Welcome, guest

With biomass plants, the government wanted to ensure that the climate targets would be met. The government set aside 10 billion euros for the construction of 628 biomass plants. Objections to the biomass plants soon arose: they would not be as CO2-neutral as was assumed and there would be more useful ways to use the biomass.

In 1905, the popsicle was invented by eleven-year-old Frank Epperson. He made a drink with water and some soda powder that he stirred through with a stick. Because his mother told him to go to sleep, he left the drink. When he woke up the next morning, it had frozen and the drink with the stick in it was frozen too. This was the first popsicle.

Columbus was looking for a faster sailing route to the Dutch East Indies. He planned to sail there via the West. With the financial support of the Spanish Queen Isabella, his ships left for the West, but instead of finding a new route to the Dutch East Indies there, he found the undiscovered continent of America.

While testing a drug for heart failure, it turned out that the drug did not work against it. Pfizer found out that the drug had another side effect: it produced renewed potency and erections in men. Pfizer changed its strategy and tested the pills as an erection pill, with great success, because since then they have been sold on a large scale worldwide.

The aim of the MEE Samen project is to use social networks to strengthen an organisation's care. An attempt was made to find an organisation that was willing to embark on the experiment of using social networks (in a different way). Unfortunately, this was not successful. There were positive reactions, but it was seen as something interesting for the long term and not for now. Time, money and the unfamiliarity of working with social networks were important barriers.

Through citizen participation, the municipality of Amsterdam wanted to make policy-making more democratic. The municipality made plans for all sorts of subjects on which citizens could express their opinions, but citizens responded very little. They do not feel that they are really allowed to decide, but are only there to suggest ideas.