April 20, 2007
The Baja Beach Club in Rotterdam is holding a contest where women can win a free boob job. Already 150 women have signed up in the hopes of scoring a new pair. All the women have to do is send in a photo of themselves with a cover letter as to why they deserve ‘a bigger rack’ to the tune of 5000 euro. “We’ve gotten entries from women between the ages of 21 and 45, mothers and non-mothers.”
(Link)
April 19, 2007
Two female ex students from Rotterdam have started an escort service that specialises in deflowering men. The ladies who work for the escort service have been specially trained for this. Clients can lose their virginity in bed, in the sauna or in a limousine, even by two women at once. And instead of cuddling, the women will answer their questions about sex in general.
According to owners Zoë and Marieke, most male virgins between 20 and 35 years of age work in the IT sector. ”Every virgin I know works with computers. They are very nice, but have a lack of social skills. They mean well, but get increasingly anxious because they don’t come into contact with women.”
(Link)
Tags: nerds, prostitution, Rotterdam, sex, virginity
So many kinds of bikes exist in the Netherlands, a land with more bikes than inhabitants. Now it’s time for the multifunctional Feetz (pronounced ‘fiets’, the Dutch word for bicycle). Industrial designer Lennart Vissers and his father Herbert Vissers came up with the design. The tricycle has two wheels on the side that turn in corners and handles like a bicycle. It can easily accommodate a bag of groceries or a child seat and when it is folded up, it can be used as a shopping cart.
For the expats and foreigners out there: the child looks very unsafe with no helmet and all, but that’s the way people bike here. For the Dutchies: no, it’s not safe and yes, there are a lot of bicycle accidents, which are not taken seriously until someone dies. It’s a cultural thing.
(Link)
Tags: Herbert Vissers, Lennart Vissers, shopping
April 18, 2007
Automate your network intrusion detection; that seems to be the inevitable conclusion from Sebastiaan Tesink’s research into systems that can teach themselves to recognise hacking attempts. Tesink performed his research as part of his Master’s thesis. According to his conclusions, automated systems can learn to recognize well over 90% of all hacking attempts, helping system administrators considerably.
(Source: Blik op Nieuws, Dutch.)
April 17, 2007
In September, the first ever cheeses from a new cheesemaker in the Moroccan town of Jerada, located in the middle of the Sahara desert, will be made and sold. Company owner Montassir Menouar completed his training in the Netherlands in Stolwijk, South Holland. The project, back by an association called Human Force, wants to help increase work perpectives in North Eastern Morocco. On April 19, Menouar will be saying good-bye to his teachers in the presence of the Ambassador of Morocco.
I think I saw bits of this on TV5 (Francophone television – Mr Menouar speaks French). Mr Menouar said he thought learning such a trade would help him provide for his family.
(Link: zibb.nl)
Tags: cheese, moroccan, Stolwijk, Zuid Holland
April 15, 2007
April 26 is the release date of the film Honeyz, the story of two teenage girls who get locked in De Bijenkorf, a major Dutch department store. The good news is, it’s the first ever Dutch film to be released simultaneously in theatres, on the Internet, DVD and mobile phone. The bad news is, some theatres have decided to boycott it for this very same reason.
According to the film’s producer, this it the first time a film has been boycotted for this reason in The Netherlands. Theatres are used to making their profit by being the first to show a film, but since they will have to compete with a simultaneous multimedia release, they are afraid of missing out on profits. But wait, if they boycott, they’ll miss out as well. Odd. Let’s wait and see if this knee-jerk reaction is justified.
(Link)
April 14, 2007
In March, we had the world record fire-breathing in Tilburg and one month later, we now have world record skippy ball hopping at Walibi World in Biddinghuizen, Flevoland. Exactly 2,518 children participated, which was enough for an entry into the new Guinness Book of World Records, beating the old record of 2,263. The event raised 70,000 euro, which will go to the St Jansdal hospital in Harderwijk.
Tags: biddinghuizen, records, skippy ball
April 13, 2007
Coba Beugeling who works for the animal welfare centre in Lelystad, Flevoland is planning to let children lease rabbits for a month. First, the child gets a speech on how to care for the bunny and if after a month they still get along, the child can keep it, with their parents’ permission of course. Proefkonijn (roughly ‘test rabbit’ although in English we say ‘guinea pig’) was initiated so that people don’t just release rabbits into the wild when they don’t want them any more. Guinea pigs and hamsters will soon be part of the leasing fleet as well.
(Link)
Tags: animal welfare, Flevoland, Lelystad, parenting, rabbits
April 12, 2007
The Instituut voor Life Science & Technology of the Hanzehogeschool Groningen has made a staircase shaped like DNA. It has several colours and can be accessed from two sides, making it a unique object of functional bioart. There are various hidden messages in this DNA staircase. To unravel these mysteries, the Instituut voor Life Science & Technology has turned it into a contest for all students and employees of the Hanzehogeschool Groningen. The prize is an iPod nano.
(Link)
Tags: DNA, Groningen, Instituut voor Life Science & Technology
The organisers of the Langedijker beddenrace (Langedijk Bed Race) want to boost participation by pushing their bed from the Eiffel Tower in Paris to the Frisian town of Noord-Scharwoude (Langedijk). On August 17, Michel Smit and Siem de Groot plan to cross that distance in time for the bed race back in Noord-Scharwoude on August 25. In the heyday of the Langedijker beddenrace, about 15 years ago, some 125 couples participated in the race, although nowadays it’s more like 65. Smit and de Groot plan to also make into the Guinness Book of Records with their tour.
(Link)
Tags: Friesland, Langedijk, Noord-Scharwoude, racing, records
