TheSentinelAmsterdam vol.8 #3

vol. 8 #3 – 3 December 2014

The Sentinel Amsterdam

feature

perspectives

ALBERT CUYP MARKET

THE WONDER YEARS

CULTURE PERSPECTIVES LIFESTYLES TRAVEL OPINION REVIEW TECHNOLOGY ART FILM MUSIC TRENDS RECOMMENDED SPORT

2 photo Š shona brethouwer

content

feature - p.04

perspectives - p.26

lifestyles - p.32

Albert Cuyp Market

The Wonder Years

Hello Beautiful

‘260 stands when full’

‘A gentle introduction to radical change’

‘I have always been very curious about life’

K: C A B G BRIN trends - p.48

health & well-being - p.52

Bring back!

The Guilder Pt III

Manly men

Obsidian

‘Levels of uncaring greediness are too rife in this city’

‘A mix between Popeye, Fidel Castro and Obelix’

‘Return to darker colours and hence darker elements’

more perspectives - p.40

Star Beer Guide - p.44

recommended - p.46

Choose

Watou tripel

O’Shea’s Irish Pub

perspectives - p.50

technology - p.54

Just here trying to...

User interface

The Sentinel Amsterdam

E-mail: sentineldesk@gmail.com Website: www.thesentinel.eu Contributors: Sam van Dam, Jane Hutchison, The Observer, Fabian Hahne, Shona Brethouwer, Dirkje Bakker-Pierre, E.R. Muntrem, Evelina Kvartunaite and Andrei Barburas

Editor: Denson Pierre Co-editor: Shona Brethouwer Design: Dirkje Bakker-Pierre - no-office.nl Realisation: Andrei Barburas Webmaster: www.sio-bytes.tumblr.com Webhost: Andrei Barburas

The Sentinel Amsterdam does not intentionally include unaccredited photos/illustrations that are subject to copyright.

If you consider your copyright to have been infringed, please contact us at sentineldesk@gmail.com.

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amsterdam city life - p.42

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Dam in 60 minutes!

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Albert Cuyp market

By Sam van Dam

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‘Situated in one of our more vibrant neighbourhoods, De Pijp’

After a nice slow ride down this scenic street, I make my way towards the bridge that crosses the Amstel and leads onto the Ceintuurbaan. Bicycles swoosh in from all directions and the bridge is one chaotic mess of people, barely avoiding crashing into each other. It is clearly a hotspot where our natural urge to nonchalantly ignore traffic safety rules regularly creates dangerous situations. so I carefully negotiate my way through the bustling Amsterdammers to reach De Pijp unscathed. I spend some time window shopping in the many interesting little outlets that line the busy Van Woustraat. This particular street shows up the general gentrification of the neighbourhood with older shops and boutiques that may have been there for decades sitting next to new, hip and cool organic food shops, yoga schools and burger bars. The historical, somewhat rundown appearance of De Pijp is slowly but steadily being polished-up and painted in pretty colours, or where necessary torn down and rebuilt.

Once completed, the new metro line that has been under construction for more than a decade, will run

through the area. once completed, This will ensure an even closer connection with the city centre and bring a further influx of people and commerce that will no doubt reshape this part of Amsterdam in the years to come.

As I get closer to the market, I make a diversion and ride through the Sarphatipark before throwing myself into the crowded market street. People walk their dogs and kids run around laughing in the playground. I leave the park after a while and find a secure spot for my bicycle so that I don’t have to push it through the masses of people on the Albert Cuyp. I am greeted by a giant bag of French fries promoting a food stand at the beginning of the market. I love these first steps into this little world, where you are suddenly when suddenly you are surrounded by stands selling almost any kind of product you could imagine or ask for. The outside world takes up a background position and offers a distinct and calming humming noise.

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This time, I am taking you on a cross between a cycling and a walking trip to one of my favourite places in this beautiful city the Albert Cuyp market - situated in one of our more vibrant neighbourhoods, De Pijp.

It’s certainly the busiest and most popular market in the Netherlands and with 260 stands when full, it is said to be the largest of its kind in all of Europe. I start at the Amstel Station and make my way across the busy and beautiful Berlage Bridge where I take a moment to appreciate the wide and enticing view of the river Amstel and the long line of houseboats sitting at its side for as far as the eye can see. I head further down the Weesperzijde, one of Amsterdams’ loveliest Streets. It is occupied by many beautiful monumental buildings of the typical architectural type found in a few of the wealthier areas of the older city. Little rowing boats make their way along the water and the unseasonably warm and bright weather flares the scenery with pretty colours.

I pass the first stalls and check out their merchandise.

One has a vast choice of new bicycles and if I didn’t have a proper ride already, I’d most likely be able to find a good one here. Clothes and fashion items are lined up next to jewellery, food, drinks, vegetables and fruit.

Electronic devices and gadgets, bags, suitcases, cosmetics and chocolate all share the available space and create a colourful and delicious potpourri of flavours, scents and eye pleasing arrays of stuff that you didn’t know you needed, until you saw it hanging in front of you.

Locals have been coming here to do their groceries since the market opened for the first time in 1905 and visitors seem to like it just as much. It seems as though every language of the world all world languages can be heard and there’s something for everyone. Examples of this are the famous stroopwafels [treacle waffle] and poffertjes [pancake puffs]- Dutch sweet treats that always have long queues of connoisseurs waiting for their turn to indulge a little sugar rush within the inspiring surroundings. Florists add another dash of colour and street cafes invite those who become tired of shopping to sit down for some coffee and cake. Bars and restaurants on the side streets cater for more substantial urges. I walk all the way to the end of the market before I return to my bike and think to myself how lucky we are to have such cool places in our awesome city.

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‘Locals have been coming here to do their groceries since the market opened for the first time in 1905 and visitors seem to like it just as much.’

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‘Indulge your sugar craving within the inspiring surroundings.’

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‘It is said to be the largest market of its kind in all of Europe.’

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‘It had been some time since Dutch residents could be heard confidently espousing the resilience of our rock solid financial planning tradition’

The Wonder Years

by Denson Pierre

There is a very funny side to Amsterdam life, which possibly sounds perpetually high to those who visit us here, or are indeed newcomers to this objectively lovely city. Like everywhere else, it has its problems. Some are tremendous, but most are reasonably and easily fixable. The magnitude of this economic crisis we are so firmly anchored within, has given cause for a lot of navel gazing and a different or new way of looking out at the world – with what seems like a whole less amount money.

perspectives

‘The only thing holding back their sense of wonder and exploration could be said to be lack of ambition’

Up until about three years ago [four years into the global re-adjustment], Dutch residents could be heard confidently espousing the resilience of our rock solid financial planning tradition. They seemed impervious to the ravages of a recession which had become a TV-news event starring countries like U.S.A., UK, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Belgium and not Germany. Like a load of bricks slipping onto our foot from a height, reality bit back hard. Today in Amsterdam, (and NL), you would be hard pressed to find anyone who did not have a personal story within their family, friend or associate circle about recession related job loss, business failure, divorce or money-stress related disease and a huge increase in mortgage loan regret.

hotspot will open, giving us a rush lasting about an hour at first, then turning into a numbing, drawn-out thud when the realisation dawns that suddenly, after eighteen months, it proves to be just another ‘concept’ business idea. An idea that could never have prospered at a time of having to do with less. There is no reliable sign of light leading into 2015, as each report of any new industrial or trade advance is immediately tempered by other news of large chunks of human resource being jettisoned somewhere else without a thought for the sector of the economy it affects.

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‘Even now, it can easily give off a distorted impression.’

What is curious to Amsterdam is that even now, it can easily give off a distorted impression. Note that a high volume of the nation’s wealthy and industrious are still tending to live here, along with the deceptive presence of the already discounted for, [cosy tax arrangements with government and international corporations], but highly visible and boisterous young international resident troupe, forever here for just the duration of their high-value but short-term contracts.

Most persons with whom I chat to are regularly slipping into easy reverie about a time, just eight years ago, when the only thing holding back their sense of wonder and exploration was said to be a lack of ambition. Now, all we seem to wonder about is when another flickering

It has taken a lifetime of wonder about the topic, and even now senior Dutch policy makers are making official, but heavily underplayed statements, about that which we should have known would be the consequence of the technologicalisation of our lives.

Be it robots, souped-up computers or the extreme disproportionality of things as far as the interest of those of the top 5% of earners is concerned, in terms of choosing to subsidise the remainder of us humans.

I wonder how long it will take before the human workforce is first decimated and then made redundant en masse? I wonder if this recession is but a gentle introduction to radical change in the very near future.

I wonder if you have considered your own place in this quickly unfolding human story. I really wonder.

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photo Š shona brethouwer

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‘How long it will take before the human workforce is decimated?’

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classifieds

A world of beer has arrived in Amsterdam West.

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The Beer Tree Jan Pieter Heijestraat 148

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lifestyles

‘Free to live in the very same way they had done before cancer had struck’

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Hello Beautiful Reversed angle

By Jane Hutchison

At the end of October I held one of my Woob Art Workshops in London. Sat around the table were ten women who had all had breast cancer. They were each decorating a pair of wooden breast sculptures. The woobs will be auctioned to raise money for the Hello Beautiful Foundation, my breast cancer charity, at our Hello Love Art & Design Festival in London, Summer 2015.

The conversation in the room was all about their cancer experiences, and how they had complete trust in their doctors even after complaining about the patronising manner they were treated by the said doctors. One lady said she was happy to have all the toxic treatment they could throw at her chemo and -radiotherapy. The doctor had said that her cancer wasn’t that developed and she didn’t need the full treatment but she took it anyway just to be safe! I was sat there astonished.

I realised again that so many women who had been through the same treatment as myself and suffered the same barbaric side-effects, still had the mind-set that these toxic treatments saved them. And now they were free to live in the very same way they had done before cancer had struck.

Another lady had even brought in a massive cake for us all to devour. I politely declined. It did look delicious but my temptation did not get the better of me as I mentalised “cake or cancer, cake or cancer” I know my thoughts were a little dramatic then but since having had cancer at a relatively young age of thirty-five, I am doing all I can to change my lifestyle to be that more health conscious. One practise is not allowing sugar to fuel any cancer cells in my body. It’s of course the case that everyone carries basic cancer cells in their bodies, but most people’s immune system repairs itself and the cells don’t develop to be cancerous. But if your body is run down, stressed, emotionally compromised and lacking essential nutrients then cancer cells have a propensity to multiply.

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I was left to wonder if people’s view on not changing their lifestyles after they had been through cancer was in fact a generational thing? Most of the ladies around the table were at least ten years older. I have always been very curious about life and as it is was raised in different parts of the world. These international life experiences definitely helped me gain insight into how different cultures lived and the different way they thought. Maybe these ladies didn’t believe in all the healthy lifestyle changes they should make because a doctor in a white coat wasn’t telling them to do it?

I realise also that cancer is a massive money-making business for the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry and NHS doctors are somehow very gainfully employed on the back of this industrial approach to medicine.

Within a modern world where information is so accessible, I have since had time to research, watch, read and learn that cancer can be healed without Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy. I did though have

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‘Having had cancer at a relatively young age of thirty-five, I am doing all I can to change my lifestyle to be that more health conscious’

these treatments myself, as I was told that, “You have no other choice, or you will die” At the time I had no instant access to non-allopathic approaches. There was not a single UK cancer charity that was all about alternative and/or complementary therapies. Had there been it would have helped me compare options. Had I known about the means of changing my eating habits and properly fuelling my body and cells with nothing but goodness, I could have considered a different approach much more easily. If it sounds too good to be true, I would just like to say that there are thousands of reliable testimonies of persons who have healed cancer in this way; cancers that were more developed than my Stage 2 diagnosis. My aim and purpose with the Hello Beautiful Foundation is to have a charity that brings all the information together in one place.

I wonder if as my charity starts to grow how many of the older generation will stop and even consider making lifestyle changes to help prevent the return of cancer?

Hopefully next time someone brings in cake it will be a raw chocolate and no sugar content version.

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‘If your body is run down, stressed, emotionally compromised and lacking essential nutrients then cancer cells have a propensity to multiply’

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‘Changing my eating habits and properly fuelling my body and cells with nothing but goodness, I could have considered a different approach’

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More on: hellobeautiful.org

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The Mediterranean as it once was.

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www.visitgent.be

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Choose

by The Observer

When you wish to better your situation, be sure you have specification.

For those who are poor and live in physical poverty, crave wealth and luxury.

Meantime, those who are rich and live in mental poverty, long for freedom and liberty.

Those who are single desire marriage, Begging with fairy-tale wedding with horses and carriage.

Meantime, those who have a marriage, Long for a divorce, to them, it’s too much baggage.

Those who have only common sense, beat-up on themselves, thinking they are dense.

Meantime, those who only have artificial education, long for the day when they can make a sensible decision. “Life and circumstances never really become better, they just get more tolerable.�

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amsterdam city life

: K C A B G N I R B THE GUILDER PT III Killing us softly

By Denson Pierre

I would like to be one of the first to say that overpricing, together with the arrogant and ignorant defence of the practice, has had, and continues to increasingly have a major negative influence on the daily lives of Amsterdammers not occupied with living an ascetic life. This is across the board and only demarked by a form of wilful economic apartheid, inherent in the pricing strategy of so many licence holders.

How did we come to a time when a ‘normally employed’ person has to set up a budget plan to even consider venturing out in Amsterdam to absorb their own culture through consumables and professional hospitality? Yes, of course, those on command salaries that ensure their hourly rate of pay is more than €45 per hour need not worry too hard. However, they are a very small percentage of the population of Amsterdam.

Like everywhere else, we are propped-up by people struggling within the high-cost real estate area of the

entire city, earning nothing more than €20 per hour.

This, of course, does not even touch upon students or traditionally low-paid workers and their even more reduced levels of disposable income. The senior majority have the greatest problems.

Long gone seems to be the days when those 55+would bother popping in regulary to hospitality establishments. This, despite the clear demographics that say within a continuous recession, they are the only group to actually have access to said disposable income. Instead, for the above reasons and the generally unwelcoming and irritating house musicplayed in too many of these Amsterdam addresses these days; they just stay at home or holiday far away from the city. My focus in this short piece are those who somehow are not too keen on travel, as they are a growing group of the ‘lifestyle diseased’.

I contend that because the pricing has become so ridiculous and the supermarkets are the only place worth getting consumables from, that too many of these less-active souls are fully ensnared in the trap of stay-at-home-drinking and overeating. It is so easy to slip into these disease ridden behaviours behind the closed doors of a living space you can barely otherwise afford to maintain.

Bring back help for these people. I know a big part of that help has to come from the fight to be had with the hospitality licence holders in their avarice, to have them not essentially and economically block-off the most traditional outlets at which these people could ease their tensions and maintain a social life. I have called the fight as being on and the conversation continues.

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Surely it cannot only be a the currency changeover, some twelve years ago, that has led to so many silent problems within Amsterdam society. I point a firm finger at the hospitality business leaders (all scales).

It could sound evangelical or even vindictive, but levels of uncaring greediness are too rife in this city. No one ever said, “please do not make a profit”, but everything in life should be about something to do with style and balance.

star beer guide

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Star Beer

star beer guide

The Sentinel Star beer guide

By Denson Pierre

WATOU TRIPEL

(A.B.V. 7.0%)

‘A nicely sessionable beer for samplers with an appreciation for subtlety’

With an alcohol content being just on the border of what is becoming strong, this is a nicely sessionable beer for samplers with an appreciation for subtlety and nuanced flavours derived from an advanced brew process.

Watou Tripel is brewed by St Bernardus Brewery, Trappistenweg 23, Watou, Belgium.

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A beer of balanced excellence. Another from the West Flemish, global capital region for high-quality beer. Another that makes for absolutely grounded stories around brew houses so good that they have been able to make their tiny villages, which the beers are simply named after, into global connoisseurs’ brands.

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ENDED RECOMM

We find the best, most fun, most typical, exciting, or local favourite restaurants etcetera in Amsterdam and bring them to you; an easy way to feel like a local.

Connoisseurs Delight

CafĂŠ Westerdok Some of the very finest and rarest of beers available anywhere in the world.

The warmest Amsterdam welcome.

CafĂŠ Westerdok Westerdoksdijk 715A Amsterdam www.cafewesterdok.nl

recommended

To be seen and tasted

Fun, Drinking & Music

Cafe de Toog 1890’s grandeur fashioned into Amsterdam-West, grand, brown cafe-restaurant-cool. Classy drinks and meals.

Nicolaas Beetsstraat 142 hs Amsterdam www.cafedetoog.com

Parck Great fun, beautiful people and simply the best bar food in town!

Overtoom 428 Amsterdam www.cafeparck.nl

Mulligans Irish Music Bar Amsterdam’s best address for live Irish music: Five (5) nights a week! Check our agenda for upcoming sessions.

Amstel 100 1017 AC Amsterdam www.mulligans.nl

To Be Seen and Tasted

Connoisseurs Delight

To Be Seen and Tasted

Cafe restaurant Edel Cafe restaurant Edel is the perfect place for lunch, dinner or to simply enjoy a drink.

Edel is a unique place in Amsterdam.

Postjesweg 1 1057 DT Amsterdam www.edelamsterdam.nl

Incanto A restaurant with a classic Italian kitchen.

Venetian chef Simone Ambrosin is known for his pure and simple style of cooking with great feeling for nuance.

Amstel 2 Amsterdam www.restaurant-incanto.nl

Café Kostverloren Café Kostverloren is a contemporary cafe offering the cosiness of a saloon, an open kitchen and the intimacy of a living room.

The large terras is great for sunny days.

2e Kostverlorenkade 70 Amsterdam www.cafekostverloren.nl

Fun, Drinking & Music

To be seen and tasted

To be seen and tasted

Cafe-Restaurant Du Cap A spacious and tasty helping to the Mediterranean vibe within Amsterdam’s new ‘West End’ entertainment district.

Kwakersplein 2 Amsterdam www.du-cap.nl

Molly Malone’s An Irish pub as it should be and a home away from home! Cosy, friendly, and with its very own character!

Oudezijds Kolk 9 1012 AL Amsterdam www.facebook.com/pages/ Molly-Malones-Amsterdam/ 293030997411277

Fun, Drinking & Music

Connoisseurs Delight

Fun, drinking and music

Bax A cosy and friendly local café with a focus on special or interesting beers and good quality food. Open 7 days a week with a professional kitchen offering a lunch and dinner service.

Ten Katestraat 119 Amsterdam www.cafebax.nl

Café Rose Red You will not see and sample a better selection of the very best of European beer elsewhere.

Cordoeaniersstraat 16 Brugge www.caferosered.com

Gollem Gollem’s Proeflokaal, Gollem and Gollem II represent the best addresses serving the fullest range of top Belgian, Dutch and international beers in Amsterdam.

Overtoom 160-161 Amsterdam www.cafegollem.nl

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To be seen and tasted

Café Oporto Café Oporto is a traditional Amsterdam ‘brown cafe’. Welcoming tourists and regular customers alike, they offer televised sports, wifi and a wide range of reasonably priced beers and spirits.

Zoutsteeg 1 1012 LX Amsterdam www.cafeoporto.net

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trends

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Manly men ‘We are now just waiting for a place to open where you can hunt and slaughter your own animal “live”’

By Dirkje Bakker-Pierre

Smoking a cigar - as big as possible.

Growing a beard - as big as possible.

Eating chunks of meat - as big as possible and cooked right before your very eyes and created using as much fire and smoke as possible.

Drinking beer - in as big a glass as possible.

Tattoos - as many and as big as possible.

Check-off this list and you’re sorted!

The food and entertainment industry around Amsterdam has eagerly adapted to this seemingly primal urge that has taken over the male population by coming up with concept restaurants around the theme of meat eating. (Some are even called “Something, something Meat”). Each and every new place that opens is featuring even bigger open grills than the last one, and the animals grilled are also growing in size. Themed restaurants are selling ‘cuisine’ hotdogs and burgers taller then skyscrapers. Men with hairy arms to be found searing pieces of meat above hellish fires (how they keep their hair from singeing I don’t know?). We are now just waiting for a place to open where you can hunt and slaughter your own animal “live” to then cook it on a self-created open fire for that authentic Neanderthal kind of feeling.

How come this self-selected role model of contemporary men seems to be a mix between Popeye, Fidel Castro and Obelix? (Without the spinach). Is this an antireaction to the metro-sexual trend that had every guy in soft pink t-shirts with deep-cut cleavage and chino trousers neatly rolled-up to just above sockless moccasins?

With ‘shedding’ in the UK on an unstoppable rise and the term man cave (notice the word ‘cave’?) already integrated into the Dutch language, it can’t be long before we see random acts of strongman behaviour on the streets of Amsterdam with the word “Ugghh” replacing most other conversation, and spittoons coming back into fashion.

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While cavemen have long since been extinct (at least I thought they were), there is a particularly persistent trend going on amongst the male population in our little town. An unstoppable desire to be more ‘manly’ in all kinds of ways seems to have taken over Dutch men of every age group.

‘Manly’ meaning very literally doing things that we would only have seen men doing in photographs and illustrations from ages long gone by. No one has any idea who exactly decided upon what being ‘manly’ means, but there seems to be a general consensus among this lesser number of the species about what the archetype of a ‘real man’ should look and behave like, and it is very straightforward:

perspectives

JUST HERE trying to figure it ‘I want the moment of anger back.’

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‘My response was dismissive.

Basically I called her a racist.’

By E.R. Muntrem

Just here trying to figure it--it, middle age, it, the elections in America, it November in Amsterdam.

He’s not really an American, she said. He’s letting in all the immigrants, she said.

Instead of a measured query asking her how she believes what she does, especially in a city where I am not writing enough. Not walking enough. Not with urban safety outstrips any in our native land despite all my lover enough. Too busy with work. Funny, in part kinds of policies she would no doubt deem reckless, because part of my work is helping people figure it out. my response was dismissive. Basically I called her a racist.

‘Work your ass off’ is one of the codes, or values, or mottos of one of the places I work for money. (A She’s unhappy in The Netherlands. She’s like 65. She’s school for entrepreneurs.) It is a kind of implied here for hubby. She’ll learn Dutch faster than I will, guideline about what is required for people to make in obviously. And now some loudmouth yelled at her. business these days.

Not sure if my ass is worked off, and sure that working hard at something you love is a great way to live. You probably get why a school needs to remind people hard work matters. Still, a world where ‘play you ass off,’ or ‘love your ass off’ or ‘give your ass off’ appeals to me more.

Made like my eighth attempt to learn Dutch of late.

Hard to count all the teachers and apps and books I’ve tried. This was an intro class. There I met an American lady. She can’t wait for Obama to be gone, she said.

I don’t repent my transgression. She’s hardly working her ass off too see other points of view. To believe Obama not American is to believe the earth flat. I don’t much want her forgiveness. That much I can figure.

The scoundrels of all kinds who gained yet more influence and control in America recently pitching the idea that the poor and powerless cause ruin to the rich and powerful--she’s their bread and butter.

I want the moment of anger back. Anger is so painful

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to feel, even when righteous. And yet the world is in love with it.

against the October chill), the extra-long sleeves ideal to flap around dads head as he drives and laughs,

Last year I lived in like seven places in Amsterdam, all of them cool. Now I live with a fairy tale view but ten steps from the front door, one node of tourist central a few bridges away, parks and parties and panorama no more than a quick cycle away.

It is harder to get lost here than it once was, but I still try. I like to be lost in the city of the future.

Not every part of town is beautiful, energized by people, and provides nature’s uplift in the measure that would thrill or please or suit everyone, but many do.

On the sidewalk near my current abode are small gold placards with the names of Jews who were removed from the house and sent to death. That was back in 1940.

Because that is what Amsterdam is, really. It is the city more cities need to emulate. Egalitarian. Beautiful.

Sustainable. Safe.

In America, people who went to Africa to help fight Ebola are being all but hunted, called criminals and traitors.

A friend back home is dying of cancer. Perhaps the last time I was in The States will turn out to be the last time I see her. Hair loss. Weight loss. Sickness and terrible days of terrible treatments. A due date stamped on her ovaries. And she has not complained once. Never. Still walks everyday. Still swims. Still works her ass off trying to make the world better. It won’t get in her way, whatever it is.

A dad pushes a bakfiets, but instead of sitting there, little-miss six year old stands in roman chariot position Meanwhile my jerk off lady in Dutch class, me getting and in the grey sweatshirt (obviously his, obviously lent angry.

photo © shona brethouwer

It could be worse. Isn’t it amazing how many great places there are to live in this city? Equality and sustainability go together because when a reasonable supply of good things is nearby you

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‘Equality and sustainability go ‘It is harder to get lost here than it together because when a once was, but I still try. ’ reasonable supply of good things is nearby you.’

health & well-being

Obsidian

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By Evelina Kvartunaite

With the shortening days, less sunlight as well as unseasonably more warmth, it is more typical to return to darker colours and hence darker elements. That’s why I would like to speak about Obsidian, a stone that used to be more associated with the dark side of magic. This is especially self-evident when you consider how the gemstone is formed.

Its formation is completed when volcanic lava comes into contact with water; this forces it to cool so quickly that it doesn’t have time to crystallise, resulting in a stone left with a shiny, glassy surface.

Black obsidian is an extremely powerful and fastacting stone, and should be used with caution when practising crystal healing. It can bring forth negative emotions and unpleasant truths, which have to be confronted before peace can return. Many people find obsidian’s effects overwhelming and prefer to use a gentler stone.

Further, black obsidian is a very protective stone. It is said to form a shield against negativity and to absorb negative energies from the environment. Because of this it should be cleansed regularly in running water.

Used in healing, obsidian is believed to reduce the pain of arthritis, to help with joint problems and to ease cramp. It is also said to aid digestion.

– ‘Return to darker colours and hence darker elements’ –

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– ‘A stone that used to be more associated with the dark side of magic’ –

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– ‘It can bring forth negative emotions and unpleasant truths’ –

technology

‘The most sought after service of the age, is a reliable, fast and if possible, affordable internet connection’

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Pay TV, pay ‘It is almost impossible not to get a TV subscription with the internet connection’

‘The remote control’s function has become a volume and on/off control’

By Andrei Barburas

Moving into a new apartment not only involves the logistics of getting your belongings from A to B but also either transferring your utilities to your new address or requesting services from new service providers. Naturally, one of the most sought after service of the age, is a reliable, fast and if possible, affordable internet connection.

Luckily we live in that part of the world, that being the Netherlands, where broadband speed is ranked 10th globally (Hong Kong being the gold medalist with more than double the Dutch speed, followed by Singapore, South Korea, Romania and Moldova).

Living in The Hague, I did not even consider any other option that Ziggo, mostly due to it being awarded the

best internet provider award for the Netherlands in 2013/2014 by Tweakers (one of the more famous IT magazines). Having the need for speed, I chose the fastest package they can offer and that’s a 180/18 Mbit/s.

Ziggo uses the regular copper cable connections to provide signal for the TV, radio and data. That means that it is almost impossible not to get a TV subscription with the internet connection, even if it’s only analog TV. To my surprise, or then again not really, I discovered that indeed there are no stand-alone internet subscriptions. Opting for digital TV is not really expensive, considering that they offer either a digital receiver or a digital recorder (or a tablet or a six month discount) for free. Simply put, you ought to just get the TV subscription.

In recent years, and due to the ever-increasing speed of the internet, I started using TV more for background noise rather than actually watching a show. Furthermore, with devices like the Apple TV and

technology

Chromecast that actually stream either local or online content, the remote control’s function has become a volume and on/off control.

Nielsen’s most recent study indicates that Americans aged 18-24 watched a weekly average of 19 hours of traditional TV during Q2 2014. That was a substantial 2-and-a-half-hour drop-off from Q2 2013, which in turn had been down by an hour from the year before. In fact, in the space of 3 years, Q2 TV viewing by 18-24-yearolds dropped by more than 5 hours per week. That’s a considerable amount, equivalent to roughly 45 minutes per day.

In percentage terms, traditional TV viewing among 18-24-year-olds in Q2 2014 was down by 11.7% year-onyear. Between Q2 2011 and Q2 2014, weekly viewing fell by 21.7%, another sizable figure.

Although that 21.7% figure is a composite figure over three years, there’s no denying a steady decline in traditional TV viewing by 18-24-year-olds; the weekly

average has now dropped on a year-on-year basis for at least 10 consecutive quarters. The decreases in viewing might reflect increasing consumption of over-the-top video, although it should be noted, weirdly enough, that the Nielsen data indicates that time spent watching traditional TV still exceeds online and smartphone video by a considerable margin, even among youths. Indeed, research suggests that online video tends to largely act as a complement rather than a replacement for traditional TV, at least for the time being.

What are your TV habits? Do you actually watch TV channels or do you use it more to stream content?

Sources: The Akamai State of the Internet Report: www.akamai.com Are Young People Watching Less TV?: www.marketingcharts.com

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‘Online video tends to largely act as a complement rather than a replacement for traditional TV’

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