May 5, 2007

Find it yourself

Filed under: Food & Drink,General by Orangemaster @ 11:15 am
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The employees of Dutch supermarket C-1000 have compiled a list of the items that are the most difficult to find in their supermarkets and placed it on their hyve, according to personnel magazine, Club1000. Interestingly enough, in most stores, the same products are difficult to find.

Top 5:
1. Cocktail toothpicks
2. Toasts
3. Salt
4. Corn Starch
5. Eggs

A note to foreigners:
1. There are no signs in Dutch stores to give you a general idea of where products can be found.
2. If you ask the staff, they point, but won’t bring you to the product (In North America, they are taught to bring you to the product – it increases the chance of a sale).
3. Every store of the same chain has a different layout, as buildings differ greatly.
4. And stores stock up during opening hours (!), especially on Saturday when it’s busy, and cannot be bothered to help you then.

In a C1000 in Delft, I found sardines with the Indonesian products. Why? Because the sardines were from outside the EU. The ‘normal’ sardines were from Britain with the tuna and salmon, but the ones I found were from Canada. Very logical.

(Link: zibb.nl)

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May 4, 2007

DJ Tiësto opens his own restaurant

Filed under: Food & Drink,Music by Orangemaster @ 5:57 pm
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In June, world-famous DJ Tiësto will be opening his own restaurant on the Reguliersbreestraat in Amsterdam. DJ Tiësto (we’ll call him Thijs) loves cooking as well as spinning records. The restaurant will name the dishes according to his greatest hits, so you can order a ‘Flight 643’ and a ‘Traffic’. The chef is not yet known, but apparently he is very creative.

(Link: Blik op nieuws)

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Oldest Dutch chimp turns 50

Filed under: Animals by Orangemaster @ 9:24 am
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Mama, the oldest Dutch chimp in the Netherlands, turned 50 yesterday. She is already a great-grandmother and helps settle fights between many younger, fighting males. The Burgers’s Zoo in Arnhem is the first zoo in Europa that let chimpanzees live together in a group, something that was never allowed because biologists were afraid that they would fight and contract diseases. Mama is world-famous. Many biologists have written about her behaviour and social intelligence. She is still very healthy.

(Link: RTL Nieuws)

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May 3, 2007

Dutch scientist receives prize for wastewater system

Filed under: Science,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 10:33 am
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Dutch scientist Gatze Lettinga has been awarded the Tyler Environmental Prize for a wastewater treatment system that is making an impact in the developing world. The process offers inexpensive treatment of industrial waste and sewage in countries that cannot afford centralised systems. The system was developed for agricultural industries in the Netherlands and is currently used in industrial installations around the world. Lettinga refuses to patent the system in order for it to be freely available throughout the developing world. He wants sustainable systems like this to become the norm.

(Link)

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May 2, 2007

Naked antics in Amsterdam

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 1:16 pm
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Last Tuesday night, two men climbed into a hoist vehicle and stripped. The neighbours got annoyed and called the police and fire brigade, who couldn’t get them down because the hoist vehicle’s controls didn’t work. The rescue services were called, a ladder was extended and the two men were brought down safely. The men were extremely ungrateful and aggressive towards the rescuers, who calmed them down with a faceful of pepper spray. Then one man jumped into the canal and the firemen got him out with a boat. Both were arrested for being drunk, stoned and disorderly.

(Link)

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May 1, 2007

Din din with the A-Team

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 12:11 pm
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Can’t get enough of A-Team reruns on Dutch television? There’s always Dinner With Hollywood Stars on 12 May at the Dutch Star Con event, held at the Best Western Hotel de Druiventros in Berkel-Enschot near Tilburg in Noord-Brabant. Hollywood stars such as Billy Boyd from Lord Of The Rings, Dirk Benedict from the A-Team and the original Battlestar Galactica, Dwight Schultz from the A-Team and Star Trek The Next Generation, and Mira Furlan from Lost and oddly enough not mentioned in the link, Babylon 5. They’ll be signing sessions and they’ll be some Q&A.

Notice how 24oranges also used a picture of Mr T. from the A-Team even though he won’t be attending. Is he really afraid to fly?

Link

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April 30, 2007

Happy Queen’s Day!

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 9:13 am
Party oranges

On the orangiest holiday of the year, we at 24oranges are taking the day off. Back tomorrow!

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April 28, 2007

Single mom with 10 kids terrorises neighbourhood

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:29 am
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Women in the former USSR used to get a medal for cranking out lots of kids and women in Qu&#233bec, Canada would finally be left alone by the priest after about 10 for fulfilling their Catholic duty. But in the neighbourhood of Slotervaart in the west of Amsterdam, one woman’s 10 kids have been wreaking havoc for 9 years and counting. The children enjoy breaking and entering, stealing, arson and defecating in entrance halls of other people’s flats. It’s so bad that three families have already moved away. About 10 different help organisations work with the family, but it’s not helping, even though the house was renovated, the mother was taught how to clean her house and make sandwiches for her children.

Mayor Job Cohen was even asked to intervene, but he can’t do much. He says that even if the family were to be moved, the problems would just move as well. The owner of the block of flats has run out of patience and wants the children to be placed in foster homes.

(Link)

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April 27, 2007

Dutch humour at work not a big hit

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 11:38 am
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It appears that major European managers do not appreciate Dutch humour. Only 4% of top managers think the Dutch are funny, according to this year’s UPS Europe Business Monitor. Some 1,450 top managers from seven European countries gave their opnion.

British humour came out on top. Some 34% of Belgians, French, Germans, Italians, Dutch, Spanish and British found the British the funniest. Interestingly enough, the biggest fans of British humour are the Brits themselves, as 59% chose their fellow countrymen. The Dutch and Germans aren’t funny, and the least funny of all are the Danish, Austrians and Swedes.

(Link)

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April 26, 2007

PSV coach Ronald Koeman up for grabs

Filed under: Sports,Weird by Orangemaster @ 1:06 pm
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Dutch bidding site Marktplaats.nl just removed an advert selling Ronald Koeman, the coach of Dutch football team PSV. A fan put him up for sale or trade against a better trainer. People who responded quickly could get assistant trainers Jan Wouters and Tonny Bruins Slot thrown in for free. Two years ago, Ruud Gullit, former trainer of the Dutch football team Feyenoord, was placed on sale on eBay because of his poor performance.

(Link)

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