January 12, 2012

First ever national advert entirely in Frisian

Filed under: Automobiles,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 10:26 am

While this coffee advert is mostly in Frisian, with model Doutzen Kroes speaking her native language, the one below claims to be the first ever advert shown on national television that is entirely in Frisian, a language spoken by roughly 400,000 people in the Netherlands. The whole idea of the company saying they speak their client’s language is taken literally, as they cast a real Frisian-speaking employee for this one. He’s not as smooth as his Dutch counterparts, but he’s less plastic fantastic.

The online comments about this advert include, ‘no matter which language it’s still irritating’, ‘Friesland rules!’, ‘Fantastic idea, other dialects too’, ‘stupid Frisians, they should speak Dutch’, ‘keep that crap on Frisian television’ and a whole lot more of good and bad (racist?) comments. In other words, people are talking about it, and that’s good in TV land.

(Link: www.automobielmanagement.nl)

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December 30, 2011

Dutch astronaut André Kuipers wears Heerlen space watch

Filed under: Design,Dutch first,General by Orangemaster @ 6:06 pm

The watch Dutch astronaut André Kuipers is currently wearing in space was specially designed and made for him by watchmaker Roland Oostwegel from Heerlen, which is positive news from a city that has had to tear down an entire shopping mall right before Christmas for fear of collapse.

The watch bears the name R.O.1 SPACE Special Edition (pics) and will stay five months in space at the ISS on Kuipers’ wrist. It is the first-ever Dutch watch to go into space. I love how the second watch has a number four that looks like the capital Russian letter ‘d’ (Д).

When Kuipers met Oostwegel he told him about how astronauts lose their sense of time. Oostwegel then decided to create a watch for astronauts to solve this problem, with a mission counter that displays the elapsed mission time in days and weeks, and an extra sub dial for when the space ship has made one full lap around planet Earth in 91 minutes and 59 seconds.

Price for the stainless steel limited edition starts at 4900 euro.

(Link: limburger.nl, www.fratellowatches.com, Photo of a telescope at the Brunssummerheide (‘Brunssum heather’) in Heerlen)

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December 18, 2011

The teenage watchmaker

Filed under: Design,Dutch first by Branko Collin @ 3:48 pm

In a way Mick Mooren is a typical teenager. He has a got a typical teenager’s room at his parents’ house with the highsleeper bed and the posters adorning the wall.

But the posters hint that there is more to Mick. They are posters of watches, and Mick is a 19-year-old watchmaker from Venray in the North of Limburg. And this year he became a watch manufacturer as well.

The first watch that Mooren is producing himself is the New Vintage and is available in black/orange and white/orange. It will set you back a cool 840 euro.

Mick’s back story is worth reading in itself. His watchmaking career was propelled earlier this year when he took on the restoration of a classic 1973 Zenith El Primero chronograph, a watch that doubles as a stopwatch. He wrote about the restoration process in detail over at Watchuseek.com. Although the son of a goldsmith and nephew of a watchmaker, Mick did not take up watchmaking until two years ago.

(Via BNR. Photo: moorenwatch.com)

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December 16, 2011

Lorrainville, an album that started with a game on Facebook

Filed under: Dutch first,Music,Online by Orangemaster @ 11:05 am

You had to pick a random article from Wikipedia, a random quote off the Internet and a random picture from Flickr and turn it into an album cover. Here’s the one that literally struck a chord with Dutch producer from Zwolle, Guido Aalbers. He got a whole group of musicians together to write songs and perform live, including singer Anneke van Giersbergen and guitarist Erik Neimeijer just for this one-off project. Last night they played their one and only sold out gig at the Hedon in Zwolle, which I was lucky enough to attend. The room was so full that the doors of the concert hall were left open and the audience spilled into the bar area! The whole show was streamed live on Facebook as well.

Listen to Lorrainville – You may never know what happiness is. (This link may not be up for too long, so go and listen now).

All the songs are in English and have a touch of Americana. English-language coach to the Dutch stars Buffi Duberman asked me if I could help her get some sort of letter of recognition from the wee village of Lorrainville (pop. 560) in Québec and we managed to get the Québec Delegation in Brussels to write up a formal letter in Dutch to recognize this unique album, which was given to Guido Aalbers during the show.

If you Google Lorrainville today, you’ll get the album before the actual village! Read all about Lorrainville.

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November 25, 2011

Banner vending machine world premiere at Schiphol airport

Filed under: Dutch first,General by Orangemaster @ 4:46 pm

A Facebook friend of mine just tried out the new banner vending machine at Schiphol airport to decorate a colleague’s desk for when she comes back on Monday. Nope, she’s not on Facebook, so it’ll be a surprise.

The banner vending machine is billed as a world premiere, or at least the first ever installed in an airport. The vending machine can be used in English, Dutch, Spanish, French and German, and offer three products: a name board (3.95 euro), banner (9.95 euro) and a big banner (14.95 euro).

The demo woman made a Welcome Home (why in English?) with windmills and clog trimmings, which she then tried to give away to some Dutch person waiting for loved ones. The first man flatly refused, saying it wouldn’t be appreciated, while the second person thought it was odd. The entire outside lettering of the machine is in Dutch, which means it’s not really aimed at foreigners. You can only use bank card (maybe credit card), but not cash it seems from the video.

The banner vending machine seems like a great idea, but I for one was greeted by surprise at the airport two weeks ago coming back from Cork, Ireland with my roller derby team and I wouldn’t trade in their homemade signs for the world.

(Link: rnw.nl, Photos: Marie-Claude Falardeau-Dekker and Kirsten Gesink)

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October 16, 2011

Netherlands wins first ever baseball world cup

Filed under: Dutch first,Sports by Branko Collin @ 6:04 pm

The Dutch baseball team won the world cup in Panama last night.

Radio Netherlands reports:

The Netherlands baseball team has made history winning the World Cup final in Panama after beating Cuba 2-1. It is the first time a European team has won the title since Britain did in 1938.

The Dutch players and team staff celebrated their victory in the Rod Carew stadium in Panama City with dozens of fans. The Dutch embassy and consulate had invited some 200 people to witness the historic duel, team manager Tjerk Smeets said. An hour after the end of the game, he said, all the champagne was long gone, but they were still on the pitch celebrating with all the fans.

Edith Schippers, minister of Health, Welfare and Sport said according to De Stentor: “The baseball team added a golden chapter to the history of Dutch sports. This was a unique performance, both physically and mentally. If you manage to beat baseball super power Cuba twice in two days, you really are the best of the best. Baseball is just a small sport in the Netherlands, which is why this performance is truly impressive.”

Queen Beatrix has sent a telegram to the Dutch team congratulating them.

Algemeen Dagblad wrote that play was delayed because of rain: “The Oranje had Rob Cordemans on the mound. The almost-37-year-old from Schiedam has been a member of the team since 1995, but the highlight of his career was last Saturday. The Dutchman sent Cuban after Cuban packing with three strikes. […] He experienced troubles for the first time in the fourth inning when Frederich Cepeda reached third base.”

Cepeda would score 0-1. Sidney de Jong drew the Dutch alongside after a strike from Bryan Engelhardt, and Johan Schoop let Curt Smith score. Smith (25) was declared the most valuable player of the tournament by the International Baseball Federation, IBAF.

(Photo by John Martinez Pavliga, some rights reserved)

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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 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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June 30, 2011

Amsterdam roller derby team’s first ever bout

Filed under: Dutch first,Sports by Orangemaster @ 12:03 pm

Back in January, we told you how the originally American all-female sport roller derby was taking off in the Netherlands. Now, the Amsterdam Derby Dames, one of the Netherlands’ eight teams (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Enschede, Arnhem, Groningen and Limburg), will be playing its first ever bout (official competition) in Germany against the Devil Dolls Essen team of the Ruhrpott Roller Girls league.

The moment everyone has been waiting for has finally arrived: the Amsterdam Derby Dames will be playing their first official bout! Your dames are busy forming the first official team to represent the Amsterdam Derby Dames league and training hard. We’re so excited, we want to bring everyone along with us. Friends, family, loved ones, supporters, fans. We want you there! And what better way to get everyone there than to organize transportation for everyone? Well, that’s exactly what we would like to do.

There is a sign up form if you want to ride the ADD bus, but you absolutely have to fill in the form (form link here) so that they have an idea of how many people might be interested.

(Disclaimer: Orangemaster, aka Nasty Moves #76, is a member of the Amsterdam Derby Dames. Photo of mixed Dutch team scrimmage (unofficial competition) in Antwerp, Belgium)

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June 23, 2011

First ever coins with QR codes issued are Dutch

Filed under: Dutch first,General,Technology by Orangemaster @ 2:10 pm

The Netherlands is the first country in the world to issue coins that are legal tender with QR codes on them. The Royal Mint decided to celebrate the 100th year annivesary of the mint building with this unique coin. One side features a 3D portrait of Queen Beatrix and on the other, when scanned, goes to a special page created for the occasion, activated yesterday by the Queen.

Like many other people, we are wowed by the Dutch design coolness of the whole thing, but not really wowed by their web page. We do understand how cool it could be in the future to have QR codes used for educational purposes about coins and what is pictured on them.

The coin was designed by mint designer, Juan José Sánchez Castaño.

(Links and photo: dutchcowgirls.nl, dvice.com, q5g)

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