August 15, 2018

Pastafarians cannot adorn colanders on official photos

Filed under: Religion by Orangemaster @ 7:29 pm

fsm-dennis-van-zuijlekom

Today the Dutch Council of State Administrative Jurisdiction Division has ruled that Pastafarianism, or the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, is not a religion, which means wearing a colander by the adherents of this social movement cannot be regarded as an expression of religious belief.

Before I get into this, we told you back in 2016 that the Utrecht Chamber of Commerce had recognised the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, citing there was not a sufficiently solid legal basis to continue to refuse them status. However, the Pastafarians booked a loss.

The whole story hinges on a woman from Nijmegen who had applied for an ID card and a driving licence by submitting photos in which she was wearing a colander on her head, as a holy symbol of Pastafarianism. The mayor of Nijmegen refused to issue the requested documents because the woman’s head was covered, saying they did not meet the applicable legal criteria. Long story short, Pastafarianism does not have the required ‘seriousness and cohesion’ expected from a religion according to Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

This Batman’s Joker wannabee from Hellevoetsluis had his picture taken hat and all, which is also not allowed, but when he argued it was ‘for his religious belief’, he was allowed to leave it on at the time.

(Link: raadvanstate.nl, Photo of a Pastafarian worshipper in full regalia by Dennis van Zuijlekom, some rights reserved)

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August 13, 2018

What’s your pick for ugliest Dutch word?

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 9:49 pm

Marc van Oostendorp, a well-known Dutch linguist, decided to ask foreign students recently what they thought was the ugliest Dutch word.

In the video below (in Dutch), a Polish student said ‘geheugen’ (memory) because it does sounds like a Dutch cat trying to cough up a hairball. A Hungarian student, who sounds more Belgian than Dutch, said ‘überhaupt’ (‘as a whole’) because it’s straight up German, much to the amusement of everyone in the video. Another student from the United States, came up with ‘vruchtbaarheid’ (‘fertility’), but didn’t offer up an explanation as to why. A Spanish student came up with ‘ziekenhuis’ (‘hospital’) “because nobody likes to be lying in the hospital”, which means the meaning was more interesting to her than the sound of the word. An Argentinean student who learnt Dutch in Belgium chose ‘tureluurs’ (‘loopy’), a word that is probably used in written form more often than common speech.

Funny enough, all the students interviewed were women: what’s up with that?

Feel free to tell us if you can and want to: what Dutch word is the ugliest for you? I think mine would have to be any word that starts with ‘sj’ like ‘sjalot’. It sounds like your teeth are in the way of pronouncing ‘shalot’ properly, but to each their own.

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August 12, 2018

Rotterdam artist lives off drawing on bananas

Filed under: Art,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 9:49 am

Artist Stephan Brusche from Rotterdam, South Holland not only has a banana-filled instagram account, but also a wonderfully concise job description: “I draw on bananas”. Check out his instagram and be prepared to see bananas and other fruit like you’ve never seem them before.

This is Brusche’s day job now, having quit working as a graphic designer. He has been turning the yellow fruit (technically a berry) into works of art for about six years. He uses tools such as toothpicks, a knife, and a ball-point pen to transform his bananas. The entire process, from sketching out an idea to sharing it online, takes two to three hours. And yes, he does it the bananas afterwards, a question he gets a lot. He also seems to do a lot of cutting and sculpting, not just casually drawing. Subjects range from movies to animals to a lot of recognisable symbols and items.

“[One day at work] I noticed I still had a banana left from lunch and figured it would make a fun picture if I just drew a little happy face on it. I discovered how pleasant it actually is to draw on a banana – there is just something about how smooth the ballpoint pen flows on the structure of the banana peel.”

(Link and photo from iSteef’s instagram account: mashable.com)

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August 10, 2018

Dutch singer Glennis Grace rocks America’s Got Talent

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 9:03 am

Anyone in the Netherlands who has heard Amsterdam’s Glennis Grace sing knows how fantastic she sounds in both Dutch and English. But in today’s America-obsessed Netherlands [constant comparisons to the US in all fields], if you make it big in the US in English, you’ve reached the top, at least in music.

These days Glennis Grace has been batting them out of the park, to use a baseball expression on America’s Got Talent. At 40, she’s not the doe-eyed 20-year-old looking for validation as annoyingly pointed out by judge Simon Cowell in not so many words in the video below. Glennis also addresses comments to Mel B on the panel, while Cowell finds a way of making it about himself, which doesn’t bother the worldly Glennis one bit.

The next step is singing live with six other contestants. Glennis has met them all and says they are good, but that she plans to stay focused on herself. As well, she’s keeping which song she’ll be singing in the next round a secret, but won’t give any details except that it’s a difficult song to sing.

Listen to Glennis Grace charm the room with ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ by Prince:

(Link: nu.nl, Photo of Microphone by visual dichotomy, some rights reserved)

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August 9, 2018

De Kooning painting stolen by couple 30 years ago

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 6:47 pm

American couple Jerry and Rita Alter have been posthumously identified as having stolen the painting ‘Woman-Ochre’ by Dutch abstract impressionist Willem de Kooning.

For decades, the painting now worth 160 million US dollars was hanging on the bedroom wall of the couple’s home in New Mexico. It was discovered last year by an antique dealer, as it was part of the belongings of the deceased couple. Jerry Alter died in 2012 at 81, while his wife Rita, who also died aged 81, did so in 2017.

The painting was stolen from the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson more than 30 years ago, and the couple was definitely in town when that happened. The Arizona Republic newspaper reported that a family photo had surfaced, showing that the day before the painting vanished, the couple was in Tucson, Arizona.

The theft was simple: the couple showed up early at the museum, early enough to be let in, but not too early to be told to wait. Rita distracted the guard while Jerry went in, cut out the painting, rolled it up, and put it under his coat. They then had a quick 15-minute visit and left with the painting.

According to The Washington Post, the works of De Kooning remain among the most marketable in the world. We told you in July about some works by De Kooning found in a storage locker worth quite a bit.

(Links: waarmaarraar.nl, washingtonpost.com)

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August 8, 2018

Build your own Theo Jansen ‘mini-strandbeest’

Filed under: Design by Orangemaster @ 1:25 pm

Theo Jansen‘s world-famous ‘strandbeests’ [strandbeest = beach beast/animal — Dutch plural would be ‘strandbeesten’] have been around since 1990 when he started experimenting with mechanical engineering, building skeletons from plastic pipes that use the wind power to move ‘magically’ all on their own.

“The mini-strandbeest uses the same mechanism designed specifically by the artist for the project and like its forebear comes with a fan at one end that catches the wind, propelling the legs to move in a cyclical fashion. Built from 120 parts that snap together to form 12 jointed legs, a spinelike crankshaft, and a wind turbine, it takes about 90 minutes to build.”

Where can you buy them? Give Google a whirl using ‘mini-strandbeest DIY’ and quite a few results will pop up that seem quite affordable.

Watch how to make your own mini-strandbeest:

(Link and photo: designboom.com)

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August 7, 2018

Mecanoo redevelops old gasworks in Hilversum

Filed under: Architecture by Orangemaster @ 3:27 pm

Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo is redeveloping the former site of the Regional Energy Supply Company in Hilversum, North Holland, which is now called ‘Villa Industria’, a neighbourhood with 357 homes comprised of mixed housing, small-scale businesses and sporting facilities.

According to municipal councilman Jan Rensen, Hilversum could potentially be getting a 21st-century monument. The ground that Villa Industria is being built on had to have a clear link with its past, part of which will include cylindrical apartment buildings intended to resemble the dismantled gasholders.

The various buildings that occupy this 74,000 m2 plot are linked by the use of red brick, and include shapes, materials and details intended to directly reference the history of the old gasworks, the most prominent of which is a cluster of three residential buildings enclosed by a cylindrical steel frames that mimic the shape of the gasholders.

Interestingly, the area Villa Industria is being built on used to be outside of Hilversum and was empty for quite some time, but thanks to the city’s continued expansion, it is now part of Hilversum. The forest is also within walking distance. Rensen hopes this new neighbourhood will attract new people to the country’s media city: Hilversum is where most Dutch television and radio is produced and broadcast.

(Links and photo: dezeen.com, de-alliantie.nl)

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August 6, 2018

Sinterklaas treats already in Dutch shop

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 11:20 am

Every year in the Netherlands, you can hear someone say ‘those pepernoten [actually kruidnoten] are already in the shop this year!’, with irritation in their voice. It’s a similar, yearly reaction to anyone from North America like myself who sees the Halloween stuff disappear from shops on 1 November being replaced with Christmas stuff the very same day.

Who sells Sinterklaas treats in summer? The answer is the PLUS supermarket in Almelo, Overijssel. And the owner believes the ‘shock’ is free publicity and he’s probably right. Amusingly, PLUS has been selling kruidnoten since the end of July, for the ‘heck of it’. ‘They’re perfect for the BBQ or next to the swimming pool’, claims the owner.

(Link: tubantia.nl)

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July 31, 2018

Dutch students sell scented phone cases

Filed under: Design,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 8:00 pm

Two Dutch students from Breda have launched an online shop called hype-online that sells scented phone cases. There’s even one that smells like coffee, a scent that stays on the case for four to six months. The cases are sustainable, made from polyurethane.

Much of hype-online’s cases are quite unique and specially made from a start-up in Slovenia, called MMore. Of course, you could order your cases from MMore, but if you’re in the Netherlands, hype-online also delivers and promises to have some new scents soon enough.

(Link: deondernemer.nl, Photo: MMore)

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July 27, 2018

Dutch heatwave breaks a bunch of records

Filed under: General,History by Orangemaster @ 12:11 pm

Dutch weather, which is usually measured in De Bilt, Utrecht by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) tells us we’re officially experiencing a national heatwave. Yesterday, temperatures hit 30 degrees at 11:20, the third consecutive day of ‘tropical’ weather, which here means above 30 degrees. And it’s only considered a heatwave if there are five consecutive days of 25 degrees or higher, with three days of 30 degrees or higher.

Heat records were broken at 15 of the country’s 33 weather stations in the Netherlands yesterday. Arcen in Limburg was the hottest, with a maximum of 38.2 degrees. Terschelling’s record was broken with the biggest difference, 1.6 degrees higher than the previous record.

Temperatures in De Bilt have been 25 degrees or higher since July 15, which makes it 13 days running if you count today. The record is 18 days, from July 29 to August 15 in 1975 and many people believe it might be broken.

There’s no airco at 24HQ, just the occasional breeze from an open window and excellent music.

(Link: nu.nl)

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