July 2, 2007

VIP service for Peter Gabriel on Dutch motorway

Filed under: Automobiles,Music by Orangemaster @ 3:32 pm
Peter Gabriel

Last Saturday, pop star Peter Gabriel’s red double decker tour bus got stuck on the A27 near Lexmond when the motor of the vehicle burst into flames. Peter and friends were en route to a concert in Belgium. The flames went out by themselves and the double decker was towed away. The regional transport company scored them a bus to help them get back on track.

I just happened to see his concert in Amsterdam (last minute invite from a friend, thanks again!) and took a few mobile phone pictures.

(Link: fok.nl)

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July 1, 2007

Stupid burglar leaves ID behind

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:54 am
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Saturday night, a 30-year-old burglar in Tilburg attempted to rob a student dorm and left his wallet and ID card behind, according to the police. They have not caught him yet, but remember, the Netherlands is small.
The man from Tilburg, Noord-Brabant was probably startled when he was caught in the act by a 19-year-old student. The woman woke up and saw an unknown man in her room. She screamed, he ran, he got away by bike.

Shouldn’t be a tough case.

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June 29, 2007

Groningen house owners to pee sitting down

Filed under: Architecture,Science,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:20 am

meerstad1.jpgin a hospital sounded like a good idea, but what about in people’s homes?

Residents of the upcoming Meerstad neighbourhood in Groningen, Groningen province will probably have to pee sitting down permanently so that their urine can be separated. Contrary to the hospital that wanted to avoid putting medication in the sewage system, the environmentally friendly pee seperating project initiators, Hunze en Aa’s want to use the urine to help grow maize and cabbage. The whole point is that Meerstad is to become a really green neighbourhood.

Orangemaster’s note: it’s interested how men and small children are at a disadvantage, but not women. Just a thought.

(Link tip: ANP, via Dutch news)

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June 28, 2007

Beer ice cream is fine for kids

Filed under: Food & Drink,Weird by Orangemaster @ 2:53 pm
newcastle_icecream.jpg

How could you serve beer ice cream only to adults? Children should also be able to enjoy beer ice cream, according to master chef Leon Ribbens responding to the introduction of beer ice cream by top ice cream parlour Clevers in Arcen, Limburg, better known as ‘beer country’.

The Hertog Jan brewery together with Clevers brought a beer ice cream out on the market, specially for summer, called ‘IJs met Karakter’ (ice cream with Karakter beer). Co-creator Theo Clevers said that because it had beer, he will only serve it to adults.

Beer ice cream is also made by other companies and surely kids eat it as well. And what about bonbons with liquour and wine sauce on meat? And then there’s all the sugar in the ice cream killing the beer…

(Link: zibb)

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June 27, 2007

The Nuna 4 unveiled today

Filed under: Automobiles,Science,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 10:12 am
Nuon solar challenge 4

Today in Delft, South Holland (and hopefully with some sun) the unveiling of the Nuna 4 solar-powered car (see the car here) will take place, an event open to all.

The team designed a whole new solar-powered car in order to meet new rules of the World Solar Challenge: less solar cells on the car, the driver needed to be sitting up straight and security measures were tightened. In short, this new car is the first step towards an actual solar-powered car that is more like an ordinary car.

Oh, and the Delft University of Technology is looking for its fourth win in a row.

The Nuna 4 was designed and built by 11 enthousiastic students from the Delft University of Technology, who will be leaving for Australia this summer for the World Solar Challenge, the world championship of solar-powered cars, held from 21 to 28 October.

The unveiling will take place at 16:25 at the field in front of the Delft University of Technology on the Mekelweg for anyone in the neighbourhood.

(Link: TU Delft)

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June 25, 2007

Dutch films arrive 34 years later

Filed under: Film,Weird by Orangemaster @ 2:15 pm
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After 34 years, educational films about the Netherlands arrived at the Holland museum in the town of Holland, Michigan. The first box contained the English language educational films “Jan: Boy of the Netherlands”, “Rotterdam Europort: gateway to Europe” and “The Netherlands: blueprint of an urban society”. The second box contained the Dutch films “Zeilen en Holland: terra fertilis”. According to the manager of the local post office, someone found the boxes and finally decided to post them.

The boxes were sent to Michigan in 1973 by the University of Wisconsin and the University of Texas. Both universities had borrowed the films from the Netherlands Information Service (now the Holland museum), which existed from 1936 to 1974 in the town of Holland, founded by Dutch immigrants.

(Link: Bisnis)

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June 24, 2007

Famous Dutch biologist faces jail time

Filed under: Animals,General by Orangemaster @ 11:57 am
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Dutch monkey researcher Marc van Roosmalen faces 14 years in a Brazilian prison. He has been convicted of failing to apply for a licence for the monkey refuge at his home in the Amazon region of Brazil. Mr Van Roosmalen, hailed in 2000 by Time Magazine as a “hero for the planet”, is appealing against the sentence. Living and working for years in the Amazon, he has discovered several new species of monkey, one of which reminded him of Prince Bernhard. He named it “Callicebus Bernhardi” and five years ago he visited Soestdijk Palace to inform the now dearly departed prince in person.

Bert de Boer, director of Apenheul, a zoo and conservation organisation in Apeldoorn, Gelderland describes Mr Van Roosmalen as “A great conservationist.” He suspects that big companies have bribed the government to act against the vociferous biologist.

(Link: Radio Netherlands)

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June 22, 2007

Bike thieves get lucky in Nijmegen

Filed under: Bicycles,General by Orangemaster @ 9:16 am
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Police in Nijmegen, Gelderland started catching bike thieves using a bike with a transmitter on it. Problem is, within two weeks the bike disappeared and problably ended up in the Waal river. The test using a second hand ‘bait’ bike with a GPS transmitter started at the end of May. Although they actually caught three bike thieves so far, the bike eventually disappeared and that is how the story ends.

(Link: De Pers)

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June 21, 2007

The caterpillars come marching one by one

Filed under: Animals,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 10:45 pm
caterpillar11.jpg

Although quite common in the southernmost province of Limburg as well as in Belgium, for the first time ever processionary caterpillars have been spotted in the Kralingse Bos, a forest in the middle of the city of Rotterdam. In Belgium, they even got the army to combat these caterpillars whose hairs can give people rashes and make them itch. As of tomorrow, the city of Rotterdam will start killing the critters, although they are few in rank. Due to the warm weather, they decided to go North.

(Link: Blik op nieuws)

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June 20, 2007

Bike spotting

Filed under: Bicycles,Design,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:13 am

weirdbike

Spotted in Vondelpark, Amsterdam in view of everyone yesterday, this odd bicycle attracted a lot of attention. The fact someone was filming could indicate that it is a rare breed of bike even by Dutch standards. It looks like someone took apart a bike and put it back in a completely different way. If anyone knows more, please tell us about it!

UPDATE: Thanks to Lola Granola (Heeey Bloom County, cool), I see that the man in the photo is the inventor, Michael Killian from Dublin.

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