July 29, 2011

Limburg town to refuse EU nationals without income

Filed under: Dutch first,General by Orangemaster @ 1:20 pm

Drielandenpunt (Vaalserberg), is where Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands meet, also the highest point of the Netherlands. Way back before 2002 you could pay your Dutch, German or Belgian fries (yes, three separate stands) with either Dutch guilders, German marks or Belgian francs.

The wee town of Vaals, Limburg, where back in the pre-euro days, my German friends from Aachen went shopping to buy Dutch food products, is now taking a firm stand on EU nationals eating up their welfare benefits. Vaals wants to refuse residency rights to those who do not have a job or enough income to support themselves as of September 2011.

Before critizing Vaals, let’s do the math. Vaals has a population of about 10,000 and claims that 40% of the 300 townspeople on welfare benefits (120 people) are from other EU countries. The town council says that’s a higher number than even Rotterdam, and is costing them a whopping €Â 400,000 a year. Out of every 100 people who want to live in Vaals, nine of them ask for benefits, mostly Poles and Romanians who do not yet speak the language.

Ironically, all this movement within the EU and within the Netherlands tends to expose all kinds of problems that nobody would have noticed if it wasn’t for EU nationals trying to work the system.

In nearby Plombières, Belgium, they’re already applying a European guideline to restrict residency for EU nationals without work or income. If and when Vaals does this, they will be the first Dutch town to do so.

(Link: www.volkskrant.nl.nl)

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July 28, 2011

The Impossible Project produces Polaroid film

Filed under: Photography,Technology by Orangemaster @ 2:36 pm

After purchasing the old Polaroid factory in Enschede filled with equipment back in 2009, the Dutch Impossible Project figured out how to actually make Polaroid film. By March 2010 they had developed a way to produce film compatible with Polaroid’s SX-70/600 instant cameras.

To give its viewers a sense of how the Impossible Project makes Polaroid film, How’s It’s Made recently visited the factory and produced this five-minute video that, as BoingBoing pointed out, is reminiscent of the old Sesame Street videos from inside a crayon manufacturing facility. “Conclusion,” Maggie Koerth-Baker writes, “The Impossible Project may not be necessary, but it sure is a lot of fun to watch.” See for yourself.

(Link: www.theatlantic.com)

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July 26, 2011

Oldest Amsterdam resident reaches 106

Filed under: General,Health by Orangemaster @ 11:37 am
birthdaycake

Local TV station AT5 recently reported about the oldest resident of Amsterdam, Mrs Huizinga de Vries, who just turned 106. And in true straight up in your face Amsterdam style, she answered, “I may be the oldest woman in Amsterdam, but I can’t buy anything with it.” She has 40 grandchildren, calls them regularly and knows all of their phone numbers by heart.

According to the Dutch statistics bureau, in 2010 the Netherlands had 1,743 centenarians, with an increase in male ones. As most of you may know, women live longer than men, which makes this noteworthy. The Dutch age record, set in 2005 stands at 115, which the bureau says will not be broken in the near future.

If I were to think back to all the articles written about centenarians, they always seem to encourage being cheerful, surrounded by family (happy) and having some sherry or gin once a day before bed (some kind of happy).

(Link: www.dichtbij.nl)

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July 22, 2011

I do, I do, I do, I do, now off you go

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 12:57 pm

The town of Beuningen near Nijmegen in the East, with a population of about 25,000 is going to scrap its free civil ceremonies. Currently, you can get married at town hall for free, as long as you are from Beuningen. You get a private room where your friends, family and witnesses can watch the happy event. I cannot imagine that it costs them a bundle every year in a town with surely a handful of singles getting married, but OK, cutting costs is all the rage. As of January 2012, the now free ceremony will cost 100 euro.

However, the new town trend will be Las Vegas style, albeit without Elvis priests: the quickie marriage between 8:45 and 9 am at the wicket with a quick ‘ja’ (yes), the paperwork signed, and off you go. Somehow, the ‘charm’ of the quickie ceremony cannot possibly come close to anything I’ve seen or heard about Las Vegas.

In many cities, civil ceremonies cost different rates at different times. In an expensive city like Amsterdam, 9 am on a Monday is either free or cheap, as opposed to a Friday afternoon at 4 pm. It’s all about time and money, and not about the l-word.

(Link: gelderlander, Photo by Anthony Kelly, some rights reserved)

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July 21, 2011

‘New’ laptop has someone else’s data on it

Filed under: IT,Weird by Orangemaster @ 8:50 pm

A man in Haarlem bought a new computer at a big chain store. He got home, started it up and saw that it was full of someone else’s data, like pictures, contracts and tax documents.

The previous owner had bought the laptop a year ago (so obviously not a super recent model) and returned it within a week because it kept crashing. Instead if having it repaired, the store just gave him a new one. But was it a new one?

The new owner and the previous owner are kinda pissed, as you could imagine. I have to assume that the previous owner was incapable or didn’t bother erasing his hard drive, which is weird if the new owner was able to start up the computer and use it. I also assume the shop didn’t even start up the computer, kept in the back and eventually put it back on the shelf.

A friend of mine who worked at a similar big chain store back when computers were big PC klunkers said that they didn’t repair anything and just waited a week and gave clients back the same computer, which is why he left his job when he found out.

(Link: welingelichtekringen.nl)

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July 20, 2011

Urk lets harbour lose big money on Sundays

Filed under: General,Religion,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:37 am

sticker-300x61

After the barrage of other plagues (kids on drugs, alcoholic teens and fighting strippers), the quirky religious town of Urk, the butt of many jokes, has yet another faith-related problem: people stealing free electricity.

On Sundays, in the harbour, due to religious reasons, the harbour people cannot ask for money to others charging up their boats. And losing tens of thousands of euro is a good reason to ask the city to allow them to make an exception on Sundays, a day of rest for nobody except the bureaucrats in Urk.

The answer was simply that asking people for money on Sunday was not OK. Of course, the bureaucrats don’t see any change in their salary, so it’s OK to let business people choke. Love thy neighbour.

(Link: rtl.nl)

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July 19, 2011

Bargain fashion tricks its way onto the catwalk

Filed under: Fashion,Weird by Orangemaster @ 2:56 pm

(video in Dutch) at 3:00, the audience finds out they’ve been fooled. Imagine this was Walmart or some other cheap brand.

Bargain clothing and household linnen brand Zeeman pulled a guerilla move that has the whole Dutch fashion world buzzing. At the recent Amsterdam International Fashion Week, they posed as a ‘serious’ fashion brand, Frank (my guess a play on words for ‘frank’ or ‘straight up’), and made it onto the catwalk.

The whole point was to show that fashion does not have to be expensive. However, I can tell you that although this is a valid point, Zeeman clothing often falls apart after a few washes. I have no qualms about their towels, and their stores are ghastly. But yes, they are cheap, although they had bucks for this one prank.

And the fashionistas blogs are pissed because they were fooled. Be sure to look at their faces in the video.

Apparently, while the work of independent designers is judged beforehand, no demands are made of companies which cough up the full fee of 15,000 euro for a show with lighting and make-up thrown in. “We’re just pleased to get the money,” [event director] Mr Maussen admits. “But maybe we should be a bit stricter in future.”

Money talks and cheapness walks.

(Link: rnw.nl)

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July 14, 2011

Mice running amok in Amsterdam hospital

Filed under: Animals,General,Health by Orangemaster @ 4:34 pm
consult

No, not the lab rats, but actually little grey mice that are not a symbol of hygiene in Dutch folklore. The VU medical centre is being overrun by mice. They’ve always had some mice, but now there are a lot more. The hospital blames the nearby construction, which sounds plausible. “They are digging, and the mice flee and find somewhere else to hide.”

Other gripes include the hospital’s pneumatic tube system that carries patient files get stuck, and when that happens, patients waiting for an operation are at risk. A doctor even said that, ”sometimes, the system works so poorly that a blood sample gets broken and blood pours out when we retreive the post.”

All of Amsterdam, those cute houses on the canals, and apparently hospitals, have mice.

(Link: spitsnieuws.nl)

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July 13, 2011

No more ‘no-blow zones’ for Amsterdam

Filed under: Architecture,General,Health,Weird by Orangemaster @ 2:20 pm

The city of Amsterdam has been told today by the Council of State (no more appeals can be made) that it is breaking the Opium Law by putting up signs that designate certain places as ‘no-blow’ zones (‘blowen’ in Dutch is smoking pot). The first ever area of Amsterdam was around a public place called Mercatorplein, 800 metres from my place.

Mercatorplein is notorious for being regularly overhauled (love the last job, with a play fountain and trendy restaurant) and having been designed by famous artist H.P Berlage (with a tower that was broken down in 1961 and rebuilt in 1995). In recent times, it has been the backdrop for a riot between the Dutch Moroccan community and the police, as well as a hit and run where the driver ran over a known female cabaret artist, but the licence plate of his car fell off.

Way back some residents in the East of the city asked for the ban to keep their kids’ playground clean. They actually didn’t get the ban, only because the city thought it was a bit harsh.

In the Netherlands and contrary to all the tourist websites, soft drugs are illegal, as stated in the Opium Law. But yes, we go to the coffee shops and buy pre-rolled joints just like you buy a pack of smokes at the shop. The law is simply ignored and soft drugs are ‘tolerated’.

The crazy logic is because soft drugs are forbidden, you don’t need a sign to forbid them again. Of course, this is not in tune with reality, but then again neither is the Opium Law.

(Link: blikopnieuws.nl, Photo of No-blow (and no drinking) sign by Erik Joling, some rights reserved)

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July 12, 2011

World’s first hydrogen-based formula race car

Filed under: Automobiles,Dutch first,Science,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 3:34 pm

The Forze IV, the first formula race car in the world that runs on hydrogen fuel cells was unveiled on 9 July by Delft University of Technology in The Hague for everyone to see.

The Forze IV is lightweight with two electric motors powered by hydrogen fuel cells and can do 0 to 100 km in 5 seconds. The one downside for the people who watched the unveiling is that the motor doesn’t go vroooooom.

Today the Forze team will be at the UK’s Silverstone race track for the Formula Student Championship where young engineers from around the world compete with their sustainable and innovative creations. On 16 August the Forze IV will attempt to break the world’s speed record for hydrogen fuel cell powered car on the Prinses Beatrixlaan in Delft.

(Link: formulazero.tudelft.nl, Photo of the roll-out of the Forze IV at the Spuiplein in The Hague by Richard van het Hof)

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