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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.

The worst air disaster ever occurred on the runway of the airport on the Canary Island of Tenerife. Two Boeings collided there at full speed. One Boeing did not have take-off clearance yet, but other circumstances also played a role. It was very foggy and there was confused communication with the control tower. Since then, flying has become much safer. Airline staff are allowed to make mistakes and admit them, so that everyone can learn from them.

To meet the Paris climate targets, European agriculture must become more environmentally friendly. To achieve this, the European Union spent tens of billions in subsidies. Despite the large investments, little or no progress is being made. Member States do not want to cooperate on stricter rules and the livestock population is far too large.

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.