September 8, 2011

100 years of Fokker airplanes and some beer

Filed under: Aviation,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 1:23 pm

Two weeks ago in Haarlem I popped into Dutch café in den Uiver, named after KLM’s Douglas DC-2 airplane, Uiver to have a beer and look around again at the cool Dutch airplane memorabilia on the walls. Lo and behold, that weekend besides Haarlem’s Jazz Fest, it was also the Centennial Festival of the Fokker Spin or ‘spider’, the flight of Anthony Fokker’s airplane ‘Spin’ that flew over St. Bavo Church 100 years ago, an aircraft he built and flew when he was just 20.

Although bankrupt in 1996, Fokker airplanes are still around today in KLM’s fleet and are an important part of Dutch aviation history. The Fokker Trimotor, as used by Richard Byrd to fly over the North Pole, is probably the best known of his planes.

For the occasion, Haarlem’s young beer brewery Jopen, of which I could go on about with many stories, brewed a Fokker Spin beer. In den Uiver had it on tap, and it had a proper bitter yet sharp after taste. But never ever drink and fly.

(Link: cloggie.org)

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September 7, 2011

A fire evacuation song for kids

Filed under: Music,Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:36 pm

A Dutch site about children, pregnancy and the likes, peuteren.nl is offering the free download of a song children can sing when they leave a burning school building or during a fire drill.

According to the site, the story goes that someone somewhere wondered if there was a song the kids could sing to keep their focus on getting outside in a stressful situation. Here’s ‘Het Ontruimingslied’ (‘The Evacuation Song’), easy to sing for Dutch kids as young as two-years-old.

Someone who works with kids please tell me if this is a brilliant idea or just plain weird, I honestly don’t know.

An excerpt:

We moeten nu naar buiten
Stap voor stap in de rij
Iedereen verzamelen
De deur is al nabij

(roughly)
We have to go outside
Step by step in a file
Everybody gather together
The door is not too far

For the Dutch teens who do understand German, there’s always the punk rock classic by Extrabreit, Hurra hurra die Schule brennt (Hurrah Hurrah The School is Burning).

(Link: nieuws.nl)

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September 6, 2011

A big bike full of kids back from school

Filed under: Bicycles by Orangemaster @ 12:37 pm

De Cafe Racer has launched this 10-seater school bus which comes equipped with pedals for “most of its occupants.” I think this means some kids just sit there, but I don’t quite get that.

This eco-friendly vehicle is powered entirely by pedalling kids, although the driver can switch on an actual motor if they want to get going.

The company also makes bikes with a bar like the beer bikes we posted about. Then, there’s also cargo bikes for 8 kids, with an adult peddling along.

The cities and towns in the Netherlands have a very well divided space for cyclists and drivers. When I used to work as a bike courier, before bike paths in Montréal, Canada, you had to cycle on the right-hand side of the road and be very aware of fast traffic around you that may even hit you (happened at least three times, once even caught on film). Cars hit your handle bars and send you flying (BTW I wore a bike helmet). Or there’s that time someone opened a car door on a fellow bike courier roommate and the pointy end of the door ended up in his chest, sending him to the hospital.

In the Netherlands you can bike without fear of cars on the bigger bike paths, although racing scooters are the new danger. However, it is relatively safe for these kinds of bigger bikes, even on busy streets since so many people cycle in general and cars are more aware of cyclists. And traffic is much slower, too.

(Link: thenextweb.com, Photo: De Cafe Racer)

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September 5, 2011

Apache Junction, Western comic strip album by Peter Nuyten

Filed under: Comics by Branko Collin @ 9:23 am

During my student days I helped publish a comics fanzine called Iris, and our ‘thing’ was that we enjoyed making mainstream European comics.

That is why it is doubly satisfying to be holding Peter Nuyten’s Western comic Apache Junction in my hands. Peter was a contributor to Iris back in the day, and Apache Junction is as traditionally European as it gets.

The Western takes place around 1875 and follows a US Army messenger, at a time when Apache tribes refuse to be locked up in reservations and engage the federal government in guerilla war fare. The messenger gets wounded in a knife fight and needs to seek refuge at a lonely farm.

Holly Moors has this to say about Apache Junction: “Nuyten seems to want to combine the exciting stories of Jean Giraud and the engaged, critical attitude of Hans Kresse. He is a bit too wordy in the first part of the album, and could use a good, tight script writer. That way he can focus on the art, where he doesn’t quite yet reach Giraud’s level, though he is getting there. […] Still, I have finished the album in one go, and will certainly read the second part, because this is definitely an artist to keep an eye on.”

Me, I felt the story got progressively better, and I cannot wait for the second part.

Apache Junction (part 1, 2011) is published by Silvester and cost 16,95 euro in hard cover format. More reviews (in Dutch) after the link.

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September 4, 2011

Fleeing from Nazis in a Chevy-powered boat

Filed under: History by Branko Collin @ 12:30 pm

During World War II about 1,900 people fled Dutch territory to unoccupied lands, sometimes to be safe, sometimes to help the allies fight the Nazis. These people were called Engelandvaarders (England-goers), regardless of whether they actually went to England.

The New York Times blog has a story about five of them, students, who fled the country in a DIY motor boat after the Nazis required all students to sign a loyalty oath.

Their engine, commonly known at the time of its manufacture as the cast-iron wonder, was introduced in 1929, giving Chevy customers “a six for the price of a four,” as the advertising slogan said. Displacing 194 cubic inches, it produced 46 horsepower at 2,600 r.p.m. Fuel consumption was 19 m.p.g.

The men bought the engine from a marina operator in western Holland, paying 700 Dutch guilders. Fitting it to their seven-meter launch required numerous modifications, including an underwater exhaust outlet to suppress noise. The driveline and propeller were clandestinely built.

The five made it to England safely—in the end they were picked up by the British navy.

One of the most famous Engelandvaarders was Leiden University student Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema who was portrayed by Rutger Hauer in the Paul Verhoeven film Soldier of Orange, after Hazelhoff Roelfzema’s autobiography.

(Source photo: a still from a video by Captain A.J. Hardy, now in the public domain)

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September 3, 2011

Pixelated red on a mug means blood

Filed under: Art,Design,Photography by Branko Collin @ 7:34 pm

If you thought the story about the asylum seeker game show was bad, you may not wish to read on.

The mugs that photographer Raoul de Lange makes may seem rather pedestrian—a couple of cheerfully coloured pixels being the only adornment—but the pixels are based on photos of people that were shot down during the Arab Spring, and that did not even get to enjoy some privacy from prying photographers.

These mugs were De Lange’s senior project (called Mug Shots) at the Royal Academy of Art. He was the only photographer of his year who did not use his own photos, Bright reports.

De Lange writes: “In [this project] I try to make the dead and wounded of the Arab Spring a part of our daily lives in an acceptable manner.”

(Source photo: Raouldelange.nl. Warning: bloody photos behind the link.)

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September 2, 2011

Ironic game show mocks failed asylum policy

Filed under: Shows by Branko Collin @ 4:32 pm

Yesterday broadcaster VPRO aired a show called Weg van Nederland (which can mean either Away from the Netherlands, or Crazy about the Netherlands).

Writes The Guardian:

Contestants on the one-off game show from the public broadcaster VPRO, part of an annual week of experimental programmes, comprise five asylum seekers who have exhausted legal avenues to stay in the Netherlands and await imminent deportation to their country of origin.

They compete in a quiz about Dutch culture, history and language, with the winner awarded €4,000 (£3,500) to help cushion them when they are expelled. Consolation prizes include a bulletproof vest.

Excellent write-up, though I am not sure about the description of the “mini-skirted pastiche of air cabin crew uniforms”. To me those outfits look like sexed-up customs uniforms.

The paper quotes VPRO head Frank Wiering: “These days many asylum seekers who are being expelled have children who have lived in the Netherlands for eight years or more. They have had a good education, speak perfect Dutch and have only seen their country of birth on television. We believe it’s time to stop and think about this.”

See also “TV quiz for asylum seekers courts controversy” (Radio Netherlands).

Source trailer: Youtube / VPRO. Tip of the hat to Marijn.

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September 1, 2011

Tracking down pooping dog owners using dog DNA

Filed under: Animals,Science by Orangemaster @ 3:59 pm

There can be quite some dog pooh on the street in the Netherlands sometimes because the owners pay taxes and some interpret that as ‘my dog can go anywhere it wants without me having to pick it up because I pay for it.’ It could be worse, but it could always be better.

The town of Wijchen, Gelderland is considering getting some device that reads pooh DNA, finds the dog that matches it, which in turn leads to the owner getting a fine. It’s all very CSI. Would people and law makers actually allow the reading of dog pooh DNA as a basis for a fine? And then the town has to properly keep a DNA database of all the dogs. Experience teaches us that government and databases are a very bad match in general.

The bottom line is, it’s also really expensive, the boffins say.

(Link: www.gelderlander.nl.nl, Photo of Pick Up Your Dog Poo by Michael Coghlan, some rights reserved)

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August 31, 2011

Pianos take over the streets of Tilburg

Filed under: Art,Music by Orangemaster @ 5:27 pm

A project entitled ”Play Me, I’m Yours” by English artist Luke Jerram at Tilburg’s annual Incubate Festival will feature 101 pianos scattered around the city between September 12 and 18. Anybody can go and play the pianos in the parks, squares and at train stations. And they’ll surely be painted all kinds of pretty colours.

Some 200 musicians and music students have already showed a keen interest in giving concerts. And with so many people wanting to go and play the pianos, the city of Tilburg will surpass Jerram’s previous projects that took place in major cities such as New York and London.

Incubate donated the pianos and volunteer residents will babysit and care for the pianos during the event. Pet pianos, if you will. And with all this rain, that sounds like a good idea although all the rumours point to fantastic weather in September. And there will be music, too.

(Link: refdag.nl, Photo of piano keyboard by Adam Henning, some rights reserved)

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August 30, 2011

24 Oranges: switching from a Facebook Group to a Facebook Page

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 7:50 pm

We will be abandoning our Facebook Group and continue with a Facebook Page instead. You can find the page at http://www.facebook.com/24oranges?sk=wall.

If you were a member of our group, follow us on Facebook by ‘liking’ our Page, as the group will be deleted.

We use Facebook for all kinds of things. We connect with our readers through it, and our page wall has its own content, although sometimes we post a link to a blog posting if the article is especially apt for our Facebook friends.

As for the difference between Facebook’s ‘pages’ and ‘groups’, they continue to mystify us and everybody else including, I gather, Facebook themselves. It would seem that the philosophy behind a page fits us better. From what I understand, Facebook initially intended groups to be a way for friends and family to connect, whereas pages are intended for larger groups of people.

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