May 14, 2007
Razors in apples for Halloween? Well, we don’t do Halloween here, so nope. Cyanide in over-the-counter pain killers? No, that is passé. How’s about a bullet in your daily bread?
Last weekend, a 60-year-old man found a 9mm bullet in a loaf of bread bought in a supermarket in The Hague. The mystery of the wayward bullet has not been unravelled. The police are investigating and stuff.
CSI, anyone? Biting the bullet puns?
(Link: nu.nl)
Tags: bread, supermarkets
May 13, 2007
Might as well use the same picture as when two guys climbed up a hoist vehicle.
Yesterday, a 35-year-old homeless man in Tilburg freaked people out by climbing up a high voltage tower, up to 25 metres. According to the article, the man was confused (what does that mean, no one knows). Two police negotiators and a family member talked him down after a three hour sit up there. He got some crisis help after that. Understandable.
(Link: Omroep Brabant)
Tags: Darwin awards, electricity, homeless, Tilburg
May 12, 2007
In Haarlem and other parts of the Randstad (conurbation including the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht), kids celebrate Luilak, the night before Pinksteren (Pentecost). Traditionally, kids go out in the streets to pull pranks by ringing doorbells, smearing candle wax on windows or as of late, engaging in more serious forms of vandalism. The trend of the past few years is smearing houses and cars with butter, egg yolks and flour. To try and avoid incidents this year, the police will fine or impose community service to any kids caught with butter, eggs or flour on Luilak night.
Tip for Haarlem residents with or without parking permits: make sure to move your car away from downtown and make sure your car is not parked in the makeshift tow zones that magically appear the day before without any warning whatsover besides a temporary sign posted at the makeshift tow zones themselves. The fines are hefty.
(Link: Telegraaf)
May 10, 2007
May 10 was the 75th birthday of “The William” (het Wilhelmus in Dutch) as the Dutch national anthem. Queen Wilhelmina ordained on May 10, 1932 that from that day on, the more popular song should replace the slightly xenophobic “Wien Neerlands Bloed” (“If Dutch blood flows through your veins / Free from foreign stains”), which had served as the first national anthem since 1815. Ironically, the latter song was expressly created to counter The William, which was considered a pro-protestant song, and therefore offensive to Roman Catholics.
That Queen Wilhelmina would pick a song with almost the same name as hers is no coincidence; she is a direct descendant of the William in the song. The William is the oldest national anthem in existence, as it was written in the 16th century. The lyrics of the Japanese national anthem are much older, but as a song it has ‘only’ existed since the 19th century.
Wikipedia has a very good article about The William.
(Via Geen Commentaar (Dutch). Photo by Quistnix, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 1.0.)
Last weekend in the province of Zeeland, synonymous with sea food, a man got caught by inspectors with 126 live lobsters. The man’s diving gear was still in his car. The inspectors assumed he was planning to sell the lobsters to restaurants. Many of the lobsters were still too small to be caught. Luckily, the poor little lobsters were released into the sea.
Last time I checked, lobster cost 22 euro a kilo on the Albert Cuyp market in Amsterdam. This lobster is from Canada, where a medium-sized lobster at the supermarket can cost, oh, 7 or 8 euro.
(Link: NieuwNieuws)
May 9, 2007
The winner of the boob job contest held by the Rotterdam Baja Beach Club can’t have the procedure done yet, as she is not old enough. The 20-year-old woman has to wait until she turns 21 this November, as the clinic doing the surgery believes it isn’t “responsible” yet. In November after Ms Visser turns 21, she can have the boob job done. Happy Birthday.
(Link: Fok.nl)
May 8, 2007
Space Expo in Noordwijk, South Holland is looking for one boy and one girl between the ages of 15 and 18 who want to represent the Netherlands during the International Space Camp 2007 (ISC 2007) in Huntsville, Alabama from 21 July through 27 July. Together with about 150 kids from around the world, they will discover everything there is to know about space travel: simulators, ground stations, spatial disorientation, gravity and all that jazz. Candidates have to be able to speak some English. This experience is brought to you by the NIVR, Delft University of Technology and Space Expo. Selection will take place on 17 May (Ascension) as of 10:30 at Space Expo in Noordwijk.
(Link: Blik op nieuws)
May 7, 2007
Actor and director Steve Buscemi is in Amsterdam for the premiere of Interview, the American remake of the film by the late Theo van Gogh. Van Gogh dreamed that his films would one day be the subject of American remakes and now, a little over two and half years after his death, his dream has come true. In the Van Gogh film, Pierre Bokma and Katja Schuurman played the main characters, while in the American version, Sienna Miller and Buscemi himself do.
(Link: AT5)
Tags: Amsterdam, Steve Buscemi, Theo van Gogh
May 6, 2007
The 1,400 or so residents of the wee village of Knegsel in the province of Noord-Brabant are the first in the Netherlands to get to use a new wireless Internet service via Wimax. Internet company Casema expects much from the possible successor of UMTS. It is 13 times as fast and is perfect for areas where residents are spread thin. In and around Knegsel there are three antennas, which provide wireless broadband Internet over distances of up to 25 kilometres.
(Link: Omroep Brabant)
Tags: broadband, Casema, Internet, Knegsel, Noord-Brabant, wimax
May 5, 2007
The employees of Dutch supermarket C-1000 have compiled a list of the items that are the most difficult to find in their supermarkets and placed it on their hyve, according to personnel magazine, Club1000. Interestingly enough, in most stores, the same products are difficult to find.
Top 5:
1. Cocktail toothpicks
2. Toasts
3. Salt
4. Corn Starch
5. Eggs
A note to foreigners:
1. There are no signs in Dutch stores to give you a general idea of where products can be found.
2. If you ask the staff, they point, but won’t bring you to the product (In North America, they are taught to bring you to the product – it increases the chance of a sale).
3. Every store of the same chain has a different layout, as buildings differ greatly.
4. And stores stock up during opening hours (!), especially on Saturday when it’s busy, and cannot be bothered to help you then.
In a C1000 in Delft, I found sardines with the Indonesian products. Why? Because the sardines were from outside the EU. The ‘normal’ sardines were from Britain with the tuna and salmon, but the ones I found were from Canada. Very logical.
(Link: zibb.nl)
Tags: Hyves, lost, supermarkets
