December 29, 2009

Grenades found with potatoes

Filed under: Food & Drink,General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:47 am
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Yesterday at the Farm Frites fries factory in Oudenhoorn, South Holland, three WWII grenades were harvested along with the potatoes. The cops were called in and the grenades were taken away. Oh no, wait. In Dutch fashion, they had a discussion about whether the grenades were dangerous or not.

One of the comments to this discovery is ‘patatje oorlog’, which literally means ‘war fries’ and is a junkfood dish of fries with all kinds of sauces that looks like war took place. Notice I don’t use the word ‘French’ with my fries simply because fries were never French, they were Flemish (Belgian) back in the day. And using ‘freedom’ to describe fries is for losers.

(Link: waarmaarraar, Photo of grenade by macspite, some rights reserved)

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December 22, 2009

‘Not being normal is disturbing to others’

Filed under: Art,General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:54 am
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The recently opened exhibition Niet Normaal (‘Not Normal’) Difference on Display features 80 works by major international artists who question normality, held in the famous Beurs van Berlage building downtown Amsterdam.

In an attempt to talk about something else than snow and trains, I failed with the latter. The NS (Dutch railways) has banned a poster picturing a nude sculpture by British artist Marc Quinn of a disabled athlete missing one upper arm and lower leg because they apparently feel that it is too confrontational and unfit for the public at large. What about all the horrible (by horrible, I mean just badly done) sexist, sexy, racist, boring, stupid and ugly posters? If those are normal, them I’m a proud freak in my own sane way.

So bravo ‘normal people’ of the Dutch railways, you’ve managed to tell the entire country that disabled people are not normal as well as being ‘offensive’ to look at even in picture form. Splendid marketing coup for the exhibition I guess.

(Link: nrc.nl, Photo of Mosaic by pink_fish13, some rights reserved)

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December 13, 2009

Collection of 2,400 ecstasy pills stolen

Filed under: Weird by Branko Collin @ 4:11 pm

When Jan from Eerbeek, Gelderland noticed last Thursday that his extensive ecstasy collection had been stolen, he immediately notified the police. Even though it is believed that the collection is illegal, the 46-year-old sounded the alarm because he fears some of the pills may be poisonous.

The man started his collection 20 years ago. The last 10 years he has hardly worked on it, according to an article in De Stentor. The collector, who tried ecstasy once but didn’t like it, hopes for clemency from the Department of Justice.

“It is a great pity I lost the collection. I would have liked to preserve it for the ages.”

Ecstasy pills are often colourful and come in a great variety of prints. BoingBoing moderator Arkizzle explains the magnitude of the loss of the collection of 2,400 pills:

Pill marks in illicit drug manufacturing are lovely ephemeral things, that come and go as the brand is made and fades. Drugs, obviously, don’t tend to get saved for posterity, so this collection was probably unique. Also, I understand that owning the stamping dies is legally akin to having forgery plates, so they are unlikely to be reproducible.

I once saw a fantastic exhibition of acid blotters in London; original and reprints. Lots of ‘Dead-style artwork, amongst cartoon characters and repeating geometric shapes.

(Photo: DEA. Link: Edmonton Sun / AP / Toby Sterling.)

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November 20, 2009

Skip the food, pass the cutlery

Filed under: Health,Science,Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:22 am
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If you can stomach it, have a look at x-rays showing a whole bunch of cutlery eaten by 52-year-old Margaret Daalman, a Dutch woman with an eating disorder called pica (I think it’s pica; oddly no one mentions it), which is an urge to eat non-food items. She ate 78 different items of cutlery and went to the hospital in Rotterdam with stomach pain. Although this happened some 30 years ago, the x-rays were apparently published for the first time this week in a Dutch medical magazine.

One of the most famous entertainers with pica (or just plain bonkers) was Michael Lotito aka Monsieur Mangetout (‘Mr Eat-it All’), a Frenchman who holds the Guinness Book of World Records for eating undigestables.

He apparently had the ability to consume 900 g of metal a day. Since 1966, he had consumed 18 bicycles, 15 shopping carts, seven television sets, six chandeliers, two beds, a pair of skis, a computer, and a Cessna light aircraft. He died of natural causes in 2007.

(Links: presurfer, knurps.nl)

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November 18, 2009

Pupils bake 13 metre long speculaas doll

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:04 am

The speculaas doll is a typical Sinterklaas treat, but the cookie the pupils of the Albeda College in Rotterdam baked is perhaps a little too much for any one person to eat. The 13.84 metre long giant weighs 867 kg. Dig in!

Baking the doll raised 51,250 euro, and the proceeds will go to the Friends of the Sophia Children’s Hospital foundation (Stichting Vrienden van het Sophia).

The speculaas doll may warrant a mention in the Guinness Book of Records, as the previous tallest doll was only 9 metres. A school on the other side of the country, ROC Almelo, will try to break the new record on 30 November 2009.

Speculaas is a type of dough containing pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom and nutmeg.

(Link: Telegraaf. Photo by Flickr user zoyachubby, some rights reserved)

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November 9, 2009

Skaters on thin ice with their nationality

Filed under: Sports,Weird by Orangemaster @ 2:23 pm
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Dutch nationality is apparently just an incovenience to some speed skaters. Five skaters, Rob Hadders, Robert Bovenhuis, Arjan Stroetinga, Jorrit Bergsma and Christijn Groeneveld wanted to qualify for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver by becoming Kazakh citizens and skating for Kazakhstan. For reasons I can’t wrap my brain around, four of them thought they could have their cake and eat it too, and have dual citizenship. Dutch law clearly states that if someone voluntarily takes on another nationality, they are legally obliged to give up Dutch citizenship. I know, I’ve been through the process myself and decided to stay a Canuck.

Four of them went through the process, and if it is true that they have indeed become Kazakhs, then they do not have a legal resident’s status in the Netherlands. One of the skaters, Bovenhuis, who stopped the paperwork by not signing certain things, wonders what’s up. All five skaters were not allowed to compete in last week’s NK afstanden (Dutch long-distance championship) because they were no longer Dutch citizens.

Guys, you got some really bad advice. Every single immigrant I know here knows better than this. The rules apply to you too, and you suck for trying to pull it off. Bovenhuis, you get points for waking up and smelling the coffee, good for you.

(Link: gelderlander.nl, Photo: Jeroen)

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November 2, 2009

Canada looks ridiculous embarrassing the Netherlands

Filed under: Sports,Weird by Orangemaster @ 5:27 pm

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The Dutch have this party tent idea they bring with them and set up at the Olympics and other major sporting events called the Heineken Holland House. It’s a bigazz orange party tent for the athletes and their fans to have a drink, watch Dutch athletes perform on TV and party. It’s been a hit for years and of course the Dutch want to bring the party over to the Vancouver winter Olympics 2010 to watch stars like Sven ‘Svencouver’ Kramer kick all the men’s asses at speed skating. For three weeks, people would get to hang out with Dutch athletes, celebrities, politicians and maybe even Dutch royalty while enjoying a Heineken and some choice Dutch junk food.

But oh no. Canadian bureaucrats in the province of British Columbia and in Ottawa at the national level are being more difficult than the Chinese were in Beijing about permits, building codes, Canadians losing potential jobs to Dutch people and an array of other undiplomatic stupidities.

I’m truly embarrassed for British Columbia and Canada right now. Sort that out!

(Link: vancouversun.com, Photo by Quistnix, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 1.0.)

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October 27, 2009

Burglar claims his privacy was violated

Filed under: Weird by Branko Collin @ 8:57 am

The Dutch Union of Criminals — I kid you not — has complained to the national ombudsman that the police of Drenthe have violated a young burglar’s privacy by posting a video of the criminal at work.

A spokesperson for the Civil Committee against Injustice cried: “This is a joke, right?!”

Internet lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet doesn’t give the union a snowball’s chance in hell: “The police have put the film online to track down the suspect, which is legal according to Article 22 of the Dutch copyright code, the part that deals with portrait rights.”

Family of the 88-year-old real victim had installed cameras in the home after she had been robbed a number of times.

A famous former member of the Union of Criminals is former justice minister Rita Verdonk. The union aims to protect prisoners, former prisoners and suspects against unfair practices of the state.

(Photo: a still from the video.)

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October 25, 2009

Fokje Modder elected ‘shame name’ of 2009

Filed under: Weird by Branko Collin @ 2:55 pm

Radio DJs Coen Swijnenberg (‘swine mountain’) and Sander Lantinga (wholly unremarkable name) have elected their ‘shame name’ for 2009: Fokje Modder.

Fokje had to fight other strong contestants like Constant Lam (‘continuously drunk’), Wil Krikke (‘wants to have sex’), and Englishman Ben Brack (‘have a hangover’) in an involuntary election of the oddest name of the country.

According to NOS Headlines, Fokje (pronounced fok ye) has never been troubled by her name, but she has never been abroad either.

Considering the amount of Fokjes whose last names end in -(e)ma, I would guess the name stems from Groningen.

Last year’s winner was Stanley Messie (‘small Stanley knife’).

Lantinga and Swijnenberg occupy the 4 – 7 pm slot on popular music channel 3FM.

(Photo by Flickr user Thelearnr, some rights reserved.)

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October 22, 2009

“You’ve got my vote” popular with populist voters

Filed under: Weird by Branko Collin @ 4:25 pm

Supporters of populist politicians use the phrase “You’ve got my vote” far more often than anyone else.

The phrases “You’ve got my vote, Rita” (Verdonk) and “You’ve got my vote, Geert” (Wilders) are linked to 20,200 and 5,620 times by Google, according to Krapuul.nl, a site critical of extremist politician Geert Wilders. Most given names of other national politicians did not even get into double digits.

The absolute hero of the populist crowd seems to be a guy named Pim though, with 47,400 link-sized portions of Google love going his way.

Link: Geen Commentaar.

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