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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.

If a motorist drove the permitted speed on the N357 in Friesland, the Frisian National Anthem would be played at the correct speed. Unfortunately, the experiment was stopped after one day. Motorists drove extra fast to see how fast the music could be played. In addition, local residents heard all sorts of noises mixed up; the road not only caused dangerous situations, but also inconvenience.

An analysis by the FD shows that large ICT projects by the Dutch government are still seriously overrunning: cost overruns amount to an average of 36% and the average overrun is 37%. The FD looked at 125 large projects for which the original budget was 2.5 billion euros and the expected costs have now risen to 3.5 billion.

Offshore company Heerema teamed up with a British and a Norwegian company in a joint venture to remove vacant oil platforms from the North Sea. The oil companies were initially enthusiastic about their innovative methods, but still did not prioritize the project, which would be very expensive and bring them little money.