July 31, 2012

Civ Orbis, Amsterdam in 1572, wins prize

Filed under: Technology by Orangemaster @ 9:00 pm

Civ Orbis, a Dutch mobile phone app, has won ‘Best App from a Satellite Location’ at the iOSDevCamp 2012 (scroll down for Civ Orbis), which was held in Amsterdam from 20 to 22 July 2012.

Civis Orbis allows the user to experience the cities of Europe as they existed in the 16th century. Using maps from the Civitates orbis terrarium, you can explore and learn about Amsterdam, Cologne, and Bruges, with more cities on the way. As you visit each landmark in the cities and learn interesting historical facts, you be able to check in, share the experience with your friends, and see what others have posted. You also be able to select tours tailored to your interests in each city.

And yes, it is available for iPhone (iOS) and Android.

“We wrote this app from scratch in less than 48 hours,” explains Nelson Ferraz of the Civ Orbis Team.

(Link: appsterdam.rs)

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Commuters watching the Olympic gymnastics program at Leiden railway station

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 4:20 pm

On other days, the central area of the Leiden railway station is a funnel through which the Dutch railways tries to hurry its customers as quickly as possible past fast food concession stands while at the same time relieving them of as much money as possible.

Yesterday, however, people took a few minutes between trips to catch an event of the London 2012 Olympics as shown on two big screens hung by the rail road operator from the ceiling. Wooden benches, fake grass, cheerful umbrellas, and table cloths had turned the place into ‘London Park’, as Dutch railways call it.

Metro notes that the railway stations Utrecht Centraal, Den Haag Centraal, Eindhoven and ’s Hertogenbosch have also received the London Park treatment, albeit at a smaller scale.

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July 30, 2012

Best mud pit for pigs in Buren

Filed under: Animals by Branko Collin @ 8:58 am

The Lekker Dier foundation, a farm animal welfare group, announced last Thursday that the best mud pit for pigs in 2012 is the one in the farmyard of the Van Leeuwen family in Buren.

“This pit is large, nice and deep, and muddy. Perfect for a lovely cool down in this warm weather.”

This year marked the eighth time the trophee was awarded. Only one percent of the 12 million pigs in the Netherlands have access to mud baths. Pigs use mud baths to regulate their temperature and to keep their skin clean from parasites.

Buren is a village near Tiel, in the largest province of the Netherlands, Gelderland.

Check the Stad Tiel article for some photos of happy (and even smiling) pigs.

(Photo of pigs in the USA by US Department of Agriculture / Lance Cheung, and therefore in the public domain)

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July 29, 2012

Sagrada Familia gets Dutch coating

Filed under: Architecture by Branko Collin @ 11:21 am

The Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, Spain, will receive a protective coating this year by a Dutch company from Winschoten, Groningen .

NOS Nieuws reported last Tuesday that manager Ton van de Klashorst decided to leave for Barcelona without an appointment last year (“we figured, let’s swing by”), and hope for the chance to speak with the supervising architect. Originally they got half an hour, but this quickly turned into two and a half hours, during which the company got to demonstrate their coating.

The coating is supposed to protect the stone against pollution and water.

Construction of the Sagrada Familia started in 1882 and is expected to be completed in 2026.

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July 28, 2012

Anti-social bicycle racers a pest on the cycle path

Filed under: Bicycles by Branko Collin @ 1:07 pm

Now that we finally have sunny weather, parents with children and older people are hesitant to get on their bikes for fear of being run over by bicycle racers.

Cyclists union Fietsersbond told Spits that anti-social bicycle racers even take the second spot of issues that cyclists complain about, after tuned up mopeds.

Apparently sports riders cut off regular cyclists, and their high speeds create a sense of unsafety. This year two cyclists were killed in accidents with bicycle racers on bike paths.

Fietsersbond thinks that wider cycle paths may be a solution. An idea they feel warrants further study is letting groups of bicycle racers move to the car lane—cycling on the road is illegal in the Netherlands where there are obligatory cycle paths. The union is supported in this by the union for bicycle racers, NFTU, but road safety organisation VVN is vehemently against the concept of cyclists in the car lane.

See also: article by Mark Wagenbuur about how the Dutch differentiate between regular cyclists and bicycle racers.

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July 27, 2012

Amsterdam’s sewers are full of hard drugs

Filed under: General,Science by Orangemaster @ 8:54 am

Test the sewer waters in a city and scientists will tell you about your city, a bit like reading tea leaves, but a lot more accurate. Apparently, Amsterdam’s sewer water is full of cocaine and XTC, as scientists tested the water of 19 European cities. There is also a lot of cannabis floating around, but come weekend, ‘coke’ and XTC take over as the dominant hard drugs of choice, both also very popular in Antwerp, Belgium. In Scandinavian cities they’re more into speed.

Measuring sewage samples is said to be produce more reliable data about drug use than surveys, where people often provide sociably acceptable answers.

“What about countries like Amsterdam?” An American sheriff who obviously failed geography claims he was “crossing over bodies lying in the street” when he visited Amsterdam. I bet he was saying that to entertain the posse behind him. Tip: the War on Drugs is a complete wash. Both sides kinda come off silly in this video, although the sheriff takes the space cake.

(Links: www.at5.nl, nos.nl, Photo: DEA)

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July 26, 2012

Dyslexic boys sail off just to get a normal education

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:20 pm

Two brothers, Enrique (15) and Hugo (13), both said to be highly intelligent and very dyslexic, have been denied education for more than a year (two years for Enrique) because local schools are unable to provide them with a suitable, adapted education. However, they are required to go to school until the age of 18, and home schooling is forbidden in the Netherlands, so staying home is illegal, but no school will have them. According to television show EenVandaag, some 16,000 children (!) are not attending school because there’s no adapted education for them, something the government keeps cutting down on.

Their mom explains that they had to work hard to read as good as the rest of the class in secondary school, but they couldn’t take proper notes, even legible ones. However, they understand better than the rest everything they are being taught and are being held back because they are dyslexic.

Remember Laura Dekker, the sailor girl who was allowed to circumnavigate the globe for a year? Well, she was allowed adapted education from the World School, so the brothers are going to do the same thing to force the government to give them an education. They are going to pull a ‘Laura Dekker’: they’re going to sail for a year and do their homework. Oh, and they are totally going to hit up children rights’ groups abroad to plead their cause and point fingers at the Ministry of Education. Their dad is a sailor and will follow them around by boat as well as help with their homework.

(Link: www.eenvandaag.nl, Photo of a sailboat by the US Navy)

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July 25, 2012

Bicycle with telephone, low-tech 1980s style

Filed under: Bicycles,Gadgets,Weird by Orangemaster @ 8:44 pm

The man on the bike, Chriet Titulaer, who people made fun of because he looked like a Mormon — I just think he looks way out there, him being an astronomer and all, explains to us that some people needed phones on their bikes back in the 1980s.

“People who want to cycle for sports or health reasons to their work, but are managers (men, right?) would need to be available.” Dude, what about people in their cars, in the train or on the bus at the time? You couldn’t reach any of them, either, managers or burger flippers.

It could be comedy. Is this comedy? I think it is.

Titulaer can’t even bike and answer the phone without toppling over. I can’t even imagine someone hanging up properly while cycling. It makes me almost want to try it.

“The phone can be charged with the alternator when the battery is running low.” How much dial time does that get me is all my 2012 brain can think about. You’d almost have to cycle to charge up your phone, hoping nobody calls you in the mean time. Hilarious.

He continues, as if he were talking sense:

“It’s not sure this will be come onto the market, but if it does, we’ll need 200 volunteers for six months who can use it for free”. And he asks people to send a letter if they’re interested – not call.

Lucky us, we get to see the prototype on this show De Wonder Wereld (The Wonder World).

(Link: trendbeheer.com)

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July 24, 2012

War on Fun to choke Amsterdam’s famous fry stand

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 11:31 am
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Another blow to downtown Amsterdam, part of the War on Fun or ‘cleaning up the city because we want to do that Unesco thing like Bruges in Belgium did’, the city is pressuring a famous local fry stand to close down for reasons unknown.

Homemade fries Vleminckx anno 1887 on the Voetboogstraat will no longer be given its permit to sell on the street because Amsterdam wants to get rid of places that sell to people queueing on the street. To be able to get another type of permit, the counter would have to be moved 80 cm indoors in a space that is a tight 10,5 m to start off with, install a door and other things that make little sense.

Yes, it closes at 6 pm on weekdays and 5:30 pm on weekends, yes you often have to queue, but shutting this place down in such a manner is a total shame. This place is tasty and famous. I say go and get yourself some fries at least one more time while you still can.

(Link: www.parool.nl, The fries depicted here are from Brussels with andalouse sauce)

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July 23, 2012

Anti-piracy group caught pirating (surprise!)

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 9:01 am

Composer Melchior Rietveld won a court case against copyright collection agency Stemra last week over music he wrote for an anti-piracy ad.

TorrentFreak writes:

In 2006, Dutch musician Melchior Rietveldt was asked to compose a piece of music to be used in an anti-piracy advert. It was to be used exclusively at a local film festival. However, when Rietveldt bought a Harry Potter DVD in 2007, he discovered his music being used in the anti-piracy ad without his permission. In fact, it had been used on dozens of DVDs both in the Netherlands and overseas.

In order to get the money he was owed, Rietveldt went to local music royalty collecting agency Buma/Stemra who had been representing him since 1988 but had failed to pay him any money for the anti-piracy piece previously registered with them.

Stemra deliberately kept Rietveld in the dark about the number of DVDs that had the pirated music on them, and initially refused to pay him money. After a lot of nagging Rietveld was contacted by a board member who offered him a fast track to his money if only he would split the loot with said board member.

Rietveld claimed 100,000 euro in damages, but the court only awarded him 20,000 euro (Dutch courts rarely award anything more than ‘proven’ damages), so Stemra now asserts this is a big win for them. Since the government is ultimately responsible for the dealings of the copyright collection agencies, I have my doubts—again—that this will ever lead to a second of jail time for the likes of Stemra.

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