Delft Prosthetics, what appears to be a spin-off company from Delft University, has just released the Tweezer, a colourful prosthetic arm with a double hook that can be used, according to its web page, to ride a bike safely, and to tie shoe laces in seconds.
July 25, 2011
July 24, 2011
Catholics are getting into shopping on Sundays
In the past ten years the percentage of Dutch Christians who shop on their prescribed day of rest has risen, FOK reports.
In 2000, almost 39 % of the Roman Catholics shopped on Sundays, in 2010 that was more than 50 %. Sabbath shoppers among the members of the Dutch Reformed Church made up 21 % a decade ago, and are now up to 25 %. The numbers for the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (yes, there is a difference) are 12 % and 16 % respectively.
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Tags: Catholicism, shopping, Sunday rest
July 23, 2011
Utrecht train station has slide for travellers in a hurry
HIK Ontwerpers have designed and installed a slide at the Overvecht railway station (1995) in Utrecht as part of a beautification plan of the area. Hemubo Betontechniek built it this year.
Everybody is reporting that the official name is a ‘transport transfer accelerator’, but HIK themselves call it a ‘real slide’.
Here it is in action:
(Photo: HIK Ontwerpers. Video: NOS. Link: The Pop-Up City)
Tags: train stations, Utrecht
July 22, 2011
I do, I do, I do, I do, now off you go
The town of Beuningen near Nijmegen in the East, with a population of about 25,000 is going to scrap its free civil ceremonies. Currently, you can get married at town hall for free, as long as you are from Beuningen. You get a private room where your friends, family and witnesses can watch the happy event. I cannot imagine that it costs them a bundle every year in a town with surely a handful of singles getting married, but OK, cutting costs is all the rage. As of January 2012, the now free ceremony will cost 100 euro.
However, the new town trend will be Las Vegas style, albeit without Elvis priests: the quickie marriage between 8:45 and 9 am at the wicket with a quick ‘ja’ (yes), the paperwork signed, and off you go. Somehow, the ‘charm’ of the quickie ceremony cannot possibly come close to anything I’ve seen or heard about Las Vegas.
In many cities, civil ceremonies cost different rates at different times. In an expensive city like Amsterdam, 9 am on a Monday is either free or cheap, as opposed to a Friday afternoon at 4 pm. It’s all about time and money, and not about the l-word.
(Link: gelderlander, Photo by Anthony Kelly, some rights reserved)
July 21, 2011
‘New’ laptop has someone else’s data on it
A man in Haarlem bought a new computer at a big chain store. He got home, started it up and saw that it was full of someone else’s data, like pictures, contracts and tax documents.
The previous owner had bought the laptop a year ago (so obviously not a super recent model) and returned it within a week because it kept crashing. Instead if having it repaired, the store just gave him a new one. But was it a new one?
The new owner and the previous owner are kinda pissed, as you could imagine. I have to assume that the previous owner was incapable or didn’t bother erasing his hard drive, which is weird if the new owner was able to start up the computer and use it. I also assume the shop didn’t even start up the computer, kept in the back and eventually put it back on the shelf.
A friend of mine who worked at a similar big chain store back when computers were big PC klunkers said that they didn’t repair anything and just waited a week and gave clients back the same computer, which is why he left his job when he found out.
(Link: welingelichtekringen.nl)
July 20, 2011
Urk lets harbour lose big money on Sundays
After the barrage of other plagues (kids on drugs, alcoholic teens and fighting strippers), the quirky religious town of Urk, the butt of many jokes, has yet another faith-related problem: people stealing free electricity.
On Sundays, in the harbour, due to religious reasons, the harbour people cannot ask for money to others charging up their boats. And losing tens of thousands of euro is a good reason to ask the city to allow them to make an exception on Sundays, a day of rest for nobody except the bureaucrats in Urk.
The answer was simply that asking people for money on Sunday was not OK. Of course, the bureaucrats don’t see any change in their salary, so it’s OK to let business people choke. Love thy neighbour.
(Link: rtl.nl)
Tags: Urk
July 19, 2011
Bargain fashion tricks its way onto the catwalk
(video in Dutch) at 3:00, the audience finds out they’ve been fooled. Imagine this was Walmart or some other cheap brand.
Bargain clothing and household linnen brand Zeeman pulled a guerilla move that has the whole Dutch fashion world buzzing. At the recent Amsterdam International Fashion Week, they posed as a ‘serious’ fashion brand, Frank (my guess a play on words for ‘frank’ or ‘straight up’), and made it onto the catwalk.
The whole point was to show that fashion does not have to be expensive. However, I can tell you that although this is a valid point, Zeeman clothing often falls apart after a few washes. I have no qualms about their towels, and their stores are ghastly. But yes, they are cheap, although they had bucks for this one prank.
And the fashionistas blogs are pissed because they were fooled. Be sure to look at their faces in the video.
Apparently, while the work of independent designers is judged beforehand, no demands are made of companies which cough up the full fee of 15,000 euro for a show with lighting and make-up thrown in. “We’re just pleased to get the money,” [event director] Mr Maussen admits. “But maybe we should be a bit stricter in future.”
Money talks and cheapness walks.
(Link: rnw.nl)
Tags: Amsterdam, guerilla marketing, Zeeman
July 18, 2011
Uncovering the treasures of a Dutch auction site
Julien Rademaker scours the largest online marketplace of the Netherlands, marktplaats.nl, for the rare and the well designed so that you don’t have to.
He puts his finds, dozens per day, up at gevondenopmarktplaats.nl for everyone to see. In an interview with Bright he says he does this because “I want to show people that there is a world beyond Ikea or Leen Bakker. Perhaps people are afraid they’ll buy the wrong thing, or they don’t know where to look. I try to help those people.”
(Illustrations: gevondenopmarktplaats.nl)
Tags: second hand
July 17, 2011
Roller derby scrimmage in Rotterdam
Derby girls from all over the Netherlands and Belgium came together yesterday in Rotterdam for a scrimmage, an unofficial bout. Our very own Orangemaster was there to block for the white team, and I sat in the suicide seats and took pictures.
For those who do not know anything about the sport, here is a short, illustrated explanation. Two teams of five women race around a track, dressed both to impress and so you can tell them apart (in this case one white and one black team). The only men allowed on the track are the referees who dress in black and white stripes.
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Tags: 24oranges, roller derby, Rotterdam, Zone 5300
July 16, 2011
Summer Expo 2011, bringing the Pepsi Challenge to art
The Gemeentemuseum Den Haag is hosting Zomer Expo 2011, an exhibition of 250 paintings—portraits, landscapes and still lifes—that were picked anonymously by a jury of art connoisseurs.
Artists, both professionals and amateurs, got to enter their works in three rounds. The works were then anonymised and the jurors subsequently had less than a minute to decide whether a work would be admitted.
Trendbeheer visited the show and was pleasantly surprised—even though Jeroen Bosch’s own works weren’t on display (it doesn’t say whether he had entered). The exhibition will continue until August 21.
If you cannot make it to The Hague in time, there is also an online exhibition (the yellow dots signify a work that’s on display in The Hague). The Summer Expo 2011 was inspired by the Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy in London and the Canvas Collection in Belgium.
(Image: Be-spiegelingen by Annemieke Alberts, one of the paintings on display at the Gemeentemuseum, source Summer Expo 2011 website)
Tags: Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, paintings