September 14, 2016

Rare crab lands on Ameland beach

Filed under: Animals by Orangemaster @ 11:35 pm

Ameland1

On 31 August, two people spotted an angular crab on the eastern part of the island of Ameland. The discoveries were independent from each other, but it was probably the same crab. One of them put the crab back into the sea.

The same type of angular crab had been spotted in 2003 in the North Sea elsewhere, but never on a beach. The crab has finally decided to check out dry land.

Angular crabs live in the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea in places with a clay sea floor. Apparently, due to global warming affecting the North Sea, the crab can be found in the Netherlands.

(Link: www.ecomare.nl)

Tags: , , ,

September 12, 2016

Worthless shop trades worthless items for valueless money

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 9:47 pm

giro_trash

From 13 September through 17 September from 11:00 to 17:00, Amsterdam artist Pavèl van Houten will have a shop open that is actually an art project on the Mercatorplein in Amsterdam West selling worthless junk. You’ll be able to browse through and purchase stuff like bottle caps and plastic bits for ‘flutten’, fake money that derives its name from ‘flut’ meaning ‘trash’. The shop will be housed in a wooden structure not far from 24oranges HQ, so we’ll pay it a visit and report back to you.

The more useless the item, the more ‘flutten’ you’ll get for it. The fun stuff collected by the shop will be exhibited by Van Houten in the Waardeloos Museum, which will open at the public library on the Mercatorplein and two shops nearby. The shop of useless junk has already done the rounds in Breda, Leeuwarden and Vlieland. Items such as coloured plastic, expired public transport tickets, crooked nails, flattened beer caps and broken water balloons are very popular.

Challenge accepted: we’ll going to try and top that.

(Link: www.parool.nl)

Tags: , ,

September 11, 2016

The eel riots of 1886 ended with 26 people and 1 eel dead

Filed under: Animals,History by Branko Collin @ 8:30 pm

In the wake of the 1886 Eel Riots in Amsterdam, Dutch newspapers filled their columns with reports about the event, but it was French magazine l’Illustration that came out with these drawings by M. de Haenen 10 days later.

eel-riots-1886-m-de-haenen

eel-riots-1886-2-m-de-haenen

Fait sur place, these illustrations tell the story of the Palingoproer (eel riots), the bloodiest case of Dutch police brutality in the 19th century.

On Sunday 25 July 1886 a great mass of people gathered on the Lindengracht in Amsterdam to watch a cruel spectacle. Fish sellers had tied a rope between numbers 184 and 119 across what was then still a canal and a live eel had been tied to that rope. Men in small boats had to try and pull the eel from the rope—the winner would get the princely sum of 6 guilders, almost a week’s wages. This sport was called palingtrekken (eel pulling) and by that time already outlawed.

Four officers from nearby police station Noordermarkt decided to put a halt to the spectacle. They entered one of the houses to which the rope was tied and used a pocket knife to cut down the rope. Apparently the rope hit one of the spectators who started thwacking the police with his umbrella as soon as they left the building. Fast forward a couple of hours and a full blown riot was going on with police using their sabres and rioters throwing pavers.

Nightfall came and a drizzle helped to cool tempers. The next day, however, rioters stormed the police station which led to the army getting out their guns. As soon as the smoke had cleared (smokeless powder had only been invented two years earlier and was being introduced slowly to European armies), 26 rioters lay dead and observers (reporters, essayists, historians) started to explain what it was that just had happened.

Right-wing rags Algemeen Handelsblad and NRC, and the mayor of Amsterdam, tried to blame the socialists for being the instigators, but the public prosecutor thought that conclusion was preposterous—royalist inhabitants of the nearby Willemsstraat had even thrown red and black flags into the canal that the socialists had quickly brought to the scene of the riots.

Two thousands rioters were given prison sentences, police officers were treated to cigars and in 1913 the eel that involuntarily started it all showed up at an auction where it was sold for 1,75 guilders and was never seen again.

(Images: VKTV.nl / M. de Haenen)

Tags: , , , , ,

September 8, 2016

Dutch soap gets kids to wash their hands

Filed under: Health by Orangemaster @ 9:32 pm

Knetterzeep

Tessa Tippersma from Velp, Gelderland sells a soap aimed at children called ‘Knetterzeep’, roughly ‘Crackling Soap’, which tingles it is used. It’s not a foam, but also not a liquid, and comes in a squeeze bottle with an apple-pear smell.

The original idea came from two students from Arnhem who developed the winning soap for a contest that Tippersma has attended. At some point the students needed to focus on their studies, so Tippersma decided to take over their idea and turn the soap into a business.

Knettersoap is sold in some 250 places and there’s interest from Belgium, Germany and even China. The soap doesn’t need water unlike another soap aimed at children, the SquidSoap, which leaves a print on children’s hand that they have to wash off to prove their hands are clean.

In a Consumer Union video, the kids were a big fan of Knetterzeep because it makes it fun to wash their hands. “The Knetterzeep was a hit, the kids loved it, but it doesn’t really clean your hands”, while showing hands with lots of dirt on them. Tippersma’s idea was to get kids to watch their hands after going to the bathroom, which of course would not be full of dirt, but I agree, soap should clean your hands. The competitor, SquidSoap has a fun stamp on it when you press on the pump to get the soap, but then children only wash the inside of their hands to remove it and not the outside like their should.

(Link: www.deondernemer.nl, Screenshot of the Knetterzeep video for the Chinese market)

Tags: ,

September 6, 2016

Granny swats the daylights out of Pokémons

Filed under: Animals,Gaming by Orangemaster @ 9:48 pm

Pokémon

A health insurance company active in the east of the country has recently made a video (see below) that is really only made to watch an elderly lady treat Pokémons to the business end of a flyswatter.

Then there’s other Dutch business that have carved out a piece of the action using Pokémons. A Dutch sex toy shop asks on Twitter ‘What Pokémon is this?’, showing a dratini that’s more of the vibrating kind. Then there’s someone who claims Dutch Rail has a train running late because of a Snorlax on the rails. And then there’s more serious stuff like the World Wide Fund using a meme of a rhinoceros saying in English ‘Don’t catch ’em’.

The video is for fans and haters alike, so check it out.

Tags: , ,

September 5, 2016

Italian twins will make you want to learn Dutch

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 3:10 pm

Identical twins Ermano and Roberto who live in Sulmona, Italy and have never set foot in the Netherlands were interviewed by linguist Marc van Oostendorp of website Onzetaal.nl. They have recognisable Italian accents when they speak Dutch, but their syntax (word order) sounds pretty good, and they even correct themselves as they speak. They are motivated as well, which is more than I can say for many people here who can’t be arsed to learn Dutch.

These Ermano and Roberto are the antidote to that apathy. They are fans of Dutch television presenter Hans van der Togt, associated with the show ‘Raad van Fortuin’, (Dutch version of ‘Wheel of Fortune’,) and when asked what city they would like to visit if they could, they choose Maastricht first because they also watch television show ‘Flikken’ (‘Cops’), which is filmed there. Oh, and they watch satellite television because that’s the only way to get RTL4, their favourite station.

For all of you who can’t be arsed, the brothers’ enthusiasm is contagious, as is the charming way they finish each other’s sentences. And you’ll want to see them one day make that bucket list trip to the Netherlands, but since they have demanding jobs as cleaners, it won’t be easy, although it would be very cool.

Watch this Dutch video with English subtitles and some Italian countryside:

Tags: , , , ,

September 4, 2016

Febo and other companies violate patrons’ privacy

Filed under: Technology by Orangemaster @ 9:24 pm
kroket1.jpg

Since January 2014 the Dutch Data Protection Authority has observed that snack chain Febo, through its use of the Bluetrace data tracking system, was violating its patrons’ privacy by collecting information without their permission, according to the Personal Data Protection Act. And after several warnings, nothing has changed, but the agency is pissed off enough to fine Bluetrace if they don’t clean up their act within the next six months.

According to Bluetrace’s website, they claim to “respect the privacy of persons”, since “after 24 hours, all anonimized data is being erased from our systems”. However, that “anonimizing” they carry out is apparently very easy to undo, so basically nothing at all has been done to protect people’s privacy for quite some time.

Febo also has to make sure that they don’t collect personal data of people who live nearby, make sure they tell people explicitly that their data is being collected, and tell them how long their data will be stored, etc., which they don’t. Dutch law states that “the processing of any personal data requires the data subject’s unambiguous consent,” like a sign at Febo that warns people. Bluetrace has said that they place signs, but that’s not the case in the 30 or so Dutch municipalities where their system is operational.

Turning off your phone was a retarded Dutch government answer, because even when your phone is off, it could still be giving out information through radio signals and possibly with malware, if Edward Snowden has taught the world anything.

Febo is just an example, as many other companies and towns who use Bluetrace are also violating the law, and I’d dare say, even flaunting it, since 2014. Why the authorities are only getting serious now remains a mystery.

(Link: motherboard.vice.com)

Tags: ,

September 2, 2016

Mexican fashion goes with Dutch windmills

Filed under: Fashion by Orangemaster @ 2:11 pm

sombrero1

The windmills of the Zaanse Schans near Zaandam are the backdrop to a fashion collection presentation made by Mexican brand Liverpool. If that sentence didn’t have enough cultural references in it for you, the model featured is Portuguese, the first shot of the video is of Amsterdam, not Zaandam, and there are Frisian flag clogs as well, try to spot them.

We’ve had enough stories about Mexico, mostly embarrassing ones with ukuleles and insults and even our King using dirty words by mistake at a speech.

(Link: www.rtvnh.nl, photo: Photo of Mexican sombreros by José María Aguirre, some rights reserved)

Tags: , , ,

September 1, 2016

Artist takes Amsterdam to court for pulling artwork

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 10:44 pm

FemkeSchaap

Amsterdam artist Femke Schaap, known internationally for her “life-size, spatial film-installations”, is being jerked around by Amsterdam’s Zuid district who has suddenly dropped a commissioned project of hers that’s been seven years in the making. Schaap has 200,000 euro hanging in the balance owned to her once the work is placed, and is taking the city to court to make sure it gets placed according to their binding agreement.

The video-installation WEstLAndWElls, has white blocks with video projections of fountains, which would only be turned on after sunset – that’s it, nothing vulgar or controversial. Built to be placed on the Theophile de Bockstrook, a local green patch, the artwork had already angered residents a few years back who took to writing letters. Everything they complained about was verified and deemed unfounded, like claiming children could hurt themselves, attracting graffiti and even causing epileptic seizures. It sounds like the neighbourhood was already upset about all the construction around them (houses, schools and parking) and WEstLAndWElls became the drop that made the bucket spill over.

According to the artist, the fountain projection is in slow motion and ‘romantic’, there’s a budget for an anti-graffiti crew for ten years and no one is going to hurt themselves on the artwork. Problem is, the city district legally dismissed all the letters against placing the artwork, but all of a sudden has decided not to place the artwork after all, to everyone’s surprise. But they can’t just do that. Schaap’s lawyer claims the whole situation has been “stressful and damaging” for the artist and her excellent international reputation.

This isn’t over yet, or as a friend of mine would say, it went from a ‘situation’ and it’s turning into a ‘-gate’.

(Link: www.parool.nl, Screenshot of artwork from this video)

Tags: , , ,

August 30, 2016

Baking show puts apple pie smell on tram

Filed under: Dutch first,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 10:35 am

Tram1-baked

Dutch baking show ‘Heel Holland Bakt’ (All of Holland/The Netherlands Bakes’), the Dutch version of ‘The Great British Bake Off’, is promoting the start of their new season with a tram in Amsterdam that smells of apple pie, which is a Dutch first and possibly a world first as well. And it’s my local tram, tram 7, so I may update this post soon enough.

Many viewers have wanted to know what it smells like in the tents on the show where they bake, so here’s an answer, at least for anyone in Amsterdam because despite what certain people might think Amsterdam isn’t all of the Netherlands or Holland (two provinces) for that matter.

It’s what they are going to do about how the pie tastes that could interesting. I vaguely remember tram stops with perfume spritzing out of them, which bothered a lot of people for a lot of legitimate reasons like it’s disgusting and being allergic to perfume.

And feel free to make munchies jokes as well, that’s fair game in Amsterdam.

UPDATE: It’s tram 1, which goes from the West to Amsterdam Central Station, not tram 7 that goes from West to East. The very fake smell of apple pie comes out of a few vents near the doors.

(Link: www.at5.nl)

Tags: , , , ,