May 2, 2017

Building in Amersfoort has an emoji façade

Filed under: Architecture by Orangemaster @ 9:55 pm

Emoji-Amersfoort

In the Vathorst area of Amersfoort, Attika Architekten from Amsterdam has created a building that features a modern, quirky façade with 22 funny-faced emoji.

“In classical architecture they used heads of the king or whatever, and they put that on the façade, so we were thinking, what can we use as an ornament so when you look at this building in 10 or 20 years you can say ‘hey this is from that year?’. The cast concrete characters express a range of familiar emoji emotions, including the classic sad and happy styles, the instantly recognisable kissing face, and the much-loved heart eyes”.

(Link: designboom, Photo: Bart van Hoek)

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May 1, 2017

Labour tax credit is discriminatory, says professor Teunissen

Filed under: General,Religion by Branko Collin @ 12:03 am

coins-branko-collinLast January an appeals court in Den Bosch heard a couple from Landgraaf, Limburg who claims that couples of which only one partner works still have a right to the full labour tax credit for both partners.

Currently only people who work, either as an employee or as an entrepreneur, enjoy this arbeidskorting (employment credit). The maximum credit you can receive this year is 3,223 euro per person.

According to law professor Jos Teunissen, who represented the couple in court, this is discriminatory and a violation of human rights (the article doesn’t say which human rights are violated specifically — one assumes he is talking about Aticle 12 of the ECHR which guarantees the right of partners to found a family the way they see fit).

In an article for Reformatorisch Dagblad, Teunissen argues that families in which one partner works can pay as much as 5 times as much income tax as families in which both partners work.

Teunissen finds support from former junior minister for Finance Martin van Rooijen who thinks the labour tax credit is discriminatory towards pensioners. In a opinion piece for Trouw in 2015, Van Rooijen argues that discriminating against pensioners is discrimination on the basis of age, which is also plumb illegal.

The labour tax credit was introduced in 2001, when it helped to replace a generic credit. According to Teunissen in a recent article in Trouw, its goal is to stimulate labour force participation of women. It is probably not a huge surprise then that it is mostly opposed by religious parties.

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April 28, 2017

Cold but animated King’s Day 2017

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 8:46 am

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King’s Day 2017 was colder than the previous Christmas, Weeronline.nl reports.

The temperature in De Bilt (where temperature for the country is measured) was 10.9 degrees, whereas at Christmas the temperature reached 11.8 degrees. Since 1949, when Queen’s Day was moved to April, this has happened only once before, namely last year.

People on social media are jokingly blaming King Willem-Alexander for the cold weather, as he moved the national holiday from 30 April to 27 April. Weeronline believes that the move of a mere 3 days does indeed make a difference. The average temperature on the 27th is one degree colder and on average also more rain falls.

In Amsterdam it hailed and rained a few times, but most of the time it was sunny with clouds. The 24 Oranges team braved the cold by dressing warm and, like last year, by hopping from bar to bar to drink warm beverages during our annual walk along the flea market of the Apollolaan and Stadionweg in Amsterdam.

We saw a lot of kids playing a decent violin and girl duos doing dance routines. As well, we heard more German-speaking sellers and noticed some serious Austrian traditional clothing sales.

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April 25, 2017

‘Bungee jumping compromises immune system’

Filed under: Science by Orangemaster @ 10:08 pm

Bungee

To conduct a study on the effects that a bungee jump might have, 20 volunteers who had never done bungee jumping before took the plunge at 60 m up at the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis hospital in Amsterdam.

“The study site was located at the hospital grounds, where a crane was placed. Bungee jumps took place from an altitude of 60 m, under supervision and guidance from an experienced commercial bungee jump crew. On the morning of the study day, an intravenous access catheter was placed in the cubital vein [upper arm].“

Half of the volunteers had been previously treated with a three-day course of propranolol (a beta blocker), while the control group was not. Subsequent blood analyses showed that many of the volunteers who jumped showed obvious signs of stress before jumping, and so further studies might be needed to determine whether the immune system effects were caused by mental strain or by the physical stresses of the jump, or both.

(Link: improbable.com, Photo of Bungee by Mishimoto, some rights reserved)

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April 24, 2017

Cats also like boxes drawn on the floor

Filed under: Animals by Orangemaster @ 2:00 pm

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Many of us know that cat like boxes, and if you need convincing, find out about world-famous feline and Guinness Book of World Record holder Maru, the Japanese cat that cannot stay out of them.

Following a Dutch study entitled ‘Will a hiding box provide stress reduction for shelter cats?’, cats with boxes adapted to their new environment faster compared to a control group without boxes. In the end, cats with boxes were less stressed because they had a ‘cardboard hidey-hole’ to hunker down in.

“The close contact with the box’s interior, we believe, releases endorphins – nature’s own morphine-like substances – causing pleasure and reducing stress.” The cuteness factor surely helps the proliferation of Twitter’s hashtag #CatSquare showing tons of people who taped squares to their floors and snapped their cats sitting on them. Then again, a lot of cats did not, but to be fair, some of them looked comfortable sitting on other stuff like comfy chairs.

The obvious exception is the cat carrier because that means going to the vet or getting into a car. The latter we will leave to the dogs.

(Link: phys.org, Photo of Cat in a box by Hehaden, some rights reserved)

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April 21, 2017

Scottish murder suspect fakes Dutch accent

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 5:57 pm

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Called a ‘bizarre European twang’ from a Scottish newspaper (pot, kettle, black, no?), fugitive murder suspect Harris Binotti has been faking a Dutch accent while living in Glasgow in order to stay under the radar. Even though he’s currently on Interpol’s most wanted list, Scottish police cannot arrest him unless overseas officials issue a warrant for his arrest, so he’s just hanging out now scaring the crap out of everyone.

Binotti fled Yangon, Myanmar after the death of Northern Irish colleague Gary Ferguson in November 2016, where they both taught English at a school there.

In the meantime, people living near Binotti are alarmed and the neighbours have complained about the smell of weed coming from the flat Binotti and his girlfriend are holed up in, which he’s also getting away with at the moment.

(Links: thescottishsun, news.sky.com)

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April 19, 2017

Steampunk fantasy cardboard airships a gogo

Filed under: Art,Aviation by Orangemaster @ 9:54 am

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Over the last year, Dutch artist Jeroen van Kesteren has been toiling away at these sculptural airships as part of a series entitled ‘Orphanage for Lost Adventures’. Made primarily from cardboard, aluminum foil, adhesives, and an assortment of papers used for sails and propellers, the whimsical flying machines have a distinct steampunk feel. The pieces range from 40 to 50 centimetres tall and take about a month to make. Jeroen shares additional images of the airships and several additional sculptures on Pinterest.

(Link and photo: thisiscolossal.com)

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April 18, 2017

Need peace and quiet? Buy a small Dutch island

Filed under: Nature by Orangemaster @ 11:57 am

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Today nature area Vinkeveense Plassen (Vinkenveen Lakes), Utrecht is auctioning off 44 small islands, more specifically land strips in peat grounds where you can moor boats, called ‘legakkers’ in Dutch. Anyone who buys them is obliged to make sure they are well kept and do not wash away.

These small islands have been around since the last century. Their upkeep is expensive and selling them off to individuals seemed to be the best solution. However, nature organisations are very much against the sale, fearing that people will build houses on them and destroy the nature. But then again buying an island and then doing nothing with it isn’t a very attractive proposal and telling people what to do with their property is indeed quite shortsighted.

I wonder if people will buy more than one.

(Link: rtvutrecht.nl, Photo by Quistnix, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 1.0)

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April 15, 2017

‘The Netherlands is the cocaine hub of Europe’

Filed under: Film,Health,History by Orangemaster @ 11:59 am

A recent Dutch report on organised crime has pointed out a troubling increase in cocaine coming into the Netherlands from South America, and has even referred to the country as ‘the Colombia of Western Europe’. As well, Europol has reported a major increase in the online sale of drugs from Dutch sources.

According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, in 2016 cocaine was the third most popular ‘ever used’ drug, with lifetime prevalence (proportion of a population have used cocaine) of 5.1%. We’ll see what the EMCDDA has to say in June as well.

And then there’s always the fascinating historical fact that until WWII the Netherlands was the best and biggest cocaine producing country in the world, all backed by the Dutch Royal Bank.

(Link: nhnieuws.nl, Photo of wilted tulip by Graham Keen, some rights reserved)

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April 13, 2017

Children’s book tells kids how great Mao was

Filed under: History by Orangemaster @ 5:37 pm

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Not long after a Dutch drugstore peddled a colouring book with Hitler and has it pulled in record time, a children’s book about Chinese dictator leader Mao Zedong has been published, aimed at children and that’s just fine, apparently.

As of this week, Dutch kids will have the opportunity to read about how much of a ‘great man’ Mao Zedong was, as ‘Let’s Read About Mao Zedong’ has been translated into Dutch as ‘Laten Wij Over Mao Zedong Lezen’. “Without understanding Mao Zedong, it will be very hard to truly understand the present China,” explained Lenard Wolters, founder and CEO of Dutch publisher Leonon Media.

The question is, are they going to tell Dutch children that Mao killed the equivalent of about three times the entire current population of the Netherlands? I’d bet if they did, kids will have nightmares for a long time. And if they ignore the atrocities he’s committed as the bloodiest dictator of all times, then they are lying to children and it’s propaganda.

Then a book about the good things Stalin did has to be next, right? I mean if Hitler and Mao have a book… Pol Pot? Mussolini? Franco? Mao Zedong is responsible for killing about 40-45 million people and possibly more depending on your source, by starvation, prison labour and executions.

I hope children learn the truth at some point.

(Link: globaltimes.cn, Photo by Adam Jones, some rights reserved)

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