The 'Fluidhand', tested at the Orthopedic University Hospital in Heidelberg, is a prototype of a prosthetic hand that can close around objects, even those with an irregular surface. The hand feels softer, is more elastic and more natural than current prosthetic hands.

The Dutch county Helmond followed a fierce discussion on the closing times for pubs, cafés, etc on a private blog: Hellemond (Dutch). The county included this discussion in a note, as can be read in the (Dutch) Burgerjaarverslag 2007(pdf) (Civilian year report 2007) which makes it an official approach. The report reads 'Spontaneously a discussion about the note started on a private blog in Helmond which we took into account here.'

Flame, the robot of the Delft Biorobotics Lab of the (technical) university Delft, is not by nature stable, but like humans it constantly searches for balance. When it walks, for example, it needs both legs for stability. (tip: Heini Withagen of Mirabeau (Dutch))

Private loans (Dutch) are a new service of the Dutch ABN Amro branch. It's a service for people who want to lend money privately. It often involves a loan between friends, acquaintances or family members.

It's pretty simple. You agree with someone from your area how much you'll borrow and make arrangements about the height of the interest rate and the repayment plan. Lenders and borrowers can orient themselves on the website of ABN AMRO. When they've reached an agreement on the payment conditions, ABN AMRO offers them sample contracts for making the agreement. The site also offers fiscal and judicial tips and a calculator.

The bank doesn't charge a commission for this service, but aims at binding customers to itself and offers additional paid services. The Judicial Service Plan offers direct connection with professionals, specialized in judicial aid.

For 2-6 weeks, Jai of the Dutch eJai is your digital guide in a journey with experiences in Personal Growth, Health, Leadership, Beauty, Relations, Money or Pleasure. For 65 euros you'll be pulled out of your comfort-zone and you'll experience things that you'd never do otherwise. This is how you can get the most out of every moment of the day. Offered to you by your friends.

With SearchTogether people can search the internet together from different locations. A separate application ensures that you can see the search results of your partner, which you can then visit, hold etc.

Dutch news site Nu.nl puts the news on the map (Dutch). You can also look at police notices (crime map) and traffic jams. With an extra timeline you can move through time too.

The robot Kansei of the Science and Technology School, Computer
Science Department, Laboratory of Robot and Science, of the Japanese Meiji University can show 36 different facial expressions as a reaction to various words. For example, it'll look scared if it hears words like 'war', 'bomb' or 'rocket'.

Nexi, a new robot created by the personal robots group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, shows facial expressions just as humans do. Nexi's face is designed in such a way that it can use the look, eyebrows, eyelids and an articulating lower jaw to show a host of different emotions. Nexi has a color camera in each eye, a 3D infrared camera that registers heat in her head and four microphones to localize sound.

Rabobank has now placed at least a hundred talking ATMs (Dutch) in its establishments and this year the amount of machines with speech and a receiver will come to a total of 750 (demo (Dutch)). The talking ATM is extremely useful for the blind, the poor-sighted and for people in wheelchairs. A voice guides the user via a telephone receiver through the process of getting money.

China has stopped giving away plastic bags with the groceries. Retail chains will have to ask at least the cost for making the bags. This means about 3 billion bags a year less will be produced. It's the most radical ecological policy ever in China.

With iCall consumers can seamlessly switch between their own wireless home network or that of others (VoIP through WiFi) and the regular cell phone network (GSM) on their iPhone.

Movie theater City Theater in Steenwijk sends people who reserve online a text message with a so-called MobiTicket. That makes them the first movie theater in the Netherlands. MobiTickets are tickets that are sent to your cell phone as a simple text message. The text message contains a unique barcode and information on the movie, the time, room, row and chair number. The movie-goer simply lets an employee scan the text message to gain entrance to the movie. It means never standing in line to buy a ticket.

Researchers have discovered that monkeys can control an extra robot arm along with their own arms. Brains are apparently so flexible that they can connect additional 'devices'. That offers plenty of opportunities for the future to let the world around us be controlled by robots that do as we think. Below is a summary of the complete text:

The amount of Dutch households that's pasted an anti-advertisement sticker on their postbox is rapidly increasing. An anti-advertisement sticker means that you don't want to receive unwanted, printed advertisements in your physical mailbox and postmen are supposed to honour this sticker. In 2006 10% of the Dutch population had such a sticker on their mailbox. In 2007 it turned out to have risen to 15% and in 2008 the counter is already on 18%. What's more is that 10% of the population would like such a sticker, but hasn't yet arranged to receive one.