Time lapse video from the fourth largest city in the Netherlands.
Commentary at the link addresses the absence of helmets on the cyclists.
Via The High Definite.
This is an ordinary Wednesday morning in April 2010 at around 8.30 am. Original time was 8 minutes that were compressed into 2 minutes, so everything is 4 times faster than in reality. The sound is original.
This is one of the busiest junctions in Utrecht a city with a population of 300,000. No less than 18,000 bicycles and 2,500 buses pass here every day. And yet Google Street View missed it. Because private motorized traffic is restricted here.
These cyclists cross a one way bus lane (also used by taxis and municipal vehicles), two light rail tracks and then a one way street that can be used by private vehicles.
Commentary at the link addresses the absence of helmets on the cyclists.
Via The High Definite.
Comments (30)
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I spent 4 years in Bermuda which has a huge amount of tourists. They can rent 50cc mopeds which are a lot of fun. The thing is they drive on the left side of the road. Needless to say that can easily present all sorts of problems for American/Canadian tourists. The Bermudians were terrific at watching out for them and helping them out. It was great to see the car drivers taking care of the unknowing tourists. The fact that tourism accounts for almost all of the islands income may have had something to do with it. But I think it was more the friendly way of the Bermudians. As shown by the people of the Netherlands and Bermuda cars and bikes/mopeds can easily coexist.
Hills make things more difficult.
Also this crossing isn't even that crowded compared to for example Amsterdam, you should see the situation at the Central Station where there is a special bicycle parking boat behind the station and a multi storied parking garage just for bicycles in the front:
http://littlepicturesmusic.tumblr.com/post/234782350/dutch-word-of-the-month-club
BTW: "Salado" means salty literally.
However there is no word for "not thirsty" in German. Try that.
Regarding this topic, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilunga which says "When asked for confirmation by one reporter, representatives of the Congo government recognized the word only as a personal name." and see the commentary at Language Log at http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001104.html .
But there is one, very common Dutch word that is notoriously hard to translate or even explain: 'gezellig'.
'Gezellig' is a feeling, an atmosphere. It is usually translated as 'cozy', but it's more than cozy. A situation or room can be 'gezellig', but also people and objects. It's warm, peaceful, you forget time, there is togetherness, no complications or problems.
Some could even say Neatorama has a 'gezellige' quality to it.
I often use the word "shadenfreuden" - finding humor in others misfortunes.
It would be nice to see a larger list of words difficult to translate into English.
Lagom can be applied to many things. It could almost denote sufficient, enough, moderate, ample, appropriate but it is much more than that.
A portion of food could be 'lagom stor' (big enough), not too much, not too little. One's state could be lagom without being too rich or too poor. A conversation or meeting could reach a state of lagom to represent concensus.
It is difficult for me to explain, I personally think it is rooted in socialist culture where excess has no place.
The other is in ancient greek. I believe this is more common in attic and homeric greek than koine. In english, verbs have either an active(I am doing x) or a passive(x is being done to me) voice. Ancient greek adds a middle voice. If we take, for example, the verb "to loosen". In greek, with the active voice, it means you are untying something. With the passive voice, you are being let free. But, in the middle voice, it means you are being ransomed.
The middle voice simply has no direct parallel in english.