The massive carcass of a whale was found in the Vlissingen port on Friday morning, according to non profit group SOS Dolfijn. When pulled from the water, the whale was measured at 15 meters in length, reported Omroep Zeeland.
The fin whale was believed to be a young male, which are capable of growing to a length of 24 meters, according to the WWF. It was found along the bulbous bow of a ship, though it is not clear what caused the whale’s death.
Playing games - any type of game ranging from puzzles to video games - makes you more intelligent, according to a study by University of Amsterdam researchers Jessica Piotrowski and Patti Valkenburg, and Karin Fikkers from the University of Utrecht. "We have to adjust our negative image of games", Piotrowski said to Fiola.
While perhaps more commonly known for floods than droughts, The Netherlands is allocating seven million euros to combat excessively dry seasons in the country. The money will be used to build larger water reservoirs in sandy areas, to monitor levels of evaporation, and to reduce the impact of salinization on drinking water production, the government announced on Friday.
"Unacceptable", Prime Minister Mark Rutte said about threats made against FvD leader Thierry Baudet after the nationalist party's major win in the Provincial States elections last week. All politicians must be able to perform their duties in safety and freedom, Rutte said to the Telegraaf. "Democracy is not easy, but it is a valuable possession.
The spraying of agricultural poison on the Dutch bulb fields exposes many more local residents to much higher concentrations of these pesticides for much longer periods than was expected, according to a scientific study by research committee pesticides and residents OBO. These pesticides are found in the diapers of babies who live 250 meters away from the bulb fields, television program Zembla, which has the research report in its possession, reports.
The Veterinary Medicine faculty of Utrecht University 3D printed a skull cap for a dog - a premier in Europe. The dog had a benign tumor removed from the skull bone last year and the tumor was so large that he needed a new skull cap, NU.nl reports.
Every year around 16 billion euros is laundered in the Netherlands, 90 percent of which come from drug trafficking and fraud, researchers at Utrecht University found in a study commissioned by the the scientific research and documentation center WODC. Fraud is increasing and the under- and upper world are becoming increasingly intertwined, the researchers warned in Trouw.
Dutch kids are still among the happiest in Europe and tend to have a good relationship with their parents, but more are experiencing pressure from their school work, according to a study by Utrecht University, the Trimbos institute and SCP. The researchers also found that the majority of 16-year-olds drink alcohol despite being underage, and that condom use is declining, NOS reports.
The Netherlands is "blind to drought" according to researcher Henny van Lanen of Wageningen University. The country needs to build up larger reserves of fresh water to prevent drinking water running out during extreme droughts, multiple experts warn, Het Parool reports.
"As a low lying country with large rivers, we are always working on preventing wetness. That explains why we are now so surprised by the drought", Van Lanen said to the newspaper. "Dutch water policy is very conservative: the rest of Europe has been arming itself against drought for much longer."
Dutch universities are seeing significant growth in the number of students who want to study artificial intelligence in the coming academic year. At some educational institutions, the number of applications doubled compared to the current academic year. Interest in related courses, like data science and business analytics, is also on the rise, NOS reports.
More children in primary schools in the Netherlands are being bullied than parents and teachers know of. One in three bullied kids never tell their teachers, parents or friends about it, according to study 'What works against bullying' by five universities and the Trimbos Institute, RTL Nieuws reports.
About 30 percent of Dutch kids are sometimes bullied. One in 14 children are even bullied multiple times a week. A third of these bullied kids have never told anyone about it, according to the study.
Universities in the Netherlands should be allowed to send failing students away faster, according to retiring professor Bert van der Zwaan of Utrecht University. Dutch universities have "too many students who actually belong in higher vocational education", he said to newspaper Trouw.
The HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and Utrecht University decided to suspend their contributions to female student association UVSV in response to a number of incidents during hazing, NU.nl reports.
Seven universities in the Netherlands made it into the top 100 of the Best Global Universities ranking. The University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University are the two best in the Netherlands, according to the ranking. They're respectively ranked 13th and 14th best in Europe and 55th and 57th in the world.
Noord-Drenthe is the most prosperous region in the Netherlands, according to the Broad Prosperity Indicator by Rabobank and Utrecht University. Residents of Noord-Drenthe are happy, healthy and feel safe. Gooi also scored very well. People living in the Randstad are much less satisfied, ANP reports.
From this week the Dutch Ministry of Public Health is distributing iodine tablets in provinces located near nuclear plants. The pills are intended to protect against a certain type of radiation should there be a nuclear disaster. According to the Ministry, around 3 million people in large parts of the regions of Oost-Nederland, Noord-Nederland, Noord-Brabant, Zuid-Holland, Zeeland and Limburg will receive a packet of pills in the mail by the end of next week, the Volkskrant reports.
The number of people prosecuted for human trafficking in the Netherlands last year, was a quarter lower than the year before, NRC reported on Monday based on figures from the Council for the Judiciary. This does not necessarily mean that human trafficking decreased, but rather that the police are giving priority to other crimes, experts said to the newspaper.
Last year 103 people were convicted of human trafficking, compared to 139 in 2015 and 156 in 2013.
Utrecht University is the best university in the Netherlands for the 15th year in a row, according to the annual Academic Ranking of World Universities published by the Shanghai University on Tuesday. This year Utrecht University got 47th place, compared to 65th place last year, NU.nl reports
Planting a vegetable or fruit garden in the immediate vicinity of Chemcours factory in Dordrecht is not safe, scientists said to the Volkskrant. According to them, the amounts of GenX on plant leaves are so high in the area, that eating fruit and vegetables grown there can be dangerous to your health.
GenX is a toxic substance. Last week researchers from the Vrije Universiteit reported that there is GenX in drinking water around Zuid-Holland, but that the concentrations aren't high enough to be dangerous.
A Dutch person with a criminal record has a better chance of finding a job in the Netherlands than someone with a non-Western background and no criminal record, according to a study done by researchers from a number of Dutch universities. Their conclusion is that when looking for work in the Netherlands, ethnicity is more important that criminal records, NOS reports.
The Netherlands performed exceptionally well in both the World and Europe University Rankings 2017, according to Times Higher Education. All 13 of the Netherlands' main research intensive universities made the top 100 of the Europe ranking and top 200 in the World ranking.
The Netherlands outpaced the European average when it came to research reputation, citation impact and research productivity, as well as income measures to academic staff.
The Wadden area may well be permanently under water before the end of this century, according to a study by TU Delft and Utrecht University on behalf or the Wadden Association. The study concludes that the impact of gas and salt mining has been underestimated, and drastic measures are needed to make sure the area does not disappear, NU.nl reports.
The University of Amsterdam is launching a test run in allowing part-time students to pay tuition per subject they take, instead of paying for a whole year. The University believes that this will be ideal for motivated students who don't have time to attend university full time because they also work, take care of a family member, have their own business or have to do an internship, Het Parool reports.
A very rare fossil of a beetle that lived in the Netherlands 200 million years ago was found in a quarry in Winterswijk, according to a scientific publication in Paläontologische Zeitschrift written by paleontologists from Utrecht University, ANP reports.
