The Dutch: Pragmatic about sex, drugs AND religion
A Dutch journalism professor from Ede Christian University has come to Vancouver to interview me about how Canadians deal with religion in the public sphere. It brought to mind when I did the opposite:...
View ArticleTemptation: Helping problem gamblers without paternalism
“The only way to deal with temptation is to yield to it.” — Oscar Wilde The Victorian-era playwright was being risque and radical when he coined his epigram about temptation. Being homosexual at a time...
View ArticleDutch professionals happiest in work: LinkedIn
Are you happy in your job? If so, you’re among the lucky 63 per cent of global professionals who say they are happy or even very happy with their current employment, according to a new survey by...
View ArticleThe big, fat, Greek diet: good for longevity, bad for figures
Over the past decade, studies have shown lifespan benefits to the so-called Mediterranean diet. An article I did about a pivotal New England Journal of Medicine study, had this headline: ”Want to live...
View ArticleBC Cancer Agency gets a new Dutch master: Dr. Max Coppes, a “leader of leaders”
The BC Cancer Agency has landed a new Dutch master, Dr. Max Coppes, a pediatric oncologist and native of the Netherlands. It took a year and a half to find him during the international search for a...
View ArticleTantilized by tulipmania
If you want to see spectacular displays of tulips in spring, there’s no better place on the planet than Holland’s famous Keukenhof Garden, just south of Amsterdam. From mid-April into May, this...
View ArticleTighter language requirements will help immigrants and Canada
Stories regarding language barriers have become common in Canada. The newcomer struggling to speak English who, as a result, has grave trouble trying to get a job. The person who can’t communicate with...
View ArticleUBC Thunderbots in RoboCup 2013
A team from the University of BC will be among the 2,500 participants from more than 40 countries around the world converging on Eindhoven in the Netherlands this week to demonstrate the latest in...
View ArticleRoboCup 2013: Robot games spur advances in artificial intelligence
EINDHOVEN, Netherlands — On any other soccer field it might be considered a disaster. The forwards keep getting calls against them. The goalie falls over when the ball isn’t even near the net. As for...
View ArticleDavid Suzuki shifts immigration debate into new territory
It’s rare that a Canadian on the liberal-left criticizes the country’s high-immigration policy. This is the case even while it’s common for people on the left to do so in Germany, France and the Nordic...
View ArticleInvasion of the domestic robots
Frédéric Boisdron and his wife run their home with the help of 12 robots. The robots do everything from cutting the grass to washing the windows. They even keep the cat’s litter box clean. What they...
View ArticleDutch police arrest man in connection with Amanda Todd case
A story published in the Netherlands today links a man who appeared in court this week suspected of extortion to Amanda Todd, the British Columbia teens who killed herself in October, 2012 after being...
View ArticleWorld Cup soccer interest is split along gender lines in British Columbia,...
The biggest battle during the World Cup could be for the remote control in B.C. homes, according to an online survey conducted by Insights West. The majority of B.C. men, 52 per cent of them, say they...
View ArticleB.C. Premier Christy Clark throws a solid World Cup chirp at NDP
Premier Christy Clark (or her social media person) used Argentina’s World Cup semifinal win over the Netherlands to take a swipe the NDP, British Columbia’s official opposition. Congrats to #ARG and...
View ArticleHow many “Christian” asylum-seekers are really Christians?
Many asylum-seekers in Europe from authoritarian Muslim-majority countries are telling refugee boards they are Christians — arguing they therefore cannot return to their countries of origin, where they...
View ArticleVancouver ranks No. 7 in world Quality of Life Survey
We may be the 46th best city in Canada, but we are the seventh best place in the world. A little more than week after MoneySense.ca informed us that there are 45 places across the country better than...
View ArticlePlenty of tickets still available for Canada’s World Cup playoff at BC Place
UPDATE: The announced crowd at BC Place Stadium for last night’s USA-Nigeria match was 52,193. As of Wednesday morning, TicketMaster was showing many tickets still available for Canada’s knockout...
View ArticleArt from the archive: When Dutch kitsch was linked to Dutch fine art
1985-1986 In the year before Expo 86, paintings by Dutch artists such as Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh became pawns in political fight that led to front page headlines from Vancouver to...
View ArticleSunday’s Canada-Switzerland World Cup game at BC Place inches towards sellout
There are still tickets to be had but Sunday’s FIFA Women’s World Cup knockout game between Canada and Switzerland in Vancouver is inching towards sellout status. As of noon Friday, there were about...
View ArticleThe Home Front: Furniture that separates us from the room
Furniture designed to separate us from the room, both visually and acoustically, is becoming increasingly popular in open plan living and work environments. “As we move toward living and working more...
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