Classic films and historical footage as never seen before. New editions, restored, colorized and enhanced using traditional editing techniques complemented by the most recent advances in artificial intelligence applied to video and sound processing, including: Footage edition.
Motion stabilization if needed. Analysis and reduction of noise and artifacts of the initial footage.
AI FPS interpolation: realistic recreation of intermediate frames by Al algorithms, from 15 - 25 fps, depending on the initial footage, up to 50 or 60 fps, achieving a great feeling of realism.
Al assisted upscaling: up to 4k, in several iterations, dramatically improving original detail. Al assisted colorization: also in several iterations. Manual color and levels grading and correction.
Adding soundtrack.
Videos will necessarily be brief since each minute of final result involves approximately 5 hours of manual treatment and 10 hours of heavy gpu computer processing. Incredible music: Gaveaux - Polacca (from Le Trompeur Trompe)
by Alavedra, McColl, Levine
Upscale 4k: Videoenhance - Topaz Labs 50 FPS: Dain-app
Colorization: DeOldify Neural Network
How the Netherlands became a cycling country
Someone once asked me why Dutch folks never wear helmets when they’re on a bicycle, and after much deliberation and a long conversation about that, we came to the conclusion that when Odin created the Dutch, he created each and every one of them with a bicycle.
The Dutch are so obsessed with bicycles that they can ride them drunk, high, and even in a high-speed chase. Most Dutch folks even have more than one bike — one old and rusty one for running everyday errands, and another new and expensive one for outings, work, etc.
With 22 million bicycles for 17 million inhabitants, 32,000 kilometers of bicycle lanes, and the largest bicycle parking facilities in the world, the Netherlands could absolutely claim to be the world’s number one cycling country.
How did we get here?
The two-wheeler has become an indispensable means of transport in our country, and while the flat Dutch landscape may have something to do with it, one still has to ask how we came to be a cycling country in the first place.
The truth is that the Netherlands has not always been a cycling country. In the 19th century, Great Britain, Belgium, and Germany had more citizens with bicycles than we did. So how did the Netherlands become the country of bikes that it is today? Let’s take a historic trip down the Dutch bicycle lane.
Cycling in the 19th and 20th century
The first (velocipede) bicycles came to the Netherlands around 1820. Unfortunately, they weren’t a huge success, surviving mainly as an eccentric hobby for rich people.
Throughout most of the 19th century, cycling was mostly popular among the young and wealthy and was seen as a leisure time activity — mostly for daredevils. At the time, it wasn’t a means of transportation just yet.
It was only when the penny-farthing (also known as high-wheel) bicycle came to the Netherlands in the 1870s that bicycles became more visible on the streets. However, compared to countries such as Great Britain, Belgium, and Germany, the bicycle was still relatively unpopular in the Netherlands at the end of the 19th century.
Bicycles for everyday transportation
It wasn’t until the Royal Dutch Touring Club (ANWB) — which was founded in 1883 by members of the velocipede clubs in The Hague and Haarlem — presented the bicycle in its advertisements as a means of transportation for everyday folks at the beginning of the 20th century, that its popularity really increased in the Netherlands.
That, in combination with its convenience and lower maintenance costs, gradually made cycling extremely popular in the country. Through years of multiple designs and development, bicycles started to look more like the ones we know today. No more velocipedes and penny-farthings, just the same size wheels and a lower saddle for comfortability.
What we know today in the Netherlands as the omafiets, or the “grandma bicycle,” came into being in 1901, but was called the Fongers Damesrijwiel at that time. This bicycle made it possible for cycling to become equally popular among Dutch women.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the Netherlands began to make a name for itself as a cycling country and by the 1920s, there were already two million bicycles.
Cycling royals
In 1936, when the Dutch Princess Juliana and the German Prince Bernhard got engaged, they cycled on a tandem through the garden of Noordeinde Palace in a photoshoot which was their first appearance to the press as engaged royals.
Engaged royals cycling on a tandem — what could be more Dutch than that? To the outside world, the tandem which was used for the photo shoot would later give Princess Juliana…
Read more:
https://dutchreview.com/culture/how-the-netherlands-became-a-cycling-country/
