BREATHE

    One of dominant views on the Netherlands' street is the large number of bicycles pass through the traffic because almost half of daily travel in this country is by bicycle and also the number of bike in this country is outnumbered its 16 million people. This popular, healthy and environmental friendly transportation provides big opportunity to entrepreneur as well as designer to develop bicycling business in this country; therefore various innovations and creativities are developed among them to compete in bicycles market. This competition makes various types of bicycles as well as cycling equipment available at cycles store across the country. Apart of cycling business, Dutch people also like to modify their bicycles for fun or trying to make innovation for adding new function to their bike. Here are some Dutch innovations and creativities in creating or modifying their bike and cycling facilities and infrastructure.

1.Monsterfiets 

     This picture is taken from video in youtube with more than 4 million viewers titled “Monsterbike”. Dutchman created this monsterfiets (or monsterbike in english) so that it has three wheels, with super huge front wheel but two smalls back wheels. In addition to that, this monsterbike is equipped by loud claxon on the handlebar makes the name “monster” is relevant to this bike. (video for this bike : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGGlODF7_RY )

 2.Bicycle That Plays Vinyl Records

    This innovative bicycle created by Dutch designer liat azulay. It generates music while you pedal dubbed “Feats Per Minute”. the bike has made its debut at the Dezeen Space Platform exhibition in London. (video for this bike if you want to listen the feats per minute : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCxyIKYJ-xo )

3.Bicycle School Bus

     Bicycle school bus (BCO in Dutch) was built by Tolkamp Metaalspecials. With this bicycle, Dutch children can bike their own way to school. This bicycle is powered entirely by children and the one adult driver. It has eight sets of pedals for the kids, a driver seat for the adult, and three bench seats for freeloaders. It has sound system and canvas awning to ward off rainy days.

 4. Vrachtfiets 

    Netherlands start-up Vrachtfiets (Dutch for “Cargo Bicycle”) provides a pedal-based to move big cargo in the city. Apart of the price that is obviously cheaper than van or truck, this bicycle also gather solar power to assist the driver so that people can easily move their large cargo to another place.

 

5. Wood Dutch Bike  

    This bike is manufactured by Dutchman Jan Gunneweg. 95% of this bike is wooden including wheels, handlebars, and pedals. The report said that 200 hours was spent by Gunneweg to carve and design one-piece of this bike. 

6. Carbon Bike

    This bike is made by carbon because it is high-tech materials that creates a better strength-weight ratio and easy to make any form. In addition to that, engineer can easily strengthen some part that are acted by greater force by varying the density of carbon across the bicycle beam so that people could make more innovate bike with this high-tech material.

7. Ice Bat

     This kind of bicycle-like machine is called Ice Bat. It has pedals, but has no wheels, travel on roads or have any practical function. However when you pedal it the propeller in the back will rotate and produce force to speed up your ice bat. This ice bat is invented in the Netherlands and requires a speed skating track, most of which are also located in the Netherlands. 

 8. Pedal Powered Snow Plow

  This is an innovative and environmental friendly shortcut to clear snows on the street because it does not produce pollution and does not use any oil or gaseous fuel. Moreover, this pedal powered snow plow makes the users healthy because they will produce body heats in the end of the winter when they clear any snowy path by pedaling their snow plow.

9.Bike Trash Can

   With this facility, cyclists who want to dispose any trash can just throw it away to this garbage without stopping or parking their bike first. Therefore, this is brilliant innovation created to comfort cyclists on the street. 

10. Light Lane

   In the night, Cycling path will not be seen by the cyclists, but in Netherlands there are lanes of bicycle path that emit light during the night. This infrastructure can make sure the safety of cyclists during the night time.

Actually there are many more innovations from the Dutch about cycling bikes or infrastructure, but these 10 are the most eye-catching innovations in my point of view. Hope you like it.

References :

"Why this LT(Lecture Theater) is always very cold?" said someone right after he entered the programming methodology class today at LT7A. this statement is only one example of how people feel when they come into LT7A to get their classes. for me, I have got many lectures in this LT since last semester, and my opinion about this LT is basically the same with other people which says that although  LT7A is one of the biggest lecture theater in engineering, it is considered as the coldest LT in engineering. 

one of the day in last semester, I and my friend got math lecture at 4 to 6 pm in LT 7A, it was such a cloudy day which sunshine did not reach the ground because of the thick cloud covering the earth. one hour after the lecture began, we felt like our body would freeze soon and we started to chilled out because of the cold air produced by LT AC. all of sudden, my friend invited me to finish the lecture and came back to our residence because he could not stay longer in such a cold condition which cause the lesson could not be digested well. finally we came back to our residence at 5 pm while lecture still continue.

this afternoon, I have three different classes, two in LT7 and one in LT7A. LT7 is quiet good, the room temperature still in the normal range of tropical people. I had three hours classes at LT7. at 4 pm the lectures has been ended, and I must walk downstair to reach the LT7A where my programming methodology class is held. as I came out from the LT7 I felt surprise because it was rainy and I did not notice since when the rain pour down outside the LT when I get a class. after that I reached the LT7A and entered the LT. so suddenly my body chilled out like I put my whole body in the freezer. after that I figured out to sit in the LT seat and surprised because I felt the seats which is a sort of fabric is very cold. 

my friend, who is singaporean felt that this LT is very cold, moreover she only wears a short pants because she attended some kind of sport this day.  others, who just came in feel that the cold of the LT is not normal. I felt exactly the same as them, and after taking a sit a while, I asked my friend whether this lecture will be webcasted or not, I began to think that I had to go back and watch the webcast for this lecture as my friends convinced me that the lecture will be webcasted,  my decision was very good, I came home and try to study by myself. I think I will catch a cold if I stayed in that's antartics-like lecture theater. later I will prepare my self with jacket, and shoes-covered toe for the defensive mechanism over a cold place, especially LT7A.

karena saya sekarang mengambil modul modul geologi, maka saya akan berbagi sedikit tentang evolusi plate tektonik di singapura. jadi secara keseluruhan, singapura bisa dibagi menjadi 6 bagian berdasarkan jaman terbentuknya daratan disana. 

yang pertama terbentuk adalah gabbro, yaitu sekitar 253 Ma yaitu permian akhir, kemudian setelah itu granit sekitar 230 Ma yaitu pada masa triassic tengah. setelahnya ada jurong formation yang terbentuk pada 200 Ma atau pada masa jurasic awal. kemudian pulau ubin terbentuk pada 95 Ma atau pada masa cretaceus tengah, dimana terdapat diorite disana. beberapa bagian terbentuk pada masa <1.8 Ma dengan ditandai oleh Old Alluvium, kemudian sebagian pinggiran terbentuk pada recent alluvium, yaitu sekitar 120000 tahun yang lalu.

untuk mengetahui umur daratan tersebut dipakai metode radioactive dating, yaitu mengukur perbandingan Uranium/Pb pada zircon dengan menggunakan Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICPMS), karena uranium akan pecah menjadi pb, cara menghitungnya adalah dengan menggunakan persamaan diferensial order satu, dengan menyelesaikan kedua persamaan

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