American fietsers like me are usually pointed toward Rotterdam, rather than a city like Utrecht or Amsterdam, for a very good reason. I learned about it this week. Rotterdam was destroyed during WWII and rebuilt along American lines. High buildings, wide roads, and cars everywhere. The city’s metro area is far bigger than most Dutch […]

I came to the Netherlands for two reasons. One was to study the Dutch bicycling infrastructure and understand why it works. The second was to get “stuck in,” that is to be, for a while, part of a place rather than a spectator. I’ve found real answers to the first question. The answers are density […]

Before leaving for the Netherlands, I promised to share mistakes with you. I’ve made plenty. The biggest one may be overdoing things. At 70 you need recovery time. Walking or even bicycling is exercise at my age, and too much will wear you down. The second may be thinking I could quickly get up to […]

My daughter has studied urban wildlife for most of her life, and this is for her. In the Netherlands, the cities are densely populated. So are what we call suburbs. But cross a bike bridge over the 8-lane freeway next door to Maarssen, and you’re in another world, with farms and nature preserved, a single […]

There’s a familiar metallic roar disturbing the peace of the Netherland’s bike paths. It’s the sound of gas-powered motorcycles. They’re supposed to be on the roads, but laws aren’t strictly enforced. They’re fast, and dangerous to the 15 mph (25 kph) traffic the paths were meant for. But they’re there, and their numbers are growing. […]

The test of democracy doesn’t occur when a candidate promises to do monstrous things. It doesn’t even come when the monstrous things are done. (Illustration from Magic Studio.) It comes when the monster’s people turn on him. Can they join with those who only warned about the monster, those who opposed the monster reluctantly, and […]

Tourists to the Netherlands are being advised to avoid Amsterdam, because the place is just too crowded. They’re especially trying to discourage young British men who come to drink, pee in the canals, and fight. They’re also restricting cruise ships and the construction of new hotels. After two weeks in the country, I agree with the […]

Zoe Kooyman is now running the Free Software Foundation. People I know and trust say she’s a good choice. She had better be. She’s walking into a Category 5 hurricane. The problem starts with DeepSeek. The Chinese LLM is available as open source under the MIT License. That’s different from the GPL, but Kooyman made clear […]

I rode a Swapfiets bike from Maarssen to a meeting in Amsterdam yesterday, as an experiment. The result was not good. I exhausted both the battery, and myself, over the course of just 16 miles. I also have some giant calluses. The problem was the limited speed and limited motor of the e-bike. It’s designed […]

Why is the gentleman next to me smiling? Possibly because he works in a small market. The U.S. media market has been more than decimated. (The word comes from losing 1/10th of your soldiers in a battle). Everything from The Washington Post to your hometown paper has either gone under, sold to a propagandist or […]