January 3, 2022

Some of 24 Oranges’ most memorable posts

Filed under: Architecture,Bicycles,Dutch first,Gaming,General,History,Science,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:16 am

We started 24 Oranges in February 2007 and in late January 2022 it will become a column over at DutchNews.nl, also called 24 Oranges. After 4,100 posts under our belts, we might feel the need to post here every once in a while in the future, but have no current plans to continue. As two self-employed people, we’ve had to make sure we had enough work and energy to keep going, and honestly we just don’t these days.

Before we sign off indefinitely, let’s look back at a few of the stories that we still talk about in no particular order.

1. A beautifully preserved Jewish home in Amsterdam

We didn’t break this story, but we scooped all the Dutch media in getting the right to use pictures, which we’re very proud of. All we did was ask nicely, while other media tried to ask us, which was odd because we didn’t have the rights.

Recently discovered Jewish interior will not be wrecked for now.

2. The Dutch neighbourhood built by the Nazis

It’s not the province of Limburg’s fault for being a few kilometres from the Germany border. In this case, the city of Heerlen, which was occupied back in the day, has an entire neighbourhood with an eerie Dutch look on the outside, but efficient spaces for families on the inside.

Visiting a neighbourhood built by Hitler.

3. Diehard elderly Frisian man finishes 240 km bike race

Statistically, our cycling stories have always done well since we have the biggest this and the first that when it comes to bikes. Here’s a story about elderly Frisian man Wiebe Idsinga finishing a 240 km bike tour as the last man cycling, but he finished it. Watch the video in the link below.

Diehard elderly Frisian man finishes 240 km bike race.

4. Friesland home to world’s oldest working planetarium

This story made me finally visit the Royal Eise Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker in 2020 at a time when museums where one of the few things open. I even bought a booklet in French to send to my engineer father who knows it off by heart. It was one of the most impressive things I’ve every seen, and I’m happy to say it will become UNESCO heritage in 2023.

Friesland home to world’s oldest working planetarium.

5. Man found not guilty after blacking out hospital

This gaming story went around the world, and it’s truly the kind of weird news we liked to write about. A man shut down a hospital during a psychotic episode, thinking he was playing Silent Hill. The gaming community helped this story go viral.

Man found not guilty after blacking out hospital.

6. A French Canadian soldier single-handedly freed Zwolle

I wrote this story while visiting my parents in Québec, and anytime I could write a story that had a Canadian and Dutch angle to it, I did. This story is incredible to say the least, and people in Zwolle absolutely know who Léo Major is to this day.

The French Canadian soldier who freed Zwolle.

7. Fertility doctor uses his own sperm

A creepy story about a doctor who might have produced about 60 children, a story that had sequels in the media. The doctor died and then everybody scrambled to try and find out if they were one of his kids, with all the legal red tape this entails.

Dutch fertility doctor bragged about using his sperm.

8. Sexist advert denigrates Dutch women and men

After publishing this I got a call from Nyenrode Business Universiteit asking us why we were picking on them. I said many things, including they have openly assumed that managers are all dumb straight men and that women can’t be taken seriously. The man confessed his wife told him the same thing and they eventually pulled the advert.

Sexist advert denigrates Dutch women and men.

9. Photoshoot with original Leeuwenhoek microscope and specimens

Although Leeuwenhoek’s specimens have been imaged before, this was the first time that the latest digital techniques have been applied to the surviving specimens. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek from Delft, one of the world’s first microbiologists, had a special collection of specimens. Follow the link to get the whole story.

Photoshoot with original Leeuwenhoek microscope and specimens.

10. Subsidizing astrologers for job seekers raises eyebrows

I remember this story pissing off quite a bit of Dutch folks in the category throwing money out the window. Some government re-integration projects for the unemployed included help from astrologers, tarot readers, and folks that talk to space aliens.

Subsidizing astrologers for job seekers raises eyebrows.

Take good care of yourselves and each other, thanks for checking us out!

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October 25, 2021

Sintel and Scales, a dark animated short about losing and finding your dragon

Filed under: Film by Branko Collin @ 5:06 pm

This 12 minute short film follows a young woman called Sintel as she tries to track down the creature that abducted her pet dragon, Scales.

The indie was produced in 2011 in order to showcase the possibilities of free and open source software Blender, and was funded using financial support from the Netherlands Film Fund and from hundreds of private sponsors.

The film was directed by Colin Levy after a screen play by Esther Wouda, in turn inspired by a concept by Martin Lodewijk. The characters of Sintel and the shaman were voiced by Halina Reijn and Thom Hoffman respectively and the music was composed by Jan Morgenstern.

Every year the Blender Foundation creates a so-called ‘open movie’ to show what can be made with the current version of its software.

(Illustration: crop of the video, YouTube / Blender Foundation)

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September 19, 2021

This window sticker threatens to shoot you

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 2:03 pm

Orangemaster and I came across this sticker on a window overlooking the back alley of taco bar Mr. Haz in the Jordaan neighbourhood of Amsterdam.

It shows a drawing of a revolver pointed straight at the viewer and a text that reads “Beveiligd door” (“Secured by”), followed by a company name and phone number.

I had to chuckle. Security guards in the Netherlands are not allowed to carry arms, making this is a crude joke or an announcement that the security company staff are worse than the people they are supposed to stop. It strikes me as a variant of the sticker that contains a picture of a dog and the text “hier waak ik” (“I guard this place”) – except of course that guard dogs are legal.

Recently, there have been voices from the Dutch security industry, especially from the so-called BOAs (community service officers), asking to be armed (Dutch).

(Photo: Orangemaster)

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June 1, 2021

Single mother turns to crowdfunding for house

Filed under: General,Online,Weird by Orangemaster @ 4:15 pm

It’s only getting tougher to find a house to buy in The Netherlands. There’s a lack of affordable houses, often bought up at hundreds of thousands of euro above the asking price (according to Dutch news show Nieuwsuur on 31 May 2021), more often than not by investors who will subdivided the houses into small and make tons off renting them. By the way, this practice should be heavily restricted in 2022 if all goes as planned.

Nathalie, 40, lives alone with her daughter, a dog and a bunny in 46 square metres and pays €950 in rent before utilities. She pays more than most, and less than some. However, she is unable to put money aside to buy a house and cannot get social housing because her salary is often just above the limit. Many people are in similar situations.

Since she cannot find a house, she has decided to try her hand at crowdfunding to raise €1 million from 1 million people. “If everyone sends a euro, I’ll soon have my dream house.” Of course, social media has made mince meat of her cry for help, but I’ll give her points for trying and being honest about it. As I write this, she has raised €7.530, with about a year to go for the rest.

Back in 2005, Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald bartered his way from a single red paperclip to a house in a series of fourteen online trades over the course of a year and everybody through he was brilliant, just saying.

(Link: waarmaarraar.nl, Photo: designboom.com)

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May 12, 2021

First ever European tenants of 3D house in Eindhoven

Filed under: Architecture,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 2:21 pm

On April 30, a retired Dutch couple from Amsterdam have become Europe’s first tenants of a fully 3D printed house in Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, a cream coloured modern house with a bunker-like feel. Thanks to extra thick insulation and a connection to the heating network, the house is very comfortable and energy efficient.

Printed layer by layer at a factory in Eindhoven, the parts were transported by truck to the construction site and placed on a foundation. The house was then equipped with a roof and window frames, and its finishings. One of the advantages of 3D printing is that the concrete printer has the ability to place concrete only where it is needed, without overloading the foundations and without wasting materials, making it a green choice.

Although it is early days, the 3D printing method is seen by many within the construction industry as a way to lower costs and damage to the environment. In the Netherlands, it also provides an alternative at a time when there is a shortage of skilled bricklayers.

The couple, who have lived in four different types of home in the past six years, are paying €800 a month to live in the home for six months as of August 1st. I can tell you that this is a very good price, considering the overheated housing market and the next to non-existent availability of places to rent.

(Links and image: archdaily.com and theguardian.com)

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April 28, 2021

Dutch brand Moooi produces ‘impossible’ flower chair

Filed under: Design,Nature by Orangemaster @ 11:00 am

Dutch design brand Moooi has partnered with Argentinian 3D artist Andrés Reisinger to mass-produce his Hortensia chair, also known as “the chair that could not be made”.

Back in 2018, Reisinger designed the chair as a ‘digital’ piece of furniture, but it has now been made into a physical chair covered in 30,000 fabric petals, available in the original pink as well as grey. This chair is said to be the first time that a product designed for the digital world has gone into mass production. The updated version being released by Moooi features a steel frame, rather than wood, covered in injection-moulded foam, while using lightweight polyester fabric laser-cut into long, scalloped strips that are then bunched together into clusters of 40 petals each. Moooi used special sewing machines to sew the petal modules onto a thick, elastic backing textile that is then wrapped around the chair.

“The Hortensia was considered impossible to produce – and yet here we are,” said Moooi CEO Robin Bevers.

(Link and image: dezeen.com)

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April 16, 2021

Dutch palace salon restored and modernised

Filed under: Art,Science by Orangemaster @ 12:58 pm

Dutch King Willem Alexander and his family live in the royal palace Huis ten Bosch in The Hague, and greeting guests is often done in the DNA Salon. Dutch-British artist Jacob van der Beugel built the salon with part of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima’s genetic code, turned into 60.000 handmade bricks.

Nothing medical is included in the design, as Van der Beugel was assisted by geneticist Hans Clevers to make sure the King’s and Queen’s privacy was protected. It took the artist almost three years to make all of the little bricks and a few weeks to install them. The flatness and horizontal lines evoke Dutch landscapes, like tulips fields.

The combination of traditional and visual Dutch design is, well, very Dutch. Another great example is the unique designs of the Dutch guilder by Ootje Oxenaar who pushed for and designed bank notes from 1966 and 1985.

DNA salon has a nice mix of subtle royal gold, bright white (or creme, hard to see) for contrast, warm DNA information and the contrast of the green chairs, which would explain why the salon was also called the Green Salon. Someone else can tell you more about the chandelier, the furniture and the elaborate ‘overdoor’ (art meant to go above a door).

(Link: nos.nl, Photo rijksvastgoedbedrijf.nl)

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April 13, 2021

Zwolle liberator to get motorway named after him

Filed under: History by Orangemaster @ 4:38 pm

On this day in 1945, Léo Major, the French Canadian soldier who single-handedly freed freed Zwolle, Overijssel, will have a 3.5 kilometre large section of motorway 371 in Québec named after him, starting at the entrance of the Valcartier military base Northwest of Québec City, Québec, Canada.

Léo Major was given his first medal, the Distinguished Conduct Medal of the British Army, the only Canadian and one of only three soldiers in the British Commonwealth to ever receive the Distinguished Conduct Medal twice in separate wars. Major went on to pull some more great moves in the Korean War. His friend Wilfrid Arseneault was given a Bronze Lion posthumously in 1970 by Dutch Queen Juliana.

(Link: lapresse.ca, Photo: Wikipedia)

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March 31, 2021

Fish get an underwater doorbell in Utrecht

Filed under: Animals,Weird by Orangemaster @ 10:37 am


In Utrecht, fish and other swimming creatures have been given their own doorbell to alert humans that they are trying to get to their spawning grounds.

Each spring thousands of fish make the journey upstream in the Vecht river, but have to wait at the gates of the Weerdsluis lock because it doesn’t open often enough to their liking. The Weerdsluis lock was built in the Middle Ages around 1300 to maintain the water level in the canals and has been a national monument since 1992.

To unclog the fish traffic, Utrecht local council and local water authorities have installed a camera that live streams (ha, pun) what the fish are doing while they wait. People in Utrecht who spot a waiting fish can ring the bell which will alert the lock keeper who will then get screenshots of the fish and can open the lock doors to let them through.

The goal is not to open the doors for every single fish, but to make sure the doors open at least once a day. And who doesn’t want to see a live stream (one more!) of fish trying to get somewhere? They are travelling more than most of us at the moment.

Back in 2014 we told you about a fish that could drive its tank around the room.

(Link:dutchnews.nl, Photo: visdeurbel.nl)

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March 19, 2021

Amsterdam guys build brown cafe in flat

Filed under: Architecture,Food & Drink,General by Orangemaster @ 11:01 am

Like countless others, twentysomethings Amsterdam residents Max and James really miss going to the cafe (pub/bar) and having a beer. So much so that they built their own Amsterdam-style cafe in their flat on the third floor. It’s in a corner with the washing machine, and it’s 2.5 x 2.5 metres.

The DIY brown café includes Amstel beer (brewed by Heineken), brown laminate planks, heavy curtains and ‘prullaria’ (knick-knacks). Cafe Van Dissel, named after Jaap van Dissel, Director of the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (aka RIVM), also has rules: not too much messing with your phone, you have to hang up your jacket even if it’s in half in the way when you sit down, for the real experience. They only serve Dutch bar food and beer, so no cocktails or other ‘fancy’ things. However, for Dutch jenever and Berenburg they’ll gladly look the other way.

The first visit is free, and you’re expected to bring a gift for the second. They even have a hard boiled egg holder (like those cupcake holders but for eggs) and are hoping for traditional Dutch table carpet (yes, carpet, not cloth).

I’m now rethinking my own Tiki bar plans.

(Link: ad.nl)

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