November 6, 2009
No idea what to get your cat for Christmas? Well, your search is over! Get them something they’ll cherish forever: a cat sauna!
That’s right! Keep your feline friends toasty warm and at no more than 50 degrees celsius with their very own cat sauna from Interhiva. To see what it really looks like, cat and all, check out the pics and videos.
(Link: Bright.nl, Photo: Photo of Cat in human sauna by jsade, some rights reserved.)
October 14, 2009
Due to an unexpected rise in beached seals, seal rehabilitation centre Lenie ‘t Hart in Pieterburen, Groningen has called out for help in the form of bathtubs and pools. Yesterday morning, Radio 538 personality Edwin Evers told listeners to contribute, and so they did.
A spokesowman said that “more than 100 swimming pools and bathtubs were offered to them, even a jacuzzi.” The centre can handle about 80 seals a year and at the moment, they have more than 100 seals at one time. I suppose anyone who wants to help after reading this is more than welcome (info in English).
(Link: telegraaf, Photo: Photo of Seals by GerardM. Used under the terms of GNU FDL)
Tags: Pieterburen, seals
October 1, 2009
Two weeks ago I had the fattest herring I have had in a long time, but thinking that it might be fluke, I did not post about it. However, yesterday I went to the same fish store, and had the same experience. Highly recommended.
If you are currently in the Netherlands, this appears to be one of the better years to try this Dutch delicacy. Just in case the quality of the herring is a function of the store I bought it at, I buy mine at the Volendammer Vishandel J.C.M. Koning on the Eerste van der Helststraat in Amsterdam, just off the Albert Cuyp market.
Traditionally the herring is sold with onion bits and gherkin, but I usually leave out the latter as it tends to neutralize the already delicate herring flavour. The best herring is greasy and soft. In lesser years, the herring tends to be ruddy and firm.
September 20, 2009
Christien Meindertsma documented 185 products contributed to by a single pig in an exhibition at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam last year, and in a book (also available in a pigskin bound version, of course). Pig 05049 won her one of the five 2009 Index design awards in August.
The list of good things coming from a pig includes bacon of course, yoghurt, pudding, paints, enamels (bone china!), cigarettes, brakes, bullets, and washing powder. The distinct smell of crayons is pig.
The Index Award prize money, 100,000 euro, will go in part to making the book available on the web, but if you want print copies you can buy them via Amazon and so on. The print version shows all the products life-sized.
(Via Jason Kottke. Source photo: Indexaward.dk.)
Tags: arms, awards, cigarettes, farms, industrialization, pigs, specialization
July 14, 2009
Lotte Klaver has been posting sketches to her blog since she was yay high, or at least yay old, so that by now, what with her prolific output, her online portfolio is big enough for grown art lovers to get lost in. In fact, she started her blog before we started 24 Oranges, and I remember thinking back then: “this would be a good posting for a site about wonderful Dutch things.” After which I forgot. Apologies for the delay, good reader.
She also sells tees singing praise of the wonderful bond between humans and cephalopods, and you just know there are people who are into that sort of thing.
Tags: blogging, cephalopods, girls, horses, T-shirts
June 25, 2009
Schiphol Airport (aka Amsterdam Airport for those of you who ‘break their tongues’ pronouncing ‘Schiphol’ – try ‘Shrip-pole’ – there, see?) has just opened up a goldfish hotel so travellers can have their fish taken care of while they fly away to warmer pastures. The hotel was the brainchild of well-known travel agent D-reizen and was opened by Olympic long-distance swimming champion Maarten van der Weijden.
The aquarium looks like a hotel, with a tennis court and a pool with a slide. “Goldfish dropped off by travellers will get private suites, so that they don’t get mixed up or get sick,” says D-reizen director Steven van Nieuwenhuizen. And if a fish happens to die while its owners are away, D-reizen will make sure they will be able to take the real dead one home, regardless.
(Link: nrc.nl)
Tags: goldfish, Maarten van der Weijden, Schiphol
May 8, 2009
Although full of praise for the Netherlands in dealing with the flu situation, The Embassy of Mexico to the Kingdom of the Netherlands is displeased that the media and even Dutch governmental organisations are referring to the virus as the “Mexican flu”, and not “Swine flu” to appease the pork industry and animal rights activists that objected to the term “Swine flu”.
“The Embassy strongly rejects the use of the term ‘Mexican flu’. As evidence has shown, the virus’ initial outbreak in Mexico was merely circumstantial. Establishing a permanent association between the virus and Mexico is not only misleading, but also encourages discriminating attitudes towards Mexico and its people, that have already led to isolated incidents in the Netherlands, a country that prides itself of its tolerance and non-discriminatory values.”
Just blame Mexico. And there’s little old me trying to explain to Dutch friends that Mexico really is part of North America. I give up. A Mexican friend in Paris just this week told me she gave up long ago.
(Link: embamex-nl, via Taalpost, Photo: thinkgeek.com)
Tags: language use, Mexico, Swine flu
May 4, 2009
A special type of dredger used for mining sand in the Groote Wielen area of Den Bosch enabled amateur paleontologists Anton Verhagen and Dick Mol not only to add to their collection of bones, but also to keep track of the corresponding geological eras. The sand harvested by cutter-suction dredger Den Otter was to be used for building a new, nearby neighbourhood, and had to be scraped layer by layer in order to separate high-grade building sand from the rest. This method of dredging is slower, but because it separates out different types of sand early on, it’s apparently still cost-effective.
Besides bringing up sand neatly separated by geological period, the cutter-suction method has the added advantage of leaving smaller bones intact, reports De Telegraaf (Dutch). Since 2005, Verhagen and Mol found over 1,000 bones belonging to 15 separate mammals in this dig. Among them was the thigh bone of a mammoth.
Next Wednesday, Verhagen and Mol will be publishing a book called ‘De Groote Wielen: er was eens…’ (Once upon a time in De Groote Wielen) about their finds. A preview of the richly illustrated book can be found here.
(Photo: Wolfgang Staudt, some rights reserved)
Tags: archeology, Den Bosch, digging, dredgers, geography, paleontology
April 23, 2009
Henk Jan Ormel, parliament member for the CDA (Christian Democratic Appeal), said yesterday on Dutch radio (Radio 1) that his party wants to forbid the publishing of a vegetarian cookbook of the Voedingscentrum (Dutch Nutrition Centre). He claims it is propaganda for the non-eating of meat (?) and also said that the profit of this book (already assuming it’s going to be published regardless) should be put towards a campaign that explains ‘the social use’ of animal testing.
I once read from Belgian animal activists that the EU is working on a system that will allow companies to compare notes on animal tests already done so they don’t have to inject that shampoo into the rabbit’s eye like 50 times and get the same result.
But for the love of God or whomever, it’s just a cookbook!
(Link: vleesmagazine.nl, Photo: veggieunwrapped.com)
Tags: animal testing, CDA, cookbook, nutrition, vegetarianism
April 18, 2009
Last year a gorilla called Bokito attacked a woman in the Rotterdam zoo, presumably because she had behaved herself aggressively by staring at the animal and grinning at it. Advertising agency DDB came up with a campaign for insurance company FBTO which resulted in the handing out of 2,000 of these Bokito-proof glasses that lets you look at a gorilla directly while seemingly looking away. Nice case of gorilla marketing (pun intended).
(Image source unknown, presumably one of the two companies mentioned above. Link: BoingBoing.)
Tags: advertisements, advertising, Bokito, gorillas, insurance
