December 31, 2012

Branko’s favourite 24 Oranges’ postings of 2012

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 8:21 am

Here are some of my favourite stories of the past year.

1. Asylum seekers in abandoned church: what it’s actually like

This is one where we went out and got the news ourselves.

2. Man cannot stop laughing after an operation

It could have happened anywhere on the globe, but Dutch telly had it on tape. The video link is broken though, here is a new one.

3. Laura Dekker ignored by Guinness, but still a winner

We had a whole raft of postings about the ‘sailor girl’. She lives in New Zealand now. I wonder why…

4. Mobile euthanasia units to perform home deaths

Although euthanasia is legal, some doctors refuse to perform it. Mobile units run by the Dutch Association for a Voluntary End to Life (NVVE) help the patients of these doctors.

5. Etymology of Dutch word for bicycle cracked after 140 years

I am not convinced, but it is a plausible explanation. What do you think?

6. Lab produced meat ready to grill this autumn

Although professor Post said in February he would have an artificial hamburger ready in October, I haven’t actually heard about him (or his burger) since. Could in-vitro meat turn out to be the flying car of science?

7. A ‘Truman show’ village for dementia sufferers

In this home people with dementia live in a fake village in which the staff pretend to be shopkeepers, friends, servants and so on. Really cool, and do check the video if you are not afraid of a bit of German.

8. Dutch TV cannibals won’t be prosecuted

Turns out that our micromanaging politicians were too busy ‘solving’ other tiny problems and forgot to forbid voluntary cannibalism between two consenting adults (does licking count?).

9. Diehard elderly Frisian man finishes 240 km bike race

Lovely story of a guy who chose his own path.

(Photo by me, paper craft Christmas angel by Pien Douw)

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December 30, 2012

Baker faints over prestigious ‘oliebol’ test

Filed under: Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 4:22 pm

Baker Willy Olink from Maarsen near Utrecht has won this year’s Oliebollentest, held as always by newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.

The jury said of Olink’s products: “An oliebol that you keep eating. You go back for seconds.” Second place was Rotterdam’s Richard Visser who had won the year before and who has won eight times in the 20 editions the test has seen.

Joop van de Weerdt, owner of an oliebol stand in Schiedam near Rotterdam, fainted when the test panel came to collect its bag of samples. He was rushed to the hospital, but was back to work the next day. Store manager Claudia van der Kroon told AD: “We had not been tested for a couple of years, so I figure it must have been the nerves. Joop is a man with an enormous passion for his trade.”

Oliebollen are deepfried dumplings often containing raisins or currants that are served at fun fairs and during New Year’s Eve. The American doughnut is said to stem from the oliebol.

Not everybody was happy with AD’s test. Bianca de Caluwé from Oost-Souburg came in last: “‘I do not understand this. The judgement is incredibly harsh but meaningless. Four years ago I was the best of Zeeland and I haven’t changed my recipe.”

Frank van Haperen from Goes, also in Zeeland, even refused to participate. The baker was not happy with the way juries described his balls in the past years: “They call them ‘pig feed’ or ‘leather'”, he told the local newspaper PZC. “I am out.”

(Photo by Rool Paap, some rights reserved)

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December 29, 2012

Rocker switch bench by HIK Ontwerpers

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 10:19 pm

This playful bench was designed and developed by HIK Ontwerpers from Utrecht, the same people that gave you the slide for grown-ups outside the Overvecht railway station.

It is called Zet Die Knop Om, which means Press That Switch, and it actually emits light when you turn it on. Check that website to see the effect.

It was built in 2008, but I have no idea if it is actually in use somewhere.

(Link: Pop-Up City. Photo: HIK Ontwerpers.)

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December 28, 2012

Gorilla had a good 2012 on the stock exchange

Filed under: Animals,Weird by Orangemaster @ 2:24 pm

Although gorilla Jacko had a bad year in 2011 for the first time, this year Jacko was back on track, outperforming the AEX (Amsterdam Exchange index), as he has done 12 years of out 13.

The stocks picked by Jacko using bananas rose 12% in value over the year, while the AEX rose by 10%. “Jacko’s profits are largely due to Heineken, Aegon and Aalberts, which rose sharply in value. Unfortunately he sold Ordina and Aperam with a large loss.”

So if a gorilla can do it, maybe we can too.

(Link: www.dutchnews.nl)

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December 27, 2012

‘No flowers for the Pope’ on Facebook gaining momentum

Filed under: Online,Religion by Orangemaster @ 2:50 pm
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After weeks of debating the ‘Zwarte Piet’ tradition during Sinterklaas, which involves blackface considered a tradition here but racist abroad, a steady number of Dutch people on Facebook are now pissed off at the Pope.

The Pope’s famous Dutch saying, “bedankt voor de bloemen” (“thanks for the flowers”), is often the first thing that pops to mind if you mention the Pope to a Dutch person. The Facebook page Geen bloemen naar de Paus (‘No flowers for the Pope’) wants to stop sending flowers to the Pope at Easter and is venting its anger at the Pope’s heteronormative Christmas speech, which angered Foreign Affairs Minister Frans Timmermans who lashed out in the media at the Pope’s ‘homophobia’:

“If every person is unique, as the Pope’s representative said in Dublin last week, then why should that unique person not have the right to stand up for their own sexual orientation? Marriage between two people of the same sex is having respect for the uniqueness of the individual.”

I for one will never, ever get over the amount of child abuse reported from the Catholic church since I was old enough to understand what it was.

The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriages, although some controversy remains over municipal officials who refuse to marry gays and lesbians on religious grounds.

Regardless, to quote a gay friend back in the 1990s inspired by the American’s first Bush administration: “Hate is not a family value”.

(Link: www.gaystarnews.com)

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December 26, 2012

Dutch masters recreated through ironing

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 6:10 pm

A Philips ad for the company’s line of irons has been doing the rounds on the Internet.

In it an anonymous artist recreates portraits by famous Dutch painters such as Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer and self-portraits by Van Gogh and Rembrandt using little more than a white sheet and a steam iron.

The ad was made by the Russian branch of DDB, a worldwide advertising agency.

(Photo: crop of the video. Link: Trendbeheer)

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December 25, 2012

Russian sturgeons drawn to Amsterdam

Filed under: Animals by Orangemaster @ 7:11 pm

A rare Russian sturgeon (Latin: Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) was spotted by a fisherman last week in a West Amsterdam harbour. In Russia the sturgeon is normally found in major rivers such as the Volga.

According to an urban ecologist, the sturgeon either comes from some fish centre or actually swam all the way to Amsterdam from Russia. More sturgeons have been spotted on the Russia-The Netherlands route, so the latter is plausible.

Ironically, next year The Netherlands and Russia will celebrate their special bilateral relation, but I bet the fish didn’t know.

(Link: www.amsterdamfm.nl, Photo of caviar by cocoinzenl, some rights reserved)

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December 24, 2012

Elfstedentocht fever explained

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 8:32 am

It is dreary and wet and not that cold, and this year the weather report even predicted the dreariness and not-coldness to last beyond the apocalypse, the perfect time to read about the mad panic that would sweep the country if winter were coming:

And then abruptly and over the protestations of our doubts it becomes apparent that the fate of our very society is placed into the hands of a tall, blond, probably very sober and severe man most likely called Siebe or Wiebe or Hidde or Fedde.

[…]

And our Siebe will look very sternly into the camera and solemnly proclaim ‘no’, because that’s his favourite word, further tests need to be performed, the thickness of the ice will be continuously monitored, and same time tomorrow. And the next day will be the same, the press conference live on every network, a solemn ‘no’, and DAY TWELVE OF THE PANIC CRISIS.

[…]

And all the nation’s eyes will have turned North, to a province so obsessed with ice they just went ahead and called the place Freezeland, like a theme park for masochists, and our man Siebe will appear again, with all the journalists in the land having run out of questions to ask him, and it’s just as well, because he makes a face as if he is about to be forced to eat something disgusting, and says,

and says, and says … you will have to read the rest of Paul G. Hunt’s wonderful explanation of how Dutch Elfstedentocht fever works to find out.

(Photo by Paul van Eijden, some rights reserved)

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December 23, 2012

Apple museum opens its doors in Friesland

Filed under: Dutch first,History,IT,Technology by Branko Collin @ 12:33 pm

A museum dedicated to the computers of US manufacturer Apple has opened its doors in the town of Ureterp, just East of Drachten in Friesland.

The Apple Museum Nederland is run by volunteers and focuses on keeping Apple computers up and running so that visitors can experience first hand how these machines used to work. The museum is housed at the top floor of a Mac repair shop and is not affiliated with Apple.

On 22 December the museum opened its doors for the first time and it will also be open on 29 December and 5 January. The official opening will be on 16 March, Bright reports.

Macfreak says this is the third Apple museum in the world. The name Ureterp stems from Urathorp and means ‘Upper Village’, as in upstream from the river Boorne.

(Photo: Google Street View)

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December 22, 2012

Winning words, the most popular words of 2012

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 2:12 pm

Project X-feest, a Project X party, has been voted the Dutch word of the year by dictionary maker Van Dale, Onze Taal reports.

The word refers to a spontaneous party to which everybody is invited, and is named after the movie Project X which tells the story of a similar party. In September this year the small town of Haren suffered over 1 million euro in damages after looters and rioters visited Project X Haren.

The second place was awarded to the word bangalijst, a list of girls that are considered ‘easy’.

Some other words from the West considered good, influential or popular, all from Onze Taal:

  • Omnishambles (English word of the year according to Oxford Dictionaries): “a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, and is characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations”.
  • GIF (American English word of the year according to Oxford Dictionaries): type of image format, popular because it allows for simple animations.
  • Yolo (German word of the year according to Der Spiegel): abbreviation for ‘you only live once’.
  • Watture (French word of the year according to Le Point): electric car (watt + voiture).
  • Frietchinees (Dutch word of the year in Belgium according to Van Dale): a French fries stall run by a Chinese person.
  • Pandapunten (most beautiful Dutch word says the Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie): points you get for abstaining from sex.

Some of the ugliest words:

  • Throughput (Dutch, the ugliest word in education).
  • Grexit (ugliest Dutch word says the Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie): the expulsion of Greece from the Eurozone.

One of my personal favourites, after watture, is the German word komasutra, the result of drunk people attempting to make love.

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