Virtual possessions have value because a lot of time and effort is spent to collect the goods. To that the Dutch Supreme Court concludes Tuesday.

The Supreme Court examined a case involving two boys who abused and threatened a 13-year-old boy. They forced the victim to logging on to the game Runescape and drop his virtual amulet and mask. This allowed one of the guys to steal the mask and amulet.

The boys were given a community service of 144 hours, slightly lower than at the court. That was because the Supreme court spend too much time on the case.

This study reveals that users from the Netherlands are the most active within top countries. 33% of accounts located in the Netherlands posted at least one public message between September 1st, 2011 and November 30th, 2011, making the Netherlands the top country with the highest rate of Twitter users posting tweets, before Japan. The global average is only 27%, as many Twitter users mostly use the service to read tweets from others.

If one also considers accounts that have been updated in some other way (e.g. the user did not post but changed its account avatar or followed another user), the Netherlands also rank first, with at least 52% of users who connected to Twitter service during the period. The global average for the same metric is 48%.

The U.S. still top at the 1st place on Twitter in terms of accounts with 107.7 million accounts. Brazil is now the second country with 33.3 million accounts, surpassing Japan now third at 29.9 million.

Semiocast has analyzed 383 million of Twitter user profiles created before January 1st 2012. Drawing from its experience with previous studies, Semiocast used its proprietary platform, databases and tools to process user profiles in order to determine the location of each user using all available information.

The Queen reached the historic milestone on November 4 last year. On that day, Beatrix was exactly 73 years and 277 days old and broke the royal age record.

King William III was previously the oldest head of state the Netherlands has ever known. He died on November 23, 1890 as reigning monarch, and was 73 years and 277 days old.

Beatrix is still very active as head of state. Last year she made two state visits, to Germany and Qatar, and she visited the Caribbean. This year she visited Oman and United Arab Emirates in March and is scheduled to visit Luxembourg. It will be her 52nd state visit.

On April 30 it will be 32 years since Beatrix came to the throne. Her mother, Queen Juliana, was almost 32 years on the throne, when she announced to stop in 1980 on her daughter’s 42nd birthday.

This motivation is included in the bill introducing the ban. Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Liesbeth Spies presented it to the Cabinet, which approved it on Friday. The bill is expected to be sent early next week to the House of Representatives, together with a response to the Council of State’s advisory opinion on it. By introducing the bill the government is fulfilling a pledge made in the coalition agreement.

A ban on wearing clothing that covers the face is important in ensuring a society in which everyone can participate fully. Requiring women to wear face-covering burkas or niqabs in public is incompatible with the principle of gender equality. With this bill the government is removing an obstacle to women’s social participation. The protection of social intercourse and public order in Dutch society is a legitimate reason for restricting the wearing of clothing that covers the face. The government therefore believes that the bill does not violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

The ban applies to all forms of clothing that covers the face, including balaclavas as well as burkas. The bill forbids this clothing in public spaces, public buildings, educational and healthcare institutions and public transport. Infringements of the ban will carry a fine of up to 390 euros.

The ban does not apply to face coverings that are necessary for health, safety or the practice of an occupation or sport. There are exceptions to the ban for events such as Sinterklaas, Carnival and Halloween, and mayors are authorised to lift the ban temporarily for a specific event. The ban does not apply to places and buildings that are intended for religious use, on aircraft, or to passengers who pass through Dutch airports in transit to their final destination.

Source: government.nl

2012 is the Year of the Historic Country House, charming cultural heritage sites that are being celebrated by PostNL with the issue of stamp sheetlets Beautiful Netherlands Mattemburgh and Amstenrade. These heritage residences, surrounded by gardens or parks, were built between the 17th and 19th century by wealthy city dwellers in nearby countryside locations.

Mattemburgh
The Mattemburgh Historic Country House stamp sheetlet is dominated by two large, square, evenly sized colour photos. The photo on the left shows the main building at Mattemburgh, the imposing neo-Classical manor, overlooked by a statue of David. The photo on the right is of the orangery, used to house potted plants during the winter.

Amstenrade
The Amstenrade Historic Country House stamp sheetlet is also dominated by two large, square, evenly sized colour photos. The photo on the left, showing the wing of the brick-built main building, was taken from the park at an angle that provides a good view of the corner tower. The photo on the right is of the Chinese bedroom, so called because it is decorated with wall covering depicting Chinese scenes.

Some 600 of these Dutch country houses are still standing today, a mere 10% of the more than 6,000 that used to exist. Issuing Beautiful Netherlands stamp sheetlets on the theme of country houses is an initiative of PostNL in close collaboration with the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency and the Country House Theme Year 2012 Foundation. The Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency aims to protect and preserve heritage, archaeological and cultural landscape sites of national or international significance.

The stamps feature a Chameleon-code. This code can be read by means of a smart phone with the Chameleon eXplorer app, well known from Golden Earring stamp. After reading the code, the smart phone will present more information about the historic country houses in question. The app can be downloaded at http://www.postnl.nl/voorthuis/klantenservice/app/.

The stamps are available while stocks last from the Collect Club in Groningen, online at www.postnl.nl/collectclub. The stamps are valid until further notice. The Amstenrade sheetlet is available from sales outlets in the Schinnen area and the Mattemburgh sheetlet in the Woensdrecht area.

Prices for food, soft drinks and transport contributed to inflation on Bonaire. Food prices were 7.8 percent up in 2011 from 2010, largely due to meat prices. Transport was more expensive as a result of higher airline ticket prices. Petrol prices also had an upward effect on inflation. Petrol prices rose rapidly in the first six months of 2011. Clothes prices increased by 11 percent last year.

Highest inflation rate recorded on St Eustatius
The most substantial price increase (9.9 percent) was recorded on St Eustatius, mainly as a result of higher transport prices early last year. Airline ticket and motor fuel prices rose dramatically. Higher energy prices and higher prices charged in the hotels and restaurants sector also contributed to inflation. Electricity prices were higher in the months of May, June and July due to the delayed effect of higher fuel prices on energy prices. Prices charged in the sector hotels and restaurants were nearly one quarter up from one year previously. In the first quarter of 2011, many businesses in the sector raised their prices in reaction to the introduction of the new tax system in 2011.

Food and transport prices push up inflation on Saba
Saba recorded an inflation rate of 6.4 percent in 2011. Transport prices contributed most to inflation. Expensive airline tickets were the main cause, just as on the other islands. Motor fuel prices also soared on Saba. Prices of food products and soft drinks were 9 percent up from one year previously in 2011. Meat, bread and cereal products played an important part in this respect. Higher prices charged in the sector hotels and restaurants were the third important factor. They were nearly 21 percent higher in 2011 than in the preceding year. The price increase in the sector hotels and restaurants mainly occurred in the first quarter, just as on St Eustatius.

Producer confidence consists of three component indicators: manufacturers’ opinions on their stocks of finished products, the expected output over the next three months and opinions on their order positions.

Manufacturers’ opinions on their stocks of finished products deteriorated. Manufacturers were also a bit more pessimistic about their future output than in December. On the other hand, they were less pessimistic about their order positions.

The number of manufacturers indicating that the value of the orders they received has grown in the last three months was lower than the number who reported a decline. With 102.1, the order position index (orders expressed in months of work) was marginally higher than in December (101.5).

Just as in the preceding months, the number of manufacturers expecting employment in their branch to decline over the next three months was higher than the number anticipating employment growth. Manufacturers expected to increase their selling prices.

With 79.0 percent, the capacity utilisation rate in January was slightly below the level of October (80.1 percent). Just as in October, one quarter of manufacturers considered insufficient demand as an obstacle for production. The number of manufacturers considering their production capacity as too large equalled the number considering their production capacity as too small. Dutch manufacturers indicated that their competitive position did not change over the past three months.

Altogether, 80 percent of goods carried from the Netherlands to other countries went to Belgium and Germany, 12 percent had France as its final destination, according to Statistics Netherlands.

Most goods carried to the north of France
Goods transported from the Netherlands are mainly carried over shorter distances. More than half the total weight of goods carried by road is loaded or unloaded in regions in Belgium and Germany close to the Dutch border.

The same applies to all goods carried to France: nearly half were destined for regions in the north of France. Most goods (43 percent) were destined for Ile de France, Nord-Pas de Calais and Picardie, but the Rhône-Alpes region in the south-east of France is also an important destination.

Mainly agricultural products and food
More than one third of goods carried to France by road in 2010 were agricultural products, food products and livestock. These products were mainly carried to the large markets in Ile de France. Chemical products made up 17 percent of goods transported to France by Dutch hauliers. The manufacturing industries in Rhône-Alpes – France’s second largest economic region – were an important destination for chemical products.

Both the Dutch site iPhoneclub.nl and Mac site Macrumors are reporting that the Cupertino-based company hopes Amsterdam is getting the first Apple retail store before the end of February.

One More Thing offer a number of details on plans for the store in Amsterdam, which seems to be headed for a February 18 opening.

According to reports, much of the store staff is currently in training at the Amsterdam Hilton, while Geniuses have been trained at a number of UK stores. A third-party company responsible for the maintenance services on the store once it is opened is reportedly set to begin work in mid-February, with One More Thing specifically claiming that the opening will take place on February 18.

Floor plans obtained by One More Thing show product displays and a massive 20-seat Genius Bar on the first level of the store, with additional product displays, third-party accessories, training and set-up, and a Briefing Room filling out the second floor. The store is topped with a pyramid-shaped glass roof over a portion of the sales floor, with the second floor left open as a void to allow the light to filter down to the first floor and increase the store’s openness. Offices for Apple’s operations in the region will be located on upper floors of the building.

With Apple’s iPad continuing to dominate the tablet market, total tablet sales in the U.S. nearly doubled, according to a new report.

The researchers recorded changes when male participants were told that they were being observed by a woman.

The experiments showed that women weren’t affected in any way by who they believed they were interacting with.

The Dutch researchers could not explain why male reactions were so different from female ones in the study.

Men do think about sex more often than women overall, but not all the time. The age of the participants could also play a role.