:00 EDT

Since Holland is mostly under sea level, keeping houses from flooding is a constant problem. This concept fixes that problem by just having an apartment complex that floats.

The Citadel is the residential part of the "New Water" complex, which tries to embrace Holland's waterworld-ness instead of fighting it. It'll have a floating road to the mainland as well as plenty of boat docks for its 60 units. Apparently it'll also be 25% more energy-efficient than an equivalent complex on land by using the surrounding water for cooling. It looks kind of crazy, but the sort of crazy that could actually work. [Inhabitat]

Muggers Caught When Their Crime Was Captured by Google Street View

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:45:00 EDT

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Last September, a 14-year-old Dutch boy was assaulted and robbed after being shoved off his bike. But with no evidence and no real idea who his assailants were, police were powerless—until the crime showed up on Street View.

The photo shows the boy being tailed closely by two men who matched the boy's original description, but Dutch police actually had to send a formal request to Google to have the faces unblurred. When Google complied, a policeman recognized one of the men (actually twins) as a suspect wanted for similar robberies, and was able to finally make the arrest, six months after the crime.

So beware, felons: The Google cars are watching. [AP]

Pot-Sniffing Helicopters Put the Illicit Dutch Agricultural Industry at Risk

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:00:00 EDT

The unmanned mini-helicopter has been dubbed the "Canna Chopper," and has been put to use sniffing out illegal grow operations in the Netherlands. Apparently only 10% of Dutch-grown pot is legal. Who knew?

The Canna Chopper boasts odor and video sensors to find pot fields from the air, and on its first trip it rounded up seven outlaw farmers and several kilos of product, so looks like it's reasonably effective. Effective at being no fun. [Dutch Daily News via DVICE]

Dutch Prisons Get Big Bro Makeover

tgrumet — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 17:05:39 EST

If I ever go to jail, please make sure it's in a Dutch prison. Looks like those clever Dutchies have done it again, opening a high-tech prison that will allow inmates to do their own cooking, washing and organize their own daytime schedules—all with a touch-screen monitor at the foot of their beds. If you didn't know this already, Holland started the Big Brother reality TV craze and these facilities are now being dubbed the "Big Brother Prison" because of the monitoring of its cells using electronic wristbands and emotion-recognition software. Though strangely enough, it seems the prisoners will actually have more privacy than Big Brother contestants because camera surveillance is limited to public spaces—not on bunk beds or in bathrooms. The whole thing should save money (from $170 cost per prisoner at other Dutch prisons to $125 per night) because of the easier monitoring and fewer guards needed. And let's face it, if you can get some cool inmates in your dorm room, you could have a rockin time!

Dutch open Big Brother prison [CNN]