Amsterdammer in English

The Netherlands is in for another heatwave, which is expected to last until the end of the week. What to do in this heat? 1. Stay hydrated: here's a map of drinking taps all over the Netherlands. 2. Cool off in bodies of water: here's a map of official bathing spots around the country. 3. For those who struggle with the heat: hide in less heated places (parks, near water). In Amsterdam, these are marked on this map. 4. Those who are not afraid of the heat: visit the nearest beach (map). 5. Eat ice cream: here's a map of ice cream vendors around the country (yes, it exists too!).

​Minecraft for road safety Veilig Verkeer Nederland (VVN) is a public organisation that has been involved in road safety in the Netherlands for 90 years. Their latest innovation is using the popular computer game Minecraft to teach children about the rules of the road. With it, 5th and 6th graders can practice what they have learned in their school traffic lessons, and practise new skills by helping to build a traffic law in the virtual city of Broekpoort. Here's what it looks like:

​100,000 kg of ocean plastic, the first delivery by robotic boat and a giant Progress flag I love to tell you about developments in Dutch innovation projects. I have two pieces of news for today. First: The Ocean Cleanup, the startup fighting the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), has reached an exciting milestone. In one year, they have managed to retrieve more than 100,000 kg of plastic! According to the founder of the company, this is more than the combined weight of two and a half Boeing 737-800 planes, and the area of ocean cleaned is comparable to the size of Luxembourg or Rhode Island. According to The Ocean Cleanup study, the total amount of plastic accumulated in the ocean is about 100,000,000kg. So if they repeat this 100-tonne removal 1,000 times, there won't be a Great Pacific Garbage Patch! No, it won't take a thousand years: now that the technology has been tested, the expanded System 03, which is expected to capture plastic at a potentially tenfold rate, will get to work. In other news, AT5 reports that the Roboat project has made the first cargo delivery on its autonomous boat. The test did not go absolutely smoothly, but the mission was completed: kegs of beer "' sailed' to the customer, the iconic Amsterdam bar Waterkant. Incidentally, you had to be deaf to not have heard of WaterKant over the last week: in the run-up to Pride (this year's festival runs from July 30 to August 7) the multi-storey car park above the bar was transformed into a giant Pride Progress flag measuring 18 metres by 82 metres. Photo from the municipality's Twitter feed:

​Tribute to efficient spatial solutions and infrastructure made for living: Utrecht, Dafne Schippersbrug

Pictured here is the MyHelmet bicycle helmet from the Dutch design company Studio MOM. The expanded polystyrene, from which most helmets are made, has been replaced here by mycelium grown on a diet of hemp flakes. When heated briefly, its structure, similar to polystyrene foam, becomes rigid and lightweight, while the multiple layers create additional cross-links and space for airflow to cool the head. The components of MyHelmet are joined without the use of glue: the strap and the outer shell made of hemp fabric are simply fixed in place as the mycelium bonds with them while growing. The helmet is 100% biodegradable and requires no fossil raw materials. Studio MOM has already carried out a series of preliminary tests to ensure that the product is safe to use, and now hopes to develop the design from a prototype to a commercial product.

​This weekend, as the war crosses the 5 (!!!) month threshold, a charity art fair in support of Ukraine will take place in Amsterdam. It is organised by U AID STICHTING in partnership with the People for People Foundation to raise €30,000 for three upcoming humanitarian urgent aid projects for people in the hot zones of Ukraine. In addition to the fair itself, there are various workshops and even an auction. It takes place on July 22 at 18:30 in the Het Parool theatre at Wibautstraat 131D. Lots by Ukrainian and European artists will be auctioned there. All funds raised will be used to purchase cars for Ukrainian rescue workers and essential medicines and equipment for residents of Kharkiv and Dnipro. When: July 22-24 Where: The Student Hotel Amsterdam City (Wibautstraat 129) Cost: admission to the fair itself is free, but tickets for the workshops and Friday's auction must be purchased in advance More information on the project's Instagram account

Amsterdam animal shelter is full of rabbits The municipality informs that the DOA animal shelter is no longer accepting rabbits. Their 'hotel', where rabbits could be handed over temporarily, e.g. during holidays, is also closed, because there are more than enough worries about the abandoned ones. It has never happened previously, that the free space for the animals runs out completely before the summer holidays. Many Amsterdammers adopted rabbits during the quarantine, and now, especially in the holiday season, are trying to get rid of them by any means possible: ditch them in parks, drop off at contact zoos and sometimes just leave them in front of shelters together with their cages and everything. It's not only forbidden but also unacceptable because the survival rate of domestic rabbits in the wild is minimal. All in all, the DOA needs volunteers and foster families. If you love animals and are ready to help, register here, and if you want to take rabbits home from the shelter, you can choose a pet via this link.

Piece of turf Feyenoord, or How to get football fans involved in another championship In the Netherlands NK Tegelwippen, the championship for uprooting paving and facade tiles and replacing them with greenery (grass, flowerbeds, trees, gardens) take place. Its aim is to make the city cooler and drier, i.e. more climate-proof. It started as a competition between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and has grown to the level of a national one. Among the 130 municipalities registered this year, Amsterdam wins it for the total number of remote tributaries and Almere for the number of remote tiles per capita (via this link you can see today's score). Amsterdam's main rival is traditionally considered to be Rotterdam. It has already won the first championship, but this time it loses heavily, uprooting 42,640 tiles against Amsterdam's 70,300. In order to promote the idea of NK Tegelwippen and popularise it among the people of Rotterdam, the most famous stadium in the Feyenoord region donated 100 m2 of its turf to the city municipality. The pitch on which one of the leading football clubs in the country won the Conference League semi-final was to be replaced anyway, so part of this 'sacred grass' was exchanged in kind for tiles from the gardens of 175 of the most devoted football fans.

​I never had the feeling that the war is happening somewhere out there, in a parallel universe, rather than in the real, living Ukraine, because a few years ago I was breathing in its various cities myself, walking along those very streets and hugging friends on them. It so happened that many of them are artists, and it is from them that I’ve been getting the artefacts and evidence of the horror of what has been happening from the very beginning. Now everyone in the Netherlands gets the chance to see these proofs for themselves: on Wednesday, July 7 at 19.00 in Amsterdam's DOOR OPEN SPACE, an important exhibition about the war "The Captured House" will open. It will present works by 50 contemporary Ukrainian artists — over 200 documentations of the events, from photographs and installations to sculpture. It is a travelling project and has already been shown in Berlin and Rome. 📍Exhibition dates: July 7-14 📍Opening hours: 14.00-22.00, Sundays 12.00-18.00 📍Adress: DOOR OPEN SPACE, Tt. Vasumweg 31, 1033 SB Amsterdam (NDSM) 📍Entrance is free 📍Project details: https://thecapturedhouse.com/

Today is July 1st and Ketikoti Day. That means you have a chance to try heri-heri at the annual Free Heri Heri for all initiative!