May 3, 2011

Special font for dyslexics wins lucrative Dutch prize

Filed under: Design,General by Orangemaster @ 12:24 pm

(In Dutch, with enough English (Dunglish) info in the presentation)

Winner of the Future Minds Awards, presented on 28 April 2011, Christian Boer, graphic designer and dyslexic himself, has created a font that helps people with dislexia to be able to read better. He explains in the video that dyslexics see letters in 3D and not 2D, which gave him the idea to ‘ground’ letters with a shaded background. It really looks simple and you wonder why nobody thought of it before.

The real prize for me, is that it really works. Parents of dyslexic children have come to me in awe, because their child had been reading for over an hour, which never happened before. With the prize money (EUR 10,000) I intend to further develop the font. Some languages have different letters, such as the ß in German and accents in French, so I want to investigate that. Furthermore, I have always been working on a low budget, and with now I can work on a slightly bigger and faster scale.

(Link: depers.nl, blog.smart-urban-stage.com)

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May 2, 2011

Bicycle parking detectors in Utrecht

Filed under: Bicycles by Branko Collin @ 8:03 am

Writes Mark Wagenbuur:

In an attempt to free more spaces the Railways built an electronic system near the railway station of Utrecht. It monitors the time bicycles are parked so bicycles that are parked too long (more than 14 days) can be removed to make much needed room for other bicycles. This is a trial in Utrecht and Groningen.

The system seems to do more than just spot orphan bicycles though. It will also show cyclists which sections of a parking garage have the most free spots. If like me you have ever tried to find the empty spot in the bicycle parking garage next to Central Station in Amsterdam, the only one always seemingly on the fourth floor, you know how useful such a system could be.

(Video: Youtube / Mark Wagenbuur)

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May 1, 2011

Flickr set ‘Queen’s Day 2011’

Filed under: Photography by Branko Collin @ 10:39 pm

I added the rest of the photos we took on Queen’s Day to our Flick account: Queen’s Day 2011 set.

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Queen’s Day 2011 in Amsterdam, a short video impression

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 3:32 pm

As promised yesterday here is a video of the Queen’s Day festivities in Amsterdam yesterday. It turned out that I had rather less material to work with than I had hoped for, so the impression is rather short. If you want more, do check out this excellent video by Wolfgang Hürst about the party down-town.

If you don’t know what Queen’s Day is, here’s a handy guide by Invader Stu (tip o’ the hat to Invader Linda).

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April 30, 2011

Queen’s Day 2011, a short photo impression

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 5:45 pm

Sure, Queen’s Day is also the day thousands of Dutch men and women are decorated for services to their country and their fellow men. It is the day when the Queen visits a few lucky villages where they bore her to bits with traditional clog dances. It is the day when you can take in dozens of live concerts in Arnhem and Amsterdam and the likes.

But few things in life have—to me at least—the allure of going through other people’s garbage at the country wide flea market, and then buying said garbage. Here are some pictures from around my neighbourhood, Amsterdam Zuid, taken by Orangemaster and me.

More photos will be posted at Flickr, and hopefully I’ll have a video impression ready by tomorrow.

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New tax office Groningen

Filed under: Architecture by Branko Collin @ 9:44 am

Ben van Berkel of Amsterdam’s UNStudio designed this new building for the Dutch tax service, digs Belastingdienst will have to share with the national loans and bursaries programme, DUO.

Lots of nice colours on the inside, as Dezeen shows.

The structure was designed so that it can easily be re-purposed into an apartment complex should the current owners ever get bored.

(Photo: UNStudio)

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April 29, 2011

Successful film has German tourists invading small town

Filed under: Dutch first,Fashion,Film,Music by Orangemaster @ 11:32 am

Last year we told you that white trash was the new cool and that it was contagious. The film New Kids Turbo is a huge hit in the Netherlands, but New Kids fever has hit Germany so hard that tourists are ‘invading’ Maaskaantje, Brabant the actual town where the film was shot. As of yesterday, 186 film theatres in Germany are featuring New Kids Turbo, an absolute Dutch record. The Dutch actors dubbed over their own film into German, and I agree, it adds more comedy to it.

In true Dutch style, people are seeing an increase in German kids and even families hanging out drinking beer and swearing like in the movie in Maaskantje, but the tourists are spending money locally, which probably makes up for it. The local tourist board is offering special hotel deals boasting a bike tour along the places the New Kids hang out: filling station and the snack bar.

The video above is the official German trailer and some of you will recognise the Dutch accent the kids have when they speak German.

I for one am enjoying the irony of two recent postings about how cool the Dutch are in Germany.

(Link: depers.nl)

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April 28, 2011

Dutchman to become mayor of German town

Filed under: Dutch first,General by Orangemaster @ 1:12 pm

The way it’s going, Frans Willeme, 58 and Dutch, is gearing up to become Germany’s first-ever elected Dutch mayor. He speaks fluent German with a Dutch accent, like famous Dutch entertainer Rudi Carrell whose career was pretty much in Germany.

Some people in the town of Nordhorn, very close to the Dutch border, where he is running are against the idea of having a foreigner run, but then the elections are open to any member of the EU, so too bad. Those who think further than their prejudices see the town of Nordhorn as going international and writing German history.

(Link: depers.nl, Photo of train station in Tegernsee, nowhere near Nordhorn)

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April 26, 2011

Toddler kicks a mean football

Filed under: Sports,Weird by Orangemaster @ 7:48 pm

The VVV Venlo football club in Limburg has signed a symbolic professional contract of 10 years for this wee boy of 1.5 years who has a good shot. Sure, it’s a YouTube thing, but 900,000 people if not more around the world have seen this video and now you can too. The little boy, Baerke, even tried out on the field with a VVV Venlo midfielder and apparently the toddler’s grandfather used to play with this team way back.

(Link: telegraaf)

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April 25, 2011

Modern still lifes by Richard Kuiper

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

Behold this 17th century painting, the delightful play of dark and light. Except it is not a painting, or even from the 17th century, as Hans Aarsman points out:

Look carefully now. Doesn’t the dark grey tablecloth look remotely familiar? It’s a plastic bin bag, just torn from the roll, the folds unmistakably plastic bin bag folds. The plates are made of plastic too. The lemon, the cans, everything is made of plastic. Close examination will reveal the casting seams. The fish is inflatable.

This doesn’t celebrate the old, it celebrates the here and now.

(Photo: Richard Kuiper)

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