May 25, 2010

First Dutch online bicycle manufacturer

Filed under: Bicycles,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 11:52 am
Pink bike

Tulpfietsen.nl sells sturdy city bikes online that clients can design themselves, like mix and match outfits. (Here, just a picture of a totally unrelated cute, pink bike). The bikes are delivered within one week and are put together at your place, live. Tulpfietsen will also give you a free tune-up after four months.

For every bike sold Tulpfietsen will donate 2 euro to the 1WE Rickshaw Project, which offers rickshaw drivers in Bangladesh the opportunity to buy a fixed-up rickshaw with a microcredit.

(Link: zibb.nl)

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April 27, 2010

Shocking and stopping pirates from boarding

Filed under: Design,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 4:57 pm

Lodewijk Westerbeek van Eerten invented an anti-pirate system called ‘P-Trap’. Two booms are attached to the flank of large ships that have invisible electric ropes that hang in the water. The idea is that the pirate ships cannot board the bigger ships as their motor gets caught and shocked in the ropes. Then get dragged to wherever the boat is going unless they jump ship, which is highly unlikely.

Westerbeek van Eerten, who calls himself an inventive businessman and not an inventor in all Dutch modesty, says “this anti-piracy system dissuades pirates from boarding sea going vessels.” The Royal Dutch marine has tested the P-Trap, calling it an excellent invention. Hiring armed guards is very pricy as compared to installing the P-Trap. And since we always want to know the price of things in the Netherlands, it is 50,000 to 75,000 euro for a P-Trap as compared to 120,000 euro for armed guards. The latter doesn’t guarantee pirates won’t board you, either.

(Link: depers.nl)

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April 13, 2010

Very Short Film Festival now also in Amsterdam

Filed under: Dutch first,Film by Orangemaster @ 11:59 am
affiche

For the first time ever Amsterdam will be one of the cities hosting the 11th edition of the Very Short Film Festival, featuring movies of less than three minutes, without titles and credits. On 8 and 9 May, the CREA in Amsterdam will play host to all kinds of movies, chosen for their originality, boldness, sense of humour, generosity and even bad taste. The festival has always been very francophone in nature, but this year films are being shown in and from countries such as The Netherlands, Brazil, Hungary, Moldavia, Israel, Romania, Singapore, Serbia, Palestine and the United Kingdom.

In the spirit of ‘Zoek de Nederlander’ (Find the Dutch person), Alix over at drooderfiets tells me that the Public’s Award of the fifth edition went to a Dutch short by Jeroen Annokkeé called ‘Road Kill’.

Road Kill

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Short Films | Existential Crisis

(Link: Very Short)

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March 12, 2010

First ever Dutch beaver tunnel opens

Filed under: Animals,Architecture,Dutch first,Nature by Orangemaster @ 5:08 pm
beaver

Driving down the Dutch highway I have seen overpasses for deers and I have heard of frog overpasses and tunnels, but this is a first for me too: the very first beaver tunnel in the country.

Yes, as of today, the wee village of Panheel (189 villagers) in Limburg has opened a 30-metre-long tube, 70 centimetres in diameter so that beavers don’t wobble down a busy street and get turned into road pizza. Not only have many beavers died, but they damage cars when then do because they are bigger and bulkier than they look.

The people and animal lovers involved believe that other small woodland creatures will use this tunnel as well. It cost 40,000 euro and was paid with contributions as well as tax money.

I have only respect for beavers, and OK, this one is darn cute. I spent part of my youth at summer camp tearing down their dams only to see them fully rebuilt days later. It was either portaging (carrying a canoe over your head because of lack of water or obstacles), with two 9-year-old girls lifting an aluminium canoe of 45 kg over their heads with backpacks for 2 kilometers through the woods being eaten by mosquitoes or tearing down a beaver dam that grows back like weeds and canoe on the water like normal kids.

(Link: nrc.nl, Photo of beaver by stevehdc, some rights reserved)

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February 15, 2010

Stef Bos wins South African prize

Filed under: Dutch first,Music by Orangemaster @ 10:22 am

On February 6th, Dutch singer Stef Bos was awarded a prize in Pretoria, South Africa for his contribution to the Afrikaans language and music. It was the first time ever that a foreigner has received such an award.

His new CD ‘Kloofstraat’ which will be out in March will have songs that are almost completely written in Afrikaans, a language Stef must speak quite well since he lives half the year in Cape Town. The rest of the year he lives in Antwerp, Belgium, as do many Dutch people.

Here’s Stef Bos singing his first Dutch hit from 1990, ‘Papa’ that seems to be a classic song dedicated to fathers.

(Links: radio.nl, stefbos.nl)

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February 4, 2010

Students design freight bicycle

Filed under: Bicycles,Dutch first,General by Orangemaster @ 12:45 pm

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Here’s a fine Dutch example of necessity being the mother of invention. Two students from Delft University of Technology designed a delivery tricycle (‘bakfiets’) that acts as a moving van. It is powered by two people pedaling in front of the load carrying box as opposed to one person pedaling behind it. The idea is that it’s perfect to move students from one flat to another, couch and all, without having to use a car. “My parents had to drive 200 km to help me move a couch 2 km down the road,” explains Onno Sminia, one of the designers. In other words, very ineffective.

Onno Sminia and his friend Louis Pierre Geerinckx already found their first client: the City of Delft. The ‘vrachtfiets’ (‘freight bicycle’) was unveiled on 3 February and pedaled around town full of big furniture.

These lads are off to a good start when they finished their studies this summer.

(Link and image: idealize.nl)

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January 8, 2010

Wanted Dutch criminal already in jail

Filed under: Dutch first,Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:13 am
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“One of the Netherlands’ eight most wanted criminals has turned out to be in jail in Belgium since 2008. To the embarrassment of the Dutch justice authorities, the fact that man is serving a 10-year sentence there only became known after they had released their ‘most wanted’ list.”

Seven more to go!

A few days ago, there was a whole discussion about whether publishing the list was a good idea, the pros, the cons (darn those puns) and the usual round table discussion that fuels evening television in the Netherlands. The irony was that releasing a list of eight heavy duty criminals was a first and the goal was to let the public help.

I can picture it now. After not having received any info in 2007 from Belgium on the whereabouts of this bad man once he was off the Dutch radar, some employee checked off the box ‘AWOL’ or something and that was that. Somehow, the bad man landed in jail in Belgium and no information was given on that and the box ‘AWOL’ remained checked. Don’t you just love this European Union thing sometimes.

(Link: rnw.nl, Photo of Schie prison by Miek37, some rights reserved)

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December 31, 2009

Orangemaster’s favourite postings of 2009

Filed under: Dutch first,General,Literature,Music,Sports,Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:35 am

This year it’s my turn to do a list of top stories we’ve featured.

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December 30, 2009

First ever homosexual wedding fair in Amsterdam

Filed under: Dutch first,Fashion by Orangemaster @ 1:16 pm
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While the first ever Latin American same-sex couple recently got married in Argentina and another one got arrested for doing so in Malawi, Amsterdam will hold its first ever wedding fair for gays and lesbians on February 14, Valentine’s Day 2010. The fair will feature some 50 stands at the Westergasfabriek in West Amsterdam. Already married same-sex couples can visit the fair for free upon showing their marriage certificate.

Since 1st April 2001 gays and lesbians have been allowed to marry in the Netherlands and it was the first country to allow same-sex marriages.

(Link: depers.nl, Photo of Gay flag in Amsterdam by Remon Rijper, some rights reserved)

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December 9, 2009

Rembrandt rings up record price

Filed under: Art,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 11:12 am

A painting entitled ‘Portrait of a man, half-length, with his arms akimbo’ by Rembrandt, which has not been seen in public for nearly 40 years sold at Christie’s auction house in London for a record € 22.3 mln on Tuesday 9 December according to our Dutch source, while other sources, including British paper The Guardian quotes it at € 20.2 mln. Either way, it’s a record. “It was painted during one of Rembrandt’s most artistically inventive periods, and is believed to be one of only two of the artist’s paintings from 1658 in existence.” It was also sold when he went bankrupt.

(Links: dutchnews.nl, www.guardian.co.uk)

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