May 5, 2010

Castle Loevestein needs new castle watchers

Filed under: Architecture,General by Orangemaster @ 6:11 am
Loevestein

Slot Loevestein is looking for new castle watchers (or just one, but two works better I presume), as the couple currently acting as such, as well as running the bed & breakfast on the grounds, is retiring.

This 14th century castle used to be a prison, and one of its most famous inmates was lawyer, poet and politician Hugo de Groot (Hugo Grotius) often protrayed as the ‘father of modern international law’. In 1621 Hugo de Groot pulled off a very cool escape in a book chest, an idea he got from his wife, Maria van Reigersberg who was living in the castle, albeit probably not locked up.

(Link: rtl.nl, Photo of Castle Loevestein by StimpsonJCat, some rights reserved)

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May 4, 2010

Television sets stolen from prison

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 10:54 am

Last month, unknown burglars stole televisions sets from prison cells in Hoorn — twice. The prisoners of Het Keern were on leave, and the second time around the burglars seem to have disabled the alarm.

The justice department suspects an inside job, Telegraaf writes.

Het Keern is a low security prison for inmates who are about to be released.

(Photo by Ken Mayer, some rights reserved)

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May 3, 2010

Fighting aggression against public service employees

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 11:15 am

Public service employees in the Netherlands face aggression and violence on the streets more and more often. Onlookers unfortunately do not intervene often enough when they encounter a situation like this. A live interactive billboard in Amsterdam and Rotterdam is used to place people in a similar situation witch confronts them with their inactivity.

This huge billboard has been placed on the Rembrandtplein in Amsterdam recently, an area with many bars and cafés that are busy and very populated. According to many media reports, there has been an increase of violence against public service employees such as tram and bus drivers, but also, as shown in the film, paramedics.

I think it’s safe to say that many people do not know what to do when they are confronted with violence besides calling the emergency number 112 and/or running away. Intervening physically or verbally will get you hurt, as there have been enough stabbings and deaths related to trying to stop violence. It’s also much easier to snap a picture with your mobile phone, but no one wants to get caught doing that if their flash goes off.

Yes, it is sad that people have been known to do nothing, but again, although I have intervened and called 112, I wouldn’t do it either if I were to get beaten for it.

(Link tip, thanks AJ!)

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May 2, 2010

Navy uses small boats to capture pirates closer to Somali coast

Filed under: Design,General by Branko Collin @ 2:53 pm

Hr.Ms. Johan de Witt has captured two so-called whalers off the Somali coast last week. Whalers are “pirate motherships,” as Radio Netherlands says they are called, forward operating bases from which other pirate vessels are launched.

By using the troop transporter Johan de Witt, the Dutch navy is mimicking the pirates’ tactics: using a forward operating base from which to launch small vessels, in this case landing craft.

(Note the Obama flash light on the pirate vessel.)

By the way, what do you think of the ‘new’ logo (2000) of the Ministry of Defence (right)? On the one hand I feel it is boldly modern, on the other hand it doesn’t have the don’t-mess-with-us quality that the lions, eagles, swords and shields of yesteryear had. Bold, in other words, but the wrong kind of bold.

(Source photo: Ministry of Defence. In the photo one of the whalers is brought in by a landing craft.)

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May 1, 2010

Queen’s Day 2010: friendly and fun

Filed under: Food & Drink,Gaming,General,Literature,Photography by Orangemaster @ 11:07 am
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Queen’s Day in Amsterdam’s West and Old South districts was not too crowded and full of excellent finds on the outdoor market. I thought people were a tad friendlier than usually, it could be this crisis is bringing us a bit closer, who knows. It was also nice to run into friends as well, some selling, some buying and some joining us for food and drinks.

Although it was a bit rainy during the day and cold (10 degrees when the day before was 20), the sun finally popped out and 24oranges went out to enjoy the day and prepare our annual Queen’s Day photo report. First, the lady at the bakery pointed out that the Dutch eclair-like cakes as well as her ‘tompouces’ here above were made by hand.

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The city’s major park, Vondelpark, is traditionally overrun by children selling and buying as well as playing music for coins and doing tricks and the likes. And after years of watching hordes wear those inflatable crowns, I finally walked by the people on the street of the lottery company who hands these things out and scored me one too.

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Although quickly pointed out as a traditional Dutch game, sjoelbak is apparently of British origin, but the Dutch have their own take on it.

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There were people selling all kinds of stuff: the usual houselhold knickknacks, darkroom equipment, clothes, records, books, you name it. And that’s still not the best part. At the end of the day, people place a lot of unsold items on the kerb for rubbish and then it’s free digging time, which can even be better than the stuff you bought during the day.

We saved some LPs and books from destruction this year and we noticed that so much was properly cleaned up, due to the city’s street cleaners’ strike. Maybe that has do to the classier neighbourhoods we were in as well.

In this last picture of women checking out handbags, you can play spot the 24oranges blogger.

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April 30, 2010

Trains in Amsterdam stopped because of people walking on the tracks

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 9:03 pm

Rail traffic around Amsterdam was halted this afternoon because party-goers were walking on the tracks, presumably because authorities decided to vacate Amsterdam Sloterdijk station for unclear reasons. Today is the Netherlands’ national holiday, Queen’s Day.

More Queen’s Day reporting tomorrow.

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April 28, 2010

Residential home bins handicapped people’s voting passes

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 8:25 am

Last year, the Netherlands Supreme Court ruled that the mentally challenged who had a legal guardian are legally allowed to vote. However, in a report published by the Dutch association for care to the handicapped, the secretarial offices of residential homes rip up or throw out the voting passes. The association’s assumption is that employees do not know what to do with the passes because the actual voting is problematic. People with a physical disability are legally allowed to get help in the voting booth, but not the mentally challenged. An older man determined to vote explains that his voting pass goes to the headquarters of the residential home and not to his address. He has had to fight to make sure his pass is not thrown out to be able to vote.

Oh and electronic voting got scrapped back in 2007 for all kinds of security reasons, which probably doesn’t help, either.

(Link: trouw.nl)

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April 21, 2010

Taxi driver gets two years for killing client

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 10:41 pm

A taxi driver at the busy Amsterdam taxi stand Leidseplein was sentenced to two years in jail instead of the usual four for murder for beating a client, leading to his death (manslaughter). Last year, the taxi driver beat the man to death over the price of a cab ride. He dealt a deadly blow by going all amateur Jean Claude Van Damme on the man with his kickboxing. The court had asked for three years, but it turned into two and public opinion knows that if he’s nice he’ll get out even sooner, hence the commotion. This violent man has been in court before for threatening and assaulting three girls in 2007.

To give you some background, the taxi market in Amsterdam was liberalised a few years ago, out of town taxis were allowed to come and work in Amsterdam with little or no knowledge of the city and the situation is a general mess for honest taxi drivers and clients like me who need a cab at 3 am because I am carrying DJ equipment that won’t fit on my bicycle. There are many incidents, but this is really bad. The city of Amsterdam should really do something, but we don’t currently have a mayor and politics aren’t touching difficult issues until June.

As well, there is a constant claim that judges are too soft on sentencing in general, but I can’t judge (pardon the pun) if that is the case.

Back in October 2008 in Nijmegen, Gelderland, a 31-year-old taxi driver ran over a 29-year-old man because he refused to pay his taxi driver colleague.

(Link: spitsnieuws.nl)

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April 18, 2010

The other ‘Anne Frank’ houses

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 12:08 pm

The Anne Frank House is called Het Achterhuis in Dutch, the apartment in the back, simply because that is what it was. The andereachterhuizen.nl website has collected 30 stories of other hiding places of Jewish refugees in World War II.

For instance, the story of Johan Sanders, who was separated from his parents and sisters. When he once met his sisters on the street, naturally he smiled. The other kids, not knowing the real deal, yelled that “ha ha, Johan van den Berk is in love with Lenie Vissermans.”

“That had a real impact on me.”

The people in these stories were hiding at one of 42 addresses. They received warmth or beatings. They were in the city or the countryside, alone or with others. They were in hiding or were not. They had to pay a lot, or nothing at all. They were treated like equals or as slaves. They were betrayed or not.

(The site is entirely in Dutch. Via Trendbeheer)

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April 12, 2010

Bed and breakfast at former madam’s

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 2:37 pm

Xaviera Hollander is a former New York call-girl and madam who got world famous with her autobiography The Happy Hooker. Nowadays she runs a bed and breakfast from her villa in the posh part of Amsterdam (right around my corner, although I live in the ‘poor’ part of the posh part).

She has two rooms on offer and a chalet in the back yard, the cheapest for 100 euro, and there is a sort of half-promise of being entertained by the ‘author, Penthouse columnist, legend, performer, [and] raconteur’ Xaviera Hollander herself. If you like, you can let her husband Philip cook you dinner.

(Source image: xavierahollander.com)

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