January 18, 2013
In an effort to help solve the shrinking bird population in urban areas, Dutch designer Klaas Kuiken collaborated with the Netherlands Society for Protection of Birds (Vogelbescherming) to create the Birdhouse Roof Tile.
The ‘Birdhouse Roof Tile’ was designed to provide more nesting places for birds in the city. Since birds often look to nest within the roofs of houses, Kuiken attached an archetypal birdhouse onto a standard roof tile.
(Link: enpundit.com, Photo by Klaas Kuiken)
Tags: bird house, birds
January 17, 2013
Boffins from Wageningen University, together with more boffins from the Radboud University Nijmegen have recently published a study showing that cry babies produce different feces than other babies. One to two-week-old cry babies apparently have twice as many proteobacteria in their poo and much less of other types of bacteria as compared to other babies, although the study does not say why. It also says that by giving cry babies probiotics, which are found in baby food, these babies will cry much less.
(Link: opmerkelijk.nieuws.nl, Photo of Crying baby by Chalky Lives, some rights reserved)
Tags: babies, feces, infants, poo, Radboud University, University of Wageningen
January 16, 2013
Holland’s horrible history comes to life in a dark dungeon of the city centre, complete with actors and rides depicting death, torture, illness and all kinds of creepy things dwelling beneath Amsterdam’s pretty canals.
Scary yet educational, experience it for yourself in English or Dutch with our 24oranges ticket giveaway!
How to enter: E-mail 24oranges at submissions (at) 24oranges.nl and we will randomly pick a winner before 31 January 2013. The winning tickets (2) will be sent to you by The Amsterdam Dungeon shortly after and are valid until January 2014.
Tell us why you like 24oranges in a few words and will we post the winning praise on our site as confirmation of the winner. We will also send the winner an e-mail to confirm that they have won.
To find out more about The Amsterdam Dungeon visit http://www.the-dungeons.nl
Feel very free to like us on Facebook as well. The more people like us, the more we can give away free stuff in the future!
(Link and photo: the-dungeons.nl)
January 15, 2013
The Italian radio hit ‘Il Pulcino Pio’ (The chirping chick) has a Dutch version: ‘Het Kuikentje Piep’. It reminds me of a modern version of the Old MacDonald nursery rhyme, but with a generous helping of auto-tune.
Since this summer the original Italian version has had more than 50,000,000 views, on its way to possibly match and beat (gasp!) Gangnam Style, which currently has over one billion views.
Carnival in the South of the Netherlands is less than a month away, and this is surely going to be played to drunken crowds in many cafes. It is also a fantastic way to find out what kind of sounds many animals make in Dutch.
(Link: www.volkskrant.nl, Photo of chicks by homer4k, some rights reserved).
January 11, 2013
Dutch coffin manufacturers are saying that the demand for large coffins is growing due to the increasing obesity of Dutch people. These coffins are far more expensive than the regular ones as they have to be made by hand. Moreover, 60% of Dutch crematoria have adapted their ovens to be able to cremate obese people, a bit like revamping your fire stations to make sure your big new fire trucks fit in them.
The National Organization of Crematoria says that businesses are now equipped to burn big people throughout the Netherlands, a process that lasts longer than normal due to the surplus fat and able to do so, as it is more difficult. Obese people should preferably be cremated at the beginning of the day when the oven is not yet at full temperature.
(Link: badnewsfromthenetherlands.blogspot.nl, Photo: Salem graves by by Alanna Ralph, some rights reserved)
January 9, 2013
The fire brigades of the province of Flevoland have purchased 14 new trucks, five of which do not actually fit in the intended fire stations. The vehicles are just too high, and the decision-makers knew that in advance, but still wanted 14 shiny new trucks so the region would all have the same trucks.
The municipality of Noordoostpolder where the five trucks don’t fit has to modify their fire stations, which will cost hundreds of thousands of euro.
Do the decision-makers have friends in the contracting business for the rebuilding of fire stations? Possibly. Couldn’t they have chosen another type of truck? Possibly. Maybe the fire stations are too old-fashioned anyways so what’s the problem? Possibly. Was money saved by buying 14 trucks at once? Possibly. Was the PR on this decision well-spun in the media? Not really.
(Link: www.omroepflevoland.nl)
Tags: fire brigade, Flevoland, trucks
January 8, 2013
We’ve posted about Priest Harm Schilder from Tilburg who had bell ringing issues a few times, attempting to defy the law using freedom of religion as an excuse.
Having lost that battle, he’s now moved on to ‘naming and shaming’, athough he insists this is not what he’s doing, by asking his congregation to pray for people who have decided to dechurch themselves. Schilder also calls these people up, a bit like a marketeer does, to find out why they decided to opt out, but can rarely convince them to change their minds.
The reasons people have apparently given the church for leaving is all the hate speech the Pope dishes out against homosexuals. I’m certain the bottomless pit of child abuse cases that keep cropping up involving the church is not exactly helping their brand name, either.
UPDATE On his blog, Schilder blames the media for twisting his words and blowing things out of proportion, but has caved and decided not to go ahead with his wall of lost sheep, calling it ‘risky’.
(Link: opmerkelijk.nieuws.nl)
January 4, 2013
In Dutch they call it ‘bouwvakkersdecolleté’ (‘construction worker’s décolletage’), which pertains exclusively to men, in English it is better known as ‘butt cleavage’, which actually includes both men and women. And in 2013, the male version should be a thing of the past if we can believe Dutch power company Eneco.
About 500 technicians — assumingly all male, but we don’t know for sure — are getting new uniforms that don’t show their unsightly butt cracks when they bend down. The trousers will have a higher waistline and jackets will be longer. I personally can understand the trousers, but most of the year they will not be wearing the jacket because it’s too warm. As well, the clothing will be more ‘sweat resistant’, which will surely enhance any experience with having burly men work in your house on your power supply.
What I do not like about the Dutch expression is that it automatically assumes that only men are technicians in the Netherlands, which is often the case, but surely not always. It also gives me the idea that female butt crack is acceptable, which leads to more inequality. Whale tails went out a few years ago (someone please pass this memo around, a lot of girls didn’t get it) and a technician with butt crack comes off to me as being less competent and desperately in need of attention.
(Link: www.ad.nl, Photo of Female shipyard workers by BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives, some rights reserved)
January 3, 2013
A purebred dog breeder from Noord Brabant has been found guilty of selling an Irish setter with hereditary epilepsy to a woman in Rotterdam. He did not inform the woman of the possibility that her breed of dog could contract the disease during the sale and never mentioned it on his site for fear of bad publicity.
Once the woman’s dog contracted epilepsy, she took the breeder to court and won: the breeder was found guilty of ‘bad business practices’. He has been fined € 4,500, the original purchase price of the dog, plus € 1,500 in damages.
Clients expect that the purebred dogs they buy have been bred properly, as so many genetic-based diseases can affect these dogs. This now means than any purebred dog breeder in the Netherlands will have to be on their guard to avoid future lawsuits, but can they really guarantee that their dogs don’t have any health issues? I doubt it.
(Link: www.nrc.nl)
Tags: breeding, dogs, Noord-Brabant, purebred
January 2, 2013
On New Year’s Eve in and around Rotterdam trams were free of charge because the check-in devices were programmed to believe that the year 2012 was a leap year. Since nobody could check in using the right device (scan their cards), transport was free.
A traveller also commented that when he tried to buy a monthly travel card on 30 December 2012 from the appropriate vending machine, it would insist the year had to contain 2012 in it and did not recognise the year 2013.
Maybe the software was programmed by Mayans.
(Link: www.rijnmond.nl)
Tags: public transport, Rotterdam, tram
