November 9, 2009

Dutch children say: way too much swine flu news

Filed under: Health,Science by Branko Collin @ 8:09 am

Fifty-one percent of all Dutch children think there is too much reporting on swine flu, with only 1% saying there is too little. Seventeen percent say news about swine flu scares them.

A poll held by Jeugdjournaal (kids’ TV news show) among more than 2,000 children and published yesterday also shows that 82% of the children are not afraid of swine flu.

Per year between 250 and 2,000 people die of the regular flu in the Netherlands. So far the swine flu has contributed to 17 deaths since the start of the outbreak last Spring, a little over 1 % of the known infections.

Swine flu is called Mexican flu in the Netherlands—vicious rumours suggest this may be so as not to upset the voters of government party CDA, many of whom presumably are pig farmers.

(Drawing by Ollie Crafoord, some rights reserved.)

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November 8, 2009

Children’s books from the Roaring Twenties

Filed under: Art,History,Literature by Branko Collin @ 1:28 pm

Oh, to have been a child in the 1920s, when you had children’s books illustrated in the De Stijl style. Gouden Vlinders, the cover of which pictured above, contained verse written by S. Franke and illustrations by Lou Loebe.

Pointed out to us by Daddytypes.com who also discusses and links to a number of other illustrated Dutch children’s books he likes. All are hosted at Geheugenvannederland.nl, a website of the Royal Library.

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November 7, 2009

Fantasy political map of the Netherlands

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 11:53 am

This map shows the fake island kingdom the Netherlands could be if its geography fully followed its politics. In the real world, top left dogs Nijmegen and Groningen are separated by 200 kilometres, as are right wing islands Kessel and Urk.

Here’s a quick legend: links = left, rechts = right, rood = red, rijk = rich, steden = cities, and midden = middle.

The two regions that in reality do exist as geographical areas are the Bible Belt and the Rode Regio, an area that used to have a lot of communists, basically the Groningen country-side.

The map is one of two made by Weetmeer.nl, the other following more classical coastlines.

I can vouch for the position of Nijmegen, having lived there for ten years. Nijmegen’s and Groningen’s progressive and left-wing attitude may at least in part have to do with a large student body, making up ten percent of the population in the case of Nijmegen. Would the Catholic church have thought that when they started their university there in the 1920s as a bulwark against socialist forces?

(Link: Geen commentaar.)

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November 1, 2009

Venlo made up foundation legend to fool the church

Filed under: History,Religion by Branko Collin @ 3:48 pm

In elementary school I was taught about the founding legend of my city of birth, Venlo. The story went that the leader of a local tribe, the Bructeri, fled a lost battle with the rival Chamavi tribe towards the fertile ground on the Meuse river in 96 AD.

In remembrance of this chief, called Valuas, giant dolls of him and his wife had been carried around the city for ages, and all kinds of companies, schools and clubs had been named after him. Valuas was Venlo.

Recently though I learned it’s all a crock, and all it took was a visit to Wikipedia. There is no such legend. Instead, the story was made up in its entirety in the 18th century, because the bishop of Roermond wanted to outlaw the use of dolls depicting Goliath and his wife in processions.

With Goliath given a new, non-religious identity, the bishop could no longer object to what was basically idolatry. Today, the local ceremonial shooting club, Akkermansgilde, still carries giant dolls of Valuas and his wife Guntrud around in processions and during carnival.

(Photo of Venlo city hall by Wikimedia user Michiel1972, some rights reserved.)

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October 31, 2009

United Nude shoes open store in Amsterdam

Filed under: Architecture,Dutch first,Fashion by Branko Collin @ 11:24 am

United Nude, the design agency run by shoe designer Galahad JD Clark and architect Rem Koolhaas has expanded its on-line shoe store with an off-line version on the Spuistraat in Amsterdam. No, that is not the Rem Koolhaas, it is Rem D. Koolhaas, his cousin.

Koolhaas told De Pers it took six years to open a bricks and mortar store because only now is the collection big enough. Also, the crisis made the rent right.

(Via: Bright. Photo: United Nude.)

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October 29, 2009

Ad for lackey successful

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 8:28 am

The Queen is looking for a lackey, and according to jobtrack.nl her job ad drew 8 times the regular amount of responses for comparable positions, says NOS.

So what is expected of a lackey in her majesty’s service? He or she must

  • Have a high school level diploma, preferably hotel school.
  • Speak English
  • Know how to take care of silver and crockery
  • Know protocol
  • Have a service oriented attitude
  • Be able to work flexible hours, and
  • Have a driving license

The maximum salary offered is 2,338 euro per month.

(Via AD.nl. Photo by Arden de Raaij, some rights reserved.)

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October 28, 2009

Man found not guilty after blacking out hospital

Filed under: Gaming,General,Health by Branko Collin @ 8:58 am

Jan H. thought he was playing the Silent Hill video game when he shut down the electricity at the Sophia hospital in Zwolle last Queen’s Day.

Last Tuesday a court found him not guilty, simply because he had no idea of the true consequences of his deeds. H. has volunteered to undergo treatment.

Telegraaf reports that the 35-year-old was suffering a psychosis when he stepped into the hospital’s basement. By pulling levers and switches, he thought he could win a tooth brush. The power was down for 45 minutes during which patients in the intensive care unit had to be respirated manually and lifts got stuck. No patients suffered any lasting consequences, according to RTV Oost.

Silent Hill is a survival horror game, a sub-genre of the action adventure.

Update 30-10: added a link to the verdict.

(Photo of the old building of the Sophia hospital (1884) by Wikimedia user Arminiuzz, some rights reserved)

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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 26, 2009

Merry-go-round coat rack, wool filler, rain barrel win prizes at Design Week ’09

Filed under: Design,Fashion by Branko Collin @ 8:11 am

This merry-go-round coat rack by Wieki Somers won the overall prize for the best Dutch design project at the Dutch Design Week 2009. It is already in use at the Museum Boijmans – Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

Other winners were the rain barrel by Bas van der Veer that we wrote about last week, which won the René Smeets award, the prize for the best project of this year’s Design Academy Eindhoven graduates.

Heleen Klop won a Doen Materials Prize of 5,000 euro for coming up with a method to repair holes in wool clothing using felt.

Other interesting designs were those of Digna Kosse, who experimented with how much material you can leave out of a dress and still call it a dress (may be NSFW), and Austrian Eindhoven Design Academy graduate Sonja Bäumel, who experimented with clothes that grow themselves in the areas of the body that most need the warmth by letting bacteria do the heavy lifting.

Dezeen has a lot of write-ups about this years Design Week.

(Source photo: Wieki Somers.)

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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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