May 13, 2008

World Naked Bike Ride in the Netherlands

Filed under: Sports,Weird by Orangemaster @ 7:58 am
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On Saturday 7 June, Utrecht will play host to the World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) to ‘attract some attention’ to the environment and our bodies by biking around naked. Utrecht was chosen since on the same day there will be a concert entitled ‘Geen halve maatregelen, Klimaatwet nu!’ (roughly ‘No half measures, an environmental law now!’) with performances by De Dijk and Stevie.

Besides Utrecht, more than 15 cities in 20 countries around the world will have people demonstrating for a more positive attitude towards our bodies and the environment. “But no one has to go naked”, according to the WNBR.

And now my two cents: besides posing for Spencer Tunick) or some church calendar, many naked events tend to attract white, middle aged heterosexual men, like at the naked fitness (not really mentioned, but on Dutch TV not a single other type of person could be seen). And if the white, middle aged heterosexual men are not in the event, they are the ones gawking on the sidelines. It’s just an observation, folks. If anyone qualified has a real explanation, I’m very interested.

(Link: frontpage.fok.nl, photo treehugger,com)

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May 12, 2008

Amsterdam first in energy saving street lighting

Filed under: Dutch first,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 3:21 pm
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The Amsterdam council and Dutch electronics giant Philips will start a test exercise this summer, using a range of Philips LED street lighting called ‘UrbanLine’. The innovation is aimed at stimulating the more economic use of energy. Amsterdam is therefore the first big city in the world to install the new LED street lighting. The council will determine whether it will proceed further with the technology on the basis of the results of the exercise, with specific reference to the issues of sustainability, energy savings and lighting requirements. The LED street lamps along the bicycle path by the Amsterdam city hall/music theatre will be switched on for the first time on 21 July.

Replacing the existing compact fluorescent lamp (PLL-) by the Amsterdam city hall with the Philips UrbanLine LED innovation could lead to energy savings of as much as 51%. The Amsterdam city council’s environmental policy commits the city to the highest energy consumption reductions possible, and if the exercise proves successful, it intends to extend the use of the economical street lighting.

Working on its own account and with partners, the Amsterdam council intends to develop innovations for economical energy consumption in the city in a wide range of areas. For example, Councillor Herrema and a number of Amsterdam companies signed a declaration of intent on 1 April 2008 regarding an approach to sustainable mobility within the city, and established a platform for sustainable mobility. The aim is to support and develop projects that stimulate sustainable mobility.

(Link: iamsterdam.com)

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May 11, 2008

Photos of “authentic” shopkeepers

Filed under: Photography by Branko Collin @ 7:32 pm

Like everywhere else in the world, the small shops are dissappearing from the Netherlands. Photographer Niels Helmink decided to document (Dutch) these “authentic” shopkeepers and their stores.

I remember when I was living in Nijmegen, about a decade ago, there was talk about giving up a whole neighbourhood to the wrecking ball. This sort of thing tends to alienate the citizens, so city hall sold its plans by promising that in this location Nijmegen would get an entire new shopping street (the Moenenstraat) that would house countless of cute little boutiques. Once the street was built (2004) the rents turned out to be way too high for mom-and-pop stores, and instead the citizens got the same old chains that fester the Dutch landscape everywhere: your Blokker, your Xenos, your H&M, et cetera.

More photos at Helmink’s website and at his online portfolio. The photos are currently on display in Amsterdam at Gallery Bart. Photo depicts bicycle store Cito on the Ferdinand Bolstraat in the Pijp in Amsterdam, a neighbourhood that is quickly yuppifying and losing its little stores for that reason—although yuppie-friendly stores such as Taart van mijn Tante (a cakeshop) and ‘t Mannetje (bicycles) appear to be doing fine.

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May 9, 2008

New inkjet printer uses marbles

Filed under: General,Science by Orangemaster @ 10:45 am
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Dutch copier manufacturer Océ has introduced an industrial inkjet printer using CrystalPoint technology, which makes prints that do not smear when they are wet. The printer was nicknamed ‘knikkerprinter’ (‘marble printer’) by the local press because the ink is contained in tiny balls that are turned into a gel by the printer.

The technology has a ‘solid in, solid out’ principle. It uses small colour balls called ‘Tonerpearls’, which are contained in a transparent toner cartridge. The user can immediately see how much ink is left.

(Link: webwereld.nl)

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May 8, 2008

Biking through Tilburg

Filed under: Bicycles,Music by Branko Collin @ 2:30 pm

Biking through Tilburg on a bakfiets. Just a sweet little tune by Batiste and David to say hello to the Spring.

Via Jong Nieuws (Dutch).

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Symbols in political cartoons: Trik and Gorilla

Filed under: Art,Comics by Branko Collin @ 8:00 am

Two Dutch artists who draw political cartoons using mainly words and symbols to make their point have been making a name for themselves recently: Trik and Gorilla. The former won the prestigious Inktspotprijs 2007, the award for the best political cartoon, with a drawing commenting on the stalemate the Belgian government formation suffered last year. Trik used the famous last panel of the hugely popular Flemish Suske and Wiske comic strip, a powerful symbol for Belgium among Dutch readers, in which Wiske breaks the fourth wall by winking at the reader over the words The End. In Trik’s version, Wiske was dead. The End?

Gorilla is a group of designers making cartoons for the front-page of daily De Volkskrant. Readers can can vote for their favourite cartoons and buy T-shirts of the cartoons they like at the newspaper’s website. Caption for this cartoon: “Dutch best prepared for climate change.”

The wordiness of the cartoons of both artists, and the use of puns makes the cartoons feel rather like the mysterious Loesje posters that started turning up on walls all over the country during the 1980s, and that contained such witty observations as “there’s always a little bit of month left at the end of my budget.”

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May 7, 2008

Selling Dutch sweets in Morocco

Filed under: Dutch first,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 10:19 am
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After one Moroccan entrepreneur decided to make Gouda cheese in the Sahara, another Moroccan in Rotterdam is going to attempt making stroopwafels – also originally from the town of Gouda – and sell them in Morocco.

You’d think someone would have thought of this already, but according to businessman Mimoun el Arkoub, no one has. He explains that Moroccans love sweets and many of them know about Dutch food, so why not sell stroopwafels there? He bought himself two huge machines to produce the delights and is getting ready to crank them out and sell lots of them.

One major flop of pushing Dutch fare I have heard about in the past and seen on TV was convincing the Chinese to eat cheese. From what the Chinese, the Dutch people I know who have lived in China and others have said, the Chinese are not big on dairy products in general and have a problem with the smell of cheese. I mean, have you ever had cheese at a Chinese restaurant? The appeal of a huge market like China does not mean that if you just market real hard, they’ll start eating cheese. How many decades did it take the Dutch to drink wine? Think about it.

(Link: bizz.nl)

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May 6, 2008

Sleeping on the job for train staff

Filed under: Dutch first,General by Orangemaster @ 9:17 am
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On Monday in Maastricht, Limburg, the Dutch railways (NS) installed the first ‘reclining seat’ at the train station for use by train personnel. While on the job, train staff can take a 15-minute nap, sitting on this vibrating seat. The idea is that the seat will lull those hard workers to sleep in order to have them fresh and alert on long train rides across the country.

If a train driver falls asleep on the job, it can have fatal consequences for everyone on board a train. Every year some 250 train drivers from the Netherlands and abroad drive right through a red signal.

This picture is from an accident that happened right in Amsterdam Central Station a few years back.

(Link: depers.nl, Photo: ruudvisser)

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May 5, 2008

Moving on up at work by doing the boss

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 12:46 pm

It’s been a while since we posted something objectionable and this video certainly qualifies. Viral marketing has to have an edge – kitschy or not – to get our attention. OK, the music got my attention.

And true to blunt Dutch form, this one is called “f*** your way to the top”. A male trainee in ugly not tighty whiteys does all kinds of things (mostly insinuated) to impress his future, much older female boss. Since the punch line has to do with condoms, I can imagine that a woman trying to ‘please’ her boss would have fallen short and be considered even more sexist by the masses. And the advert is for a Dutch company called Jobcircle.

And since the punch line is in Dutch, allow me to translate. When Rogier picks up the phone near the end, the voice says “Hey Rogier, didn’t you know that on each condom there are tips so that you don’t have to take your clothes off?”

(Link: reclamewereld.blog.nl)

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May 4, 2008

Rebel-rouser geese caused most damage in 2007 and before

Filed under: Animals by Branko Collin @ 12:56 pm

In 2007 the Faunafonds paid 4.4 million euro to people claiming to have suffered damages at the paws and wings of geese, more than two thirds of all damages paid. Faunafonds is the fund that has a duty to try and reimburse those that suffered extraordinary damage from protected animals. In total it paid out 6.04 million euro, according to the fund’s annual report (PDF, Dutch). The goose has been the major troublemaker in the Netherlands it would seem for at least the past six years, with the common vole putting in a spirited cameo appearance in 2005.

For your ultimate statistical thrill-seeking pleasures I have put the table from page 13 of the annual report, containing damages paid per animal in tab separated value format here.

Via Toby Sterling, who has a thing or two about what he thinks about all this. Photo by Marco Raaphorst, some rights reserved.

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