Interesting news you might want to share with us.

[CyrilSebastian]

Today I saw an outdoor church sign that stated: "This Church is Prayer Conditioned."

[getafix]

Today I saw an outdoor church sign that stated: "This Church is Prayer Conditioned."

  that's up there with reformed church. my freind says did they swear, play around and get drunmk but don't do them anymore...?

G

[Countess of Cows]

5 people have been charged in the death of Matthew Perry.  2 doctors, his assistant and drug dealers. Doctor suuplied tens of thousands for ketamine.  Saying they have text messages, phone calls and evidence for murder.

[anneboleyn]

5 people have been charged in the death of Matthew Perry.  2 doctors, his assistant and drug dealers. Doctor suuplied tens of thousands for ketamine.  Saying they have text messages, phone calls and evidence for murder.

Holy shit. I didn’t expect that. I’m glad justice is being served. Poor Matthew Perry - he worked so hard to be clean and sober.

[Countess of Cows]

He really seemed to trying.  So sad, some of the things they are saying about them all conspiring against him, calling him a moron, acting in tandem to keep him spiraling is just bone chilling!  You're right, poor Matthew never had a chance.

His assistant and their term,  "Ketamine Queen" (who is very young and beautiful) must have been taking him for a fortune.  Easy mark for an assistant you trust and a  gorgeous woman flattering you.

Truely hope justice is served, he deserves it.  His stepfather is a journalist , wonder if he's going to do a big story about it.

[getafix]

He really seemed to trying.  So sad, some of the things they are saying about them all conspiring against him, calling him a moron, acting in tandem to keep him spiraling is just bone chilling!  You're right, poor Matthew never had a chance.

His assistant and their term,  "Ketamine Queen" (who is very young and beautiful) must have been taking him for a fortune.  Easy mark for an assistant you trust and a  gorgeous woman flattering you.

Truely hope justice is served, he deserves it.  His stepfather is a journalist , wonder if he's going to do a big story about it.

I've never heard of Ketamine and to be honest didn't follow MPs case...why was he on Ketamine? just looked it up was it for depression or for fun?

G

[Countess of Cows]

I've only heard of ketamine as a traquilizer for horses (or big animals) .  I'm at a loss how it became a recreational drug. 

[Principessa]

https://nos.nl/artikel/25...-hele-kleine-stukje-aarde

loosely translated as:

NOS News

yesterday, 05:03
Modified yesterday, 09:23

Today is the day: 18 million people on this tiny piece of earth

Sjoerd Mouissie
Data journalist
Froukje Visser
Graphic designer

As of today, the Netherlands has 18 million inhabitants. At least, that is the estimate of the 'population counter' of Statistics Netherlands. The population has only grown in recent years due to migration from abroad, not due to an increasing birth rate; fewer children were born than people died.

The new milestone of 18 million inhabitants comes relatively quickly - only eight years ago, the Netherlands reached 17 million. That is almost twice as fast as the previous million-dollar leap. It took fifteen years for the number of inhabitants in the Netherlands to grow from 16 to 17 million.




According to the CBS, the fact that growth is now going faster is not only due to the wars in Ukraine and Syria, for example. "A better or worse economic situation, the expansions of the European Union or policy choices such as the offer of English-language studies in the Netherlands also play a role."

Incidentally, there was a period in which the Dutch population grew faster than it does now: between 1945 and 1970, an average of 150,000 people were added per year, mainly through births. In the past period, the increase was 120,000 people per year, but mainly through migration.




By far the most newcomers in the past eight years came from European and Asian countries, according to the new CBS figures. In absolute numbers, most people came from Ukraine, Syria and Poland.

Top 3 unchanged
The largest group of residents in the Netherlands has a Dutch origin (72 percent), followed by groups with a Turkish (2.5 percent) and Moroccan (2.4 percent) origin. This top three of large groups has not changed since 2016.




The number of inhabitants of the Netherlands is expected to continue to grow in the coming decades. This is mainly due to increased migration and because people are living longer than previous generations. This also makes the calculations uncertain: the number of migrants in particular is difficult to predict. According to the latest figures, the Netherlands will have around 17.6 to 24 million inhabitants in 2070.



What is certain is that the Dutch population is getting older. In 1975, the average age was 33.2 years, eight years ago it was 41.5 years and now it is 42.6 years.

The number of people aged 65 and over is increasing, while relatively few children are being born. Last year there were more than 164,000. A woman in the Netherlands has an average of 1.43 children. That is the lowest number since the 1980s.





The Dutch population is not growing equally everywhere. The largest growth is seen in municipalities around the big cities. This is because people moved there, but also because more children were born there than people died. This concerns municipalities such as Blaricum, Waddinxveen, Rijswijk and Diemen. Of the big cities, Utrecht grew the most relatively with 10.4 percent and Rotterdam the least with 6.4 percent.

Shrinkage
There are also municipalities, especially on the edges of the country, where the number of inhabitants has decreased since 2016. This has happened, for example, in South Limburg, Groningen, the Achterhoek and Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. More people die there than children are born and more residents move out of a municipality than move there. For example, the number of inhabitants of Simpelveld decreased by 4.5 percent, of Eemsdelta by 4.3 percent and of Gulpen-Wittem by 3.1 percent.




Internationally, the Netherlands is the second most densely populated country in Europe, with almost 518 inhabitants per square kilometre. Number 3, Belgium, follows at a considerable distance with 384 inhabitants. Only Malta is considerably more densely populated, with almost 1700 inhabitants per square kilometre. The European average is 109 inhabitants.



Population counter
Nobody knows exactly how many people live in the Netherlands at this exact moment. The CBS population counter is an estimate, not a real count. That is impossible: registering a birth or death takes time, for example, and immigrants have a certain period to report to the municipality.

The number of inhabitants includes everyone who is registered with a municipality, regardless of nationality. This means that, for example, unregistered homeless people and asylum seekers who have only recently arrived in the Netherlands are not included in the figures.


RED: The title of this article (in Dutch) refers to a well-known Dutch song from the 90s. The song, originally written for a commercial for a Dutch bank (De Postbank, became part of ING), refers to 15 million people on this small piece of earth (= the Netherlands). Since then, the number of inhabitants of the Netherlands has increased and not so long ago, Dutch artists made a remake of the aforementioned song, but then about 17 million people.


'15 miljoen mensen' ( '15 million people')
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wftARWunM2I


'17 miljoen mensen' ( '17 million people')
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT3jBLuQ1Ck

[Principessa]

https://nos.nl/artikel/25...7-keer-kop-of-munt-gooien

NOS News
Friday, 05:11

Dutchman wins Ig Nobel Prize for flipping heads or tails 350,757 times

Dutch professor Eric-Jan Wagenmakers has won an Ig Nobel Prize in the Probability category for his research into heads or tails. It is the fifth year in a row that Dutch researchers have won prizes. Dutch research into drunken worms also won prizes.

The University of Amsterdam (UvA) and a team of international scientists investigated an earlier scientifically substantiated prediction that the coin most often lands on the side that was held up when flipping heads or tails, but that it makes very little difference. The theory had never been extensively investigated.

For this reason, 48 participants worldwide flipped a coin 350,757 times for the research. This took an estimated 650 hours in total. This indeed showed that the chance is not fifty-fifty, but that there is a 51 percent chance that the coin will end up on the side that was initially up.

That's because of the throw, Wagenmakers already explained in Het Parool last year. "We have a kind of wobble when we throw a coin. That ensures that the coin stays in the air a little longer." At the award ceremony in the US, Wagenmakers said that he "warmly invites everyone to repeat the experiment".

Fun
The Ig Nobel Prizes are prizes that are awarded annually in ten categories for fun and surprising research that has been published in recognized scientific journals. The research should make people laugh, but also encourage them to think.

It was the first time since 2019 that there was a physical award ceremony. It was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was accompanied by quite a bit of intended chaos. For example, there was a girl who shouted loudly that she was bored when the prize winners had to leave and a group unexpectedly came in that was supposedly being shown around MIT.

Second Dutch winner
Another UvA research also won a prize. A Dutch-French team won in the Chemistry category. They had drunk and sober worms race each other to study the separation of active polymers.

Other prizes went to American James Liao for demonstrating the swimming capacity of a dead trout. "I found that a living fish moves more than a dead fish, but not very much," Liao said. "A dead trout pulled by a stick also moves its tail with the current, like a living fish surfing on swirling eddies. A dead fish does live-fish things."

Another prize went to a study that showed that fake drugs that cause side effects can be more effective than fake drugs that don't. A study on some mammals that can breathe through their anuses also won a prize.

The Ig Nobel Prizes are seen as the playful counterpart to the real Nobel Prizes. They are usually awarded just before the real Nobel Prizes are announced by the humorous magazine Annals of Improbable Research.

[anneboleyn]

I started writing a book! I used to write lots of stories when I was a teenager but it's been years since I have written anything. My breakup sucked all my creativity out of me but I'm starting to feel inspired once more so I started a new novel!

[Lady Liebe]

I started writing a book! I used to write lots of stories when I was a teenager but it's been years since I have written anything. My breakup sucked all my creativity out of me but I'm starting to feel inspired once more so I started a new novel!

Good for you! 

[VanillaMoomin]

I started writing a book! I used to write lots of stories when I was a teenager but it's been years since I have written anything. My breakup sucked all my creativity out of me but I'm starting to feel inspired once more so I started a new novel!

Fantastic! Do you have characters you love and/or a setting?

[TLLK]

I started writing a book! I used to write lots of stories when I was a teenager but it's been years since I have written anything. My breakup sucked all my creativity out of me but I'm starting to feel inspired once more so I started a new novel!

  Good for you anneboleyn! Good luck with the writing process.

[onar]

I started writing a book! I used to write lots of stories when I was a teenager but it's been years since I have written anything. My breakup sucked all my creativity out of me but I'm starting to feel inspired once more so I started a new novel!

Good luck!!!

That's really big plans, you go girl!

[anneboleyn]

I started writing a book! I used to write lots of stories when I was a teenager but it's been years since I have written anything. My breakup sucked all my creativity out of me but I'm starting to feel inspired once more so I started a new novel!

Fantastic! Do you have characters you love and/or a setting?

It's a very silly romcom style of book that will include my two loves in reading - a happily ever after and royalty!