October 14, 2015

Biggest bra sizes and interesting condom purchases

Filed under: General,Health by Orangemaster @ 2:06 pm
bra

Dutch online lingerie shop Pabo.nl, also Europe’s biggest, conducted its own survey into who has the biggest boobs and the longest dongs per province, something to briefly take your mind off the fact that the Netherlands is not playing in the European Football Champs this summer.

Women in Zeeland have lots of cup A fans, but Utrecht takes the win for the smallest boobs overall. However, Zeeland has about 10% of women ordering cup F, which no other province has. The cup B fans come from Flevoland, the C cups are for Utrecht, D cups Overijssel, and most of the bigger sizes go to Groningen in the lead for Cup E.

If you believe in condoms sales as a size indicator, North Holland and Friesland buy the biggest condoms. Friesland stands out as a province that buys twice as many flavoured condoms as the rest of the country. I wonder if they’re orange flavoured.

(Link: www.bndestem.nl, photo: ecollo.com)

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October 13, 2015

Student in Nijmegen invents a new mixed drink

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 12:07 pm

Karls-Koekie

Karl Kouki, a 25-year-old Bachelor’s student at the Radboud University in Nijmegen has crossed a pretty cool thing off his bucket list: getting an alcoholic drink with his name on it, called ‘koekie’ (probably pronounced ‘kooky’ rather than ‘cookie’, referring to his last name and his nickname). Kouki even used part of his student loan to finance the whole project, which started as a joke and has now unexpectedly become serious business.

Cut to quaint student café in Nijmegen where Kouki worked as a part-time barman on a shot called ‘koekie’ made up of vodka, caramel liqueur and a bit of butterscotch that become their most popular shot. Kouki says today the bottled version has nothing to do with that combination since he has learned that creating alcohol is not just throwing a few types of liqueur together in a bottle.

It also took him a while to find someone that could bottle small amounts of his shot drink, as well a lab to get the recipe right — after 25 tries koekie finally tasted like the way it was meant to taste. The bottle orders have been pouring in and right now supply can’t meet the demand: you can’t buy any in the West of the country yet. Koekie has an alcohol percentage of 14,7%, which is a bit stronger than wine, but Kouki explains that ’10 minutes later you can still taste it’.

We want some too now.

(Links: munchies.vice.com, www.gelderlander.nl, Photo by Karl Kouki)

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October 12, 2015

How not to interview a Dutch sports champion

Filed under: General,Sports by Orangemaster @ 10:26 am

Here’s something from the old box, as we say in Dutch: an American reporter of the NBC tries to interview Olympic gold speed skating champion Sven Kramer after his win in the 5000 metre event in Vancouver in 2010. Prefaced by a Dutch journalist saying ‘the interview started in a weird way’, Kramer tells the NBC reporter exactly what he thinks of her first question – watch the video to find out.

Part of me thinks, ‘wow, his answer was rude! And then he continues normally as if he hadn’t been rude’. The other part of me thinks, ‘wow, what an ignorant journalist asking a gold medal winner to identify themselves because if it were an American she would never have done that’.

This video fragment is like those pictures where depending how you look at them, you can see two different things, but never both at once.

(Photo of Sven Kramer by Mingo Hagen, some rights reserved)

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October 11, 2015

Dutch children try foreign breakfasts

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 9:42 pm

Children in the Netherlands

Watch Dutch kids give their uncensored and blunt little opinions on breakfast foods from around the world. Some of the kids here have bad table manners meant to be cute, a friendly warning to anyone on the misophonia spectrum. And the amount of gel in the little boys hair is also a Dutch thing that nobody understands.

One boy thinks many types of breakfast come from the Philippines. One of the girls calls Vegemite on toast ‘a shit sandwich’ and seems to not have learnt to eat with utensils or have any kind of table manners. A few points go to the girl who enjoys Costa Rican rice and beans for breakfast.

Dutch children in this video eat chocolate sprinkles on toast for breakfast, which is junk food, so I hope their parents feed them real food otherwise, not just hair gel.

(Link: www.welingelichtekringen.nl, photo of random children: Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

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October 9, 2015

Young Dutchman makes professional hockey debut

Filed under: Dutch first,Sports by Orangemaster @ 9:21 am

If a Dutchman grows up in a hockey country and has hockey father Hannie Sprong encouraging him, he’ll play hockey instead of football (soccer). Born in Amsterdam, this is Daniel Sprong’s story, an 18-year-old with star quality who has been living in Quebec, Canada since he was seven and played his first NHL game with the Pittsburgh Penguins on 8 October 2015 against the Dallas Stars, in a game that saw the Penguins lose 3-0.

The Dutch media is not into hockey otherwise, but since Sprong is still a Dutchman with no dual citizenship (he’s apparently still waiting on his Canadian one), he qualifies for our ‘Zoek de Nederlander’ (‘Find the Dutch person’) tag. Sprong has also said that he does not want to play with the Dutch national hockey team in the hopes of playing for the Canadian one, which means he probably enjoys winning.

The first Dutch Canadian to play NHL hockey was Ed Kea, born in Weesp, who played among others with the Calgary Flames in the early 1970s. His career came to an abrupt end when he hit his head on the ice (no helmets back then), a severe injury that left him physically and mentally disabled. As well, because his injury happened when he was in a minor league at that point in his career, he was not financially covered and his family struggled to make ends meet. Sadly, Kea died accidentally in his family’s swimming pool at age 51.

In 2013 we told you about Mike Dalhuisen’s debut with the New York Islanders, a guy who likes to fight on the ice.

(Links: www.parool.nl, stlouisblueslegends.blogspot.nl, en.wikipedia.org, Photo of hockey sticks by kicksave2930, some rights reserved)

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October 8, 2015

Virtual reality movie theatre to premiere in Amsterdam

Filed under: Dutch first,Event,Film by Orangemaster @ 7:10 pm

For anyone who hates 3D movies, look away now: a new virtual reality pop-up movie theatre will open in Amsterdam on October 31, organised by Samhoud media. The idea is to watch short 30-minute films, with many showings to choose from through the evening.

You’d be watching video through a Gear VR headset from Samsung and Oculus, an experience that will run you 10 euro. For 30 euro you can live large and enjoy a loveseat and VIP experience. Oh, and there will be popcorn. Owner Jip Samhoud said that it’s the first time in the Netherlands that they are going to apply such large-scale virtual reality, and it could very well be the first time in Europe.

The films are a surprise: no idea if they are Halloween related.

(Link: www.nltimes.nl, photo of film cans by tallfoot, some rights reserved)

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October 7, 2015

National holocaust monument becomes glass house

Filed under: Architecture,History by Orangemaster @ 6:38 pm

westerbork

The green and white wooden house is one of the last remaining buildings at Kamp Westerbork, a WWII Nazi transit camp in Hooghalen, Drenthe where Dutch Jews, Sinti and Romani stayed and were readied for transport to Nazi concentration camps elsewhere. German Jewess Anne Frank passed through there as well in her final months before being transported back to Germany. The house was declared a national monument in 1994.

Intended as a memorial to WWII, the large glass box creates a vitrine-like enclosure around the clapboard residence of SS commander Albert Konrad Gemmeker. According to Oving Architecten from Groningen, it will both preserve the structure and be used to host educational events.

(Link: www.dezeen.com, photo ovingarchitecten.nl)

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October 6, 2015

Dam Square backdrop to powerful techno jam

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 10:30 am

DamSquare

On Dam Square in Amsterdam, in front of the palace and the National Monument, we get entertainment of all kinds from hotdog sellers and human statues to ferris wheels and protests. The usual reaction to most of it is to walk past very quickly to get to where you were going, but the music this guy cranked out in the video below was worth a good listen and some small change.

Dario Rossi, an Italian with a taste for techno, is wowing a well behaved crowd. I very much like the timber of many of the objects he has: paint drums, woks and assorted pots and pans. His sense of rhythm is a delight as well and he switches back and forwards with ease. Divertiti!

(Link: www.waarmaarraar.nl)

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October 5, 2015

Watching paint not dry and move around to music

Filed under: Art,Music by Orangemaster @ 10:56 am

Run-Away

Dutch band Jo Goes Hunting’s latest video ‘Run Away’ features models covered in paint by Amsterdam-based material designer Shai Langen.

Langen was asked for something ‘less conventional’ and came up with models dripping of paint, an effect that was not easy to achieve: a mixture of wallpaper paste and acrylic paint chosen as a simple technique that would let the material itself create movement.

The headpieces were made from lacquered and reinforced cardboard, and although one of the oval-shaped pieces shown is almost as large as the model’s body, many of them were scrapped. I can imagine they didn’t stay in place that easily, either.

The black and white patterns created on the models has a quality that makes you want to look and see what the next pattern will be. ‘After applying paste, I smeared paint onto the models’ bodies using cocktail sticks and rollers to create various patterns,’ explains Langen.

(Link and photo: www.dezeen.com)

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October 3, 2015

Fairphone 2, more expensive but easier to repair

Filed under: Sustainability,Technology by Orangemaster @ 8:27 pm

fairphone

In 2013 we told you about an ethically sourced smartphone, the Fairphone. Today the Fairphone 2, which runs a customised version of Android 5.1, sells the idea that it is ‘as repairable as a modern smartphone gets’.

Owners can replace the screen, microphone, speaker, camera, and main circuit board using nothing more than a screwdriver, with all the replacement parts available directly from Fairphone. The new phone has gone up in price from €325 to €525 and is concentrating on turning into a movement rather than just being a product.

The company’s founder and CEO Bas van Abel says that the most ethical smartphone is the one you already own. The fact that the phone can easily be take apart is quite the party piece.

(Link: www.theverge.com, Image, screenshot of video)

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