January 8, 2014

New Internet meme pokes fun at Dutchiness

Filed under: Online by Orangemaster @ 10:52 am

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Following in the footsteps of ‘Dudes be like’ and a lot of other similar memes, ‘Tattas be like’ is the newest Dutch meme to poke fun at typical Dutch values. The guy who started the thing off is of mixed Surinamese and Caucasian background, which explains his use of the word ‘tattas’, Surinamese slang for ‘typically white Dutch folk’ and not breasts like many would think. More digging would suggest that ‘tatta’ refers to ‘patata’ (‘potatoe’), something many Dutch people think is theirs, although potatoes come from South America and were introduced to Europe through Spain.

The creator explains that after serious discussions about racism these past months, he felt people needed something light-hearted. The new meme is successful because of how easily recognisable the situations are at least if you’re Dutch, live in the Netherlands or have some understanding of Dutch culture. The pic above refers to the Elfstendentocht fever that takes over the news the moment ice starts forming on the canals.

I chuckled at this one below because it depicts a typical Dutch birthday party. Family and friends sit in a circle, whether it’s favourable or not to having conversations, and eat cake and drink coffee until told to leave. ‘Fissa’ is slang for ‘feestje’ (party), which this isn’t — it’s a dreaded obligation. It also depicts the idea of ‘gezelligheid’ (roughly, ‘having fun’) that is forced upon people who then collectively must pretend it’s fun because it’s a birthday party.

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(Link: motherboard.vice.com)

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January 7, 2014

Boffins develop first ever sports drink for horses

Filed under: Animals,Dutch first,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 12:10 pm

The Healthy Horse Hydration, already a mouthful to pronounce for many, is meant to be a sports drink for horses, the first ever of its kind.

For the record, if I were asked to come up with a better product name (I do get hired for product slogans), I’d call it ‘Power Horse’ or maybe ‘Horse Power’.

After a good run, the idea is to give your horse some HHH (why does that sound like a drug?) which apparently smells of apples. According to the video found in the link, it took hundreds of thousands of euro to develop the product, a pouch full of powder that dissolves in water when stirred that does look like apple juice. One of the scientists explains that the horse drinks the juice in the bucket thinking it will also get an apple and just ends up drinking the entire bucket.

On the whole, giving your horse a good drink after a good run sounds fine. Humans more often than not gulp down sports drinks for all the wrong reasons, including the insane amount of sugar in them. As well, comparing HHH to caffeine or taurine based drinks is already a huge mistake, as they are marketed as ‘energy’ drinks and not as sports drinks, plus they actually dehydrate instead of rehydrate.

And then there’s the Dutch word ‘paardenmiddel’ (paarden = horses, middel = means), which means ‘last ditch effort’ for something, which funny enough could work against the Dutch market image and partially explain the sour apple comments about HHH so far. Then again, if people don’t know the difference between sports drinks and energy drinks, their comments are for entertainment purposes only.

(Link: www.omroepbrabant.nl, Photo of Oostvaardersplassen horses by fransdewit, some rights reserved)

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January 6, 2014

Belgian train tickets cheaper for Dutch destinations

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 11:04 am

A one way train ticket from Roosendaal, a border station between the Netherlands and Belgium, to Brussels costs 6,50 euro less when buying it from Belgian railways (NMBS) than Dutch railways. A one way ticket from border station Maastricht to Brussels is even 8 euro cheaper, according to Metro.

The NMBS offers a ‘Go Pas’ pass, with which people can travel from either Roosendaal or Maastricht to Brussels for 14,60 euro there and back on the same day. With NS Hispeed (Dutch railways’ international travel company), a day trip from Roosendaal to Brussels costs 26 euro.

The Belgians consider Roosendaal and Maastricht inland stations keeping the price down, while Dutch railways recently hiked its prices to Belgian destinations.

Since saving money is all the rage, there’s always The trend of sharing unstamped train tickets through Facebook.

(Link: www.metronieuws.nl)

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January 5, 2014

Colourized X-ray still lifes by Arie van ‘t Riet

Filed under: Art,Photography,Technology by Branko Collin @ 9:38 am

tulips-arie-van-t-rietArie van ‘t Riet is a medical physicist who became an artist by accident.

My Modern Met writes:

One day, his colleague asked him to take an X-ray of one of his art paintings. It was a thin object and van’t Riet had never done something like this before, but as he said, “it worked.” This got him thinking about what other kinds of thin objects he could X-ray and flowers came to mind. He started with a bouquet of tulips. The analog image, or the silver bromide X-ray film, resembled a black and white negative. It was digitized, inverted, and then selectively colorized in Photoshop. “And then some people told me that’s art,” he humorously states, “and I became an artist.”

Many more amazing colourized X-rays can be found at the My Modern Met article linked above and at Van ‘t Riet’s own website.

(Link: Boing Boing)

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January 4, 2014

Dutch military unions complain about quality of combat uniforms

Filed under: Fashion,General by Branko Collin @ 4:59 pm

captain-mali-ministry-of-defence-maliTwo Dutch army unions are complaining about what they claim are flame-resistant combat uniforms of inferior quality and made in China. These uniforms will be worn by Dutch soldiers stationed in Mali, Telegraaf reports.

The paper quotes Jean Debbie of the VBM (union for both civil and military defence personnel) who claims that superior uniforms are available closer to home: “Even the Pentagon buys uniforms from Dutch company TenCate in Almelo”. Debbie also said the Americans almost exclusively buy American gear. (How true is that considering the USA are a nett arms importer?)

Jan Kleian of Christian military union ACOM added: “Money should be no object when it comes to protecting soldiers stationed in Mali.” Next Monday 14 quartermasters will leave for Mali to prepare for the 350 soldiers who will arrive in March to help the Malinese government as part of the UN mission Minusma. As the Ministry of Defense explains, the interests of a nation of traders like the Netherlands depend on “international safety, stability and a functioning legal order”.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense told the paper that the “current uniform is up to specifications”.

(Photo of a Dutch captain in Mali by Ministry of Defense, no rights reserved)

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January 3, 2014

Detecting drowsiness at the wheel for touring car drivers

Filed under: Automobiles by Orangemaster @ 8:08 pm

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Dutch touring car company Royal Beuk BV is currently testing technology called the Driver State Sensor that monitors whether a bus driver is getting drowsy at the wheel. Some 20 vehicles are being equipped with a system designed by Australian company Seeing Machines, which “uses infrared light and a camera to record eye movements to monitor whether a driver’s gaze is distracted from the road for too long or if they is blinking progressively more slowly, signs they may be nodding off.” If the system detects drowsiness, it will warn the driver with an alarm fitted to their chair and an audio signal, and additional alarms will also call for human intervention.

The Driver State Sensor costs 15,000 euro which, according to Marc Beuk in an RTL Nieuws interview is too expensive for the touring car branch, but thanks to the collaboration between Royal Beuk and Seeing Machines, the price could go down to as much as 5,000 euro.

It has been said that driving drowsy is a lot like driving drunk, but there’s no social taboo on it while it is just as dangerous.

(Link: phys.org, Photo of Beuk touring car by marie-II, some rights reserved)

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January 2, 2014

Documenting migration in the Americas for 40 weeks

Filed under: Film,Online,Photography by Orangemaster @ 12:35 pm

Photojournalist Kadir van Lohuizen has won many prizes for his work and is well known for his project Diamond Matters, about the diamond industry. This time, over the course of a year, Lohuizen investigated the roots of migration in the Americas, a time-old phenomenon that is increasingly portrayed as a new threat to the Western world.

Via PanAm engages the audience through a variety of platforms, using both traditional and new media. The stories made on the road are edited into weekly radio broadcasts, biweekly newspaper columns and regular magazine publications. The Via PanAm website and iApp not only provide contextual background info, but also directly connect readers and viewers with the journey’s progress. Day by day, the Americas and their people reveal themselves to the photographer and his followers as photo-stories, video and audio are uploaded on a regular basis.

Via Panam – Kadir Van Lohuizen from Paradox on Vimeo.

(Link: www.amsterdamadblog.com)

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January 1, 2014

Dutch railways leans on net neutrality law to block sites

Filed under: IT,Online by Orangemaster @ 8:00 am

The Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets has approved Dutch railways’ move to block YouTube and Spotify which use a lot of bandwidth in order to provide better quality Wi-Fi in some of their trains. Even though the Wi-Fi is free, the net neutrality law force ISPs and telecom operators to ensure access to all types of content, services or applications available on the network.

Much in the same way as Christian Internet access providers let clients filter the Internet to respect religious beliefs, the Dutch railways has blocked certain ‘data-heavy sites’ to avoid Wi-Fi congestion in trains. As long as the blocking is not selective, it is allowed, although one could easily argue that it is selective, as blocking YouTube and Spotify but leaving out Daily Motion and Deezer is indeed making a selection.

A lot of people in the Netherlands already use Internet mobile on their phones and computers and don’t really need the free service, the service is quite slow and probably won’t improve dramatically, and when something is free, many people don’t expect much of it anyways. However, watchdogs are worried about telecoms like T-Mobile who run the Wi-Fi in trains trying getting around the law to suit its purposes. After all, it’s companies like them who tried to up their prices when they started losing major ground to Skype and WhatsApp, and led to pushing through net neutrality laws in the first place.

The Netherlands made international headlines after being the second country in the world and the first European country to embrace net neutrality. The idea of companies chipping away at it will surely be watched very closely.

(Links: www.nieuws.nl, webwereld.nl, www.acm.nl)

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