October 22, 2015

The Couch, a combined grandstand and clubhouse

Filed under: Architecture,Sports by Branko Collin @ 2:52 pm

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Tennis Club IJburg in Amsterdam has 10 clay courts, a tennis school, 1,100 members and now also a clubhouse designed by MVDRV for an undisclosed amount of money.

The clubhouse cleverly doubles as a roofless grandstand that seats 200 people. One wonders if MVDRV was perhaps a little inspired by a classic football stadium in their home town of Rotterdam, Het Kasteel (The Castle), which also has stands dipping around a space with windows.

The building was officially opened in August. The clubhouse has a bar, seating areas, and, to the side, dressing rooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, and storage space.

IJburg is new land, which allows the Dutch a rare opportunity to experiment with lots of fresh architecture in one place..

(Link: Arch Daily, Photo: MVRDV)

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October 21, 2015

Sarcastic video urges refugees to choose Denmark

Filed under: Bicycles,General,Sports by Orangemaster @ 1:09 pm

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Why come to the Netherlands when you can go to Denmark? Dutch television show ‘Zondag met Lubach’ made a video called ‘Do not come to Holland’ in English with Dutch subtitles. Spoiler alert: no mention of drugs or prostitution.

Firstly, don’t call the country ‘Holland’, especially when a lot of refugees are settling in outside the provinces of North and South Holland. The locals will think you’re trying to co-opt their karma points.

The ‘Dunglish’ voice-over was done by someone who had fun switching from an American over-the-top movie trailer style voice to a fake posh British accent you hear in safety instruction videos on KLM. It’s also weird to hear someone faking a British accent and then using the word ‘soccer’ instead of ‘football’.

The Dunglish translation of ‘there goes nothing above Groningen’ is cringeworthy: try ‘Nothing tops Groningen’ for a proper translation or ‘There’s nothing above Groningen’ to keep the Dutch humour flowing. The video does make up for it with “Come to Denmark: it’s the Netherlands, but somewhere else”, which is the very polite version of the talk down the pub as far as accepting refugees in the country at the moment.

For any kind of social commentary on how the Dutch government has cocked up the welcoming of refugees, read the Dutch papers. Or don’t.

(Image: screenshot of ‘Do not come to Holland’ video)

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October 20, 2015

Earphones steer your phone while driving

Filed under: Design,Technology by Orangemaster @ 10:16 am

During Dutch Design Week, designer Pieter Husmann presented ‘Hélo’, a 3D-printed wireless in-earphone, a very classy wearable that helps car drivers answer text messages and calls while hopefully keeping their eyes on the road.

We’ve all been in a car where the driver is so addicted to checking their phone that the passenger has to interfere before the car hits the guard rail. Some drivers are addicted to the point of risking death for next to nothing, which makes you wonder if new technology is the solution or better awareness. New technology should help, but I still believe that leaving your damn phone alone is the safest option.

Husmann’s creation combines technological innovation and hearing aid technology that fits into one’s ears, with which you can answer your phone with your finger. It has four buttons for four different configurable functions from answering your phone to opening an e-mail. These earpieces can also be used for running and I would imagine cycling, skating, etc. That sounds like a useful invention even without the driving.

A while back we told you about satirist Johan Vlemmix who had thought of a free app that sends replies when driving because he admitted being addicted to checking his phone and answering people straight away. However, that was just an idea, and clearly Husmann has a real solution for addicts like Vlemmix.

(Link: www.bright.nl, Photo by Hello Turkey Toe, some rights reserved)

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October 19, 2015

Women brew successful provocative beer

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 3:25 pm

Kutbier

This summer I read an American article on how misogynistic craft brew names are putting off women and surely some men, as the men making the beer think it’s hip to appeal to men not by making good beer, but by trashing women as a gender to sell it. Hint: it’s not and you’re boring.

Two Dutch women from Noord-Brabant have gone viral brewing a beer called ‘kutbier’ (literally ‘cunt beer’), which has a different flavour of swearing than you might think. In any case, it’s not retarded enough to trash men or women as a gender to sell their beer.

‘Kut’ (‘cunt’), swear word used like ‘shit’, ‘damn’ or even ‘balls’ or ‘fuck’, but meaning ‘cunt’ and used constantly as a noun, adjective, adverb, etc. when you stub your toe or forget something important at home on your way to work. Since the New Kids films, the word is associated with the province of Noord-Brabant, but in the case of this beer, it’s alluding to the women brewing it.

Brewers Janneke Pieters and Mary-Jane Snelders of the Boegbeeld brewery in Den Bosch claim to brew an ode to the real Den Bosch woman. Their first run of 1000 bottles sold out in six days and has overwhelmed the pair. It’s a blond beer with prunes and some coriander seeds, which took them six months to perfect. In December they’ll be making more of it, which stands to be just as popular if not more.

We want some too, kut.

(Link and photo: www.omroepbrabant.nl)

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October 18, 2015

Photographer pimps cars in Amsterdam, guerrilla style

Filed under: Automobiles,Photography by Orangemaster @ 8:20 pm

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A Namibian photographer in Amsterdam, Max Siedentopf, has been going around the West part of town pimping up cars and taking pictures of them. For his project Slapdash Supercars, he picks ordinary cars and makes them look suped-up using cardboard he cuts up in advance and masking tape.

Siedentopf has not yet been caught in the act and doubts anyone would have a problem with his artistic motives of showing people what their car could look like or say about their owner. It would seem that Siedentopf imagines these owners are twentysomething males like himself who may enjoy ‘Fast & Furious’ movies.

The 24 oranges headquarters is in the West, so if ever we see one of these cars, we’ll snap it for you.

(Links: www.parool.nl, maxsiedentopf.com, Photo by Max Siedentopf)

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October 17, 2015

Dutch students break European rocketry record

Filed under: Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 7:00 am

DARE

On 16 October in the afternoon, the Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering (DARE) student society of the Delft University of Technology broke a European record in amateur rocketry. The students successfully launched a rocket into space that attempted to reach the Kármán line at 100 kilometers in altitude.

The first attempt made by the students on Thursday was thwarted by problems with a motor valve, which is why after fixing it, they made another attempt the next day. The seven-meter-long Stratos II+ rocket uses a mix of sorbitol and paraffin for fuel. It reached a speed of 100 km/h in 0.85 seconds, with a top speed of 3000 km/h.

In a few years, the DARE team wants to go into space, and to be able to do that they need to reach the Kármán line. The sky’s the limit now.

(Links: www.ad.nl, dare.tudelft.nl)

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October 16, 2015

The Netherlands seen as a network of light

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 3:48 pm

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This week Post NL has issued a set of stamps designed by Daan Roosegaarde, depicting the Netherlands as a network of light seen from space, shaped by its cities and roads.

The Netherlands looks like a lit up jellyfish and reminds me of when you fly over the country at night. Roosegaarde says the stamps offer both literal and figurative enlightenment, with each stamp featuring a different part of the Netherlands. Roosegaarde was inspired by aerial photos taken by Dutch astronaut André Kuipers and satellite photos of the Netherlands, after which he incorporated his own interpretation into the images.

I suggest you look at André Kuipers’ Flickr stream if you haven’t yet, some of his pictures are definitely inspiring.

(Link and image: www.postnl.nl)

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October 15, 2015

Council member is his own worst enemy

Filed under: Weird by Branko Collin @ 11:49 pm

aalsmeer-old-flower-auction-branko-collinBram Heijstek has had a rough year. The council member of the municipality of Aalsmeer has been on the receiving end of several death threats that were allegedly signed by a colourful coalition of political opponents, reporters and famous locals. About the only person who did not threaten Heijstek was Heijstek himself… wait, let’s rewind the tape a bit. According to The Post Online, Heijstek was arrested two weeks ago on suspicion of identity theft and stalking after he had faked numerous threats to his person.

Two weeks before his arrest, RTV-NH had asked Heijstek about the possibility of having faked the death threats against him. Heijstek told the broadcaster, “I’ve been physically attacked three times this year. That seems a difficult thing to do to yourself. And you know, these threats are easy to trace.”

He added, “If only the police worked a little harder,” which they then did.

The police have released Heijstek, but they expect that the politician will be prosecuted, considering the amount of victims involved.

Aalsmeer is a town just south of Amsterdam and is mostly known for its flower auction, which takes place in the largest building of the world, measured by surface area.

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October 14, 2015

Biggest bra sizes and interesting condom purchases

Filed under: General,Health by Orangemaster @ 2:06 pm
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Dutch online lingerie shop Pabo.nl, also Europe’s biggest, conducted its own survey into who has the biggest boobs and the longest dongs per province, something to briefly take your mind off the fact that the Netherlands is not playing in the European Football Champs this summer.

Women in Zeeland have lots of cup A fans, but Utrecht takes the win for the smallest boobs overall. However, Zeeland has about 10% of women ordering cup F, which no other province has. The cup B fans come from Flevoland, the C cups are for Utrecht, D cups Overijssel, and most of the bigger sizes go to Groningen in the lead for Cup E.

If you believe in condoms sales as a size indicator, North Holland and Friesland buy the biggest condoms. Friesland stands out as a province that buys twice as many flavoured condoms as the rest of the country. I wonder if they’re orange flavoured.

(Link: www.bndestem.nl, photo: ecollo.com)

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October 13, 2015

Student in Nijmegen invents a new mixed drink

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 12:07 pm

Karls-Koekie

Karl Kouki, a 25-year-old Bachelor’s student at the Radboud University in Nijmegen has crossed a pretty cool thing off his bucket list: getting an alcoholic drink with his name on it, called ‘koekie’ (probably pronounced ‘kooky’ rather than ‘cookie’, referring to his last name and his nickname). Kouki even used part of his student loan to finance the whole project, which started as a joke and has now unexpectedly become serious business.

Cut to quaint student café in Nijmegen where Kouki worked as a part-time barman on a shot called ‘koekie’ made up of vodka, caramel liqueur and a bit of butterscotch that become their most popular shot. Kouki says today the bottled version has nothing to do with that combination since he has learned that creating alcohol is not just throwing a few types of liqueur together in a bottle.

It also took him a while to find someone that could bottle small amounts of his shot drink, as well a lab to get the recipe right — after 25 tries koekie finally tasted like the way it was meant to taste. The bottle orders have been pouring in and right now supply can’t meet the demand: you can’t buy any in the West of the country yet. Koekie has an alcohol percentage of 14,7%, which is a bit stronger than wine, but Kouki explains that ’10 minutes later you can still taste it’.

We want some too now.

(Links: munchies.vice.com, www.gelderlander.nl, Photo by Karl Kouki)

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