September 25, 2010

Roughing it in a life raft, for an hour

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 1:43 pm

As part of the Noord Holland biennial you can spend an hour or more on a life raft on the IJsselmeer (PDF) near Hoorn. Cell phones are not allowed, but there is apparently a way to signal the organisers that you wish to get off prematurely.

The event was set up by artists Marjolijn Dijkman and José Carlos Martinat, who hope you reach enlightenment in that short time. If you wish to reach enlightenment in a rescue vessel equipped with a Martini bar, sheep skin rugs and a DVD player, you should contact a different artist.

Tags: ,

September 24, 2010

Philips GoGear Connect: an Android phone without the phone?

Filed under: Gadgets by Branko Collin @ 8:58 pm

Engadget is none too impressed in their hands-on review with Philips’ latest Android PMP, the GoGear Connect:

Overall, we came away feeling like this is an interesting version 1.0 effort in a world of version 2.0 and 3.0 Android devices — and considering that Philips has mostly been a no-show in the smartphone game for the past several years, we can’t say we blame them for the Connect’s shortcomings. […] In the meantime, €250 (about $320) for a rough-around-the-edges 16GB media player — even more for the 32GB model — is a tough sell.

The tech-blog is hopeful though:

Dedicated PMPs aren’t necessarily a hot category at the moment, but add a year or two of refinement and some 3G radios to this bad boy, and there’s no reason to think the Dutch giant couldn’t get back into the phone race in a big way.

(Photo: Philips Communications)

Tags: , ,

September 22, 2010

No more sex shop on Texel island for now

Filed under: Gadgets,General,Health by Orangemaster @ 12:26 pm

Due to family illness, the only sex shop on the island of Texel, owned by a woman and run together with her daughter, was forced to close after two years of existence. They tried to find someone to take over the business, but nobody responded.

Back when the shop opened, municipal rules had to be changed because a sex shop with adult toys was a no-no. However, since other shops like drugs stores and the likes sell sex-related articles, it was OK to have a sex shop on the island.

It’s the end of an era.

(Link: trouw.nl, Photo of Texel island by Searocket, some rights reserved)

Tags: ,

September 21, 2010

Netherlands gives Australia its half of shared treasure

Filed under: General,History by Branko Collin @ 9:25 am

Last Wednesday the Dutch and Australian governments signed an agreement on how to give Australia the Dutch half of the ANCODS collection, which contains the salvage of four Dutch ships that sank near the Australian coast in the 17th and 18th century.

The agreement to give Australia the Dutch portion of the artefacts had already been taken in 2006, Flevocourant writes.

According to a press release (PDF, 2009) by the ministry of foreign affairs the collections of the Batavia (1629), Vergulde Draeck (1656), Zuytdorp (1712) and the Zeewyk (1727) “include bricks, building blocks, lead ingots, elephant tusk, canon, canon balls, amber and pitch as well as rare objects owned by crew and passengers such as navigational instruments and ornaments”.

“Rather than dividing objects between the two countries, they will be kept as close as possible to the shipwrecks where they have been excavated. This is why the Netherlands has agreed to entrust Australia with safeguarding the objects, which are currently in Dutch possession.”

The agreement was signed aboard a replica of the Batavia which is stationed in Lelystad.

(Photo of the Batavia replica by Wikimedia user ADZee who released it to the public domain)

Tags: , , , ,

September 20, 2010

Half of the Dutch higher ed students are good in bed, they think

Filed under: General,Health by Branko Collin @ 8:41 am

A ‘sex sells’ issue (aren’t they all?) of weekly Nieuwe Revu questioned almost 3,000 university students about sex, Blik op Nieuws reports.

Here are some of the numbers:

  • Some 51% think they are good lovers
  • Some 12% think they are great lovers
  • More than 50% lost their virginity before the age of 18
  • Another half has had a one-night-stand
  • Some 79% think that love is necessary for sex
  • Some 2.3% calls themselves gay, 4.6% bi-sexual
  • Some 10% says to have had same-sex sex
  • Some 16% want to try same-sex sex
  • A staggering 22% never uses a condom
  • But only 7.6% have ever had an STD

For the sake of transparency I will list my answers to the magazine’s questions below, but for the sake of privacy I will do it in random order: 314, twice, yes, no, maybe, in Spain, in a hot air balloon, leather, a puppy’s tongue, 19, every other minute, 13, pickled gherkins, beards and moustaches, hanging upside-down, always, velvet, always, always.

(Photo by David Morris, some rights reserved)

Tags: , ,

September 19, 2010

Zaandam turning green

Filed under: Architecture,Art by Branko Collin @ 6:34 pm

No, the headline is not about environmental technology but about paint. We wrote earlier about the hotel in Zaandam that is made to look like it’s constructed of dozens of the green wooden houses that are typical for the area. It turns out that this was just part of a plan to give a much larger part of the inner city that look, including city hall.

Trendbeheer has more photos of the work in progress.

Alderman Hans Luiten told De Volkskrant in March: “There have been times where I wondered if I could deal with this much identity.” The new city centre is a response to the neglect of the old one. Luiten: “In the past you would not have wanted to be found dead there.”

The man behind the reshaping of the centre of Zaandam into a green Disneyland/nightmare/whatever is architect Sjoerd Soeters who was also responsible for Java Island in Amsterdam. “All his works have been discussed vehemently among architects, but are also appreciated much by their users”, Volkskrant adds. It appears that behind Soeters’ façades lurks a strong vision of livable streets. Which may be why the main street on the aforementioned Java Island is a foot and bike path.

(Photo of the new city hall in Zaandam by Wikimedia user Arch who released it in the public domain)

Tags: , , ,

September 18, 2010

John’s Phone, ‘dumbphone’ with modern capabilities

Filed under: Design,Gadgets by Branko Collin @ 10:30 am

A designer ‘dumbphone’ from the Netherlands: ad agency John Doe from Amsterdam came up with this 80 euro marvel called John’s Phone, and as the price tag suggests they actually put it in production!

Dumbphones, mobile phones that stick to telephony and SMS, are nothing new, but so far have generally been aimed at people who did not need all the features a modern phone has to offer, like the elderly. John’s Phone on the other hand seems aimed at “those who are willing to pay extra to have less” as one BoingBoing commenter puts it.

Publishing an article about a mobile phone brings with it the grave responsibility to produce a spec list, so here goes:

  • No simlock
  • Quad band
  • A choice of one ringtone (pre-selected)
  • Always-on address book (paper, with pen)
  • Caller ID
  • 1200 mAh battery (estimated 3 weeks stand-by time)
  • Hands-free mode with included earphone
  • 10-number memory
  • Size: 10.5 x 6 x 1.5 cm
  • Weight: 95 grams

BoingBoing readers (presumably Americans) lamented the lack of compatible service plans, which makes me guess not every country has SIM-only plans, which can be had for as little as 3.50 euro a year. The lack of texting seems a more serious problem: if I see a 06 number (Dutch mobile phone number), I expect to be able to text to it.

(Source photo: John’s Phone. Also check the ad agency’s Flash site for more complete details of the phone.)

Tags: ,

September 17, 2010

Yellow fungus returns to the Netherlands after 55 years

Filed under: Nature by Branko Collin @ 9:42 pm

The Netherlands was still clinging to its delusions of colonial grandeur, Robert Jasper Grootveld was still just a window cleaner, and the province of Flevoland had yet to rise from the sea when the spathularia flavida, a fungus also known as the yellow earth tongue or yellow fan (wiki dixit), was last spotted in this country.

Fifty-five years on, and Bert Oving discovers thousands of them in the Vledder forest of East-Groningen, near Germany. Trouw adds that because of the wet and yet warm weather several other rare species have returned this year, among them the red cage (clathrus ruber) and the octopus stinkhorn (clathrus archeri).

Media Stadskanaal has photos and a video. My camera is aching to go hiking.

(Photo by Irene Andersson, some rights reserved)

Tags: , , ,

September 16, 2010

Christians protest occult-related supermarket toys

Filed under: Religion,Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:44 am

‘Dungans’, as these toy tokens are called, should be seen as fantasy characters like, I dunno, Pogs (know as ‘Flippo’s’ in the Netherlands), but nope, some Christians got mad and got one supermarket (just one) to stop with the toys. Wow, what a victory.

“Children turn into the Dungan characters, these demons. These evil spirits fight with the children around them, it’s disgusting,” two annoyed Christians in Veenendaal claimed. “We have to protect our children”. And everybody else who lets their children collect Dungans are what, bad parents? Please.

Free tip: TURN OFF THE TV, UNPLUG THE GAME CONSOLE AND COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR CHILDREN. Sorry, capitals were necessary.

Judge for yourself. Note: subtitles are totally whacked, but at least you know what they’re on about. After 1:26 you can stop unless you like home-made YouTube rants.

(Link: dutchnews, distrifood)

Tags: , ,

September 15, 2010

KLM offering gay getaway to UK residents

Filed under: Aviation by Orangemaster @ 2:41 pm

“How hot are you on your gay capitals?” is the the slogan of a KLM promotional website, klmgaygetaway.co.uk. Guess the gay destination and you could win a trip to a gay capital. I’m going to try it first and then write the rest of my posting.

(time lapse, 2 min)

I got all 10 capitals right, they all had pictures of the skyline and a choice of three answers, so it was too easy and terribly cliché. I’m outing them for you: Amsterdam, New York, Rome, Vancouver, San Francisco, Barcelona, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Cape Town and Nice.

(Link: z24.nl)

Tags: , ,