July 24, 2007

Follow detour signs, not your GPS

Filed under: Automobiles,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 2:56 pm
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The city of Roermond, Limburg has placed six warning signs telling lorry drivers to follow the detour signs and not their navigation system. Foreign lorry drivers regularly get their vehicles stuck trusting their navigation system, which does not tell them which streets are closed off due to road works on the A73, N280-Oost and N293. These symbols were chosen so that foreigners can understand them. The word ‘attentie’ looks like the English ‘attention’ and the Italian ‘attenzione’. The word ‘omleiding’ (‘detour’) is also used because that is what it says on the actual detour signs.

And so the city has to wait and see if it actually works.

(Link: De Limburger, Gemeente Roermond)

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July 23, 2007

Need kid? Adopt an embryo

Filed under: Dutch first,Science by Orangemaster @ 9:31 am
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Can’t conceive? Couples will soon be able to knock on the door of the Medisch Centrum Kinderwens in Leiderdorp, South Holland to adopt an embryo. Two couples have already agreed to give up their frozen embryos, left over from IVF attempts. According to director and gynaecologist Marinus Crooij, his clinic is the first in the Netherlands to offer this type of adoption. A woman simply becomes the surrogate of her adoptive child.

Giving away embryos in the Netherlands is not forbidden, but does not happen very often. The Embryo Act says donors may not remain anonymous and their details must be registered with the Stichting Donorregistratie, the Dutch donor registry. “When a child is 16, they have the right to know who their ‘genetic’ parents are. Not everyone agrees with this”, explains Crooij. In Great Britain and the US this type of adoption is already common place. “If you accept adoption, you have to accept this as well. It is comparable. Moreover, these children are wanted from the very start, which is not the case with ordinary adoption.”

(Link: Gerderlander)

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July 19, 2007

New Dutch car brand: Hansen

Filed under: Automobiles,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 8:59 pm
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After Donkervoort, Carver and Spyker, the Netherlands now has a new car maker, Hansen. Founder Giel Hansen plans to build real sports cars without all the fancy electronics. As well, they are also working hard on a custom built car, designed by Ernesto Freitas of Portugal. The car will be road ready as well as suitable for race circuits. Hansen is currently working on a first test car, which will debut this winter. Five cars will be built for a price of EUR 225,000 excluding taxes.

(Link: zibb)

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July 18, 2007

Label for fake images in Dutch magazines

Filed under: Dutch first,Film,General by Orangemaster @ 12:06 pm
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After the eye-opening success of Sunny Bergman’s documentary ‘Beperkt Houdbaar’ (‘Limited Preservation’) about the unrealistic beauty ideal of women in the media, seven Dutch magazines will each publish one issue in September in which every picture will be labelled as being ‘Photoshopped’ or not. The magazines Viva, Playboy, Yes, Top Santé, Psychologie Magazine, Marie-Claire and Opzij are taking on Bergman’s challenge. One of Bergman’s key points was that ‘Photoshopped’ images contribute to this unrealistic ideal.

For those unfamiliar with Dutch magazines, please note that a notorious girlie magazine (Playboy) as well as a feminist magazine (Opzij) are part of the seven. In Bergman’s documentary, Playboy was pointed out as perpetrating an unrealistic image of women’s labia majora, which has resulted in an increase in plastic surgery to have one’s ‘lips’ match these ‘Photoshopped’ images. In the documentary, Bergman herself visits an American plastic surgeon who tells her she “needs the works”.

(Link: rtl)

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July 12, 2007

New fashion museum in Amsterdam

Filed under: Art,Design,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 10:57 am
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Yes, it was opened a month ago, but sometimes good news travels slowly. The Museum of Bags and Purses opened its doors on 9 June 2007 and features a collection ranging from the 16th century to the present. The museum’s collection is very diverse and consists of more than 3,500 bags, pouches, suitcases, purses and accessories. The museum is recognized as one of the eight most important fashion museums in the world, so they say.

(Link: Tassenmuseum, via LA Times)

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July 4, 2007

Sending a kiss into space

Filed under: Art,Dutch first,Science by Orangemaster @ 11:11 am
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The Delft University of Technology is planning to send a satellite into space with a kiss on the outside of it. The launch of the Delfi-C3 will be the first Dutch artwork to make a journey through space. The plan for the Kiss in Space Search Mission was developed together with artist Niek Verschoor. The human kiss will travel through space at a speed of 27,000 km/h. The satellite will be launched into space in September from the space centre on the island of Sriharikota in India.

(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
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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 16, 2007

Job Cohen honoured in Canada

Filed under: Dutch first,General by Orangemaster @ 9:48 am
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Yesterday Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen received an honorary Doctor of Common Laws degree from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. Cohen received this distinction because he was the first mayor to perform a same-sex marriage in 2001. He had presided over the necessary legislation only months earlier while serving in the Ministry of Justice. In 2005, Cohen was named one of Time Magazine’s European Heroes for his position on the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim extremist in November 2004. Cohen rallied the citizens of Amsterdam – Muslim and non-Muslim – to condemn the murder and called for unity and tolerance in the wake of the racial tensions that followed the incident. Led by Cohen, citizens of the traditionally liberal city protested in the streets in outrage over the attack and Cohen was credited with diffusing a situation ripe with racial and religious violence into one of dialogue and social progress.

(Link: rtl, University of Windsor)

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June 14, 2007

Dutch first: pee-separating toilets

Filed under: Dutch first,General,Science by Orangemaster @ 1:33 pm
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In the new Maasziekenhuis (hospital) in Boxmeer, Noord-Brabant specially designed toilet bowls that separate urine from water have been installed in order to keep hormones and medication out of the Maas river. This also means that men have to pee sitting down, as the bowls are fitted with the usual flush mecanism, but have a hole on the inside to catch pee. Aiming is required.

This is the first time in the Netherlands that urine is treated this way.

(Link: Omroep Brabant)

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June 11, 2007

Three unknown Mondriaan paintings discovered

Filed under: Art,Dutch first,General,History by Orangemaster @ 9:21 am
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Three unknown works by Dutch painter Piet Mondriaan were recently discovered at an appraisal in France. The oil paintings are not listed in the 1998 works catalogue.

The three paintings are ‘Hooimijt achter een rij bomen’ (‘Hay stack behind a row of trees’, seen here), ‘Irissen tegen een rode achtergrond’ (‘Irisses against a red background’) and ‘Boerenhoeve door bomen omringd’ (‘Farm house surrounded by trees’). The discovery was made by Amsterdam art dealer Dolf van Omme, who obtained the paintings through the heritage of a collector.

The authenticity of the works was confirmed by specialists. They are not signed, but then Mondriaan did not sign his paintings very often. Van Omme is selling one of the paintings for EUR 100,000, while the other two will be given back to the owner.

(Link: RTL, Photo: Dolf van Omme)

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