January 14, 2019

Dutchman makes bicycle from recycled plastic

Filed under: Bicycles,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 12:50 pm

Inspired by a two-year stay in Mexico City where designer Thomas Hoogewerf saw plastic strewn about town and lots of car traffic, he decided to design a bicycle, addressing both problems at once and called it the ‘Better to transport’ project.

Most of the prototype is make from plastic, although the chain is made from steel. Hoogewerf explains that the bicycle is still not perfect, and has had help from Precious Plastic, a worldwide network of people who build recycling machines. He has also received help from people in India and the United States to help improve the frame and the front fork.

The idea is to point out, at the very least, the problem of mobility and used plastic in a city of millions.

It’s easy to have a discussion about cities being more bike friendly when you come from the Netherlands or Denmark, but the added value of making a bicycle out of rubbish as it were makes a statement and can be applied elsewhere in the world where there are similar problems.

One good thing about having a bicycle made from plastic is that if something breaks, you can replace it easily enough. And plastic doesn’t rust – great for big cities with a lot of rain. As well, the plastic is free and ripe for the picking.

(Link and photo: vice.com)

Tags: , ,

June 25, 2017

Mexicans accuse Heineken of lying about tequila

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 4:01 pm

desperados-tequila

Originally created by a French brewery and now brewed in Croatia for Heineken, Desperados beer sells in 85 international markets, but no longer in the United States since about 2015.

Desperados, which has been on sale for two decades, is now a problem for the Mexican authorities who claim that Heineken is messing with the rules on designation of origin. To put it plainly, there is no tequila in this tequila-flavoured beer according to Ramón González, Director of the CRT (Tequila Regulatory Council).

“Either they take the word ‘tequila’ off it, or they put some tequila in.” If they refuse, “we’ll have no choice but to fight this [in court]”, says González. The CRT reigns supreme over the use of tequila much like the French authorities do with champagne. And it was the cost of suing Heineken apparently that had stop them from threatening them until now.

A Heineken spokesman claims that Desperados is a beer flavoured with tequila, meaning that there is tequila in the beer. However, the CRT had the beer tested in Madrid and was told that there’s no tequila at all in the beer, which would mean it’s false advertising. The product is said to have trace amounts of tequila and is technically classified as a malt beverage, which means it’s about the presence or absence of hops.

Mexico and the Netherlands have had a tumultuous relationship on this blog, including Dutch and Mexicans girls duelling in videos and King Willem-Alexander using rude words in a speech)

(Links: ft.com, adage.com, wikipedia, Photo of Desperados beer by DrinkUpEssex)

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: , , ,

July 17, 2015

Dutch kids report Mexican drug lord to police – but it’s not him!

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 5:01 pm

el-chapo-us-state-departmentThree children reported a man to the police that they believed might be the escaped Mexican criminal Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.

The three had spotted a man with a moustache sitting in a van on a parking lot on the Paul Kruger road in Ermelo, the Netherlands, last Tuesday. Drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, nicknamed El Chapo (Spanish for Shorty), escaped a Mexican maximum security prison earlier this month.

One of the children, 10-year-old Peter, had seen a photo of Guzmán in the newspaper and thought he recognised the trademark moustache the criminal sported at some point in his life.

After they had written down the license plate number of the van, the children biked to Peter’s house to call the police. Peter’s mother told Omroep Gelderland: “They were convinced it was him, he had the exact same moustache. They even knew he had smoked weed and that that is a drug. […] They hadn’t even realised the price on his head”

The police called back later to say they had looked into the matter, but hadn’t located El Chapo. They don’t believe it was him. Mexico has offered a reward of about 3.5 million euro for information leading to the capture of Mr. Guzmán. The US State Departement would also like a word with Mr. Guzmán and have offered a reward of up to 5 million USD for information leading to his arrest.

(Photo: US Department of State)

Tags: , , ,

July 5, 2014

Mexican and Dutch dames duke it out with ukuleles

Filed under: Music,Sports by Branko Collin @ 6:16 pm

football-is-fun-karlijn-rietkerkAfter the Dutch national football team beat Mexico in an exciting last ten minutes of an elimination match at the World Cup last week, in which the Oranje came back from behind with two goals, a fifteen-year-old Mexican girl called Dizzy Miss DC uploaded a song to YouTube in which she blew off steam by hurling a stream of invectives at the Dutch players and the Dutch nation and even at Europeans.

Last Thursday a 20-year-old woman from Drenthe called Karlijn Rietkerk responded. She addressed the Mexican girl (both women accompanied themselves on a ukulele) and berated her for her use of strong language (“didn’t your parents tell you that it is inappropriate?”). In her short song Rietkerk asked, isn’t football supposed to be about fun?

“F is for football
And we kicked your ass
[…]
U is for you suck balls
N is for never winning the cup…
Played a good game but it wasn’t enough.”

At 24 Oranges we like a good bit of trash talking and this world cup has certainly not disappointed us, but we need to give the victory to Karlijn Rietkerk on this one. Dizzy Miss DC’s frequent use of homophobic language disqualifies her entry from these ukulele wars. The Mexican tried to defend herself in a written coda, saying: “In my case, those words had no power at all, because I didn’t mean them. Why did I say them then? Mexican humour. It’s complicated.” Even back in 1979 Lester Banks had something smart to say about using words that have no meaning at all: “No matter how you intend them, you can’t say them without risking misinterpretation by some [bigot]; your irony just might be his cup of hate.”

(Illustration: cropped screenshot if Rietkerk’s video at YouTube)

Tags: , , , , , ,

May 8, 2009

It’s ‘Swine flu’ not ‘Mexican flu’ embassy says

Filed under: Animals,General,Science by Orangemaster @ 2:46 pm
flu1

Although full of praise for the Netherlands in dealing with the flu situation, The Embassy of Mexico to the Kingdom of the Netherlands is displeased that the media and even Dutch governmental organisations are referring to the virus as the “Mexican flu”, and not “Swine flu” to appease the pork industry and animal rights activists that objected to the term “Swine flu”.

“The Embassy strongly rejects the use of the term ‘Mexican flu’. As evidence has shown, the virus’ initial outbreak in Mexico was merely circumstantial. Establishing a permanent association between the virus and Mexico is not only misleading, but also encourages discriminating attitudes towards Mexico and its people, that have already led to isolated incidents in the Netherlands, a country that prides itself of its tolerance and non-discriminatory values.”

Just blame Mexico. And there’s little old me trying to explain to Dutch friends that Mexico really is part of North America. I give up. A Mexican friend in Paris just this week told me she gave up long ago.

(Link: embamex-nl, via Taalpost, Photo: thinkgeek.com)

Tags: , ,