July 24, 2017

Dutch drone used in Game of Thrones

Filed under: Film,Technology by Orangemaster @ 3:56 pm

Back in 2014, we expanded on the Dutch actors in the television series Games of Thrones, and now in a friendly game of ‘Zoek de Nederlander’ (‘Find the Dutch person’), a Dutch drone is now also part of the series.

In season seven of Game of Thrones, a NEO drone from Dutch manufacturer Acecore Technologies from Oss, Noord-Brabant was used to film aerial shots in Iceland.

The NEO drone can lift up to nine kilos in the air, which was needed to carry the RED Epic Dragon 6K camera with Cooke s4 25mm lens, hanging from a Gremsy H16 gimbal. Even though there was a lot of wind during the shoot as well as temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius, the kit held up very nicely. The drone was used instead of a helicopter to save on time and money.

(Link: bright.nl, Photo by Anthony Kelly, some rights reserved)

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September 20, 2015

Sleeping in a life-size sand castle hotel

Filed under: Architecture,Design,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 9:27 am

Zandhotel

Inspired by European ice hotels, two pop-up hotels (‘zandhotels’) made out of very 1000 tons of compact sand have opened in Oss, Noord-Brabant and Sneek, Friesland, which are already fully booked for this year. However, you can visit the one in Oss until 28 September and the one in Sneek until 4 October during nearby sand sculpture festivals.

The hotel’s basic structure is made of thin walls, covered inside and out with reinforced sand for sturdiness, while basics such as the shower, bathroom and bed are made out of normal materials.

Some media are calling it a world first, we’ll stay in our sandbox and call it a Dutch first.

(Links and photo: www.lalibre.be, wtkr.com)

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April 25, 2014

Glow in the dark road: from wonder to failure

Filed under: Automobiles by Orangemaster @ 1:31 pm

Two weeks ago the art-cum-safety project Glowing Lines was launched, featuring 500 metres of glow in the dark road near Oss, Noord-Brabant. According to the television station in Oss and this Facebook post (video), the lines don’t glow anymore because they react badly to humidity. So it’s back to the drawing board for Daan Roosegaarde and Heijmans Infrastructure, creators of the project, which we wrote about back in 2012 along with their heated bike paths.

The comments on the above-mentioned video say that the first day, everything worked fine and on day two, it stopped working. And here’s what it looked like when it worked properly. There’s a big difference!

(Links: www.omroepbrabant.nl-1, www.omroepbrabant.nl-2, Photo of Coen Tunnel, Amsterdam)

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December 17, 2011

Ruud van Nistelrooy most efficient striker of the decade

Filed under: Sports by Branko Collin @ 2:18 pm

Football player Ruud van Nistelrooy was recently declared the most efficient striker in the world for the first decade of this century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS).

The player from Noord Brabant finished just ahead of Thierry Henry of France and Didier Drogba of the Ivory Coast, Volkskrant reports. The IFFHS looked only at goals scored in international competitions to arrive at its ranking. In his career Van Nistelrooy has done relatively poorly when playing for the Dutch national team, not helped by injuries and a lack of confidence by successive national managers. His strike rate in the most prestigious club tournament of the world, the UEFA Champions League, is exemplary though. With 56 goals he occupies the second place on the all-time top scorers list.

Van Nistelrooy’s last name was originally spelled Van Nistelrooij, but the player had it changed according to Wikipedia so that it would become easier to read and pronounce by foreign fans. The name means ‘from Nistelrode’, and refers to a place in Noord Brabant just South of Van Nistelrooy’s birth town of Oss.

Although popular all over the planet—Ruud scored a whopping 150 goals during his five year stay at Manchester United, itself a favourite of international football fans—the Dutch have traditionally been wary of Van Nistelrooy’s contribution to the world of football. The government sponsored tourist board Holland.com rates former Ajax strikers Van Basten and Bergkamp higher, even though their goal tallies do not even come near that of the player from Brabant. Van Nistelrooy may not have helped his cause by almost single handedly humiliating press darling Ajax during several matches.

Van Nistelrooy (35) is currently plying his trade for Málaga in the Spanish competition (La Liga), though he is struggling to find the form of his younger years.

(Photo by Florian K., some rights reserved)

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March 29, 2011

Dutch scuba divers break World Record Underwater Ironing

Filed under: Dutch first,Sports,Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:41 pm

Yesterday, scuba diving club De Waterman in Oss, Brabant got 173 divers together to break the World Record Underwater Ironing. The former world record was held by a Polish scuba diving club with 130 divers. De Waterman said they worked really hard, right up to the last minute to find enough divers and enough ironing gear.

De Waterman can now proudly be included in the Guinness Book of Records just in time for the club’s 40th anniversary.

(Link: depers.nl, Photo Photo of Underwater ironing by BlueBeyond, some rights reserved)

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